Studies m the Organization of a 

 Botanical Department. 



BY 



J. C. WILLIS. 



I.— THE NAMING OF THE PLANTS. 



r MHE problem of getting the correct names to the plants, 

 -*~ and of keeping them accurately when got, is one always 

 before the Director of a Botanical establishment. Merely 

 labelling the trees correctly is not enough, for the labels may 

 be misplaced or stolen, or still more often may be transposed 

 by the coolies when cutting the grass. In a garden like Pera- 

 deniya, containing many thousands of species, and still more 

 in such a place as Kew, this problem becomes of very 

 serious importance. If a plant be not correctly named, 

 it were almost better that it should not be in the garden 

 at all. 



After much thinking over the question, and discussing it 

 with the heads of several large botanical gardens in Europe 

 and America, I have devised the plan described in the following 

 pages, which has now been in operation at Peradeniya for 

 some time, and which seems both simple and satisfactory. 

 Any one thinking of adopting it should write to Peradeniya for 

 copies of the form used, so that forms of the same size may be 

 employed, a matter not without convenience in exchanging 

 plants , and for other purposes. 



[Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, Vol. III., Part. T.. March, 

 1906.] 



