2ia The Wild Garden. 



the past summer — the flowers are so purely white 

 and neat. 



Perhaps some readers may regret that I do not 

 give the English names of all the plants, and 

 that I do not is explained by the fact that they 

 have no English names in a great many in- 

 stances ; and would it not be a foolish barbarism 

 to give awkward translations of the Latin names ? 

 Many people have an idea that every plant has, or 

 should have, a " common name," whereas such only 

 belongs to plants that have been much noticed by 

 the people either for their beauty or "virtues." 

 Now, as hundreds of plants are so inconspicuous, 

 or so rare that they were never noticed till the 

 sharp-sighted botanist took them up and gave them 

 a Latin name, which is on the whole the best, because 

 the language is fixed, and common to the learned 

 of all countries, it will be readily seen why we have 

 not English names for all our plants. However, 

 the next member of this natural order Compositae, 

 or the Daisy order, which I shall notice, is endowed 

 with several common names, such as "Moun- 

 tain Cudweed," " Cat's Ear," and " Mountain Ever- 

 lasting," — the botanical one being Gnaphalium 

 dioicum. It is a beautiful dwarf plant, admirable 

 for rockwork or the front of a border, or in any 



