THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 37 



The i^reat ni.'ijoritv of our really c<Mniiion names originated 

 in I'*uri)|)c aiul lia\e been imported with i>ur language. Since 

 the genera on both sides of tlie Atlantic arc pretty much 

 alike, we ha\ e sinipK- adopted lln' \ernacular generic name 

 and have added a distinguishing adjective to indicate the Am- 

 ei ican species. Such common names as are wholly of Amer- 

 ican origin were not devised with the idea f)f giving the 

 plant> Common names, hut are tlie n.ames hy which hunters, 

 explorers and the early settlers called them for want of some- 

 I'liiig more definite. OccasionalU , how^ever, a manufactured 

 nauk- has clung to a plant when such name was apposite, as 

 foam-flower for that plant otherwise known as false mitrewort. 

 Among suggested names that have been extensively adopt- 

 ed may be instanced Christmas fern given to a common spe- 

 cies of wood fern I)v John l\oj)inson. half a century ago, and 

 boulder fern, offered by the writer for that species "damned 

 by faint praise" as the hay-scented fern. Jack-in-the-pulpit 

 is said to have been invented by Clara Smith and first named 

 ill a poem published in 1874 which had the distinction of being 

 ri'xised by Wdiittier. Tn general, however, the use of common, 

 names, even in ordinary conversation, is to be deplored. They 

 are reallv plant nicknames no more to be tolerated in good so- 

 ciety than shorty, red, slim, fatty, and similar outcasts. 



BOOKS AND WRITERS 



After nineteen years of publication, Nature Shidy Rc- 

 z-icic has succumbed to ,the fate the sooner or later overtakes 

 magazines devoted to natural history. * * * jj- \y^^ 

 been merged with the Nahtrc Magazine of Washington, now 

 beginning its second successful year. * * * Well, we 

 are sorry to see an old publication go, but the new magazine 



