240 FLOWER GARDENING 



volition. Someone says to Bignonia radicans, 

 "Here, you; from this time on your name will be 

 Tecoma radicans and don't mind what So-and-So 

 says to the contrary. Understand?" Or to Geum 

 coccineum, "A mistake was made at your christen- 

 ing, it seems. You are not G. cocdneum but G. 

 chiloense" So in looking over the pages of the 

 floral directory you occasionally have reason to 

 wish that well enough had been let alone. Fortu- 

 nately the confusion is only here and there. 



The common names are most important to re- 

 member, provided that they are either the best 

 possible rendering into the vernacular or, if fanci- 

 fully descriptive, are sufficiently distinctive. Dog 

 rose (Rosa canina), in the one class, and Chinese 

 lantern plant (Phy sails Francheti), in the other, 

 are sufficiently definite. London pride is not, nor 

 is bluebell ; the former is Saxifraga umbrosa in Eng- 

 land and Lychnis chalcedonica here, while the latter 

 is applied to more than one plant on each side of 

 the Atlantic. Jerusalem cross is really a much 

 better common name for the lychnis, as each blos- 

 som suggests the red cross of the Crusader. 



It is well to inquire into the reason for every 

 common name. The result is generally to create in 

 the mind an association between the name and the 

 plant. Moreover the inquiry leads one into a very 

 pleasant field of folklore study, as well as greater 

 intimacy with the garden. Look at a blossom of 

 any aconitum on the plant and it is apparent from 

 the shape of it why it is called monkshood and hel- 



