KNOWING FLOWERS BY NAME 239 



ORDER GENUS SPECIES 



Crucifera Iberis Gibraltarka 



American Jones Hezekiah 



Latin is used for orders, genera and species, for 

 the reason that it is the universal language of sci- 

 ence. The order and specific names are translat- 

 able into any language; the generic name not 

 always, as in the case of wistaria, which is coined 

 from Wistar. In the instance just mentioned the 

 plant is Gibraltar candytuft and it belongs to the 

 order of cross-bearers. Candytuft is doubtless a 

 corruption of Candia tuft, as the first species culti- 

 vated (I. umbellata) was discovered on that island. 

 Gibraltar implies habitat, but not a geographical 

 restriction of range. Cross-bearers are so called 

 because the four petals of the blossoms of plants in 

 this order form a cross. 



As plants come into cultivation, frequently in the 

 wild, they generally acquire a common name, which 

 may be a literal translation or something suggested 

 by a fancied resemblance or a mere notion. Lit- 

 erally Viola tricolor would be the tri-colored violet, 

 but that is not its customary name; in Europe and 

 in this country the plant has numerous popular 

 names. So the correspondence may be carried still 

 farther by the statement that flowers, as well as 

 human beings, frequently have nicknames some- 

 times strikingly appropriate and again quite unfath- 

 omable as to the reason therefor. 



If only the correspondence had stopped right 

 there! But flower names change; by force, not 



