ON FACT VS. THEORY 
Or, if we were to prepare a technical article, 
about this species, we should write Prunus Avium 
at the first mention of it, and contract it to P. 
Avium when mentioning it thereafter. 
In this work, in order to gain clearness with 
the least effort, and to avoid confusion through 
the use of disputed terms, it has been decided, so 
far as possible, to call plants by their commonest 
names; going, wherever necessary, into a brief 
explanation in order to identify the plant clearly 
in the mind of the reader. 
Our work is to be a practical work, and the 
effort which it would cost to master thousands 
of Latin names might, it is believed, be better 
expended in a study of the principles and the 
practice. 
There arises, unfortunately, a confusion 
through use of common names. The California 
poppy, for example, is not a poppy at all; but for 
the purposes of this work it has been deemed best 
to call it the California poppy, by which name it 
is generally known, rather than to refer to it as 
Eschscholtzia; and so on throughout the list of 
other plants. 
No common name is used, however, which is 
not to be found in the dictionary; so that those 
whose scientific interest is uppermost have but to 
refer to their Webster, which gives a greater 
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