BARBAROUS PLANT NAMES 113 



says I to the lads, "when ye want to mind the 

 name o' yon tree, just think o' Creep-to-the-mear- 

 and-jump-onto-her." ' 



Even this worthy's system would have been 

 sorely taxed in respect of a beautiful but unfor- 

 tunate lily which was exhibited at a London show 

 some years ago, suffering from the pundits as wo- 

 fully as Susannah did at the hands of her elders ; 

 for there was bound to her feet the excruciating 

 title Lilium umbellatum Thunbergianum bulbiferum 

 nigro^naculatum. Compare with this mouthing the 

 scholarly simplicity of Linnaeus, who, having to fix 

 a scientific title for the English oak, dubbed it once 

 and for ever Quercus robur oak of oaks. On 

 the other hand, when he presumed to attach a per- 

 sonal name to a plant, he sought out a simple little 

 trailing herb a solitary species, native of his own 

 northern woods and wedded his own to it for 

 ever Linncea borealis. It became his lasting cog- 

 nisance, and inseparably associated with his touching 

 motto, Tantus amor florum so deep is my passion for 

 flowers. 



What is required of floral nomenclature is not 

 that it should commemorate some defunct, inglorious 

 biped (for there arise not many Linnseus in an aeon), 

 H 



