The Plant World 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF POPULAR BOTANY. 



Vol. l august, 1898. No. 11 



THE VULGAR OR ENGLISH NAMES OF PLANTS. 

 Bj' Valery Havard, M. D., Surgeon U. S. Army. 



NOW that botanical nomenclature has at length obtained a rea- 

 sonable measure of stability and uniformity, the time seems 

 to have come to look over the much mixed and confused list 

 of our vulgar or common English names and see to what ex- 

 tent they, too, can be brought under the operation of law, thereby 

 securing in their use greater uniformity, simplicity and usefulness. 

 It is a question which one can only approach tentatively and suggest- 

 ively, since there is no natural or established rule which can surely 

 guide us in the selection and formation of those names. We may say, 

 in a general way, that the best English name is that which pleases the 

 eye of the reader, is quickly and easily apprehended, and satisfies the 

 mind by its fitness. But as the aesthetic sense, power of apprehension 

 and sense of fitness are exceedingly variable quantities, we cannot 

 have much hope of an immediate general agreement. However, it 

 seems well to agitate and discuss this question so that botanists may 

 become more or less familiar with its merits and gradually determine 

 on what lines uniformity is to be attained. 



We should bear in mind that English names are not principally 

 intended for naturalists; to most botanists they are perhaps hardly 

 anything better than a necessary evil which must be tolerated. They 

 are chiefly intended for the large classes of intelligent people who take 

 an interest in plants and love flowers, without the opportunity or 

 desire for close scientific study. To such people, whose number is 

 every day increasing, botanists have duties; they are bound to make 

 their science as simple and attractive as possible, and, to that end, 

 must begin by assigning or consecrating names which are readily in- 

 telligible to the ordinary mind. Inasmuch as there is' one Latin 

 binomial given to each plant, there should be likewise one authorized 

 official English name ; all other vulgar names should be regarded as 

 synonyms and relegated to a secondary place. 



