356 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



he regards P. azurea Bess, as " simply P. angvsfifolia, o£ which 

 English woods have one form, perhaps the best, and the upper Alps 

 another": Mr. Wilmott's paper in this Jom-nal for 1917 (pp. 238- 

 24:0) may be consulted with advantage. 



The body of the work is alphabetically arranged under genera, the 

 more important of which are discussed at considerable and often 

 unnecessary length : Campanula occupies 50 pages, Gent i ana 37, 

 Androsace 20, Saxifraga and Primula nearly 200 each. Mr. Farrar 

 tells us in his introduction that the work has had to be " severely 

 selective," but it is not easy to understand what principle has been 

 followed — under Primula, for example, P. tosaensis, one of four 

 species on a page taken at random (ii. 199) " comes from realms so 

 southerly of the Rising Sun that there is little hope that it will be of 

 any use in our gardens"; another, P. Traillii "is a species imper- 

 fectly described and so far unknown to our gardens" — of this 

 Mr. Farrer gives a characteristic account : "■ Unfortunately, though 

 P. Traillii seems to have two blooming-seasons, so that Sir Gr. Watt 

 was able to get ripe seed, as well as revel in the blossoms of his tind, 

 this seed got mixed in its packet, and, when at last it came home to 

 "VVisley and germinated with much gladness, the promises thus raised 

 proved to yield nothing else but P. involucrata, though confidingly 

 described by Mr. Wilson in the Gardeners' Chronicle under the 

 name of Traillii, which they ought to have had a better right to 

 bear." Occasionally names seem introduced in order to afford the 

 author an opportunity for a small joke : e. g. *' Nocea spinosissima 

 expresses in the first syllable of its name what the wise gardener will 

 say when offered it : nor need he even trouble to add ' Thank you ' " 

 (ii. 3). Nor does there seem any reason for occupjHng space with such 

 entries as " Cousinia, weedy, coarse, thistlish, woolly-headed biennials 

 from Himalaya, of no attractiveness for us" (i. 242), or, on the 

 following page, " Craasula aljjestris, a rather ugly-looking succulent 

 of most doubtful hardiness ... it seems [?] only about 3 inches high, 

 and might prosper permanently in a hot and ston}^ place, though 

 Avithout contributing anything in the way of adornment." 



Keturning to the introduction, we find that Mr. Farrer is much 

 •exercised as to the popular mispronunciation of certain names: "there 

 is nowadays really no reason why Gladiolus, Gladiolus, Saxifraga, 

 Pentstemon, Androsace and Erica should still be allowed to stand 

 up, like dark islets of ignorance, above the pervasive widening flood 

 of modern education." To remedy this he would alter the spelling — 

 "" surely if they see JEreica written, and Aeizoon, even the least ex- 

 perienced gardeners will easily learn "to pronounce them accurately": 

 on like grounds he " restores the Greek diphthong in ei to its 

 proper spelling," v/riting the tennination " oides " as " oeides." 

 Other innovations are '' Asarrhina," '' Phyllodoke,'' and " Leucoion'- 

 We note with pleasure his condemnation of what are called "English 

 names," for the manufacture of which he seems to consider Ruskin 

 mainly responsible, but the industry existed long before his time : 

 Sir John Hill (1716-1765) was an expert at the work, and many 

 names now in general use were not, as Mr. Farrer puts it, " slowly 

 <'oined in a nation's love," ])ut invented by tlie older herbalists such 



