viii PREFACE 



plant has two names. One a surname, the other a 

 Christian name, so to say. But the combination of the 

 two names can only be given to one plant wherever it 

 may be found. 



You can have any number of, so to say, Johns, or 

 Edwards, &c. To follow the botanical method of 

 putting the surname first, you can have Smith John, 

 Mackenzie John, &c., or Peterson Edward, or Morgan 

 Edward, or &c. ; but throughout the whle land you 

 cannot have two Smith John or two Morgan Edward, 

 &c. 



Result : each plant has its own peculiar name, 

 applicable only to itself. 



When one realizes that the botanical names are 

 simple words, full of meaning, only they are in Latin 

 dress instead of English, their forbidding look seems 

 to melt away, and they stick in one's memory more 

 easily. 



Groups, which from a botanist's point of view are 

 related, are in their turn grouped into Families. 



There are 94 families in all ; each contains a varying 

 number of groups. Some families have only one group, 

 while the Composite Family has 41. 



The family name is generally obtained by adding the 

 Latin termination " aceus " like to the name of the 

 most important group contained in the family. Thus 

 " Rosaceae " " Rosa " and " aceus " is the name of 

 a family containing 16 groups, of which Rosa, being 

 the most important, it gives its name to the family. 



It is impossible now, with any certainty, to determine 

 how plants came by their names. We must be content 

 to accept the most reasonable guess. 



Several of the group names are, by way of honouring 



