DE SC K IPT I y E BOT A N Y . 



149 



iL Of Trivial Names. 



A fundamental rule in the construction of a trivial name^ 

 is, that it be a descriptive word, short, and derived from the 

 Latin, or at any rate from the Greek language. 



Latin trivial names are the best ; but many properties which 

 we wish to designate, cannot well be expressed in Latin ; in 

 which case we betake ourselves to Greek. Micranthus may 

 be used indiscriminately with parviflorus^ and macrophyllus 

 with hngifolius ; but macrostermn and isostemon are evi- 

 dently better than longistmaineus and {equalistamineiis. The 

 practice of those is to be blamed who employ Greek too 

 frequently in trivial names, when we have equally significant 

 Latin terms in use ; because the latter language is more ge- 

 nerally understood than the former. Cycloselis is a super- 

 fluous expression, since we have orbicularis and cincinnatus, 



A second leading riile is, that the trivial names must be 

 as little varied as possible, so that synonymes may not be- 

 come infinite. The first trivial name must remain^ even al- 

 though a better might easily be had. But there is an excep- 

 tion to this, when the writers who first employed the trivial 

 name denoted several different species of plants by it, or con- 

 sidered what was merely a subspecies to be a species. This 

 has happened with Ballota 7iigra, under which name Lin- 

 naeus included a com.pletely different species during his bet- 

 ter days, from those which it had formerly denoted. 



It is impossible at present not to urge the rule, that no 

 trivial name, but the Linnaean, ought to be pronounced or 

 written, without adding the authority to it ; because it hap- 

 pens that different plants have the same trivial name, and 

 because, without adding the authority, no person can know 

 where to find more information respecting the plant. Neck- 

 era splachnoides^ Schwagr. is a quite different plant from 

 N. spl. Sm. : Parikti'm fascicidatum Sw. different from that ai 



