72 FUSSKLL : 



plants have no common name, and of those which have, too 

 many are undistinctive. In many cases a common name is 

 applied to more than one plant. For instance, snakeroot is 

 applied to no less than twenty different plants, belonging to 

 eight dififerent genera and four different orders. On the other 

 hand, the same plant has very often more than one common 

 name. For instance, Hoicstonia cceridca is known in some 

 parts of the country as bluets, in this locality as Quaker 

 ladies, elsewhere as dwarf pink, innocence and eyebright, and 

 of these bluets and eyebright are applied to other plants. 



Any English name for a plant would answer a good pur- 

 pose, if we could decide on any one as the best name for that 

 plant, but even that, desirable as it would be, would only 

 answer for English-speaking people. 



Botanical names are the same all over the world, and as 

 Eatin is the language of science everywhere, the names are 

 Eatin or Eatinized Greek. 



Two words are used for each plant, one for the genus and 

 one for the species, just as we say "John Smith," only in 

 case of plants we follow the usage of the Eatin, put the genus 

 first and say " Ouercus alba " for white oak, Qiicmis meaning 

 oak and alba white. 



The generic name is always a substantive and is often the 

 old classical name as known to the Greeks or Romans. A few 

 of such names are Ace?\ maple ; yfisculus, horse chestnut ; 

 Alniis, alder; Sttiilax, brier, and jRliani)nis,h\\ck\\\orn. 



Often the name is formed from that of some distinguished 

 botanist or other eminent man, giving us such names as Clay- 

 ionia, Afaffuol/a , Darlinotoiiia , Kuhnia, IJiincra, etc. 



Some names are purely fanciful, such as Abclmosclnis, 

 father of musk ; Ambrosia, food for the gods (a very inappro- 

 priate name for our common ragweed) ; Belladonna, the beau- 

 tiful lady, and Aoavc, the noble or wonderful plant. 



Allusions to animal life are found in a very large number 

 of names, such as Arctostaphyllos, bearberry (the common 

 name being a translation of the Eatin one) ; Cluicdouiuni , 



