154 NEW ZEALAND PLANTS. 



is the name for several species of Veronica ; toetoe is the name for a 

 large number of grasslike plants, and totara for the lofty taxad 

 equally with the dwarf heath Styphelia Fraseri. Other instances 

 could be given, but these will suffice. Further, many plants have 

 neither a Maori nor an English name. From the above it may be seen 

 that the popular names are of no use when we wish to make an accurate 

 list of even the seed-plants of any locality, and that names having a 

 definite application must be used. For this reason the scientific 

 names have been designed. 



SCIENTIFIC NAMES OF PLANTS. 



The scientific names are in Latin. The use of Latin among learned 

 men dates, of course, from the time of the Romans ; but its applica- 

 tion to plants, as we now know them, began in the sixteenth century, 

 when modern botany was born. Latin was then the universal written 

 language of the learned, and the early botanical works \vere all written 

 in that tongue. This usage of Latin has proved very convenient in 

 practice, for it would lead to endless confusion did the plants bear the 

 popular names of their respective countries alone. As it is, a definite 

 scientific name is applied to one particular species, and to that only, 

 and such names are recognised by scientists, no matter what their 

 nationality. 



^ 



Each scientific name consists of two words, the first denoting what 

 the genus is, and the second the species to which the plant belongs. 



MEANING OF TERMS " SPECIES ' AND " GENUS." 



To write down the. word " species ' is much easier than to define 

 what a species really is. In fact, when it comes to fixing the limits 

 of a species, scarcely two classifiers can agree. Elementary species, 

 as defined by De Vries (see Chapter I), are the units of the plant 

 kingdom. Such are those groups of plants which differ from all 

 others in certain distinct characteristics, and reproduce themselves 

 " true ' from seed. But this experimental method of separating 

 species is not yet in vogue, nor does it seem altogether practicable. 



The species, then, of the classifiers are founded by the comparative 

 study of large numbers of individuals, and if a group of such has 

 some distinguishing characteristics which separate it from all 

 other groups of individuals, it is classed as a species. Such a group 

 of individuals may form a true species, which will reproduce its kind, 



