lo June, 1911-] Vernacular Names of Victorian Plants. 383 



VERNACULAR NAMES OF VICTORIAN PLANTS. 



The following list of provisionally adopted vernacular plant names, 

 representing about one-third of the whole Victorian Flora, is only part 

 of the work done by the Plant Names Committee since its appointment in 

 August, 1907. It is now published here so that it may be the subject of 

 general criticism prior to the final adoption of the complete list. Of the 

 plants contained in the other two-thirds of the Flora, already about half 

 have also been fitted with "common" names, and in the interim .he 

 remainder will be dealt with as speedily as possible, and in due course will, 

 it is hoped, be presented for similar criticism in two separate lists. 



It seems hardly necessary at this stage to contend that popular, common 

 or vernacular names are really necessary or desirable for our plants. 

 Some few there are who still remain doubtful in the matter. It is 

 recognised, however, that a great many scientific names are found by 

 most people exceedingly difficult to get hold of and difiicult to keep in 

 memory and still more difficult to write. It is obvious also that many ot 

 the names are merely labels, entirely lacking in suggestiveness ; that indeeu 

 they were never intended to indicate any particular feature by which the 

 plant might be distinguished. In some cases even, it may be said that 

 the names, since the discovery of allied species, have become actually 

 misleading. This being so, good vernacular names must surely be better 

 for general use than indifferent, bad, or repellant scientific names, and 

 the possession by each plant of one fixed, authoritative English name, as 

 fitting as possible, must be welcomed by plant lovers and others and will 

 undoubtedly lead to a greater general interest in our plants. 



It is, of course, not imagined that nearly all the following names 

 will meet with general approval. Some are admitted to be unsatisfactory, 

 but for the time they are the best available, and are only put out tentatively 

 and in the hope that others more fitting may be suggested. The Committee 

 will be pleased to receive any criticisms and useful suggestions. 



For the guidance of such as may feel disposed to offer names instead 

 of those they disapprove of, some indication may be briefly given concerning 

 the Committee's way of working. In dealing w-ith each plant or plant 

 group (genus, &c.), naturally the first question is, has the plant or group 

 a name already? If so, and the plant also occurs or the group is 

 represented in Great Britain, America or elsewhere, the name (or one of 

 them) is, in the great majority of ca.ses retained. If the plant or group 

 is endemic, the name most appropriate is chosen or perhaps varied, ahvays 

 supposing it is not the scientific name of a difi^erent group. As far as 

 possible all the members of a group are given the same substantive name. 



Sometimes if in popular use and sometimes, when short and euphonious, 

 even if it is not i)i popular use, the scientific generic name is retained. 

 Occasionally, too. the aljoriginal (native) name is adopted. Only in the 

 case of the popular name being out of the c]uestion or incapable of improve- 

 ment or where none at all is di.scoverab!c. is the Committee driven to 

 invent one. In many cases it does so by simply translating the scientific 

 name, but otherwise it has regard primarily to the leading features of the 

 plant or group, perhaps to the locality of its occurrence or to its affinities 

 with other plants more or less removed from it. Always it endeavours to 

 create a name as short, well sounding, and suggestive as possible. 



Recognising that many of onr plants occur also in other States, efforts 

 have been made to enlist the sympathy and co-operation of the various 



