English names for trees 155 



Even those who feel the need of English names for 

 garden and woodland things are, perhaps, too apt to 

 assume that the systematic Linnaean name is the only 

 one with any claim to science. But that is clearlj^ an 

 error, as many of our English names are very much 

 older, more interesting, and have been bound up with the 

 history of our people and their language for ages. So 

 that the study of these names may be as much a part of 

 * science ' as any other. The botanical names of the 

 Linnaean system now followed have only been in use 

 during a few generations, and as such they have no more 

 claim to be exclusively * scientific ' than many of the 

 names in our own language. Dr. C. A. Prior, author of a 

 good book on the popular names of British plants, says : 

 ' There are botanists who look upon English names as 

 leading to confusion and a nuisance, and who would gladly 

 abandon them and ignore their existence. But this is 

 surely a mistake, for there will always be ladies and 

 others who, with the greatest zeal for the pursuit of 

 Natural History, have not had the opportunity of learn- 

 ing Greek or Latin, or have forgotten those languages, 

 and who will prefer to call a plant by a name that they 

 can pronounce and recollect. We need but to ask our- 

 selves what success would have attended the exertions 

 of the late excellent and benevolent Professor Henslow 

 among the pupils of his little village school if he had used 

 any names but the popular ones. Besides admitting to 

 the full all that can be urged against them from a purely 

 botanical point of view, we still may derive both pleasure 

 and instruction from tracing them back to their origin, 

 and reading in them the habits and opinions of former 

 ages. In following up such an analysis we soon find 

 that we are entering upon a higher region of literature — 



