434 CORRESPONDENCE. [1857, 



TO GEORGE BENTHAM. 



November 16, 1857. 



I have noted with interest Naudin's doings in Cu- 

 curbitacse. It has induced me to look a little into the 

 geographical question, and I begin really to think C. 

 Pepo, and perhaps others, are American. Mr. Sopho- 

 cles, our Greek tutor, who knows cultivated plants 

 well, and everything about medieval and ancient 

 Greek, is quite clear that the ancients knew nothing 

 of pumpkins and winter squashes, and is able to cor- 

 rect De Candolle's lucubrations in one or two points. 

 Our New England and Canadian aborigines had 

 beans, too. These and Cucurbita came north from a 

 warmer climate with maize, I presume. . . . 



When I got your proof-sheet of the " British Flora' 1 

 and your long letter of 28th May, there was something 

 I wanted to talk about, I dare say, but there was 

 no writing then, as you had gone abroad, and now 

 the subject is all out of my head. But I have oc- 

 casion to take up the subject of popular names of 

 plants quite seriously in a week or two, and I may 

 have something to remark. 



I wish to follow your lead, but should be disposed 

 to go rather farther than you do in adopting English 

 names. For instance, I would certainly adopt Mouse- 

 tail instead of Myosure. Myosure is hardly more 

 English than before clipping its tail a little, and 

 Mousetail is the exact equivalent. Corydal and As- 

 tragal I quite like, as they have really no English 

 names. I incline to Crowfoot as a generic appellation. 

 To extend it over the whole genus is only doing 

 what is so often done with scientific generic names. 

 In the case of genera having very strongly marked 

 subgenera, would it not be possible to let the subge- 

 neric name govern the popular nomenclature ? as say 



