THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 63 



success; to be shdwii to trientls. to he preserved in the her- 

 hariuiii or to he cultivated in the garden as perennial remind- 

 ers of the pleasure experienced in their original discovery. 



Xo matter what phase of plant study interest> the novice, 

 his first recjuirement is for the names of his specimens. \\ lien 

 he has a species firmlv anchored to a name, he has the means 

 by which he can handle his find mentally, can discuss it with 

 his friends or look up additional facts about it in the books. 

 The failure to find such names readily has probably done mc^re 

 to discourage the beginning student than any other single 

 thing. And since the name is of such great importance the 

 novice too often considers attaining it the object of the quest. 

 To be sure this is the object of all keys, scientific or other- 

 wise, and many books seem written with the same end in view, 

 but it is truly said that tlie names are but the alphabet of bota- 

 ny. If one becomes interested in mere names, he runs a risk of 

 wearing out his locality in a few years and of being obliged to 

 turn to something else for amusement, hut when he becomes 

 interested in tiie lore of the plant world, he finds in a single 

 locality, material for the study of not one but many lifetimes. 



The names that the beginners desires are not those used 

 by the strict scientist. He wants the common names of plants 

 — those homely meaningful names by which the common 

 people know- them. These are often much older than the 

 science of botany itself, having been in existence almost from 

 the beginning of our language. Unfortunately the names 

 now in use have been derived from a multitude of sources and 

 often do not carrv with them the exactness of designation re- 

 (|uired by science. Gradually he comes to see the necessity 

 for the technical terms. These latter were evolved after a 

 multitude of changes but have now reached a fair degree of 

 brevity and exactness. Up to the middle of the eighteenth 



