THE NAMES OF FLOWERS 17 



gish that nothing will stimulate it. Eschscholtzia is a 

 word that no one surely would use if he could 

 help it; and yet Eschscholtzias have been known so 

 long that they seem quite old-fashioned flowers; and 

 no one, so far as we know, has even attempted to 

 find a name for them with less than six consonants in 

 a row. The Fuchsia, the Dahlia, and the Wistaria 

 are even more familiar, but they remain still com- 

 memorative of Messrs. Fuchs, Dahl, and Wistar; 

 and the nearest we have got towards Anglicizing them 

 is to mispronounce them. 



No doubt the chief reason why we do not find Eng- 

 lish names for our new flowers is that we are under 

 no absolute compulsion to do so. They have their 

 botanical names when we first know them, and so 

 we put up with them as a stopgap. Then by use and 

 wont we come to forget that they are stopgaps; and 

 in time Dahlia seems just as fit and proper a name 

 for one plant as Daffodil for another. But, even if 

 English names are invented for new plants, the com- 

 petition of the botanical name makes it difficult for 

 them to get currency. For it must be remembered 

 that the botanical name is universal, and in most 

 cases puts the identity of a plant beyond all doubt, 

 whereas some even of our oldest popular names, such 

 as Gillyflower, Fair Maids of France, and Bachelor's 

 Buttons, are applied to two or more quite different 

 plants. Also the botanical name identifies the species, 

 which the popular name often fails to do. Thus, if 

 you order a certain plant from a nurseryman, and in 



