20 PLANT NAMES 



Linnaeus, for instance, lays it down that no generic 

 name from barbarous languages should be admitted, 

 and that all languages are barbarous except Greek 

 and Latin. Lindley considered this rule to be quite 

 unworkable, but Sir J. E. Smith, another eminent 

 botanist, but of the Linnaean school, adopts it. He 

 says that without it we should be overwhelmed with 

 a torrent of uncouth and unmanageable words. But 

 even he admits some exceptions. He says: '' Per- 

 haps the barbarous names of some very local plants, 

 when they cannot possibly have been known pre- 

 viously by any other, and when that name is 

 harmonious and easily reconcilable to the Latin 

 tongue, may be admitted, as that of the Japan shrub 

 Aucuba; but such a word as Gingko is intolerable." 



Linnaeus also lays down as inadmissible for generic 

 names those compounded of two entire words, such 

 as Crista-galli ; those formed of two Latin words, as 

 Sempervivum ; hybrids composed half of Greek and 

 half of Latin, as Cardamindum ; names ending in 

 -oides, as Aster oides ; names sounding like other 

 generic names ; names at variance with the character 

 of any of the species; and names given to gain the 

 favour of saints or of persons celebrated in other 

 sciences. He approves of names containing those 

 of ancient deities or of great botanists ; he desires to 

 retain the old names, be they good or bad, and he 

 approves most of all of those which express the 

 essential character or habit of the genus. 



Since the time of Linnaeus the science of Botany 

 has made great strides, and thousands of new plants 



