202 THE NEW GARDENING 



it be by the parents, who cling to them with a doting 

 and pathetic affection. The Michaelmas Daisy is still 

 the Michaelmas Daisy, not the Starwort (another ex- 

 cellent name, by the way). The Tiarella is the Tiarella, 

 not the Foam Flower. Not one flower-lover in a hundred 

 knows what is meant by Fire Pink, but all know Dianthus 

 deltoides. The truth is, the people do not want " popular ' ' 

 names made for them, although, in cases, they like to 

 use the old ones which have come down from their 

 ancestors. 



One fatal defect of popular names is that they only 

 stand for the genus, and do not provide for its species 

 and varieties. Fire Pink does not carry us very far when 

 we want to speak of, or order from a florist, a particular 

 form of that species. And here let me point to a signifi- 

 cant fact : every florist gives Latin names priority in 

 his catalogue. Now, there is no sounder business man 

 than the trade plant sman. Even if he had a greater 

 personal liking for Latin than for English names which 

 he probably has not he would most certainly be only 

 too willing to subordinate it to the wishes of his customers. 

 When the whole plant trade prints its catalogues in 

 Latin names we may be satisfied that they are necessary. 



In the face of overwhelming evidence such as this, the 

 solicitude which Fleet Street displays sporadically for us 

 in respect to plant names becomes almost ludicrous. Of 

 so little importance do traders find " popular " names 

 that few go to the trouble of publishing an Appendix of 

 them in their catalogues, although this is not entirely 

 unknown. The contention that Latin names stand in 

 the way of popularizing plants is entirely groundless. 

 It comes to this, " popular English " names are markedly 

 unpopular, except in the case of a few old examples, with 

 the vast majority of the flower-lovers who maintain 



