INTERNATIONAL BOTANICAL CONGRESS. 197 
Curiosity, that great incentive to all science, having penetrated horti- 
culture, the change in gardens became rapid. Instead of a few hun- 
dred species such as were cultivated at the commencement of the last 
century, there are now 20,000 or 30,000 to be found in most of the 
present catalogues. The single family of Orchids has probably more 
different representatives in our hothouses than was the case with all 
the families of plants put together a hundred years ago. Fashion, 
united to the present curiosity of amateurs, causes from time to time 
old plants to be abandoned for new ones; and thus the entire vege- 
table kingdom will ultimately pass under the observation of civilized 
men. 
What would horticulturists do, amidst this invasion of thousands of 
species, had not botanists devised convenient plans of classification and 
nomenclature ? The families, genera, and species have all been ar- 
ranged in books, just as the districts, streets, and numbers of the 
houses are in our great capitals—with this superiority of method, that 
the form of the objects indicates their place,—as if, in looking at a 
house in town, one might discover at a glance to what street and what 
quarter it belonged. The plan of giving a single name to each species, 
besides its generic name, together with the prohibition of changing 
names without due reason, of giving the same appellation to two dif- 
ferent species or two genera, far excels our plan of distinguishing indi- 
viduals. How much it would simplify our intercourse with men, and 
facilitate our inquiries, if, in the whole world, the members of one 
family only bore the same name, and if each individual had but one 
ehristian name, differing from those of the other members of his 
family. Such is, , nevertheless the admirable plan of nomenclature that 
science has provided for horticulturists, and which they cannot too 
much appreciate bie respect. 
* Two years ago I made a request to the “ Fédération des Sociétés d' Horti- 
culture Belges," which a ipw to have been favourably received, and it may 
not be useless to repeat it here. It consisted — begging the —— turists 
works, or in the Floras of Chili; and botanis g por 
, it to the end of the genus in their books as a species <N 
The more horticultural names ve differ from Latin ones the better it is, unless 
