132 With Feet to the Earth 



cially near the earth, the stems and seed 

 spikes thereupon becoming the drier, scraw- 

 nier, and more conspicuous. In fact, the au- 

 tumnal disappearance of many species is one 

 of the most puzzling things in nature. Here 

 they are to-day. To-morrow they have 

 vanished. The annuals have sown them- 

 selves and the others are in a chrysalis state 

 awaiting the spring and Christian names. 



Scientists tell us that it is an advantage 

 to keep botany in Greek and Latin, so that 

 when they read foreign books they will 

 recognize the names, for they remain un- 

 changed by their surroundings. Nobody 

 asks them to destroy the names, nor to 

 refrain from their alleged recreations in 

 foreign literatures ; but why bar out the 

 rest of us, who have more than we can do 

 to keep up our English? Why chill the 

 thousands who aspire to know a jimson 

 when they see it, by setting them to look 

 for datura stramonium? Why not come 

 to an agreement on common names, as 

 they call them, and authorize them jointly 

 with the Linnaean ones ? At present they 

 give not one common name for a plant, 



