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Show WANTED: FLOWER NAMES "We must have more common names, more folk names, for the multitude of flowering plants in our National parks," says Prof. W. L Jepson, of the University Uni-versity of California. '"By a folk name, I mean a name that has been given to h - rl nt by the folk, by the people who have lived amongst the pla ts, a d know tnem from th.dr point of view. Of course the botanist has named practically practi-cally all of the plants in the parks. He has given them scientific nam.s, but tntse very rarely make an appeal to the people at large. When once you nave folk names, then the interest in the lower fields will be very much greater. Take mountain misery, for example, which is found in the Yosemite park . and the Sequoia park. That at once shows the flavor of the soil. There are many such names, but many more must be invented either by us or by the people peo-ple who live in the mountains or live in the parks. "I was coming down out of the mountains moun-tains on a trip, and I had been studying what we botanists call Calandrinia caul-escens caul-escens var. menziesii, and I met some childrea that had in their hands a hunch of the flowers. I stopped and asked the children what they called those flowers. , After some little hesitation hesi-tation they said, 'Kisses. ' I asked them why they called them kisses, and they either would1 not are could not tell. But as I went on I heard the elder child say, 'that is a. botany man, and j he is always asking why.' "You can not always tell why. Sometime you just do things. A mountain name, like fountain misery, at once make a strong appeal to the people. Common names 'ndicate the way in which the plants have affected the people who live there, whether they are conscious of that fact or not. Imagine the thought of a person going to the meadow and seeing the mountain grass filled with shooting stars. I have seen as many as half a million shooting stars in one Siena meadow. Now, when that plant becomes known 11 will become as famous as the edelweiss." |