THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 125 



all\ believed tn I)e found m 'wIktc else is, it --luaild he reiiieni- 

 hired, not the .\hiyflo\ver of the Old World, which is Cratac- 

 i/iis O.v Veil lit ha. Another point to hear in mind is the cor- 

 rect iirinunciation of arbutus. The son of Ralph Waldo 

 l\mers()n told me that he \\a> once talkin*,^ to Asa Gra\ about 

 this plant and called it arhu-tus. "Where's \i>nr prosody, 

 man?" cried the old botanist, "not arbu tns but ar-butus." 

 1 lundreds of tliousands of peo])lr, unfamiliar willi the tact that 

 the name come> to us fnmi Latin ]ioclry, the rythm ot which 

 admits no changes in accent, are mis])ronouucin^ the name 

 of this flower. [There is no accounting for tastes in plant 

 names, and in the article mentioned it was intended to record 

 all the names, no matter whether misnomers or not. It is 

 \er\- desirable, liowever, to have notes of all kinds bearing 

 on the matter recoi"ded. It is (juite likeh' that vmder the 

 circumstances "rose bav" is a mere l)o(>k name, but it is a 

 recorded name of the |)lant. As to arbutus it may be said 

 that the name of a plant is the combination of sounds by 

 whicli it i> indicated. We (|uite agree with the writer that 

 hundred of thousands of people call the plant arbu-tus. 

 This is its common name and not ar-butus which seems to 

 be used onl\- 1)\' the pedantic. It is true that ar-butus is the 

 correct accent for the generic name, but we submit that i> 

 not necessarilv the accent for the common name. If a com- 

 mon name is that b\- whicii a plant is commonlx- called, then 

 we shall have to stick to arbu-tus. — lid.] 



Nkkduk P.m.m ovi:Rsri:e i.M.izKD. — The needle [)alm 

 (Rhapidof^hylluui liystrix), a little-known species of Florida 

 is a fine example of the harm oxerspecialization may work in 

 matters of evolution. This palm as its name indicate>, has 

 the leaf-sheaths thickly set with sharp spines which very ef- 

 fectivelv protect the fruits from the anim.ils that might other- 

 wise eat them and thus distribute the seeds. .\s a result the 



