i8 PLANT NAMES 



first two words constitute the true name. The 

 others refer merely to varieties. 



Another illustration of the length of the names 

 which botanists of those times had to memorize is 

 found in a letter to Linnseus from his friend Dillenius, 

 which contains the following passage : 



''In your last letter I find a plant gathered 

 in Charles Island, on the coast of Gothland, which 

 you judge to be Polygonum erectum angustifolium, 

 floribus candidis of Mentrelius, and Caryophylhim 

 saxatilis, foliis gramineis, umhellatis corymbis, C. 

 Bauhin; nor do I object. But it is by no means 

 Townsefort's Lychnis alpina linifolia multiflora, 

 perampla radice, whose flowers are more scattered 

 and leaves broader in the middle, though narrower 

 at the end." 



Linnseus simply called the plant which Mentre- 

 lius and Bauhin denoted by these long names 

 Gypsophila fastigiata, and that is its name now. 



If anyone discovers a new genus or a new species 

 of a known genus he can name it, and have the name 

 registered and accepted by botanists all over the 

 world by a process which I shall explain, but he is 

 free to proclaim that he has produced a new variety 

 and to name it without asking anyone's leave. But 

 then he cannot prevent others from calling it by 

 the name of their choice and claiming it as theirs. 

 Nurseryman Smith has got hold of a fine variety of 

 onion, and advertises it as Small's Superb Giant. 

 Nurseryman Jones gets some of the seed, grows it, 

 and next year announces Jones'' Mammoth Ne Plus 



