f 
( 230 ) 
Alfo rumex pulcher, or beautiful, has the 
trivial name fiddle given to it ; and pulmo- 
naria officinalis, officinal, is called broad- 
leaved. Many more fuch falfe names might 
be enumerated, which are equally awk- 
ward and injurious to the fcience, and what 
every true botanift ought to avoid. I warn all 
my young readers ftrongly from the ufe of 
fuch terms, as they may hear them not un- 
frequently defended, as being more eafy to 
acquire : but fuch defenders are too idle to 
think much on the fubjecl;, and of courfe are 
little aware of the narrow extent to which 
their botanical knowledge can carry them, if 
founded only on the language of their own 
•country, and of the plants contained in it. 
But to return to the circumftances from 
which Linneus has taken his fpecific defcrip- 
tions: he lays it down as a fundamental rule, 
that they are to be formed from fuch parts of 
plants as are not fubjecl: to variation ; great in- 
convenience having arifen from the want of 
obfervance of this rule among former botanifts; 
every variety being ranked by them as a diftincl 
fpecies. Colour is decidedly one of the leaft 
permanent characters to be found in plants, 
confequently not to be admitted into the 
7 fpecific 
