FACT AND THEORY 243 



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 

 wealth of detail than could be hoped for in a 

 glossary or an appendix to these volumes. 



A few years after I came to Santa Rosa, I 

 was invited to hear a new minister preach on a 



