SIGNIFICATION OF NAMES. 429 



amplified in Morelianus, Schilleriana, Dalhousianum, the ter- 

 mination agreeing, like that of all other adjectives, with the 

 gender of the generic name. But this rule, unhappily, is often 

 disregarded, and the names have to be accepted as they stand. 

 Whether a specific name shall end in i or in ii is perfectly 

 optional. It rests upon our preferring to say, in pseudo- Latin, 

 Humbol/7/j or Humbol//j, Farmers or Farmer/wj, either 

 being right. A similar freedom pertains to the accentuation 

 of the names which end in single /. That is to say, they 

 may be pronounced either Hook'eri or Hooke'ri, Far'meri or 

 Farme'ri. The ancients had no such names, and therefore 

 there is no classical rule. A few other names have been 

 adopted from the vernacular of their native countries (Vanda, 

 for example), and, when necessary have been Latinized, as in 

 the case of Angracum. A few others, again, appear devoid 

 of meaning. 



" The question is often asked, why cannot these glorious 

 flowers have ' English names ? ' In one point of view to give 

 them English names is impracticable ; on the other hand they 

 are already possessed of English names ! Appellations rhym- 

 ing with daisy and buttercup they never can possess. To at- 

 tempt to bestow such appellations would prove a useless and 

 thankless task, for no one would be willing to accept them ; 

 and in the presence oi fuchsia and rhododendron, iris and 

 chrysanthemum, crocus and narcissus, and a thousand others 

 of corresponding fabric (which are as thoroughly un-English 

 as Calanthe and Epidendrum}, would be simply absurd, since 

 it would be to attempt to supply a want which no one really 

 feels. 



" The people who talk of lilies and roses, yet complain of 

 Calanthe and L<zlia, belong to the school of M. Jourdain, 

 in ' Moliere,' who ' had spoken prose all his life without 

 knowing it,' for in the former names they are quite as free 

 from Saxon as in the latter, lily and rose and violet being 

 themselves nothing more than Latin words with the endings 



