Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/408

 378 illustrating the impregnation of plants, which the remarkable form and union of its anthers serve to indicate; while Smithia sensitiva, named by Mr. Dryander in the Hortus Kewensis of our mutual friend Aiton, could at that time be merited only by an original treatise on the Irritability of Plants, to which the specific name happily alludes.

The generic name being fixed, the specific one is next to be considered. With respect to this, Rivinus has the merit of originality, having been the first to contrive naming each plant in two words. But his names were meant for specific definitions, for which they are totally inadequate. Linnæus, in constructing his more accurate and full specific characters, intended the latter should serve as names, and therefore called them nomina specifica. When he, most fortunately for the science and for the popularity of his whole System of Nature, invented the present simple specific names, he called them nomina trivialia, trivial, or for common use; but that term is now superfluous.