240 FLOWER GARDENING 
volition, Someone says to Bignonia radicans, 
“Here, you; from this time on your name will be 
Tecoma radicans and don’t mind what So-and-So 
says to the contrary. Understand?” Or to Geum 
coccineum, ‘‘A mistake was made at your christen- 
ing, it seems. You are not G. coccineum but G. 
chiloense.’ So in looking over the pages of the 
floral directory you occasionally have reason to 
wish that well enough had been let alone. Fortu- 
nately the confusion is only here and there. 
The common names are most important to re- 
member, provided that they are either the best 
possible rendering into the vernacular or, if fanci- 
fully descriptive, are sufficiently distinctive. Dog 
rose (Rosa canina), in the one class, and Chinese 
lantern plant (Physalis Francheti), in the other, 
are sufficiently definite. London pride is not, nor 
is bluebell; the former is Saxifraga umbrosa in Eng- 
land and Lychnis chalcedonica here, while the latter 
is applied to more than one plant on each side of 
the Atlantic. Jerusalem cross is really a much 
better common name for the lychnis, as each blos- 
som suggests the red cross of the Crusader. 
It is well to inquire into the reason for every 
common name. The result is generally to create in 
the mind an association between the name and the 
plant. Moreover the inquiry leads one into a very 
pleasant field of folklore study, as well as greater 
intimacy with the garden. Look at a blossom of 
any aconitum on the plant and it is apparent from 
the shape of it why it is called monkshood and hel- 
