Leaves from a Madeira Garden 



Kipling, or some one else with the gift of 

 speech, were to pay us a visit, he might in 

 a week or two supply us with some reason- 

 able answers to the constant query, " Oh ! Can 

 you tell me what that is ? " We ought to be 

 able to reply, " It is the Silver Restbringer, a 

 kind of water-cress from Central China, where 

 a decoction of its leaves is prepared for the use 

 of such members of the imperial family as 

 contemplate the happy dispatch." But accord- 

 ing to the present rules of the game, this 

 would not be playing it, and we are compelled 

 to answer, " It is Schwarzenbachia Griesenfeldit 

 minima^ var. zigzagia Veitchiiy^ and our guest 

 murmurs, " Oh, really ! " and the incident is 

 closed. I nurse — I positively dandle — an ever- 

 lively grievance that the splendid flowering 

 shrubs of the banana tribe are called by the 

 awful name Strelitzia. What in the world is 

 the Duchy doing in this galley ? Latin generic 

 names are not of necessity hideous or unfitting. 

 Those which are based on some peculiarity of 

 the plant or its habitat are the pleasantest ; 

 such zs geranium^ "crane's bill ;" arenaria,^' sand- 

 wort ; " saxifragay " stone-breaker." Names 

 derived from celebrated botanists, if often ugly, 



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