Disadvantages of Common Name
(a) All the organisms cannot be named by this method
as there are organisms of different sizes and shapes,
some of which are not directly perceived by man and
thus remain unnamed, e.g., microbes.
(b) An organism may have several names in a given
language, e.g., there are 8 Hindi names of prickly
poppy and water lily has 15 English names.
(c) One common name may have different meanings in
different countries, e.g., maize, means wheat and
other grains in USA and it is called corn in common
wealth countries.
ii. Scientific Names
A scientific name is given by biologists. Each name
represents a particular organism in all parts of the world.
The system of providing scientific names is called binomial
nomenclature.
The scientific names must be
(a) acceptable in every part of the world.
(b) assigned on agreed principles and criteria.
(c) different for each species and not used for
organisms earlier.