﻿Proceedings of the Club. 



Wednesday Evening, March 30, 1898. 



Three new active members were elected. 



The scientific program included three papers, of which the 

 first, by Dr. V. Havard, Surgeon U. S. A., was upon " The Eng- 

 lish Names of Plants." The following is an abstract : 



" The necessity for English names being recognized, botanists 

 should decide on the principles which are to determine their selec- 

 tion and formation, so as to secure greater uniformity, simplicity 

 and usefulness. To each plant an authorized vernacular binomial 

 should be assigned so that ambiguity and confusion may be 

 avoided. In the absence of suitable English names already recog- 

 nized, it seems best to adopt the Latin genus-name, if short and 

 easy, like Cicuto, Parmssia, Kalmia, Hibiscus, or a close transla- 

 tion thereof, when possible, like Astragal, Chenopody, Cardamin, 

 while the specific English name should be an equivalent of the 

 latin one or a descriptive adjective. 



" As to construction, the rules recommended are as follows : 



" In case of all English binomials clearly applying to well- 

 known individual species and no others, all substantives are cap- 

 italized without hyphen, as in Witch Hazel, May Apple, Dutch- 

 man's pipe. In all genera in which two or more species must be 

 designated, the genus name is compounded into one word without 

 hyphen, as Peppergrass, Sweetbrier, Goldenrod, Hedgenettle, etc., 

 except in long names, where the eye requires the hyphen, as 

 Prairie-clover, Forget-me-not. Genus names in the possessive 

 case (St. John's-wort) are written with the hyphen, followed by a 

 !o «-er-case initial. Plants commemorating individual men (Doug- 

 hs Spruce, Coulter Pine) are written without the mark of the 

 Possessive. 



" In specific names, participial endings are suppressed, the par- 

 t'ciple becoming a substantive which is added as a suffix, without 

 h >'Phen ; thus Heart-leaved Willow is changed to Heartleaf 



Willow." 



(399) 



