LIMNANTHEMUM LACUNOSUM. 



- FLOATING HEART. 



NATURAL ORDER, GENTIANACE^. 



Limnanthemum lacunosum, Grisebach. — Leaves entire, round heart-shaped, one to two 

 inches broad, thickish; petioles filiform; lobes of the white corolla broadly oval, naked, 

 except the crest-like, yellowish gland at their base, twice the length of the lanceolate calyx- 

 lobes ; style none ; seeds smooth and even. (Gray's Manual of the Botany of the Northern 

 United States. See also Chapman's Flora of the Southern United States, and Wood's Class- 

 Bo ok of Botany.) 



HE plant which forms our present theme affords us an ex- 

 cellent lesson in regard to the meaning of botanical names. 

 When we hear for the first time the name of a human indi- 

 vidual, we do not concern ourselves about its meaning in any 

 relation to the person bearing it. We like to know its his- 

 tory, for its own sake. That some Mr. Baker or Mr. Taylor 

 had a primeval ancestor who followed baking or clothes-making 

 may, perhaps, have been the reason why he and all his posterity 

 bear that name; but we do not expect the persons so named 

 now to follow these occupations. A name which means nothing 

 is just as good as one with the most expressive of meanings. 

 Now, many persons think names which are expressive should be 

 given to plants; but expressive names so often mislead that 

 those which have no meaning of any immediate application to 

 the plant in question are generally preferable. For this reason 

 those which commemorate the services of botanists are much in 

 favor with many who describe new plants. How names capable 

 of special application may mislead, is shown in the present 

 instance. Limnanthemum is derived from two Greek words, 

 limnc, mud, and authos, a flower, because, as one would suppose, 

 the original species grew in a marshy or muddy place. But the 



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