142 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



valuable part of a villager's eJucation ; but, if that 

 is to happen, natural history must wear an Eng- 

 lish dress. If it be of no importance to any one 

 beyond the unlearned that plants should have 

 English names, it is to them; and for thetn, at 

 least, the battle is worth fightinir. 



Some perception of tiiis necessity has evidently 

 been felt, though unconsciously, even by those 

 among whom are to be found the most uncom- 

 promising opponents of an English terminology. 

 Dicotyledones, Exogenx, Cryptoga/nce,ha.\e ii\- 

 ready settled down as Dicotyledons, Exogens.and 

 Cryptogams; just as Mollusca, Pachydermata, 

 and Mammalia have become Mollusks, Pachy- 

 derms, and Mammals. Men now talk of Conifers 

 instead of Coniferce, and of Orchids instead of 

 Orchidaceee or Orchidece. It is clear, therefore, 

 that the current of opinion is setting steadily in a 

 better direction ; and there is no reason why it 

 should move so slowly. 



'I'he view of this question taken by " Nomen- 

 clator," will probably prove to be the most gene- 

 rally acceptable. In the main he agrees with 

 ourselves; but he pushes his fear of translated 

 }iames much further. Conceding, as we fully do, 

 that to translate into English the technical names 

 of genera is upon the whole inexpedient as a rule, 

 and to be avoided where possible, we cannot ad- 

 mit that the objection to it rests upon any other 

 ground than that of inconvenience. English com- 

 pound names are as fit for scientitio purposes as 

 Greek and Latin ones ; but they cannot form part 

 of that universal language which the convenience 

 of science recjuires; and therefore they are inad- 

 missible when foreigners have to be communicated 

 with; and moreover, as we have already stated, 

 they entail upon men of science the necessity of 

 remembering two names instead of one, which is 

 inconvenient when some hundred thousand such 

 naiues have to be recollected. These are weighty 

 reasons, and we admit their force: but we recog- 

 nise no other reason. " Nomenelator's" trarjsla- 

 tion of Moth-face is surely as agreeable a name 

 as Phalcenopsis ; although Mothorchis would 

 have been better; and we see little force in Mr, 

 Owen's objections, if resting upon no better 

 ground than a bungling wis-translation of Deii' 

 drodus into Shrub-tooth. We may laugh at 

 the absurdity, just as we should at translating 

 Oncidium cacum into Blind-Hookey, as a face- 

 tious friend suggests; but such follies can form no 

 part of a serious argument. We repeat, then, 

 that we give' up the translation of scientific pro- 

 per names, because of the inconvenience, and for 

 no other reason. 



That is, however, no reason why we should not 

 emjiloy pure English names wherever we can 

 without incurring that inconvenience; and we 

 decline to acknowledge the propriety of calling a 

 Qucrcus or a Fagus by any other name than 

 those of Oak and Beech. Bellis must be Daisy, 

 Delphinium Larkspur, ..iconitxnn Motiksbood, 



Ranunculus Crowfoot, Juglang Walnnt, Caryes 

 Hickory, and Taraxacum Dandelion, as long a& 

 the English tongue endures; and foreigners must 

 learn the meaning of such words just as they leant 

 the meaning of other words. It is quite as rea- 

 sonable for us to say to a foreigner, " you. for our 

 convenience, must learn that Willow is the Eng- 

 lish for Salix," as for him to say that we must 

 know Salix to be the Latin of Willow for his 

 convenience. And since Prof. Owen's authority 

 has been introduced into the question, we must 

 add that we claim him for a good witness on our 

 own side. Let any one turn over the pages of 

 his beautiful work on fissil reptiles, and see how 

 sedulously he shuns the hard words of technical 

 science wherever he can. He talks of the Gavial, 

 the African Constrictor, Tiger-boa, Sea-snake, 

 and common Snake, and not of Gavialis Dixoni, 

 Python regius, Python tigris, Hydrophis bi' 

 color, or Coluber natrix. Every one must, we 

 think, desire that he had carried this further — 

 substituting snakestone for ophiolite, and so on. 



We remark that one of our correspondents ia 

 alarmed lest his Crocuses should degenerate into 

 Crokes, and therefore he would compel people to 

 go on for ever V)reaking tlieir teeth against the 

 angles of our Grseco-Latin compounds. But his 

 fears are groundless; Crocus is a name not likely 

 to be disturbed; and if it were, the change would 

 not be more disastrous than that of Hyaernthuses 

 into Hyacinths. In spite therefore of this warn- 

 ing, we venture to recommend that on all possi- 

 ble occasions the technical proper names of sci- 

 ence be adapted to oar own tongue, where fami- 

 liar names do not exist. It will be found an im- 

 portant means of diffusing a taste for natural his- 

 tory, and need not shock the sensibilities of the 

 most tightlaced stickler for scientific formalism, 

 Calycanths are as good a* Calycanthw.ses, Hya- 

 cinths as Hyacinthwse*, Pcrymenes as Perymen.- 

 ivms, and Glossocards as Glossocardias. 



But while we recommend the abandonment of 

 translations of technical proper names, we must 

 insist upon what is the greatest point of all, the 

 translation, wherever possible, of the adjective;* 

 used in the binomial system, and of all aejective 

 terms whatsoever, for which English equivalents 

 can be found. This is however opening a new 

 and perfectly distinct question, for which we must 

 crave a second hearing. Prof. Lindhy in Gard. 

 Chronicle. 



London Hort, Society's Exhibition. — The 

 most brilliant season in the annals of English hor- 

 ticulture was brought to a close the 13th of July 

 bv the third exhibition in the garden of the horti- 

 cultural society, on which occasion there was such 

 an assemblage of beautiful plants as no man ever 

 saw before in the month of July. The last exhi- 

 bition in the season has always hitherto been found 

 much inferior to its predecessors; plants get out 

 of condition; the races which decorate May and 

 June fade and perish in July; gardeners have* 



