PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY. 
OF THE 
ORDINAL, GENERIC, AND SPECIFIC NAMES GIVEN IN 
THIS WORK. 
By the Rev. PERCY W. MYLES, B.A. TOD. ` 
Senior Moderator and Gold Medallist of the University of Dublin, de 
=. 
` 
a ere Ne nach ae S ES Fea ed 
HE pronunciation of the scientific names of plants is, at present, in the same chaotic 
state in which their synonymy was until many specialists (such as Messrs. B. Daydon 
Jackson, J. Britten, and others) undertook ` to reduce it to some kind of order. 
Synonymy has been brought under settled rules; but pronunciation. is still quite 
anarchic; * every man does that which is right in his own eyes” ` Take, dor : seg 
. the two common garden genera, Gladiolus and Clenatis ; the name of : 
i nonnced in three quite different ways: in neither càse is there any doubt ` 
about the true pronunciation, and yet those who adopt it are in a very small minorit, 
indeed. The way in which many gardeners make havoc of the names of plants has 
been a frequent subject of satire with philologists and other writers: Dr. Peile, the mew 
Master of Christ's College, Cambridge, gives some amusing instances of this in his works 3 
on Philology. But the gardeners have not been altogether to blame in this matter; they U 
have had no aceessible authority to consult, and accordingly have been free. to exercise ; 
ps their own individual ingenuity (or eccentricity) in each case. ` i 
S In the Pronouncing Dictionary now offered to the public 2 an attempt Ser 
to supply some such standard of reffrence. as is urgently needed. As : 
“essay” in the English language ipe as far as we know, in | | 
Stamina the whole; age on first 
