This book provides both a handy reference to the scientific names of plants and a clearly written account of the ways in which the naming of plants has changed with time and why these changes were necessary. It deals with the problems of using common names for plants against the historical background of our increasing discrimination of kinds of plants. It then goes on to consider landmarks in the standardization of both common and 'scientific' names and the development of internationally agreed principles governing the format and use of names in botany, sylviculture, agriculture and horticulture. From the alphabetical list the reader may interpret the scientific names of plants from any part of the world. For this second edition a number of changes and corrections in both parts have been made. The author has attempted to keep the first part acceptable to the amateur gardener by resisting a temptation to make it a definite guide to the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. Others have done this already and with great clarity. Revision has allowed the inclusion of a brief comment on both synonymous and illegitimate botanical names and reference to recent attempts to accommodate the various traits and interests in the naming and names of cultivated plants.