PLANT NAMES 3 



scientists of all nations are working together for 

 the discovery and turning to use of the secrets of 

 nature, and that would be greatly hindered if each 

 nation insisted on using its own terms, and there 

 were no international nomenclature. And such a 

 nomenclature, if formed of words of one living 

 language, would never prevail. But all will agree 

 to use one founded on Greek and Latin roots, the 

 knowledge of which is common to the learned in all 

 nations in the world. 



But, in truth, these botanical names are extremely 

 interesting and instructive when one understands 

 their meaning. The person who gave a plant its 

 name had some reason for his choice. It may have 

 been thousands of years ago or only last year, but 

 if we can find out why he gave it we shall probably 

 know something about that plant, the country of 

 its origin, or its discoverer, or the habitat it loves, 

 or the useful purpose it served, or some medicinal 

 property which it possesses or was supposed to 

 possess, or some peculiarity which was thought to 

 be distinctive. Thus botanical names are interest- 

 ing, not only to the etymologist, as all words are, 

 but to the garden-lover. They tell him something 

 about his plants which he did not know before, and 

 he loves them all the more for knowing it. He is 

 familiar with the Geranium or Cranesbill, the 

 Pelargonium, and the Erodium. When he looks at 

 the beak-Hke formation of the ripe seed pod, how 

 glad he is to know that geranos is the Greek for a 

 crane, pelargos for a stork, and erodios for a heron. 



