August 7, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



375 



family, but the White Weed is not closely related to Bellis, 

 being Leiicanthcmum vidgare, or Clirysanthemum Leiccanthe- 

 mum, the genus that includes all oiu- cultivated Chrysanthe- 

 mums. 



When we use Bitter Sweet we write it as two words, and ap- 

 ply it to Celastriis scandens, which we also call Wax-work. 

 When an Englishman uses it he writes it as one word — Bitter- 

 sweet — and means a species of Nightshade {Solamtin Dulca- 

 mara). This is a trailing perennial, with small, red berries, 

 which is not native to America, althougli naturalized now in 

 some places. Another species of the same genus {S. Sodo- 

 meunt) is supposed to be the Apple of Sodom, described by 

 Tacitus and Josephus. 



London Pride is a Saxifrage {Saxifraga imibrosa), of south- 

 ern Europe, which is very commonly cultivated in England, 

 but rarely in this country. 



The common Primrose of England is Primula vulgaris, and 

 bears pale-yellow flowers. Primula officinalis, of a brighter yel- 

 low, is the Cowslip — a name we often give, unfortunately, to that 

 very different plant, the Marsh Marigold. The Oxlip is still a 

 third species, pale yellow and taller, P. clatior. The Pimper- 

 nel, known to all readers of Tennyson, belongs to the great 

 Primrose family, but to another genus. It is Anagallis arven- 

 sis, also called Poor Man's Weather-glass — ^a little, low herb, 

 with tiny white, red or blue flowers- that close at the approach 

 of rain. It is grown in gardens in this country, and in some 

 regions has run wild in waste, sandy spots. When Longfel- 

 low wrote "Blue are her eyes as the Fairy-flax," he doubtless 

 meant Liniim perome; but the name is more commonly given 

 in England to the common Flax (Z. usitatissimum). 



Ophelia's Rue, which might be called "herb-grace o' Sun- 

 days," was, of course, not the Meadow Rue which is the only 

 American plant we call by the nnn^e, hut Ptila j^ravcolens, 

 which we sometimes see cultivated in gardens — an evergreen, 

 somewhat shrubby plant. The Fennel which she mentions 

 should not be conceived as the Fennel-flower, also called 

 Love-in-a-Mist {Nigella Damascend), but as the herb of the 

 vegetable garden (Pceniculum vulgare), which was regarded as 

 a plant of ill-omen in former days. An old proverb says 

 "Sowing Fennel is sowing sorrow." Rosemary we also some- 

 times find in our gardens — Rosmarimcs officinalis, an ever- 

 green shrub. The Basil of the poets is an East Indian plant, 

 Ocimum Basilicum; but the wild Basil of northern countries 

 is Calamintha Cli7iopodium, a plant of the Mint family. 



Amaranth is a word often used by the poets to denote 

 some unfading flower. One species of Amaranth is called, 

 to-day, Love-lies-bleeding, and another Prince's Feather ; but 

 it is doubtful whether in poetical speech any particular flower 

 has always been intended. It would be difficult to decide 

 just what Milton had in mind when he wrote : 



" Amaranth, a flower which once 

 In Paradise, fast by the tree of life 

 Began to bloom." 



The Gardenia, so often mentioned in English novels, is the 

 flower we more often call the Cape Jessamine, although Gar- 

 denia, which is both the botanical and the proper vernacular 

 name, is gradually coming into use with us. The plant is not 

 a Jessamine, and it is not a native of the Cape. It belongs to 

 the Rubiacece, and was introduced from China. 



The Cuckoo-flower is the same as the Lady's Smock, a Cru- 

 ciferous plant — CardavMie pratcnsis. The name Cuckoo- 

 flower is also sometimes applied in England to one of the 

 Pinks — Lychnis Flos-cuculi. Good King Henry is the Mer- 

 cury Goosefoot (^Chenopodium Boiius-Henricus), a common 

 pot-herb in the northern parts of England. And the Love 

 Apple of England, like the equally h\g\\-soun(\mg Par a disapf el 

 of Germany, is nothing but the Tomato. 



Notes Upon Some North American Trees. — IV. 



