I browsed through a book on trees the other day, looking particularly at the Latin names. Then yesterday, I walked past the aviary in the Abbey Gardens. I saw various types of parrots, canaries and finches. The Latin names for these birds seemed somewhat longer than the English names. The only one I could remember was 'agapornis' for lovebird. I wondered whether the Latin names used for birds, plants and animals are actually the names used by the Romans themselves. Would the Romans have a name for the lesser spotted grebe or the monkey puzzle tree. When taxonomists started giving Latin names to living creatures, I suppose they started off with common Latin names for common plants and animals known to the Romans, but had a systematic way of naming further species and subspecies.
