POPULAR NAMES OF PLANTS. 159 
CHAPTER XI. 
THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE PLANTS. 
Popular names of plants—English names and Maori names—Scientific names 
of plants—Some objections to the use of scientific names—Meaning of the 
term “ species’? — Little species — Aggregate species— Meaning of terms 
“genus”? and “family ’’—The leading families and genera of the seed- 
plants—Seed-plants with only one seed-leaf—Plants with naked seeds— 
Ferns—Lycopodiaceae— 7T'’mesipteris—Mosses and liverworts— Fungi — The 
black fungus of Nothofagus—Algae—Bacteria—Slime-fungi. 
Nor the least interesting part of the story which plants can tell is 
that which concerns their relationships. Just as in human society 
Nature has declared true equality to be impossible, so in the plant- 
world there are high and low, together with many intermediate 
grades, and all this rather through the labours of a plant’s ancestors 
than from its own exertions. But before one can speak definitely 
of individuals of any kind names must be given them. With regard 
to plants these names are of two kinds—popular and scientific. The 
former for New Zealand plants are either English or Maori; the 
latter for all plants are Latin, or what counts as such. The English 
names are for the most part those which have been given by the 
early settlers, partly from some likeness, real or fancied, to the plants 
of the Old Country, and partly from some peculiar characteristic of 
the species in question. To this latter category belong such names as 
“ lacebark,” “‘ ribbonwood,”’ “ spiderwood,” ** milk-tree,”’ ** pincushion- 
plant” ; and to the former, “ birch,” “‘ ash,’ “‘ honeysuckle.” Some 
names have been bestowed for jocular reasons—e.g., “* lawyer,” “* wild- 
irishman,” “spaniard,”” and “niggerhead.” A few are the work 
of botanists who have sought, vainly for the most part, to bring 
into use a nomenclature that should have a more correct English 
equivalent for the scientific name—e.g., ‘‘ speedwell ” for “ Veronica,” 
“ groundsel”’ for “‘ Senecio,’ “* palm-lily’’ instead of ‘ cabbage- 
tree,” and ‘“‘ beech” instead of “birch.” Some English names 
are corruptions of Maori ones, as ‘ biddy-biddy” for “ piripiri,” 
“cracker” for “karaka,” “maple” for ‘ mapou,” “ matagowrie ”’ 
ce 
