70 Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens 
tues into public view in an undue struggle to make himself 
seen and felt in his community. If I were making mulleins, I 
should guard their youth more carefully, and check the first 
intimation of headiness. 
Some plants attract one from the beauty of their names. I 
confess this alone prompted me to buy Stephenandra flexuosa, 
Zea gracillima variegata, Euphorbia corrolata, Deutzia gracilis, 
Amaryllis, Asperula azurea setosa, Armeria formosa. Also 
poetic associations led me to appreciate Amaranthus, Laven- 
der, Spikenard, Asphodel, Rue, Rosemary. 
As a child I observed the invariable use of the correct botan- 
ical name of plants by florists and their assistants. A man 
might speak broken English and be apparently uneducated, 
but he never condescended to use the common name of a 
plant. There is an equal reluctance on the part of the general 
public to adopt the specific name; they accept any makeshift 
in preference, little realizing that any scientific study, if pa- 
tiently pursued, shows beneath the dull terminology a vital 
principle that relates it with the living world. From this 
point of view, the dryest technical name becomes interesting 
and significant. They are not mere arbitrary names, but de- 
scriptive terms that help one to choose exact varieties: thus 
ruber, rubra, coccinea, cardinalis, fulgens, splendens denote red 
varieties; albus, alba, albida, nivea, niveus, blanda, candidum 
represent white; roseus, rosea are rose colored or pink; ceru- 
lea, celestina, azurea, violacea are blue; aureum, aureus, flava, 
flavum, luteus, sulphurea, the yellow; maculata, spotted or 
streaked with white; argeniea, silvery. Common garden va- 
rieties are indicated by hortensis, vulgaris, officinalis. Size is 
indicated by major or majus, tall; minus, nana, nanus, small. 
Moschata, fragrans, odorata, odorissima, suaveolens represent 
fragrant varieties. A climbing variety is scandens, while a 
creeping one is repens, reclinatum. ‘Texture is denoted by 
