90 NAMES OF PLANTS. 



Sugar-cane of Teneriflfe. In this case the second name is 

 si^elt with a capital letter. It is rather a nice distinction, 

 for Willdenow has close beside the last-mentioned plant 

 Saccharum benghalense, or Bengal Sugar-cane. The same 

 principle applies to the names of plants. We do not write 

 Tanacetifolium, Tansy-leaved, or Corylifolius, Hazel-leaved, 

 as the form is adjectival, but we write Cuscuta Trifolii 

 (Babington), Dodder of Clover, because Trifolii is a proper 

 name in the possessive case. 



After the explanations given as to the use of a capital 

 letter for the second names of plants I do not think it is 

 necessary to notice them further. If we meet with an old 

 substantive name it should be found in my first list, and if 

 it is the name of a person or a country it may be judged of 

 by the termination. Where a trivial name is the same as 

 an ordinary botanical term, I have pointed it out by repeat- 

 ing the word in its English form and explaining it. 



It is unnecessary to encumber the text with the accidence 

 of Greek and Latin, for it would be equally useless to 

 anyone, whether he understood these languages or not. I 

 have therefore taken no notice at all of the terminations. A 

 few words of explanation will be sufficient. 



The terminations of Latin adjectives may be taken gene- 

 rally to be governed in this way : masculine, us; feminine, a ; 

 neuter, um ; — as Sicui-us, acut-a, Sicnt-um, according to the 

 substantive name with which it may happen to be joined. 

 In other cases where the termination is is, it serves for the 

 masculine and feminine genders, being changed to e for the 

 neuter, as gracilis, gracile. We have masculine niger 

 (black), feminine, nigra, neuter, nigrum, but such instances 

 are not common. Where they occur I have written them 

 out in full. 



