BRITISH and US scientists say theyve compiled the most comprehensive list of land plant species ever published - a 300,000-species strong compendium that they hope will boost conservation, trade and medicine. The list, drawn up by researchers at Kew Gardens in London and the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, is intended to help resolve one of botanys most basic problems: Figuring out which plants go by what name. Some plants have been labeled differently by researchers operating in different countries over the past century, while in other cases the different variants of the same plant have been erroneously identified as belonging to different species. There are also cases in which plants names have been applied mistakenly, or just misspelled. Although a rose by any other name may still smell as sweet, scientists say that attaching different labels to the same plant can rob researchers of the chance to get the information they need. If you only know it by one of its many names you only get part of the story, said Eimear Nic Lughadha, the senior scientist at Kew responsible for the list. Its a problem that frustrates everyone from agricultural regulators to pharmaceutical researchers. Imagine trying to find everything thats ever been published about a plant: Which chemicals are in it, whether its poisonous or not, where is it found, said Alan Paton, one of Nic Lughadhas colleagues at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Agencies