100 SYSTEMATIC POMOLOGY 



physics, astronomy, and botany have spent a 

 great deal of time and effort in selecting and 

 defining most minutely the terms necessary 

 to their descriptions and discussions. And 

 whether it be cause or effect, the present un- 

 deniable crudity of horticultural nomenclature 

 is evidence that pomology, vegetable culture, 

 and floriculture still fall measurably short of 

 being sciences. Science is said to be classi- 

 fied knowledge ; but before we can classify 

 our knowledge of horticultural varieties, we 

 must have those varieties unequivocally 

 named and accurately described. We are 

 fond of saying that horticulture is coming to 

 be a science ; but it certainly falls far short, 

 in this respect, of what it ought to be. 



A reasonable nomenclature assigns to each 

 entity, be it object, process, species, or variety, 

 a separate and distinctive name. In horticul- 

 ture our attention is fixed chiefly on varie- 

 ties, and varieties are hard to define ; but each 

 one, as we know and describe it, ought to have 

 one name and one only. In other words, one 

 variety must not pass under several names ; 

 nor must one name stand for two or more dis- 

 tinct varieties. It would be easy to mention 

 examples of both mistakes. The well-known 



