5oo HORTICULTURAL NOMENCLATURE. 



sounds to those who are the oftenest called on to 

 pronounce them. To prevent confusion this work might 

 be delegated to some tribunal whose authority would 

 by common consent be acknowledged and followed. We 

 once knew an ingenious labourer who remembered the 

 name of the Rose " Je me maintiendrai " by assimilating it 

 with the words "Jemmy maintain me," and we have 

 heard more than one philosophic nurseryman mourn over 

 the loss of time incurred in writing " Souvenir de la Reine 

 d'Angleterre " five hundred times over, when lt Ajax " 

 or " Ino " would have answered every purpose. 



Further, something may be said on the fitness of 

 names. A flower that would well become the name 

 of "Blushing Bride" would make a very indifferent 

 "Alderman," nor should we expect to see exactly the 

 same complexion in a " Vulcan " as in a " Venus/' A 

 large Gooseberry might appropriately bear the name 

 of " Achilles," which would be far more euphonious and 

 agreeable to ears polite, than such names as " Bang up " 

 and " Thumper," which exist plentifully among this class 

 of fruit. In this instance, however, we would not advocate 

 a change of names already established they are short 

 and easy enough, if homely or provincial but that future 

 names be chosen from a more refined vocabulary. 



Finally, we have seen it somewhere suggested, and 

 ^think the suggestion a good one, that newly introduced 

 species, the botanists' plants, should bear names coined 

 from the Latin or Greek languages, expressive of some 

 prominent feature ; and the horticulturist's plants, which 

 we are used to regard as mere variations of species, should 

 have applied to them popular names of our own language. 

 The names of the good and great ones of our own time, 

 and of all time, offer for this purpose a rich repertory 

 from which we might freely draw. 



These suggestive remarks are thrown out with all 

 good humour for the consideration of those into whose 

 hands the naming of our plants and flowers usually falls. 



