4 PREFACE. 



as author. In the other cases his name, according to present usage, should 

 appear in parenthesis. Since this is a matter of little importance to beginners 

 and one difficult to manage it has not been attended to. 



Because of the unsettled condition of plant names the present time is unfavorable 

 for the preparation of a flora of any country. More than ever before systematic 

 botanists are investigating the history of names, and, like other historians, they do 

 not agree. There are therefore added to the ever present questions concerning the 

 limitations of genera and species, questions concerning the priority of names. 

 The former never will be settled, and authorities are not likely to agree upon the 

 latter for some years to come. Meanwhile we must learn several names for each of 

 a score or more of the plants we yearly greet in our country rambles. For example : 

 In the collections of plants made in the United States last year the shrub com- 

 monly known as Nine-Bark doubtless bears five different names. Those using 

 "Gray's Manual " or "Wood's Class Book'* have labeled it Spiraea opulifolia; 

 according to " Bergen's Botany" and "Behr's Flora" it is Neillia opulifolia; in 

 the " Key to West Coast Botany" it is Physocarpus opulifolia; in Greene's "Flora 

 Franciscana" it is Ne.dlia capitata, and in the same author's " Botany of the Bay 

 Kegion" it is called Opulaster capitatus. Five plants so common that they may 

 be found on one hillside will, by those who use the "Bay Region Botany," be 

 given each a separate generic name, yet most botanists call them all Gilias. A 

 common wild cherry is Prunus emarginata in "Behr'fc Flora," Cerasus emar- 

 ginata in " Bay Region Botany," and Cerasus California in "Flora Franciscana." 

 Some idea of the number of plants known by more than one name may be gained 

 from the fact that over two hundred of the thirteen hundred species described 

 in the " Bay Region Botany" appear under generic and sometimes specific names 

 different from those given them in the " Botany of the Geological Survey." But 

 it must be remembered that, even in its present chaotic condition, botanical 

 nomenclature is incomparably better than that of so-called common names. 

 Most of our noticeable native plants are each known by a dozen or more locai 

 names. V. R. 



SAN JOSE, Feb. 8, 1898. 



