78 FLOWER-FIELDS OF ALPINE SWITZERLAND 



crop, and of Antirrhinum instead of Snapdragon, 

 and he calls it an "unnecessary use of botanical 

 terms," and thinks that " the want of beautiful 

 English names to many beautiful flowers seems a 

 reproach to their beauty." But there are other 

 authorities, equally numerous, who hold a contrary 

 view, considering that too much is being made of 

 English names, and that " confusion worst con- 

 founded" is a very natural consequence. One 

 catches the sound of more than two voices in the 

 discussion : one hears not only the several plaints 

 of botanist and flower-lover, but also the claims 

 of the champion of folk-lore, the mere amateur 

 gardener, the uncompromising patriot, and the 

 incorrigible sentimentalist. And something in 

 reason is said by each one of them — although 

 honours are not so easy as to enable one to call it 

 a case of six of one and half-a-dozen of the other. 

 For, perhaps, those who strive for a langue bleu in 

 this domain and choose Latin have the weightier 

 cause at heart. George Crabbe, the poet, once 

 wrote an English treatise on botany, but never 

 published it, because of the remonstrances of the 

 Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, who ob- 

 jected to degrading the science of botany by 

 treating it in a modern language. Such rigorous 



