The common name for an individual species is a contraction of the genus common name and, in most cases, a descriptive adjective for a particular species. An example is the common name for _Bromus inermis_ The common name for the genus is brome and the descriptive adjective associated with the species name _inermis_ is smooth, hence smooth brome is the common name for that species. In many cases a satisfactory common name did not exist for a particular species, yet the species name’s English meaning described the plant well. Such plants were given common names based on the meaning of their species name. An example is _Lygodesmia rostrata_. It has no satisfactory common name. In this publication it is called beaked skeletonplant, based on the English meaning of _rostrata_ and the accepted common name for the genus, skeletonplant. =Capitalization= In general, capitals are avoided for common plant names. They are not used where proper nouns are combined with such words as grass, tree, bean, etc., for example, bermudagrass, indiangrass, johnsongrass, but are used when the name is that of a country, state, or other place and is a separate word as in Virginia wildrye, Texas bean, California burclover, and Missouri milkvetch. They are not used, however, when the name is derived from a man’s name; for example, lambert crazyweed, dillen tickclover, chewings fescue, and lehmann lovegrass. Capitals are, of course, used for proper names of strains or varieties, but such usage is beyond the scope of this list. The few exceptions to all of these “rules” are dictated by firmly established usage. =Authorities= To identify each species as definitely as possible, authorities are given for scientific names. Authorities for grass names are from Hitchcock’s 1951 manual.[4] The others were compiled from various sources by Dr. L. C. Hulbert, Department of Botany, Kansas State University, chiefly from these sources: Gray’s Manual, 8th ed.,[5] The New Illustrated Britton and Brown,[6] and Harrington’s Manual.[7] Occasionally other sources were used for a few or for single species. Since authorities were taken directly from the various sources without change, some differences in abbreviation occur. For example, Hitchcock’s manual abbreviates Humboldt, Bonpland, and Kunth as H.B.K., while most other manuals consulted use HBK. Certain other names may be spelled fully in one manual and abbreviated in others. =Common Name Sources=