Rhus integrifolia, Brewer and Watson. — This species 

 must find a place among the arborescent species of this con- 

 tinent. In southern California, where it abounds near the 

 coast, covering the hills over great areas with an impene- 

 trable mass of dense foliage, it rarely rises to a height of 

 more than a few feet ; on the Santa I3arbara Islands it is 

 sometimes a stout tree with a short, much-branched stem ; 

 and south of our boundary in Lower California it becomes a 

 tree with a trunk sometimes nearly three feet in diameter. 



No. 74. PisTACiA Mexican A, HBK. — This plant, so far as 

 is known, has been seen within the limits of the United 

 States only near the mouth of the Pecos River, where Dr. 



Bigelow, the botanist of one of the Pacific Railroad-route 

 expeditions, found a single plant forty years ago, which, in 

 his notes, he described as " a small tree." It is widely dis- 

 tributed in northern Mexico, and very abundant on the 

 mountains near Monterey. It is not a tree there, however, 

 and it may be safely dropped from the North American 

 Silva. 



82. Cladrastis tinctoria, Raf. — The proper naming of 

 this plant involves a question of nomenclature, which 

 just now much interests botanists, who are pretty equall)' 

 divided in their opinion with regard to it. The tree was 

 discovered by the elder Michaux,whose son bestowed upon 

 it the name of Virgilia luiea. Much later, Rafinesque, dis- 

 covering that the plant was not a Virgilia, created the new 

 genus Cladrastis for it, and ignoring Michaux's specific 

 name called the tree Cladrastis tinctoria. One school of 

 botanists affirms that a specific name being once given to a 

 plant referred to its proper genus it cannot be changed un- 

 less an older name under the same genus is found. 

 This school would, in changing a plant from one genus 

 into another, retain for it the specific name under which it 

 was first published, but in the case of a plant changed by 

 some earlier author who had not retained the first specific 

 name (either intentionally or accidentally), as in the case 

 of our Virgilia, they would not correct his mistake. The 

 other school takes the ground that the specific designation 

 is the most important part of the name, and that it being 

 once given to a plant it should be retained for it ; and that 

 if an author in changing a plant from one genus into an- 

 other has neglected this rule, his mistake should be cor- 

 rected under all circumstances, except, of course, where 

 the specific name is already occupied by another plant in 

 the same genus. M. A. De Candolle, the author of the 

 "Rules of Botanical Nomenclature," whose particular 

 studies and peculiarly critical mind give the highest value 

 to his judgment in all such questions, supports, in a letter 

 addressed last year to ih.Q Journal 0/ Botany (xxvi., 287), the 

 views of those authors who would retain the first specific 

 name for a plant, even when another had come into long- 

 established use. Mr. Bentham, the most experienced and 

 judicious systematic botanist, held the other view ; and so 

 did Professor Gray, although he did not always strictly 

 follow his rule in his works of descriptive botany. A rule 

 which is not absolute, and which can be changed to meet 

 special cases or to suit the personal inclinations of different 

 authors, is likely to be often disregarded, and so to in- 

 crease rather than diminish confusion of names. Changes 

 in the names of plants are greatly to be regretted ; and the 

 creation of synonyms is an abomination, which notliing 

 but the hope of reaching stability in nomenclature by this 

 means can justify. For the changing of long-used specific 

 names must cause confusion and inconvenience ; but the 

 tendency of the times points to the strict adhesion to fixed 

 rules in natural-history nomenclature, and the sooner 

 changes are made, which sooner or later are destined to 

 occur, the more easily will the new names be adopted and 

 the smaller will be the inevitable confusion which such 

 changes occasion. A rule which provides for the adop- 

 tion of the earliest specific name and allows of no excep- 

 tion, if strictly carried out, must eventually bring stability. 

 I shall follow, therefore, in the Silva the custom partially 

 adopted in the "Prodromus" of De Candolle, in Koch's 

 " Dendrologie," and more recently in the writings of sev- 

 eral American botanists, notably in the " Preliminary Cat- 

 alogue of Anthophyta and Pteridophyta reported as growing 

 spontaneously within one hundred miles of New York 

 City," and restore, as far as possible, the specific names 

 first applied to our trees. Cladrastis tinctoria, Rafinesque, 

 will, therefore, become C. lutea, Koch, who first (Den- 

 drologie, i., 6) united the specific name of Michaux with 

 Cladrastis. 



85. Gymnocladus Canadensis, Lamarck. — This tree was 

 named b)' Linnams Guilandina dioica, and I follow Koch 

 in calling it Gyvinocladus dioicus. 



