THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 
Vol. II. May 15, 1902. No. 5 
PLANT MISNOMERS. 
By C. F. Saunders. 
The common names of our native plants are frequently names 
transferred from the Old World. Settlers in this new country, 
finding here many plants which seemed identical with those they 
knew at home, would naturally give to such the home names. In 
some cases these appellatives would correctly designate the plant, 
but in other instances they would not, for the average tiller of the 
soil or hewer of wood is not a scientific observer. Thus to cjuote a 
fam.iliar example or two, the wild roses of our roadsides and 
swamps are as true roses as any that Anacreon sung ; but the name 
of wild honeysuckle applied to an azalea is a palpable misnomer 
which, perhaps, came into being because the azalea is not native to 
England. When English immigrants saw its pretty flower with 
long protruding stamens they were apparently struck by some re- 
semblance to the well-beloved honeysuckle of their old home, and 
named it accordingly. 
Not long ago there came under my observation a present-day 
instance of the latter process of plant-misnaming in respect to the 
common Galium triflonim, which the bookmen call the three-flow- 
ered or fragrant bedstraw. One May afternoon, I met in the 
woods near Philadelphia a man,who proved to be a German, indus- 
triously gathering this plant and asked him what he would do with 
it. He said it was x^vy fragrant when drv' and he would use it 
for laying away in clothes to make them smell sweet, and might 
also employ it for putting in wine to flavor it. On my asking him 
the name of it, he said it was woodruff. 
Now as every botanical student knows, woodruff is a plant of 
quite another nature and while common enough in Europe where it 
is gathered in May for the uses named by my chance acquaintance 
