NEW NAMES AND OLD 197 



We are grateful that so many old names have lived, 

 and we are tempted to repine when we find that numerous 

 others have died. Few, perhaps, except callow students 

 at botanical classes, ever feel tempted to use a Latin 

 name in ordinary conversation and correspondence where 

 a familiar English one exists. 



We only protest, if we protest at all, when modern 

 " popular " names are invented. 



Where, then, is the justification for the sporadic ap- 

 peals to use English names which come to us as the years 

 pass ? There is none. They are journalism, and nothing 

 more. 



It is a common delusion that professional horti- 

 culturists are prone to use Latin names, and love to 

 force them down the throats of novices. The truth is 

 that experts almost always use popular names and 

 beginners Latin ones. It is not the florist of old standing 

 who speaks of Nigella damascena, it is the young botanical 

 student and the amateur in his novitiate who wants to 

 pass for something different from what he is. The old 

 stager is both glad and proud to use the simple name 

 Love-in-a-mist. 



It is the person who knows most about plants who 

 loves best to use the folk names. He it is who is most 

 interested in the origin of such names. Some of what 

 are spoken of as " old English " names really came from 

 the Latin. Thus, Clove comes from the Latin clavus, 

 probably through the French clou, a small nail, in allusion 

 to the shape of the clove, which is the dried flower-head 

 of an Indian tree. Peach is from the Latin persicum, 

 the Persian Apple. Opinion may differ as to whether 

 Carnation came from caw, carnis, flesh, in allusion to the 

 colour, or from coronation ; but there is some justifica- 

 tion for the former. Primrose comes from primus, first, 



