PLANT NAMES 9 



of the same word to signify two different things. 

 How much poHtical and reHgious wrangHng would 

 have been saved if men had only made sure that 

 they meant the same thing by the language they 

 used ! And so it is in Botany. Some of the 

 names used by Pliny certainly refer now to plants 

 different from those to which he applied them, and 

 of many it is doubtful. The incorrect use of names 

 is a fruitful source of error. People usually call the 

 Philadelphus a Syringa. They suppose the Moun- 

 tain Ash to be a species of Ash (Fraxinus), when it is 

 really a Pear (Pyrus), and they imagine what they 

 call the Asparagus Fern to be of the Fern family. 

 And so it is of the first importance in plant nomen- 

 clature that all botanists in the world should agree 

 to adopt one name for each plant, and that this 

 name should unquestionably identify its owner, so 

 far as possible, with the same plant as that referred 

 to by writers in past times. 



But even with this reserve the work of Phny is of 

 great value. With all its faults it is an astounding 

 monument of industry, and it proved of inestimable 

 service for centuries in fixing plant names. " The 

 work of Pliny," says Cuvier, " is one of the most 

 precious monuments that have come down to us 

 from ancient times, and affords proof of an astonish- 

 ing amount of erudition in one who was a warrior 

 and a statesman." 



After Phny, httle was done in classifying and 

 naming plants for many centuries, the chief work 

 in Botany, as in other sciences, being done by the 



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