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Another source of botanical ambiguity and error is the circumstance of certain plants having acquired the names of others very different in their nature, but which were supposed to possess a similarity in external character; thus our Potatoe,[81] (Solanum Tuberosum) when it was first imported into England by the colonists in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, gained its appellation from its supposed resemblance to an esculent vegetable at that time in common use, under the name of the Sweet Potatoe (Convolvulus Battatas,) and which, like Eringo Root, had the reputation of being able to restore decayed vigour, thus Falstaff—
“Let the sky rain Potatoes, hail kissing Comfits, and snow Eringoes.”
Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 5, Scene 5.
A similar instance is presented to us in the culinary vegetable well known under the name of the Jerusalem Artichoke, which derived its appellation in consequence of its flavour having been considered like that of the common artichoke; it is hardly necessary to observe that it has no botanic relation whatever to such a plant, it being an Heliotrope (Heliotropium Tuberosum), the epithet Jerusalem is a curious corruption of the Italian term Gira-Sole, that is, turn-sun, in English, or Heliotrope in Greek. This instance of verbal corruption is not solitary in medical botany; Castor Oil will suggest itself as another example; this oil, from its supposed efficacy in curing and assuaging the unnatural heat of the body, and in soothing the passions, was called by the French Agnus Castus, whence the inhabitants of St. Kitt’s in the West Indies, who were formerly blended with the French in that Island, called it Castor oil. In some cases again, a plant has received a modern name, compounded of two ancient ones; it appears from Pliny that the Assarum was not uncommonly confounded with the Baccharis; an English name was accordingly bestowed upon it, which is a curious compromise of the question, for it is a compound of both, viz. Assara-bacca.