198 PROSERPINA. 



forgotten literature of the Fields ; and, before we 

 bow our children's memories to the burden of it, 

 ensure that there shall be matter worth carriage 

 in the load. 



4. And farther, in attempting such a change, 

 we must be clear in our own minds whether we 

 wish our nomenclature to tell us something about 

 the plant itself, or only to tell us the place it 

 holds in relation to other plants : as, for instance, 

 in the Herb-Robert, would it be well to christen it, 

 shortly, ' Rob Roy,' because it is pre-eminently red, 

 and so have done with it ; — or rather to dwell on its 

 family connections, and call it ' Macgregoraceous '? 



5. Before we can wisely decide this point, we 

 must resolve whether our botany is intended mainly 

 to be useful to the vulgar, or satisfactory to the 

 scientific elite. For if we give names charac- 

 terizing individuals, the circle of plants which any 

 country possesses may be easily made known to 

 the children who live in it : but if we give names 

 founded on the connexion between these and others 

 at the Antipodes, the parish schoolmaster will cer- 

 tainly have double work ; and it may be doubted 

 greatly whether the parish schoolboy, at the end of 

 the lecture, will have half as many ideas. 



6. Nevertheless, when the features of any great 

 order of plants are constant, and, on the whole, 



