PROSPECTS OF GARDENERS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



age, than in the existence of any other circumstance, whatever. Where one patronised 

 gardening before it started, ten did afterwards. Some evils, of course, attended the im- 

 provements; but ever^J- move in the course of progress, disturbs something settled. 



Not only by means of horticultural societies and publications, ought a gardener to dif- 

 fuse a knowledge of his profession, and its pleasures and profits, but by a thousand-and- 

 one other means that will readily suggest themselves, according to the circumstances 

 around him. I know a gardener who accidentally fell in with a military oflBcer. This 

 gaidener was not one who thought it dangerous " to tell others for nothing, what it had 

 cost him something to learn." The conversation turned upon grafting and budding. The 

 gardener explained the whole process, and illustrated it by experiments. This gentleman 

 was, of course, learned how to do without a man to bud roses or pear trees, which, I be- 

 lieve, he would never have thought of requiring; but if my memory serves me right, that 

 gentlemen who had never owned a flower before, so pleased with the success of his experi- 

 ments in budding, has been led to keep a garden, and employ a gardener. 



Not only is it our interest to take every available means of spreading a knowledge of 

 our profession, but it is also incumbent on us to study by what means to render that know- 

 ledge easy to be acquired by those who are willing to learn. With this view, I am proud 

 to find LiNDLET and others, agitating for a reform in the names of plants. The fact is, 

 that if botanists do not take this matter into their own hands, the people will for them. 

 We have tried it already in Philadelphia, and a pretty mess! "Johnny Jump-up," Glory of 

 the world. Elephant's Ear, Pig's Nose, Catsfoot and Lion's Tail, are specimens of the names 

 some plants have got. One time, when a lady unacquainted with plants, yet anxious to 

 learn, would ask me the name of some plant, I would feel ashamed to have to bring out 

 such names as my Robalanus and my Robatindus, — Pleuroschis motj'pus, or Nowad 

 Worskia; and I have rejoiced when I could get a Phaloenopsis into a " Moth Flower," 

 or a Peristeria to the "Dove Plant." Every one knows how necessary it is that 

 one universal science should have one universal language; but there can be no reason why 

 the botanist who names his plant, should not also give it a common name. I so feel the 

 necessity of this, that I cannot wait for them. In naming my plants, I put the English 

 name on one side, and the botanical on the other. Where the plant has no English name, 

 but is named after some individual, as in Jiussclia, for instance, I make the English 

 " Russel Flower." I tried to translate many of them literally, but such names as Melas- 

 toma and Sterculia, frightened me, just as one would be who tried to get a French Cata- 

 logue of pears into English, when he met with such names as Pater Noster, La Cuisse 

 Madame, or Ah Mon Dieu ! 



It seems to me, Mr. Editor, that the reform in the nomenclature of plants is a subject 

 which does not concern the botanist, and one which he is not likely to meddle with. On 

 the other hand, it is one which no one horticulturist is ever likely to try his hand at. The 

 only chance that I see of an uniform standard of common and easy names ever being 

 brought into use, is by a committee appointed by either the Pennsylvania or Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society, to ascertain and arrange the best common names the plants in the 

 United States have obtained, and give names to those which have none. Nurserj'men 

 would adopt them, and their use would soon become general. Unless something of this 

 kind iri done, I fear all talk about reforms will end in talk. Such a reform is tenfold more 

 necessary here than in England. The classes there who take an interest in flowers, have 

 been familiar, from their infancy, with the classics, and a name in Latin or Greek, is the 

 same to them as their own tongue. In this country, the wealthiest are those who by their 

 commercial talents, and unwearied industry, have raised themselves to the positions they 



