KNOWING FLOWERS BY NAME 241 



met flower. Pluck it, when fully open, and hold it 

 with the back of the helmet down and it will be no 

 less apparent that the little boys and girls of seven- 

 ty years ago did not overstrain their imagination 

 when they spoke of it as Pharaoh's chariot. It is 

 just as well to know all these names; also that the 

 best is aconite, because it is an English rendering of 

 the generic name, aconitum. 



Learn all the common names that you can, for 

 the pleasurable side of it, but hold to the best for 

 ordinary use. Choose white rock cress (Arabis 

 albida), for example, in preference to welcome- 

 home-husband-be-he-never-so-drunk and prince's 

 feather (Polygonum orientale) to kiss-me-over-the- 

 garden-gate. Not that these names are so foolish 

 as they might seem at first glance. The arabis 

 also one of the stonecrops(Sedum album), which 

 appears to have been given the same name has a 

 mass of white blossoms well calculated to enable a 

 man to locate his doorstep at night, and as for the 

 knotweed, it hangs its deep rose plumes over a gate 

 in a most inviting way. 



Having associated the common name with the 

 plant, try to associate the botanical name with both. 

 Use the dictionary, as well as botanical works, for 

 reference. Such things as finding out that true bell- 

 flowers have the generic name of Campanula (little 

 bell), that a windflower is Anemone (from the 

 Greek word for wind) , that the pink is Dianthus 

 (Greek for Jove's flower), that any spring prim- 

 rose is Primula (from the Latin for first), that the 



