68 Wyoming Experiment Station. 



of thousands of acres of valuable timber by fire. Who 

 has not felt the desolateness of what would otherwise be 

 the most charming scenery were it not for the dead and 

 fallen trees that strew the blackened slopes. The writer 

 has in mind two places in the state, making some preten- 

 sions as mountain summer resorts, which, with their 

 limpid lakes, would have all the elements of natural beau- 

 ty were not the whole effect marred by unsightly, black- 

 ened stumps and progress impeded on every hand by the 

 tangled, fallen timber. 



NAMES. 



COMMON NAMES. That it would be a most desira- 

 ble thing to have a good expressive English name, not 

 only for our trees but for all the important plants, is freely 

 admitted by all. In fact it seems so desirable that great 

 effort is being made by those who think and write upon 

 these subjects to hit upon some good "common name" 

 upon which all can unite. The difficulties encountered, 

 however, are great, for not only do most plants have dif- 

 ferent common names in different localities but, what is 

 worse, very different plants have the same common name. 

 To illustrate : One of our commonest trees, Lodge Pole 

 Pine, is also called in Wyoming, Tamarack and Black 

 Pine ; in Utah, Prickly Pine ; in Montana, White Pine ; 

 in Colorado, Spruce Pine, and, possibly in other places by 

 yet other names. Then these names are also applied to 

 other trees, as, for instance, Tamarack to one other spe- 

 cies of Pine and to two different species of Larches and 

 possibly to other trees. How then shall we know what 

 tree is meant when we hear a name ? No way suggests 



