Common plants

The present work will hopefully serve as a concise handbook for the practitioner of plant science by providing insight into the origins of plant names, both scientific and common, and to clarify the ambiguities caused by the attachment of multiple common names to a single plant species. The text is divided into two parts. Part I deals with the origins of botanical nomenclature and includes an index of over 2000 common names of plants along with their corresponding botanical epithets. Part II details the origins of colloquial names of plants and delves into the historic background of selected common names which illustrate the influence of language, commerce and fancy of plant identification.