The Happy Garden 



it is a sort of shorthand for the classification of 

 sub-species among gardeners : but my experience 

 is that it is a vice which may attack even the most 

 devout lover of flowers. . . . For instance, I my- 

 self always say Nigella Miss Jekyll, when it would 

 be infinitely prettier and more appropriate to say 

 Miss Jekyll 's Love - in - a - Mist, and, when an 

 enchanting flower has an enchanting name, it is 

 nothing short of barbarous to say Thalicirum 

 instead of meadow-rue. This arbitrary Latin is, 

 no doubt, useful (though at its best it is cumbrous 

 and jaw-cracking) to professional gardeners, garden 

 journalists, and those who write severe botanical 

 primers ; but on the lips of the amateur in the 

 presence of " the friend from town," it is flat 

 pedantry. There is a value in the music of a name, 

 and if a rose by any other name would smell as 

 sweet, it must lose half its tender charm for the 

 unlearned who is told that its proper name is 

 Rosa bracteata or Innocenta Pirola. . . Where, 

 however, you drop into French, a new charm is 

 gained, and there is some pride in making the 

 acquaintance of the Comtesse de Frigneuse, or 

 Madame de Watteville, while the tenderest senti- 

 ments must be aroused on an introduction to 

 Ma Capucine. On the other hand, a drop into 

 plain English dashes the ardour of the ignoramus 



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