Nov., 1906.] THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 137 



details might be quoted, but I will pass on to the finding of a 

 patch of Leptorrhynchos squamatus. A country lad was passing, 

 so the friend said — " I don't want any more of your popular 

 names, I will ask this lad if he can give me its name." " Billy 

 Buttons," promptly replied the boy. " Good," said the friend, 

 " a sensible, appropriate name at last." 



These quotations will suffice to show how the want of popular 

 names for our plants appears to a stranger, and surely our own 

 people must often experience the same difficulty. 



We must all have noticed how frequent queries about birds 

 have become in the weekly " Nature Notes " in the Argtcs. Why? 

 I take it, simply because the greater number of our birds have 

 more or less agreed-upon popular names. Why do we so seldom 

 see questions asked about our flowers ? Simply because the 

 average observer, ignorant of the scientific name, cannot indicate 

 in a precise way to what plant or flower he wishes to direct 

 attention. 



I recently attended a most interesting illustrated lecture on one 

 of our well-known watering places. Among the illustrations the 

 lecturer showed slides of "a bush with purple flowers," " a prickly 

 bush with white flowers," and so on, and confessed that he knew 

 no names for them. I helped him by remarking that the first was 

 ^' Prostanthera rotundifolia," and the second '■'■ Leptospermum 

 scoparium," but the audience was none the wiser — the names 

 indicated nothing to them. 



Glancing at the exhibits of wild flowers at the State Schools 

 Exhibition, now open, I find the labels provide for a popular 

 name, but in many cases the space is left blank, while the albums 

 of dried plants exhibited are just as destitute of names which 

 might suggest something, either of some peculiarity of the flower, 

 or the habit or nature of the plant. 



I feel sure the teachers of nature study in our schools must 

 have felt the want of popular names time after time, and may in 

 many cases have adopted names of their own coining to help 

 them out of the difficulty, without any reference to their neigh- 

 bours. Hence it is probable in a short time what few flowers we 

 have with popular names will be in a most hopeless state of con- 

 fusion, and we shall be in a wor&e position than ever. I think, 

 therefore, that this Club of ours might take up the question, and 

 endeavour to fix names for some at least of our most prominent 

 or showy flowers, and thereby render them easily distinguishable 

 throughout the State. 



Some common or vernacular names have been used in different 

 works. Thus Baron von Mueller, in the " Key to Victorian 

 Plants," gives a list, but many names are almost as awkward as the 

 scientific names. A more extensive and better list appears in 

 the recently published " Flora of Tasmania," by Mr. L. Rodway. 



