NAMES OF FLOWERS. 29 



palming off such seedlings at all, half of which are 

 either such counterparts of older flowers that nothing 

 but the most microscopic examination would detect 

 a difference, or else so utterly worthless as to be fit 

 only to be thrown away. This is an increasing evil ; 

 and if anything gives a check to the present growing 

 taste for choice flowers, it will arise from the dis- 

 honesty and trickery of the trade itself. 



Meanwhile, let there be at least some propriety 

 in the names given. We cannot quite agree with 

 Mr. Loudon, who seems to approve of such names 

 as " Claremont-nuptials primrose" and "Afflicted- 

 queen carnation !" though they do point to the years 

 1816 and 1821 as the dates of their respective ap- 

 pearances : neither will we aver that Linnaeus was 

 not something too fanciful in naming his " Andro- 

 meda," * and in calling a genus Bauhinia, from two 

 illustrious brothers of the name of Bauhin, because it 

 had a double leaf; but surely there is marked cha- 

 racter enough about every plant to give it some 

 simple English name, without drawing either upon 



* The following is his reason for thus naming this delicate shrub, 

 one of those bog-plants not half so much cultivated as it deserves to 

 be : " As I contemplated it, I could not help thinking of Andro- 

 meda, as described by the poets a virgin of most exquisite beauty 

 and unrivalled charms. The plant is always fixed in some turfy hil- 

 lock in the midst of the swamps, as Andromeda herself was chained 

 to a rock in the sea, which bathed her feet, as the fresh water does 

 the root of the plant. As the distressed virgin cast down her blushing 

 face through excessive affliction, so does the rosy-coloured flower hang 

 its head, growing paler and paler till it withers away. At length 

 comes Perseus, in the shape of summer, dries up the surrounding 

 waters, and destroys the monsters, rendering the damsel a fruitful 

 mother, who then carries her head erect." Tour in Lapland, 

 June llth. 



