NOMENCLATURE 103 



when these two wise men should disagree on 

 certain names, what could the laymen do? 

 Evidently we can not longer depend on such 

 authority for the settlement of questions of 

 nomenclature. 



Formerly the American Pomological So- 

 ciety exercised a considerable influence in 

 these affairs. Not infrequently its findings 

 were accepted as putting an end to all further 

 discussion. But the country has outgrown 

 this method. For the same or similar reasons 

 it is no longer possible for the Division of 

 Pomology in our United States Department 

 of Agriculture, or for any other institution or 

 society, to exercise any final and arbitrary 

 authority. 



Our whole reliance must now be placed in 

 some scientific system of nomenclature. We 

 must have some simple, yet adequate, rules by 

 which we can easily determine what the cor- 

 rect name of a variety is. In this respect 

 horticulturists have much to learn from bota- 

 nists and zoologists. They name the species 

 of plants and animals, which they study ac- 

 cording to rules upon which they are fairly 

 well agreed, and though there are some in- 

 consistencies, occasionally ridiculous ones, 



