IV. NOMENCLATURE OF 
PLANTS. 
§ 205. 
{r appears to be of little importance to give a 
plant a new name; but it is certainly agreeable to 
one who makes botany his study, to find a name 
that is appropriate, and easily and generally receiv- 
ed. When the name is indeterminate and unsettled, 
the knowledge of the thing is lost. The old bo- 
tanists were not much. concerned about preserving 
the names of plants. Every one who turned author 
gave them new ones, and thus in those times the 
study of Botany was unpleasant and uncertain. 
Persons were disgusted with the barbarous, dry and 
unfixed nomenclature which prevailed, and declined 
entering on the study of the most beautiful objects 
of nature, on account of the difficulty and uncer- 
tainty which attended it. But by the introduction 
of fixed and generally received names, we are 
now able to make ourselves understood wherever 
Botany is known. 
8 § 206, 
