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336 NOTE ON ABfiUS CANTONIENSIS.
as bear the prefixes of hog's, devil's, dog's, and others indicative of
inferiority or contempt. But man is not permanently discouraged by
disappointment. Certain substances are necessary to him, and a closer
investigation is set on foot. The Spaniard settling in South America
could not dispense with his Eoble (Oak). In vain, however, did he
search the forests ; in the hot low lands it was nowhere to be found. A
durable wood was required ; experiments were made, and, ultimately,
substitutes fixed upon to which the old name was transferred, though
these belonged to very different species, genera, and even Natural
Orders than does the Oak of his native country.
The meaning of vernacular names is not always clear. Many have
been in use from time immemorial, and their origin is lost in the mist
in which the early annals of our race are shrouded. Of others, how-
ever, belonging to a more modern formation, the sense is apparent, and
we cannot, in many instances, sufficiently admire how^ well those names
are adapted to the plants that bear them, and how well the most pro-
minent features, the most striking peculiarities have been expressed.
Daisy, the day's eye,—how appropriate for a flower only open between
the sun's rising and setting ! Macpalxochitlquahuitl, the Handflower-
tree,—how characteristic of the plant, how evident to every beholder
Strawberry ! how well this indicates the now prevailing practice of
English gardeners laying straw under the berry in order to bring it to
perfection, and prevent it from touching the earth, which, without that
precaution, it natm^ally does, and to which it owes its German name
Erdbeere ; making us almost forget that, in this instance, " straw "
has nothing to do with the practice alluded to, but is an obsolete past
participle of " to strew," in allusion to the habit of the plant.
NOTE 01^ ABEUS CANTONIENSIS.
By H. E, Hance, Ph.D., etc.
B. Seemann.
The possession of good fruiting specimens of this species, detected
for the first time in Danes' Island, Wharapoa, by one of my sons,
enables me to complete its description, thus :— " Leguminibus ob-
longis compressis apice uncinatis v. apiculatis, seminibus istbmis cel-
lulosis separatis oblongis compressis olivaceo fuscoque marmoratis,
— !