30 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



cowslip, the buttercup, or the daisy are. Its true habitat 

 is the hedgerow, where it can find the support that it 

 needs. Almost all these plant names, however, have 

 received the sanction of so many writers, and have been 

 in use for so many years in some cases centuries that 

 any attempt, however desirable it might appear in certain 

 instances to effect a change, would be but useless labour; 

 while in most cases it would be not useless merely, but 

 eminently undesirable, introducing an element of confusion 

 into botanical nomenclature, and destroying at the same 

 time many literary associations. The scientific name of 

 the plant is the Lathy rm pratensis. The generic name 

 is derived from the name bestowed on this or some kindred 

 plant by Theophrastus, the disciple and successor of 

 Aristotle. The specific name merely refeis to the habitat 

 of the plant, from the Latin pratensis, that which grows 

 in, or pertains to, a meadow. These names were first 

 definitely assigned to the plant by Linnaeus. A very 

 numerous and appropriate class of plant names arises 

 from the allusion to the place where the plant may be 

 found; of these we need only indicate some instances. 

 Amongst the specific names of systematic nomenclature 

 we get, for example, not only the pratensis that has led 

 us to point out this feature, but many others, such as 

 arvensis, aquatilis, sylvestris, fluitans, while the familial- 

 English names, water-buttercup, cliff-poppy, pond-weed, 

 wall-flower, rock-rose, corn -marigold, marsh-mallow, bog- 

 pimpernel, house-leek, wood-sage, and many others, carry 

 their meaning so obviously to the mind that any explana- 

 tion of terms so palpable in their origin is altogether 

 superfluous. There are some few names which owe their 

 origin to the locality in which the plants may be found, 



