KNOWING FLOWERS BY NAME 241 
met flower. Pluck it, when fully open, and hold it 
with the back of the helmet down and it will be no 
less apparent that the little boys and girls of seven- 
ty years ago did not overstrain their imagination 
when they spoke of it as Pharaoh’s chariot. It is 
just as well to know all these names; also that the 
best is aconite, because it is an English rendering of 
the generic name, aconitum. 
Learn all the common names that you can, for 
the pleasurable side of it, but hold to the best for 
ordinary use. Choose white rock cress (Arabis 
albida), for example, in preference to welcome- 
home-husband-be-he-never-so-drunk and_prince’s 
feather (Polygonum orientale) to kiss-me-over-the- 
garden-gate. Not that these names are so foolish 
as they might seem at first glance. The arabis— 
also one of the stonecrops(Sedum album), which 
appears to have been given the same name—has a 
mass of white blossoms well calculated to enable a 
man to locate his doorstep at night, and as for the 
knotweed, it hangs its deep rose plumes over a gate 
in a most inviting way. 
Having associated the common name with the 
plant, try to associate the botanical name with both. 
Use the dictionary, as well as botanical works, for 
reference. Such things as finding out that true bell- 
flowers have the generic name of Campanula (little 
bell), that a windflower is Anemone (from the 
Greek word for wind), that the pink is Dianthus 
(Greek for Jove’s flower), that any spring prim- 
rose is Primula (from the Latin for first), that the 
