NAMES ) FLOWERS I BAN - MOW FMONOUNCED M BOTANICAL NAMES OF THE WILD FLOWERS What they mean. How Pronounced. Botanical Names of the Flowers What they mean. How Pronounced. By Colonel /. S. F . "Mackenzie or o/ " Wild Flowers and ho^v to name them at a glance, 'British Orchids: how to tell one from another," etc. London Hold en & Harding ham Ltd. Adelphi PREFACE MANY of us, no doubt, are prevented trying to learn the names of the Wild Flowers we see in our lanes and meadows because of the uncouth look of their botanical names. We are uncertain as to how these barbarous words ought to be pronounced ; we know not what their so-called " scientific " names mean. The Greek or Latin names given to Wild Flowers are not, in themselves, in any way " scientific." These words were those in common everyday use by the Greeks or Latins when the flower first happened to be named. If Chrysanthemum were scientific, so also would Goldilocks be. Both have practically the same meaning. Chrysanthemum is a compound Greek word, "chrys" — golden, " anthos " — flower; Goldilocks, a compound English word and the common name for the Wood Crowfoot, is nothing more than a translation of its second Latin botanical name " auricomus," " auri " — golden, " comus " — hair or locks. But there is a very great advantage in using the botanical name. By so doing we are using a " standardized " name. By it every one all over the vi PREFACE world knows exactly the plant referred to. It is other- wise if we use the Common English name. This often varies in different parts of the country. The plant botanically known as Galium Aparine has the popular English names of Goosegrass, Cleavers, or Catchweed. Some know it under one name, some under another. Once I have heard it called " Scratch Tongue." On asking why such a name, I was told that boys were in the habit of putting out their tongue,, and scratching it with the leaf to see whose tongue would bleed most. On the other hand, the popular English names, in spite of the confusion which arises from the same plant being known by a different name in a different part of the country, are full of meaning, and much more interesting. " Scratch Tongue," when you know how it came by its name, is much more likely to stick in your brain than " Galium Aparine,'' even when you know what these Latin and Greek words mean. To Linneus, the great Swedish botanist, and founder of modern botany, belongs the honour and glory of having evolved a scientific plan for the naming of Wild Flowers. When Linneus lived — born in 1707, died 1778 — Latin was the universal language commonly used by writers of all countries. He therefore wrote in Latin, and gave to plants the Latin names by which they were known to the ancients. Linneus' plan is as simple as it is efficient. To every plant he gave two names, and no two plants have exactly the same two names. The first or group name corresponds to the surname of human beings. All plants botanically alike, or, so to say, belonging to one and the same household, is given a group name. This PREFACE vii group name is peculiar to, and only given to the members of the same household. Some groups have many members, some only one. According to Bentham and Hooker's " British Flora " (6th Ed.), Wild Flowers are divided into 501 groups. Although we have so many group names, no two have the same name. Several are somewhat alike, but yet are different. We have the same sort of thing with our surnames. Smith and Smythe are alike, but yet are different. The second Botanical Name corresponds to the Christian name of human beings, and like that, enables us to distinguish the different individuals of the same household. The same second botanical name can not be given to two members of the same group. But the same second botanical name is found in many different groups. Usually these second botanical names indicate some characteristic of the plant, as " hirsutus " — hairy, " latifolia " — broadleaved, &c. ; or tell us where they are to be found, as " arvensis " — a cultivated field, " sylvestris " — a wood or shady place, &c. There is one not uncommon — for it is found in several groups — second botanical name " officinalis." This means "belonging to the shop." It not only dis- tinguishes the individual, but it gives us more informa- tion. It tells that the plant is one of those in whose medicinal virtues our fathers firmly believed, and that herbalists — the chemists of those days — kept in their shops a stock of the plant to meet the constant demand. Thus it will be seen the plan is very simple. Every viii PREFACE plant has two names. One a surname, the other a Christian name, so to say. But the combination of the two names can only be given to one plant wherever it may be found. You can have any number of, so to say, Johns, or Edwards, &c. To follow the botanical method of putting the surname first, you can have Smith John, Mackenzie John, &c., or Peterson Edward, or Morgan Edward, or &c. ; but throughout the wh»le land you cannot have two Smith John or two Morgan Edward, &c. Result : each plant has its own peculiar name, applicable only to itself. When one realizes that the botanical names are simple words, full of meaning, only they are in Latin dress instead of English, their forbidding look seems to melt away, and they stick in one's memory more easily. Groups, which from a botanist's point of view are related, are in their turn grouped into Families. There are 94 families in all ; each contains a varying number of groups. Some families have only one group, while the Composite Family has 41. The family name is generally obtained by adding the Latin termination " aceus " — like to the name of the most important group contained in the family. Thus " Rosaceae " — " Rosa " and " aceus " — is the name of a family containing 16 groups, of which Rosa, being the most important, it gives its name to the family. It is impossible now, with any certainty, to determine how plants came by their names. We must be content to accept the most reasonable guess. Several of the group names are, by way of honouring PREFACE ix them, merely the names of famous botanists slightly altered to make them look like Latin words. For example, " Bartsia," the name for a group is named after John Bartsch, a Dutch botanist, who died in 1736. Only one lady is among those so honoured, and she was an Irish botanist, Miss Hutchins. The group " Hutchinsia " is so named after her. Alcock, in his most interesting work, " Botanical Names for English Readers," tells us that, according to Pliny, " Polemonium," the Greek and Latin name for Greek Valerian or Jacob's Ladder, was derived from " polemos " — war, the plant having caused a war between two Kings, who each of them claimed its discovery. Another derivation is that it was so named after Polemo