ON FACT VS. THEORY 



Or, if we were to prepare a technical article, 

 about this species, we should write Prunus Avium 

 at the first mention of it, and contract it to P. 

 Avium when mentioning it thereafter. 



In this work, in order to gain clearness with 

 the least effort, and to avoid confusion through 

 the use of disputed terms, it has been decided, so 

 far as possible, to call plants by their commonest 

 names; going, wherever necessary, into a brief 

 explanation in order to identify the plant clearly 

 in the mind of the reader. 



Our work is to be a practical work, and the 

 effort which it would cost to master thousands 

 of Latin names might, it is believed, be better 

 expended in a study of the principles and the 

 practice. 



There arises, unfortunately, a confusion 

 through use of common names. The California 

 poppy, for example, is not a poppy at all; but for 

 the purposes of this work it has been deemed best 

 to call it the California poppy, by which name it 

 is generally known, rather than to refer to it as 

 Eschscholtzia; and so on throughout the list of 

 other plants. 



No common name is used, however, which is 

 not to be found in the dictionary; so that those 

 whose scientific interest is uppermost have but to 

 refer to their Webster, which gives a greater 



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