112 APRIL 



XL 



It is impossible for any sober citizen to write or 

 Barbarous rea d about gardening without breaking 

 p ant names ^ s shins over the preposterous poly- 

 syllables in use to designate those plants which have 

 not acquired popular English names. Generic and 

 specific terms are necessary, of course, for scientific 

 classification ; and Latin, even as pronounced in this, 

 as in no other land, is unrivalled as a medium 

 combining elegance and precision. But it is time 

 to enter a mild protest against the intemperate use 

 by botanists of the speech of Imperial Rome. The 

 difficulty of ticketing with distinctive names the 

 ever-increasing horde of herbs must be enormous ; 

 still, that is no reason for ignoring the beauty of 

 the language and obscuring its succinct precision. An 

 old Scotch gardener once confessed to the difficulty 

 which this nomenclature added to his vocation. 

 Asked whether he did not find it hard to teach his 

 apprentices the long learned names: 'I do that,' 

 replied he ; ' and fac' I couldna teach them ava' 

 withoot my memoria technical Asked further to give 

 an example of that : ' Weel,' said he, ' see there ; 

 yon's what they ca' a Cryptomeria japonica ; u Noo," 



