56 HARD WORDS. 
And again, 
“ That well by reason men callé it maie 
The daisie, or els the eie of the daie.” 
By every principle of good taste and common sense, we are 
bound to speak of plants or animals by their English names to 
the many who, without actually studying them, feel an interest 
in noticing and hearing of the beautiful things around them— 
an interest which we should encourage by every means in our 
power, and carefully refrain from checking by any ill-judged dis- 
play of our own scientific knowledge. ; 
Some persons—we hope but few—are deterred from the study 
of Natural History by the “hard words” employed. They 
seem to think it incumbent on them to commence studying botany, 
for example, by learning scientific names, and shrink from attemp- 
ting so formidable a task. No mistake could be greater. Those 
who have not tried it will scarcely believe in how short a space 
of time one’s eye becomes familiarised with the dreaded words. 
As a further assistance to this end, itis useful to have at one’s 
elbow some books containing both English and Latin names of 
plants ; and then, if we come across a Latin word which conveys 
no English equivalent to our mind, it is easy to look it out; the 
chances are that we shall not again forget it. 
Before the time of Linnzeus, the Latin names of plants were 
indeed weighty matters; manyof them, from their length and 
copiousness being rather a description of a species than its mere 
designation. Grateful should we be to that great botanist for 
having so simplified the matter that thename of a plant can now 
be expressed in two words: the first word being called the generic, 
the second the specific, name. The first is usually common to 
several plants, closely connected with each other by certain 
features; the second is applied to but one species of the same 
genus. Thus—to use a homely illustration—when we say ‘‘ John 
Brown ”—‘‘ Brown” is, so to speak, the genus, of which John 
and his brothers, William and Thomas, are species. The Latin 
generic title often denotes some characteristic which is common to 
all the species comprised under it; or it is derived from the name 
of some person who is considered by the namer to be worthy 
