At first, let me quote the following sentences from "Shokubutsugaku no Omoshirosa" by Honda Masaji published by Asahi Shimbun.

" Every plant has names as many as words of countries respectively. It seems inconvenient in most cases that they use their word individually. ----. At least names of plants should be recognized without mistakes by any person in the world. Under these circumstances international common names of plants, that is botanical names have been generated. As a rule Latin is used for botanical names. In case of non Latin, they almost use the word in the form of Latin translation. ------. The basic unit of plant group, that is botanical name of species is described by the form "two-name-method". There are enumerated both a generic name and a species name, and is added a name of the namer. -------. It is like our full name. -----. As a generic name of the botanical name, is selected in Latin a noun-formed word which shows those, such as the name of a person, the name of a place and the character of the proper plant. -----. An adjective-formed word is also selected in Latin as the species name in the same manner." (my translation)

Well, who will enter in case of maples ?
In these species as Yamamomiji : Acer matsumurae, Oitayameigetsu : Acer shirasawanum, Kurobiitaya : Acer miyabei, we can see names of Matsumura, Shirasawa and Miyabe. Those are also seen in the names of other Japanese maples and Chinese maples such as Siebold, David, Henry, Forrest, Wilson, Kawakami, Komarov, etc.

Next, I'll show the following episodes of plant hunters from "Hana to Ki no Bunkashi" by Nakao Sasuke (Iwanami New Books).

" The activities of plant hunters under a colonial policy in the age of imperialism began with the beginning of the political structure, and ended with the end of the Second World War the collapse of the structure. They began to play an active part at European neighboring regions such as the Mediterranean region, the Near East, Scandinavian region and Russia in the 16th century. Then they did at other regions in the world in the 18th,19th century. ------ There are some records in the 20th century, and the regions where many records were left were the southwest of China, the Eastern Tibet, Burma and Assam in India. And it would be recognized that these regions were the last treasure houses for plant hunters." (my translation)

Here can be seen names of plant hunters a French missionary David, a German doctor Siebold, an American Wilson and an American Forrest. Acer davidii is a maple which is distributed from the Huang river basin to Yunnan, Acer wilsonii is distributed from Hubei, Hunan to Sichuan, Yunnan, Acer forrestii is distributed at Yunnan and Sichuan.
Thus, those scenes vividly occur to my mind through botanical names of maples, in what age, in what place or how in China plant hunters took action, and when associated with me myself walking in the mountains of the central district of Japan I feel a kind of impression and surprise though I am an amateur.

Well, let me show you a list of botanical names and their meanings.