CHAPTER III 

 Scientific Names 



Why Botanical Names are Used. The question is often 

 asked by the amateur, why scientific, or botanical names are used. 

 There are several good reasons for this: (i) The names are in 

 Latin, a dead and unchanging language, so that the words are the 

 same for all time. (2) Latin is used as the international language for 

 science; in other words, the gardener in China, Argentina, or the 

 United States knows exactly the plant meant when the words 

 Solarium tuberosumis mentioned, but we in the United States call 

 it a potato, in France it is pomme de terre, in Germany it is kartofel, 

 in Spain it is patala, and in each country a local name is applied. 

 Botanical names are the Esperanto of science. Even in our country 

 the name Dusty Miller is applied to a number of different plants. 

 (3) Scientific names are convenient because they are of two parts, 

 the genus and the species; by knowing the word Pruniis, the genus, 

 we know that the stone fruits. Peaches, Plums, Almonds, Apricots, 

 Cherries and others, are all allied. These different kinds of Primus 

 are thus given, respectively, such specific names as Pruniis Persica, 

 P. domestica, P. communis, P. Armcniaca and P. Cerasus. 



Latin Names and What some of them Mean. The botani- 

 cal name of a plant is made up of two parts — the generic name or 

 name common to the group, and the specific name or particular 

 species of that genus. The specific name is often descriptive of 

 a characteristic of the plant, ex., SafeiaazMj-eo; Salvia is the genus, 

 and azurea is descriptive of it ; in other words. Salvia azurea is the 

 Blue Salvia. Many times the species name is given to honor some 

 person, ex., Aconilum Wilsonii; the name of the species WUsonii is 

 merely the Latin form of Wilson. Some species are named from the 

 geographical location in which they are found, ex.. Primula cliiiiensis, 

 Fragaria virginiana. The species name, when an adjective, usually 

 agrees with the genus name in gender. Thus the adjective albus 

 has the masculine form albus with a genus such as Dictamnus, albus; 

 the feminine form Carya alba, and the neuter form Geum album. 

 Most trees are feminine whatever their termination; therefore, the 

 name of the White Oak is Qttercus alba, even though the termination 



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