BY THE REY. DR. W00LLS, F.L.S. 771 



it by no means follows that such can be abandoned altogether. 

 English names are very suitable for English-speaking people, 

 but they convey no idea to foreigners, who do not understand 

 the English language. As a vehicle, therefore, for educated 

 persons in all parts of the world, no language can be more 

 suitable than Latin or Greek ; whilst it may be admitted that 

 popular names for genera and species, wherever such can be 

 adopted for particular countries or districts, are not without their 

 use. In the old countries of Europe, plants for the most part 

 have common as well as scientific names, and uneducated people 

 find no difficulty in distinguishing such species as are useful for 

 economical or medicinal purposes. This, however, is not the 

 case in Australia, for the'early settlers, who imposed popular 

 names' on indigenous shrubs and trees, did not exercise much 

 discretion. Hence it often happens that persons who now desire 

 to acquire some knowledge of Australian Plants without referring 

 to scientific works, are led astray by the sound of European terms 

 with which, perhaps, they have been familiar in other countries. 

 In one of our largest and most important genera, this is certainly 

 the case. Many species of Eucalypts are called " Gum-trees" ; 

 but, surely,, if any native trees deserve the name, it should be 

 those species of Acacia which produce the substance similar to 

 that called Gum-arabic, and not those, which the Pharmacopoeia 

 recognises for the excellency of their kino. Whilst Eucalypts, 

 therefore, are wrongly named "Gum-trees," some species of 

 Acacia, which really are such, have now acquired the appellation 

 of "Wattles. In the early days of the colony, as Don states, 

 Callicoma serratifolia, was the Black Wattle, being probably so 

 called, because it abounded where Sydney now stands and was 

 used in the construction of rude buildings, but now the terms 

 Black and Green Wattle are applied almost universally to the 

 two varieties of Acacia decurrens, which, in many respects, 

 resemble each other, but flower at different seasons. Then, again 

 there are our "Apple trees (AngoplwraJ, so called, one would 



