XX 



ON GLADIOLI 



THE Gladiolus has never made much progress with a 

 popular name. Nominally it has one, like most other 

 plants, but even those people who prefer " English " to 

 Latin names tacitly ignore it, and it is probable that the 

 great majority would wonder what was meant if a writer 

 referred to Corn Flags. The Corn Cockle they know, 

 the Corn Marigold they have more than a nodding 

 acquaintance with, but the Corn Flag puzzles them, and 

 they are disposed to sum it up as " some kind of Iris." 

 Well, the Corn Flag belongs to the natural order 

 Iridacece, and, therefore, has a botanical kinship with 

 the Irises, but it is really the Gladiolus, and that is a 

 distinct genus. 



It is a little singular, perhaps, that the Gladiolus has 

 not a popular name a popular name, that is, which is 

 really popular, instead of one which nobody knows any- 

 thing about because the botanical name is not an easy 

 one for the multitude to cope with, and there are as 

 many ways of pronouncing it as there are of writing 

 a plant label. Of course the scholar has no difficulty 

 in the matter. He points out that the name derives 

 quite obviously from gladius, a sword, in reference to 

 the shape of the leaves ; and that, in consequence, the 

 pronunciation must be Glad'-io-lus, the accent being 

 on the first syllable, here accented, the two vowels in the 

 second being run together sharply, and the third being 



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