PLANT NAMES 23 



PRONUNCIATION, SPELLING, AND 

 GENDER 



Gardeners are often sorely puzzled about the proper 

 pronunciation of the long hard words they have to 

 learn, and they are shy of using them lest they 

 should betray their ignorance. My advice to such 

 a gardener is : " Pronounce them in any way you like, 

 preferably in the customary way." There is really 

 no rule, and it is just as correct to say Pitto'sporum 

 as Pittospo'rum, or Centa'urea as Centaure'a. Pro- 

 nunciation is, and always has been, a matter of 

 popular usage, and many words have changed their 

 sound even in my own lifetime. Two hundred 

 years ago a lady would say, " I shall be obleeged 

 for a cup of tay," and I can remember when every- 

 one said " ospital," " umble," " erb," and '' The 

 Jllu'strated London News'' The Greeks have 

 totally changed the pronunciation of their language, 

 and do not observe any distinction between the long 

 and the short e and 0, as their ancestors did. If a 

 reader of the Bible were to pronounce the names 

 Abraham, Moses, James, or John as their contem- 

 poraries pronounced them, his hearers would not 

 know of whom he was reading. Really, we hardly 

 know how the old Greeks and Romans pronounced. 

 Their poetry is some guide as to accent and quan- 

 tity, but as rime was unknown to the ancients 

 we are deprived of its aid. In reading Greek and 



