KNOWING FLOWERS BY NAME 239 
ORDER GENUS SPECIES 
Crucifere Iberis Gibraltarica 
American Jones Hezekiah 
Latin is used for orders, genera and species, for 
the reason that it is the universal language of sci- 
ence. The order and specific names are translat- 
able into any language; the generic name not 
always, as in the case of wistaria, which is coined 
from Wistar. In the instance just mentioned the 
plant is Gibraltar candytuft and it belongs to the 
order of cross-bearers. Candytuft is doubtless a 
corruption of Candia tuft, as the first species culti- 
vated (I. umbellata) was discovered on that island. 
Gibraltar implies habitat, but not a geographical 
restriction of range. Cross-bearers are so called 
because the four petals of the blossoms of plants in 
this order form a cross. 
As plants come into cultivation, frequently in the 
wild, they generally acquire a common name, which 
may be a literal translation or something suggested 
by a fancied resemblance or a mere notion. Lit- 
erally Viola tricolor would be the tri-colored violet, 
but that is not its customary name; in Europe and 
in this country the plant has numerous popular 
names. So the correspondence may be carried still 
farther by the statement that flowers, as well as 
human beings, frequently have nicknames—some- 
times strikingly appropriate and again quite unfath- 
omable as to the reason therefor. 
If only the correspondence had stopped right 
there! But flower names change; by force, not 
