Plant Names 



its near relatives. And it is this history which, 

 as I contend, lifts the most forbidding-looking 

 botanical names from their apparent uselessness 

 and dryness, and gives them an interest which 

 adds largely to the other interests of the garden. 



I can illustrate what I mean by a few examples, 

 taken partly from the native plants, and partly 

 from exotics. The greater number of the names 

 of our native plants have been adopted from the 

 oldest writers. In some cases, no doubt, they 

 have been given to very different plants than those 

 of the old writers, but always with good reasons ; 

 but it would be too long a task to enter into this 

 part of the subject. What I want to show is how 

 every name draws our attention to some peculiarity 

 in the particular plant which distinguishes it from 

 all others. Take our meadow cranesbills, very 

 common in many parts of England, and of a rich 

 blue colour that is not surpassed by any. There 

 are three families closely allied the geranium 

 and the erodium of our own country, and the 

 pelargonium chiefly of the Cape, and entirely so 

 but for one curious outlier in Asia Minor (P. 

 Endlicherianum] and two in New Zealand. The 

 three names are all pure Greek yifxvjog the crane, 

 spudios the heron, and crsXa^yog the stork, and they 

 all three at once draw our attention to the long 

 sharp-pointed seed-vessels so closely resembling 

 the long, sharp bills of the crane, the heron, and 

 the stork. Having got so far, the specific names 

 point out to us how one differs from another : 

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