Plant Names 



one a separate study by themselves, and a very 

 delightful study, and the many books which have 

 been written about them show what a fascination 

 they have had even for great scholars. I doubt 

 if there is anything in our English country life, 

 or in our English home life, which has come 

 down to us so unchanged as our common plant 

 names. Professor Earle, in his English Plant 

 Names, extracted all the names given in the 

 glossaries from the tenth to the fifteenth century. 

 Since that the Epinal Glossary, supposed to be 

 of the beginning of the eighth century, has been 

 published. In this glossary there are 123 names 

 of plants, of which a few have no English trans- 

 lation ; but there are more than ninety in which 

 the old English names are exactly the same as 

 the names of the present day ; so that we may 

 say that for more than 1 200 years the names have 

 remained unchanged. During the last few years 

 attempts have been made largely to increase the 

 number of English names for exotic plants, and 

 even to insist that none but English names should 

 be used by English botanists. I have no wish to 

 enter into the discussion of this vexed question ; 

 I will only say that I think the attempt is both 

 unwise and mischievous, and if adopted by other 

 nations would lead to a woeful confusion, and, 

 instead of knowing our plants by the one accepted 

 scientific name which would be good in every 

 civilised nation, we should have to learn the 

 different names adopted in each separate country. 

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