Medicinal plant names : their origin and meaning / by F. Ransom, late examiner to the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.

  • Ransom, F.
Date:
[approximately 1919?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Medicinal plant names : their origin and meaning / by F. Ransom, late examiner to the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/48 (page 9)
    Canarium.—From Canari, the Malay name for the plant. C. commune, Linn. Latin, common. The oleo-resin, Manila elemi> is supposed to be derived from this species, and as its name im¬ plies, is exported from Manila, the capital of the Philippine Islands. RHAMNACE^E. Rhamnus.- Greek, pa/j.vos (rhamnos), a prickly shrub, probably applied to PaHurus australis, Gart., a plant of this natural order. P. catharticus, Linn. Latin, cathartic, referring to the purging property of the juice of the fruit.—R. frangula. Frangula was the mediseval name for the plant, and is probably derived from Latin, frango, to break, indicating the brittle nature of its wood. —R. purshianus, DC.—Named after Pursh, an American botanist. VITACEiE. Vitis.—Latin, vitis, a vine. V. vinifera, Linn. Latin, vinum, wine ; fero, to produce. The common grape vine. SAPINDACE.E. Paullinia.—Named by Linneeus eitherin honour of Simon Paulli, a Danish botanist of the seventeenth century, or more probably after C. F. Paullini, a German medico botanist, who died in 1712. P. sorbilis, Martius. Latin, sorbeo, to drink. Guarana, which is prepared from the seeds of this plant, is used for the preparation of a beverage by certain of the aboriginal inhabitants of Brazil. Guarana takes its name from the Guarinis, a tribe of these natives. It is also known as Guarana sticks or bread and as Brazilian cocoa. AN AC ARDIACEiE. Pistacia.—Greek -KKnaKia (pistakia), the fruit of P. vera (pistachio nuts). P.lentiscus, Linn. Lentiscus, the classical name for the mastich tree, from Latin, lentesco, to be sticky, referring to the sticky resinous exudation from the bark. Mastich is derived from Greek fj-aara^ (ma-jtax) that which is chewed. Id is still used largely in the East as a masticatory.—P. terebinthus, Linn. Greek TtpeftivQos (terebinthos), turpentine. The oleo-resin secreted in the bark, now known as Chian turpentine, was the original terebinth of the ancients. LEGUMINOSiE. Cytisus, Greek, kvtIgos (kytisos), was the classical name for some species of this order. It is supposed by some authorities to be derived from C^thnos, an island on the iEgean Sea, in which these plants are well represented. C. scoparius, Link. Latin, scopce, thin branches, hence a broom made of twigs.