vi PREFACE 



world knows exactly the plant referred to. It is other- 

 wise if we use the Common English name. This often 

 varies in different parts of the country. The plant 

 botanically known as Galium Aparine has the popular 

 English names of Goosegrass, Cleavers, or Catchweed. 

 Some know it under one name, some under another. 

 Once I have heard it called " Scratch Tongue." On 

 asking why such a name, I was told that boys were in 

 the habit of putting out their tongue,, and scratching it 

 with the leaf to see whose tongue would bleed most. 



On the other hand, the popular English names, in 

 spite of the confusion which arises from the same plant 

 being known by a different name in a different part of 

 the country, are full of meaning, and much more 

 interesting. " Scratch Tongue," when you know how 

 it came by its name, is much more likely to stick in 

 your brain than " Galium Aparine,'' even when you 

 know what these Latin and Greek words mean. 



To Linneus, the great Swedish botanist, and founder 

 of modern botany, belongs the honour and glory of 

 having evolved a scientific plan for the naming of Wild 

 Flowers. 



When Linneus lived born in 1707, died 1778 Latin 

 was the universal language commonly used by writers 

 of all countries. He therefore wrote in Latin, and gave 

 to plants the Latin names by which they were known 

 to the ancients. 



Linneus' plan is as simple as it is efficient. To every 

 plant he gave two names, and no two plants have 

 exactly the same two names. The first or group name 

 corresponds to the surname of human beings. All 

 plants botanically alike, or, so to say, belonging to one 

 and the same household, is given a group name. This 



