THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 7':^ 



ings, he carried a cixikiiif^^ l)()t or a fr\ing pan. or l)<>lii, nn 

 his head instead of a hat No wonder tlie Indians held liini 

 in awe! Me was an adherent and student of Swedenborg. 



LoxDox Pridk. — Several readers have kindly supplied 

 the scientific name for the plant known as London [)ride, 

 mentioned in the January issue. Although sweet William 

 and bouncing Bet occasionally bear this name, the i)lant 

 <lesignated by our correspondent pro\es to be Lychnis chalcc- 

 donica. This, Miss Julia J. Noll notes, is more frequently 

 called scarlet lightning or Jersualem cross. Mr. A. L. Truax 

 writes : "This plant is more commonly called London pride 

 than any other plant 1 know of .and it also answers to the 

 description — somewhat like a tall phlox with scarlet flow-ers 

 and notched petals." Dreer- of Philadelphia applies the 

 name London pride to Saxifraga umhrosa. [So does Bailey's 

 New Manual — £</]. The common sweet William is some- 

 times called London tuft but 1 have never heard it called 

 London pride. All of wiiich is further illustration of the un- 

 certainty and futility of the use of common names". Mr. 

 Howard Whitney remarks that Lychnis clialcedonica is per- 

 haps the best known of its tribe and that Henderson says it 

 is valuable because there are so few flowers of that color 

 among our hard\- herbaceous plants. There is a fine double 

 variety also a double and single wliite as well as a rosy pink. 

 Concerning the common names he says : "I believe that 

 every plant has an entit)- and that this entity is represented 

 by its name. While it is true that some plants are known by 

 different names in different parts of the country, and some 

 names represent different plants in different parts of the 

 country, still after rejecting names given from whims and 

 caprice and for mere convenience, there remain the suitable 

 names, some of wdiich go back into the past so far that their 

 origin is not known. These represent the plants' true names. 



