were obtained from public and private correspondents 

 and establishments at home and abroad, partly by 

 purchase, partly by gift and exchange. They had 

 necessarily for the most part to be planted under the 

 names with which they were received, and these, from 

 confusion or accident, were often erroneous. 



A great difficulty arose in rectifying this, from the 

 fact that woody plants can rarely be identified with 

 any accuracy till they flower or fruit. The process of 

 accurate identification in an extensive arboretum is 

 necessarily, therefore, a very slow one. 



A further difficulty arises in a public arboretum from 

 the fact that, though the specimens were all carefully 

 labelled with their history and a corresponding register 

 kept, these labels are apt to be misplaced or lost. To 

 remedy this a separate Herbarium was formed, in which 

 a specimen was preserved of every species or variety 

 planted out, with the name under which and the source 

 from which it was received. By reference to this Her- 

 barium it was possible, in a large number of cases, to 

 correct the nomenclature. 



By this means it has also been possible to draw up the 

 list of which the present is the first instalment. It must 

 still be regarded as in some sense provisional and open 

 to correction. But it has been possible to reduce an 

 immense number of " trade " and " garden " names, and 

 to bring the nomenclature to something like a standard. 



It only remains to note that in this list the names of 

 some plants will be found which are accorded specific 

 rank on account of their distinctness from a cultural 

 point of view, although botanists would regard them as 

 mere varieties. 



