262 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



masters." The only consistent course is to abolish the whole 

 system of naming varieties after living persons. So long as this 

 system continues, the element of disappointment and bad taste 

 will persist. It is a constant reproach to horticulture that the 

 art lacks dignity. Need it also be pointed out that we seem to be 

 deficient in imagination? 



The reform would be sweeping if made all at once, but there 

 is a preliminary step in this direction that can easily be taken. 

 All such titles as Mr., Mrs., Miss, General, Judge, Count, Baron, 

 etc., should be dropped. These titles cause endless confusion. 

 What makes the case peculiarly hopeless is that the National 

 Chrysanthemum Society of England, in its Official Catalogue, has 

 set the example of indexing varieties according to these titles, in 

 defiance to the established rules adopted by librarians, indexers 

 and cataloguers. It frequently happens that the pater familias is 

 not the only popular member of the family. In verifying varie- 

 ties by English catalogues (whose methods have been tamely 

 copied in America) it is often necessary to remember which is 

 Miss Blank, and what are the first names of the other daughters. 

 Label-writers are usually careless, and their " M " may stand for 

 Mr., Mrs., Miss, Monsieur or a Christian name. According to 

 the trade journals it is not uncommon to order a " Miss " and 

 get a " Mr." The use of titles ought to be discontinued. 



There are other problems of nomenclature which are coming 

 up constantly. Many of them have been considered by societies 

 devoted to other flowers or to fruits. The only real attempts to 

 solve any of these problems have been made by the American 

 Pomological Society, and, for vegetables, by a committee of Ex- 

 periment Station horticulturists. The Pomological Society has 

 drawn up a set of rules, but, unfortunately, the other societies do 

 not follow them. What is really wanted for progress is a na- 

 tional horticultural society in which professional growers of 

 plants, amateurs and botanists may work together. The socie- 

 ties devoted to the culture of a single flower could cooperate with 

 the national society. Of course, a society, as such, might not deal 

 with problems of synonomy and classification, but its members 

 could do so either as committees or as individual students. Rec- 

 ords of hybridization are worth keeping, as well as many other 



