24 PLANT NAMES 



Latin we have now conventional rules which are 

 rigidly observed by scholars, but these same scholars 

 disregard these rules, and follow usage when a Greek 

 or Latin word is adopted into the Enghsh language. 

 There is a story of a speaker in the House of Lords 

 who in the course of his speech said '' cu'rator.'* 

 Another noble lord corrected him, and said it should 

 be '' cura'tor." The speaker, with great wit and 

 readiness, replied, " I bow to the opinion of so 

 eminent a sena'tor and so eloquent an ora'tor." 

 Thus, strictly speaking, we should say " gla'dXolus,^^ 

 " anemo'ne'' *' eri'ca'^ " ar'hutus'' and " cenothe'ra " ; 

 but if your neighbours pronounce them otherwise, 

 you need not correct them. 



When in doubt as to usage, it is better to observe 

 the original rule of the language from which the 

 name is taken. Ch, when it represents the Greek 

 chiy should be hard; thus Anchusa should be pro- 

 nounced Ankusa. On the other hand, the Greek 

 k is in English transliterated into c, and we had 

 better follow our rule for that letter, absurd as it is, 

 to sound it as s before e, i, ce, or y, and as k before 

 a, 0, or u. Thus, while the Germans say Kaiser, we 

 speak of Caesar. The same applies to g. The Greeks 

 and Romans made it always hard. But just as we 

 say Genesis and gymnastics, so we may speak of 

 Geum, Erigeron, and Gyneria as if they were spelt 

 with a /. 



The spelling and the form of names is also a source 

 of difficulty to gardeners, for those who undertook 

 the task of adapting classical words for botanical 



