246 ON GERANIUMS, PELARGONIUMS, ROSid SULPHUREA, &C. 



ARTICLE III. 



REMARKS ON GERANIUMS, PELARGONIUMS, ROSA 

 SULPHUREA, ETC. 



BI PROVINS. 



Having subscribed to tbe Cabinet from the commencement, and 

 finding it useful, pleasing, and instructive, I am anxious as far as cir- 

 cumstances will permit, to render it more correct in certain respects. 

 All florists are not botanists, and it has been the lot of but few to have 

 received a classical education ; it may therefore be useful to give a 

 hint or two, in the hope that they may be the means of introducing a 

 more correct mode of expression, if they do not lead to positive accu- 

 racy. In the first place with respect to Geraniums and Pelargoniums. 

 Many persons seem to be of opinion that whether the name Geranium 

 or Pelargonium be used is quite immaterial, and the latter being con- 

 sidered most fashionable is usually employed. Now whether a plant 

 be termed a Geranium or a Pelargonium depends on the length of the 

 style ; by Geraniums being meant the tribe called Cranes' Bills, and 

 by Pelargoniums the tribe called Storks' Bills : thus the Ibericum 

 and Villosum are Geraniums, and the Daveyanum and Barringtonium, 

 Pelargoniums. Again, few things are more offensive to a person who 

 has enjoyed such an education as has afforded him but a smattering 

 of Latin, as to meet perpetually with what are called false concords. 

 This cannot altogether be rectified : but if the unlearned would, as a 

 rule, take care that the name of a plant ending in us was followed by 

 an adjective also ending in us, many mistakes would be avoided ; 

 thus for the Yellow Lupin, Lupin?/s is followed by Luteiw ; for the 

 Wood Vetch, Yiciais followed by Sylvatica; and for the Hairy Tare, 

 Ervwm is followed by Hirsutwm. Still a difficulty remains, as some 

 adjectives end in is or es ; they must therefore retain their respective 

 terminations, as Antirrhinum caryophylloides ; but where the name of 

 the plant ends in urn. and the adjective in is, the latter should be 

 turned into e, as Hypericum Chinense, not Chinensis. It has, how- 

 ever, been suggested that plants in general might be considered femi- 

 nine, and the adjective in case of doubt be made to terminate in a, but 

 this would be inadmissible in such as terminate is, as tristis. 



A word or two still remains to be said upon the Rosa Sulphurea, 

 respecting which, for the information of Elizabeth of Ensham, I have 

 already shown in this work* that it flourishes on the warm sands of the 



* See the Cabinet for April, 1840. 



