4 PLANT-LIFE ON LAND [ch. 



though he might give an hour's lecture on its 

 structure, and its systematic and biological charac- 

 teristics. The sympathetic layman is disappointed 

 and perplexed when he finds this, for he dearly loves 

 a name. He does not realise that in point of fact 

 names are necessary symbols : a means of recording, 

 and nothing more: and that for the student the 

 interest in a given plant may have begun long before 

 the identification, and will as a rule intensify with 

 study quite apart from the exact designation. It 

 is when he puts his observations on public record 

 that the necessity arises for accurate determination. 

 The names which are used to stamp specific or 

 varietal identities of plants are like the words of 

 a language. Their value per se is small. It is in 

 collocation that identities stamped by specific names 

 acquire their interest and their worth. The individual 

 who stores his mind merely with the names of plants 

 may know as little of the science as one who 

 memorises a dictionary would know of literature. It 

 is considerations such as these that justify many 

 botanists in their neglect to commit a multitude of 

 names to memory. The knowledge of characteristics 

 and of relations is the important matter, and this 

 should go along with a facility in ascertaining the 

 correct naming whenever it is required for purposes 

 of description, in case the memory has failed to bear 

 that burden. 



