Bulletin - United States National Museum - Smithsonian Institution

FLOKA OF WASHINGTON AND VICINITY. 55
tific knowledge, and the devotees of science should care less for the
means than the end which they have in view. Individuals differ in
their constitution and character. The sound or sight of a Latin word
is sometimes sufficient, in consequence of ineradicable constitutional or
acquired idiosyncrasies, to repel a promising young man or woman from
the ijursuit of a science for which genuine aptitude and fondness exist.
For such and other classes common English names have a true scien-
tific value. The object should be to inspire a love for plants in all who
can be made to take an interest in them, and to this end to render the
science of botany attractive by every legitimate means available. In
so far, therefore, as English names of plants can be made conducive to
this end they should be employed. Their inadequacy to the true needs
of the science in its later stages cannot fail to imj)ress itself upon all
who pursue it to any considerable extent.
Finally, common names are not wholly without their scientific uses.
A few of them have proved more persistent than any of the systematic
names, as I have had occasion to observe in examining the Prodromus
Florae Golumhiance of 1830, in which difficult work, I must confess, they
frequently rendered me efficient aid in determining the identity of plants
which the Latin names used did not reveal.
In appending common names to the plants of this vicinity, the Native
Wild Flowers and Ferns of the United States, by Prof. Thomas Meehan,
has been followed in most cases so far as this work goes; but this of
course embraces but a fraction of the entire flora. Most of the remain-
ing names are taken from Gray's Manual of Botany and from his Synop-
tical Flora of the United States. In many cases some of the names
given, which do not seem appropriate, are omitted, and in a few cases
those given have been slightly changed. A small number of local
names not found in any book, but in themselves very expressive, have
been given, as "Curly-Head" for Clematis oehroleuca, &cr, and in a few
other cases names have been assigned to abundant species on the anal-
ogy of those given for allied genera or species.
XIII. CONCLUDING REMARKS.
The foregoing remarks on the value of common names naturally sug-
gest a few general reflections, with which our introduction wjll conclude.
The popularization of science is now a leading theme of scientific
men. To accomi^lish this, certain branches of science must first become
a part of liberal culture. The pursuit of fashion, which is usually re-