CHAPTER II: THE NAMES OF TREES 



Two Latin words, written in italics, with a cabalistic abbrevia- 

 tion set after them, are a stumbling block on the page to the reader 

 unaccustomed to scientific lore. He resents botanical names, 

 and demands to know the tree's name "in plain English." Trees 

 have both common and scientific names, and each has its use. 

 Common names were applied to important trees by people, the 

 world over, before science was born. Many trees were never 

 noticed by anybody until botanists discovered and named them. 

 They may never get common names at all. 



A name is a description reduced to its lowest terms. It 

 consists usually of a surname and a descriptive adjective : Mary 

 Jones, white oak, Quercus alba. Take the oaks, for example, 

 and let us consider how they got their names, common and 

 scientific. All acorn-bearing trees are oaks. They are found in 

 Europe, Asia and America. Their usefulness and beauty have 

 impressed people. The Britons called them by a word which in 

 our modern speech is oak, and as they came to know the dif- 

 ferent kinds, they added a descriptive word to the name of each. 

 But "plain English" is not useful to the Frenchman. Chene 

 is his name for the acorn trees. The German has his Eichen- 

 baum, the Roman had his Quercus, and who knows what the 

 Chinaman and the Hindoo in far Cathay or the American Indian 

 called these trees ? Common names made the trouble when the 

 Tower of Babel was building. 



Latin has always been the universal language of scholars. It 

 is dead, so that it can be depended upon to remain unchanged in 

 its vocabulary and in its forms and usages. Scientific names are 

 exact, and remain unchanged, though an article or a book using 

 them may be translated into all the modern languages. The 

 word Quercus clears away difficulties. French, English, 

 German hearers know what trees are meant — or they know 

 just where in books of their own language to find them 

 described. 



The abbreviation that follows a scientific name tells who 

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