INTRODUCTION. 
with really difficult Latin names like Boeninghausenia, where a 
well-sounding English synonym might have been useful; their 
whole effort has been to displace good established names by 
strivings after a sham bric-a-brac simplicity. No more then, 
of such nonsense; in ninety cases out of a hundred the proper 
botanical names are easy and beautiful and relevant (I have often 
indicated the more salient meanings) ; in any case there are no 
others. And therefore I use none; though gladly recognising as 
I go, all those apt or beautiful old names such as Columbine or 
Celandine, that have been slowly coined in a nation’s love, and not 
excogitated arduously in a library by the enthusiasm of erudition. 
So much for this point; my feelings upon it will also be found 
breaking cover again in the prefaces to Saxifraga and Soldanella. 
The discretion of an author or compiler is not untrammelled. 
In the pursuit of final correctness over specific names I have spared 
no trouble to myself and no inconvenience or upset to my readers ; 
since the right specific name, once acquired, is acquired for ever. 
But in dealing with races, such discretion (or indiscretion) as I 
may here and there have employed has been wholly in the direc- 
tion of ease and convenience and simplicity. A book of this 
description, destined for general use, is bound to keep count indeed 
of botanical developments, but is not by any means bound to 
follow them with cumbersome fidelity. Accordingly it has seemed 
to me that gardeners would prefer to keep the families undivided ; 
and I have accordingly so left them, as far as might be, quoting 
Heliosperma and Jovellana in their places indeed, but including 
their species in the original families of Silene and Calceolaria. 
Any attributions that I may myself have dared, will be found in 
due course (as, for instance, where, for the sake of convenience, 
I have established a definite horticultural line of cleavage between 
Edraianthus and Wahlenbergia). In the matter of specific names 
I have but very rarely allowed myself (to my knowledge) to 
wander from orthodox roads. I have retained the old name and 
rank of Phytewma comosum, and have shrunk from degrading 
Eritrichium nanum into E, tergloviense; but suggest instead that 
E. nanum should stand as the covering-name for a very large 
xVlii 
