APPENDIX B 



ROSE SYNONYMS 



*'Wbat's in a name? That which we call a rose 

 By any other yiame would smell as sweet." 



— Shakespeare 



A FEW years ago a certain lawyer in this country placed 

 rose orders with four different firms. When his roses 

 bloomed he had four roses exactly ahke, though every one 

 of the four had been sold him under a different name. Three of 

 the four firms had rechristened the same variety. But public 

 opinion, backed by the work of the American Rose Society, will 

 no longer countenance such practice, though some are still so 

 unscrupulous or careless as to allow their offerings to masquerade 

 under false and spurious titles, thus deceiving such part of the 

 public as are gullible, and bringing their craft, as well as them- 

 selves, under the shadow of disrepute. Any such firm is capable 

 of making much worse substitutions when filling your order. It 

 is safest, therefore, to stay away from them entirely. 



On the other hand, there is no attempt to deceive in the 

 practice of giving to a new rose an attractive title, so long as its 

 difficult foreign name is kept attached. In this way its identity 

 is clearly maintained. This, indeed, explains the origin of most 

 synonyms. 



Again, for example, there are nearly half a dozen roses that 

 might not improperly pass muster as a Red Baby Rambler, 

 but there is only one, however, as noted below, that is officially 

 recognized, by reason of priority, as the Red Baby Rambler. 



Splendid strides have been made recently to set up and 

 maintain reliable standards of rose nomenclature in the work 

 of the American Joint Committee on Horticultural Nomen- 

 clature,* about to publish the new Official Catalogue of Stand- 

 ardized Plant Names; and the American Rose Society has 

 agreed to work in harmony with the International Bureau for 

 the Registration of Horticultural Novelties, with headquarters 

 in France. 



*A copy of this monumental work should be in every leading library. Address the 

 Secretary, Harlan P. Kelsey, Salem, Mass. 



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