_O-Ine_ "Rice-in-the-blade."
_Kaede_ "Maple-leaf."
_O-Kaya_ "Rush."[73]
[73] _Imperata arundinacea._
_O-Kaya_ "Yew."[74]
[74] _Torreya nucifera._
_O-Kuri_ "Chestnut."
_O-Kuwa_ "Mulberry."
_O-Maki_ "Fir."[75]
[75] _Podocarpus chinensis._
_O-Mame_ "Bean."
_O-Momo_ "Peach,"--the fruit.[76]
[76] 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."[77]
[77] _Scirpus maritimus._
_O-Sugi_ "Cedar."[78]
[78] _Cryptomeria Japonica._
_O-Take_ "Bamboo."
_O-Tsuta_ "Ivy."[79]
[79] _Cissus Thunbergii._
_O-Yae_ "Double-Blossom."[80]
[80] 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_."[81]
[81] _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."