22 FEBRUARY 1935, Page 16

Persian or Greek? • Mr. Young's learned book on the

narcissus or daffodil has rearoused speculation on the derivation of the words. Perhaps our chief authority on plants in English and classical literature, Mr. Vernon Rendall, who once, I think, edited Notes and Queries, writes to me as follows : "A recent tract of the Society for Pure English, 'Persian Words in English,' derives the word from the Persian Nsrges . . . As you probably know better than I do, our sorts of narcissus do not come pre-eminently from Persia, but from all parts of the world. The derivation from rdpinh numbness,' must stand and is I found out, given by Bacon, in Proscrpine or Spirit,' in his little-read Wisdom of' die Ancients. The form Narciss in English look§ as if the word came from the French, like so