Names Of Plants, Fruits, And Trees

O-Ine "Rice-in-the-blade." Kaede "Maple-leaf." O-Kaya "Rush."

Imperata arundinacea.

O-Kaya "Yew."

Torreya nucifera.

O-Kuri "Chestnut." O-Kuwa "Mulberry." O-Maki "Fir."

Podocarpus chinensis.

O-Mame "Bean." O-Momo "Peach,"--the fruit.

Yet this name may possibly have been written with the wrong character. There is another yobina, "Momo" signifying "hundred,"--as in the phrase momo yo, "for a hundred ages."

O-Nara "Oak." O-Ryu "Willow." Sanae "Sprouting-Rice." O-Sane "Fruit-seed." O-Shino "Slender Bamboo." O-Suge "Reed."

Scirpus maritimus.

O-Sugi "Cedar."

Cryptomeria Japonica.

O-Take "Bamboo." O-Tsuta "Ivy."

Cissus Thunbergii.

O-Yae "Double-Blossom."

A flower-name certainly; but the yae here is probably an abbreviation of yae-zakura, the double-flower of a particular species of cherry-tree.

O-Yone "Rice-in-grain." Wakana "Young Na."

Brassica chinensis.

Names signifying light or color seem to us the most aesthetic of all yobina; and they probably seem so to the Japanese. Nevertheless the relative purport even of these names cannot be divined at sight. Colors have moral and other values in the old nature-philosophy; and an appellation that to the Western mind suggests only luminosity or beauty may actually refer to moral or social distinction,--to the hope that the girl so named will become "illustrious."