PREFACE xi 



varieties the chaos of name duplication is especially prevalent. 

 Lack of authoritative registration mechanism and other coopera- 

 tive action among horticulturists, and the disappearance of 

 thousands of horticultural varieties as they were superseded, has 

 fostered the duplication of names. 



This situation is well known to all horticulturists, and no group 

 of plants is free from this name confusion ; it is only too well illus- 

 trated in cultivated fruits, Rose, Peony, Iris, Gladiolus, Carnation, 

 and other plant groups, including vegetables, grains, and annual 

 flowering plants. For example, consider potato varieties. In Great 

 Britain, out of 242 varieties of potatoes tested at Ormskirk in 

 1920 by the National Institute of Agricultural Botany, the Potato 

 Synonym Committee found that 72 per cent were synonyms. 

 Conditions cannot be said to be much better in America.* 



Cornmon Names for Horticultural Hybrids. For many reasons 

 the Committee prefers the practice of calling horticultural hybrids 

 and other horticultural varieties by distinctive non-Latinized 

 names — like the American Beauty Rose or the Baldwin Apple — - 

 in preference to the use of Latinized names (in imitation of those 

 applied by botanists to natural species and subspecies) which 

 attempt to set forth the genealogy of the variety, such as Prunus 

 cerasus rhexi Cy, Rhex Cherry; Chamaecyparis pisifera plumosa 

 argentea Cy, Silvertip Retinospora; Nephrolepis exaltata hostonien- 

 sis elegantissima cornpada cristata, Cockatoo Boston Fern. 



These pseudo-scientific Latinized names of horticultural varie- 

 ties tend to become cumbersome, and there has been the ut- 

 most inconsistency and lack of science in devising them. A 

 hybrid is sometimes given the name of one of its parents with a 

 varietal addition which makes its name a trinomial or a polynomial 

 of the nth degree; sometimes it is given a brand-new binomial that 

 looks like the name of a newly discovered natural species. 



Use of Hyphen in Compound Names.\ Some difficulty has been 

 experienced in establishing a standard practice in the use or omis- 

 sion of hyphens in compound words. The trend of usage in Eng- 

 lish is undoubtedly toward the closer consolidation of the parts of 

 a compound as the combination becomes familiar. 



*As an example of the confusion in the names of vegetables the following quotation is made 

 from an authoritative British publication: "In the case of vegetables it is probable that the 

 'orgy of synonyms' is more marked than in any other group of plants. Of the thousands of 

 names of peas at present on the market there are probably less than 100 varieties, and these 

 in turn include probably less than 20 types. Cabbages, turnips, and beans also suffer from a 

 multitude of unnecessary names." 



tSee footnote on page viii referring to the use of hyphens. 



