INTRODUCTION xxiii 



silly and pedantic, even if it falls on scientific ears. Only 

 persons of very shallow scientific learning use it on such in- 

 formal occasions. 



Let us keep the most beautiful and fitting among com- 

 mon names, and work for their general adoption. There 

 are no hard names once they become familiar ones. No- 

 body hesitates or stumbles over chrysanthemum and 

 rhododendron, though these sonorous Greek derivatives 

 have four syllables. Nobody asks what these names are 

 "in plain English." 



