28 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



And again the Irish are there represented as 



"Without a rag, trouses or brogues 



Picking of sorrel and sham -rogues." 

 In another ancient Irish poem, the" Hesperi-neso-graphia" 

 the following passage occurs : 



"Besides all this, vast bundles came 



Of sorrel more than I can name, 



And many sheaves, I hear there was 



Of shamrocks and of water grass 



Which there for curious salads pass." 

 Keough, Threlkeld and other Irish botanists assert 

 that Trifolium repens or white clover is the true Irish 

 shamrock and will have nothing to do with "that little, 

 sour, puny plant, the wood sorrel." On the whole the 

 weight of evidence seems to be with the white clover and 

 it may not be out of place to whisper here to those con- 

 scientious deacons and other experts that the seeds of Tri- 

 folium repens that are for sale at any seed store in Ameri- 

 ca at 25 cents a pound are just the same as the humorous 

 Irishman charges them $2.00 a pound for.— From an Arti- 

 cle by Geo. C. Watson in Gardenings. 



ON THE PRESENT CONFUSION IN THE NAMES 

 OF AMERICAN PLANTS. 



Every person seriously interested in botany has suf- 

 fered inconvenience from the confusion now prevailing in 

 the nomenclature of American plants, It arises from the 

 existence in this country of two schools of nomenclature 

 employing different systems in their treatment of the older 

 names of plants. If one compares representative books of 

 the two schools he will find that, aside from other differ- 

 ences, upwards of one-third of the names are different in 

 the two works. Some changes of names represent real 

 scientific advances and hence are unavoidable, but the 

 great majority of changes made in recent years result 

 merely from a difference of system, and hence would be 

 avoided if the workers in this field could come to an agree- 



