PLANT NAMES 



This book is not intended for the learned, nor does 

 it pretend to treat the subject exhaustively. It is 

 for those of my fellow-gardeners who, like Shake- 

 speare, know " small Latin and less Greek." It is 

 meant to help them to understand, and by under- 

 standing to remember, those long, weird names of 

 trees, shrubs, and plants which appal the beginner 

 and excite the wondering admiration of the ignorant. 

 Once we know what a name means and why it was 

 given, it is easier to remember it, for it excites our 

 interest, just as we take more interest in the planets 

 and constellations when we know the names which 

 they have borne so long and learn their origin. 



Some garden-lovers are content with the common 

 English names of flowers, such as Pansy or Daffodil. 

 These are probably not very advanced horticul- 

 turists, and if their interest widens they will soon 

 find themselves growing plants which have no 

 Enghsh names, and they will have to retain in their 

 minds by sheer force of memory hard, strange 

 names of whose meaning they have not the slightest 

 idea. Many gardeners, having accomplished this, 

 are so proud of it that they begin to despise the old 

 English names, and when their friends come to see 



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