INTRODUCTION 23 



Linnaeus, who was the great reformer of this part 

 of Natural History, a host of strange names, in- 

 harmonious, sesquipedalian, or barbarous, have 

 found their way into botany, and, by the stern but 

 almost indispensable laws of priority, are re- 

 tained there. It is full time, indeed, that some stop 

 should be put to this torrent of savage sounds, 

 when we find such words as Calucechinus, Oresi- 

 genesa, Finaustrina, Kraschenninikovia, Gra- 

 venhorstia, Andrezejofskya, Mielichoferia, Mo- 

 nactineirma, Pleuroschismatypus, and hundreds 

 of others like them thrust into the annals of 

 botany without even an apology. If such intol- 

 erable words are to be used, they should surely 

 be reserved for plants as repulsive as themselves, 

 and, instead of libeling races so fair as flowers, 

 or so noble as trees, they ought to be confined to 

 Slimes, Mildews, Blights, and Toadstools. The 

 Author has been anxious to do something to alle- 

 viate this grievous evil, which, at least, need not 

 be permitted to eat into the healthy form of 

 botany clothed in the English language." And 

 Gray, writing to George Engelmann in 1843, 

 says : " I agree with you generally in the impro- 

 priety of too much multiplying names of species 

 after the collectors, etc., yet I think these are good 

 names, easily remembered and particularly ad- 

 visable in very large genera. My practicable rule 

 is to name such species after the discoverer, etc., 



