INTRODUCTION xix 



less, or vulgar. Nicknames like nigger pine, lie huckle- 

 berry, she balsam, and bull bay ought to be dropped by all 

 people who lay claim to intelligence and taste. 



With all their inaccuracies, common names have inter- 

 esting histories, and the good ones are full of helpful sug- 

 gestion to the learner. Many are literal translations of 

 the Latin names. The first writers on botany wrote in 

 Latin. Plants were described under the common name, 

 if there was one; if not, the plant was named. The differ- 

 ent species of each group were distinguished by the descrip- 

 tions and the drawings that accompanied them. Linnaeus 

 attempted to bring the work of botanical scholars to- 

 gether, and to publish descriptions and names of all known 

 plants in a single volume. This he did, crediting each 

 botanist with his work. The "Species Plantarum," 

 Linnaeus's monumental work, became the foundation of 

 the modern science of botany, for it included all the plants 

 known and named up to the time of its publication. This 

 was about the middle of the eighteenth century. 



The vast body of information which the "SjDecies 

 Plantarum" contained was systematically arranged. All 

 the different species in one genus were brought together. 

 They w^ere described, each under a number; and an 

 adjective word, usually descriptive of some marked char- 

 acteristic, was written in as a marginal index. 



After Linnaeus's time botanists found that the genus 

 name in combination with this marginal word made a con- 

 venient and exact means of designating the plant. Thus 

 Linnaeus became the acknowledged originator of the 

 binomial (two-name) system of nomenclature now in use 

 in all sciences. It is a delightful coincidence that while 

 Linnaeus was engaged on his great work. North America, 



