Wall. — PronuiicintioH of Scientific Tennf in New Zealand. 411 



French. German, Dutch, Scandinavian languages. In any perfectly logical, 

 scientific scheme these must be remorselessly latinized in sound — e.g., all 

 r's must be trilled ; the ch in Gaudichaudiana, Deschampsia, Grisebachii, 

 Dieffenhachii, Chapmani, Chathamica, Cheesemanii, Archeria, must be con- 

 sistently sounded as k only ; the ie of Petrie and Guthrie as i + e ; 

 the th of Smith, Guthrie, &c., as t only ; the ay and ai of Cockayniana, 

 Blairii, Claytonia, as ai ; the oo of Hooker, Doodiu, as o. The J of any 

 Johnson i must be J =^ y, not J = dzh ; a'l in Gaiidichaudi, Vauthiera, 

 Gaidtheria, australe, Mackaui, must be au, not 6 close or open ; Raoulia 

 must be raovlia ; Youngii becomes jovngii ; Roaghii, rovgii. 



Examples of terms which would have to be altered greatly if con- 

 sistently latinized : — 



Guthrie- Smithiana, gutrie-smitiana, not ga^ri-smipiana ; Hookeri 



(Bulbinella), hokeri, not liukerai ; Fairchildii {Pittosporum), 



fairkildii, not fertshaildiai ; Cheesemanii (Liczida), kesemanii, 



not tshizmaniai ; CampheUensis (Celmisia), kampbellensis, not 



kambelensis ; Petriei (Carex), petriei, not pitriai ; Menziesii 



{Fagus), menziezii, not menzlziai ; Matthetcsii {Ranunculus), 



mattevzii, not mael^iuziai ; Stewartiae (Senecio), stevartie (or -ai), 



not stiuatiai ; Stackhousia, stakhovzia (or -sia), not staekhauzio ; 



Featherstonii {Cotida), featerstonii, not fetSestoniai ; Walkeri 



(Celmisia), valkeri, not wokrtrai. 



This leads to impossibilities, as some combinations of sounds in such 



words are impossible in Latin — e.g., oiv in Townsoni, Brownii ; dg in Edgerleyi 



and Tnnhridgense ; iea in Petrieana, &c. ; ew in Matiheivsii ; ou in Youngii ; 



ough in Roughii. All double consonants must be sounded double : Hulton- 



iana, Dallii, &c. Our present terminology is full of partly latinized 



pronunciations like mackauai, cunninghamiai, and in fact nearly all the 



terms in -i. The alternative is to pronounce such names according to the 



usage of the language from which they come, and this if logically and 



rigidly observed leads to difficulties almost as great ; barbarous compromises 



and approximations result. The French or German botanist visitor may 



find the British names just as hard and puzzling [e.g., Buchanani, Yoinigii) 



as the German terms are to those who know no German. All botanists 



cannot be also trained linguists. Where an orthographical device like the 



German ne or oe (as in Muehlenbeckia, Koeleria) or our own ea (as in 



Pearsoni) or ie (as in Petrie) or final e occurs, it seems absurd to latinize 



the symbol and pronounce it phonetically {e.g., to sound the second e in 



Petrieana or Field and the third in Cheeseman) ; yet to do otherwise 



undoubtedly introduces an anomaly into any logical or perfectly scientific 



scheme. The same is true of symbols which have become silent (/ in 



Walkeri) or now stand for a sound quite other than that originally signified 



{ow in Brownii, eiv in Matiheivsii) ; and these again offer puzzles and 



pitfalls for the foreigner. There is no reason why we should not have a 



New Zealand species " Cholmondeleyi," which, with us, if we had only 



ourselves to consider would be tshamliai ; while to the foreigner, guided 



by the spelling alone, it would be kolmondeleii. 



(4.) Even where a uniform " reformed " pronunciation has been intro- 

 duced, as in the schools of New Zealand, there remains room for inconsist- 

 encies and local variations, and it proves most difficult or impossible to 

 persuade, force, or wheedle the young into use of certain sounds, especially 

 the true short u as in sub, and the long e as in -es (Erechtites), which is 

 universally sounded in New Zealand like a in same {= ei). Again, ae in 

 some schools = ai, in others e or ei. 



