CHAPTER I 



TO me the names that it has pleased man to bestow upon 

 the works of nature are always interesting, and in this brief 

 excursion I shall sometimes furnish derivation for many a 

 household word in the gardener's list. These you will find that you 

 have forgotten, if, indeed, you ever knew them. Many are apposite, 

 and many fatuous and grotesque. Imagination was needed in this 

 matter, but Science saw no reason to invite the co-operation of those 

 who possessed it. She muddled on, without the least poetic feeling 

 for what she was about, and, as a result, a host of fine things are 

 called after some utterly insignificant structural accident, while 

 even more of them immortalise industrious nonentities with 

 perfectly hideous names. Adam, at least, escaped this crime, 

 for Tom, Dick and Harry were not invented when he opened 

 his eyes in the Garden. 



In the case of Abelia, a shrub with which I may open my list, 

 the quite euphonious word represents Dr. Clarke Abel, who visited 

 China rather less than a hundred years ago, wrote an account of 

 his journey in 1818, and passed in 1826. Not until some years 

 after his death did Abelia come to England ; but now there are 

 four or five of the species in cultivation, of which A. floribunda is 

 easily the best. This handsome Mexican evergreen, with purple- 

 crimson flowers, is prosperous in the West Country ; but it likes 

 a wall, and, if in the open, should have winter protection. A, 

 triflora and A. rupestris are good hardy shrubs from Hindustan 



9 B 



