MOORLAND PLANTS 209 



reason for giving up Botany as a hopeless task, and 

 that is, that the botanists obstinately persist in speak- 

 ing a language of their own. We ought to have, as they 

 have in Germany, descriptions of native plants in our 

 own language, but we prefer to write our Floras in Latin 

 and Greek. I believe that this practice is unnecessary, 

 and further, that it is the greatest obstacle in the way 

 of a wide-spread knowledge of the subject. 



As a very young man I used to defend the learned 

 language of Botany and Zoology, and I know pretty 

 well the arguments that can be used in favour of it. 

 But when I came to teach Natural History to others, 

 I quickly felt what a hindrance the language is to 

 those (the vast majority, of course) who read no Latin 

 or Greek. Only a very few ever come to master it, 

 and most of those few are the worse for what they 

 seem to have gained. For the technical terms are 

 allowed to count as real knowledge. The student 

 with much labour learns to apply his rules of nomen- 

 clature to natural objects, and then thinks that he has 

 made a step towards understanding the objects them- 

 selves. Very often he has only interposed a fresh 

 barrier between his own mind and the world of nature. 

 Learned words easily disguise the want of observation 

 and thought. You may set down all the formulas 

 respecting a plant that ingenious pedantry can devise, 

 and yet know nothing about it that signifies. The 

 more learned the phrase the easier it is to deceive 

 yourself. With few exceptions every result of the 

 study of nature which is at once well-ascertained and 

 important can be adequately expressed in plain 

 English ; it is only the insignificant or half understood 



P 



