270 SCIENTIFIC NAMES—PRONUNCIATION. 
Spartium, Blasia, and Vicia, the peculiar sounds which occur in the 
respective English words, nation, occasion, and vicious; this, however, 
is not always done, and I shall have more to say on this point hereafter, 
as also on the habit of not pronouncing the initial consonant in such 
words as Pteris and Psamma. Chis always hard, as in monarch, ¢.g., 
Chara, Chelidonium, Colchicum, and j must be sounded like y in a few 
words, viz., Leucojum, Thuja, Najas, Hpigejos, majalis, &c. The j here, 
in fact, is only a misleading way of writing i, as may be proved by the 
derivation ; e.g., Convallaria majalis is the lily ‘‘ of May,” maialis. These 
words are sometimes written Leucoium, Thuya, &c., and it would be 
better to do so always. It will be seen hereafter that the sound which 
we are compelled to give to j in these cases is that which, in the “‘new” 
style, is given to it in every case. 
In determining upon which syllable the accent should fall, we are to 
consider whether the last syllable but one (called the penult or 
penultimate) is long or short. 
(1) If the penult is long, the accent falls on it, as in Myosu’rus, 
Sola’num, Eri’ca, Anemo’ne, Ginothe’ra,Trienta’lis, Ibe’ris, Isa’tis, Caki‘le, 
Rese’da, Jasio’‘ne, Potamoge’ton, Sila’iis, Conochi‘lus; thisrule must always 
be strictly observed. Some of the words given above and others (of 
which Cotyle’don Umbili’cus is especially a trap for the unwary) are 
habitually mispronounced, but though we may and indeed must now 
say Ane’mone asan Huglish word, we ought to speak of Anemo’ne nemoro’sa 
as a botanical name. It is worth notice that in a passage of one of our 
poets, the word has its original accent :— 
‘‘Let me the blue-bell’d hyacinth behold, 
The silver anemone of the wood, 
And golden primrose intermingled well.” 
Hurdis, (1763—1801.) 
But in most cases the persistent tendency of the English people to 
throw the accent as far back as possible has effected a change :— 
«« And then fades silently 
One frail and fair anemone.” 
Shelley, (1792—1822.) 
(2) When the penult is short, it used to be taught in our schools that 
the accent must always be placed on the last syllable but two, (called the 
antepenult,) asin Vi’cia, Cle’matis, O’xalis, Co’marum, Hippo’phaé, &c. 
This arbitrarily assumes that the accent can never fall farther back than 
the third syllable from the end—a limitation for which no reason can be 
assigned. It is better, in a certain class of words, to adopt a practice 
which is now gaining ground, and is embodied in the following rule :— 
(3) In such words as_ Glididlis, place the accent not on the 7, 
Gladi’olus, but on the a, Gla’diolus, and so in all cases where a short 
penultimate vowel is immediately preceded by a short vowel, e.g. 
Co’didlum, Ca‘Icédlus, A’rgidlus, He’pialus, Rho’didla, Lu’tédla, gra’védlens, 
Amblyidon, Bra’chyidus, Cra’niide, Trigo’niade. We thereby avoid 
lengthening a vowel which, from its position before another, is short. 
But the conventional mode of accenting thei, e, or y is so well estab- 
lished that few have as yet adopted the rational method here advocated. 
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