The Logic Of Names

Day 183: This isn't another rant about taxonomists. Their business is scientific nomenclature, not common names. Common names can be derived in a number of different ways including popular usage, translation of taxonomy or attribution by an "authority" in the field. Hence, we have some rather peculiar epithets applied to species, often at odds with what one might expect. For example, "Douglas Fir" is not a true fir, and relatively recently, the preferred spelling of the common name has changed to include a hyphen ("Douglas-fir") in an attempt to prevent confusion. Not all species are as lucky, case in point many of the violets which populate our forests. Somewhere in the dim annals of time, the name "violet" must have been appropriately ascribed to a little purple flower, else why would "violet" have arisen as a logical option? Later, the term was applied to other flowers having common characteristics with other Violas, if not their colour. Just think, if Viola glabella had been the first-named of its family, we'd now be talking about it as a Crocus ("yellow") instead.