8 



POPULAR GARDEN BOTANY. 



on the memory, and our favourites are surely worth a little 

 pains. These learned names are for the purpose of making 

 a kind of general language, equally understood by the bo- 

 tanists of every country. The names of the genera have 

 been explained in these pages, so that however incompre- 

 hensible they may at first appear to the unlearned in the 

 Greek and Latin languages, they may, by having a clue to 

 their meaning, more easily retain them. Many think Eng- 

 lish names should be given to all plants, but this is im- 

 possible, and would only render the subject more puzzling, 

 as appellations of this kind are either only local, or given 

 without any rule, and every one would think they had an 

 equal right to invent them, so that the same plant might 

 have a hundred names attached to it. The learned names 

 cannot always be translated into one English word : for 

 example, that of the beautiful and curious plant, the Ani- 

 gozanthos, which word means to raise tip, and a flower, 

 could not be rendered into one English appellative, yet 

 when understood it is seen to be characteristic ; or the 

 word Agave, which means admirable, though very charac- 

 teristic of this plant, is equally so of others, and would 

 therefore be no distinctive name if translated. Those who 

 complain of the difficulty, have probably had none in re- 



