September ii, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



443 



The superceding of the system of scientific names by a 

 system of popular names is not to he urged. 



The ultimate ohjcct should be to establish for every plant 

 one name which for good and sulticient reasons shall l^e 

 known as the standard common name ; all others for the same 

 plant being made subordinate of it. Among the reasons for 

 adopting the standard name would be that it is more frequently 

 and widely used than another; that it does not coniiict with 

 the name adopted for another plant ; that it has special tilnesb 

 as a descriptive term ; that it is descriptive of pecidiarities in 

 the structure and manner of growth of the plant or that it indi- 

 cates its association with some interesting event. Priority 

 should also be considered but would not necessarily establish 

 the use of a name. 



Most conspicuous or familiar plants have popular names, 

 but if botanists, when describing a new plant, would publish 

 with the scientific name an appropriate native appellation, or 

 if necessary invent a name for popular use, they would do 

 much to aid the purpose. A translation of the botanical name 

 which is usually an abbreviated descriptive term, is often 

 akward and unweildy and would seldom be the best popular 

 name that could be selected. 



If the introducer of a new plant proposes a good and ap- 

 propriate common name, the distributor will commonly be 

 glad to adopt it, well knowing the value as a matter of trade of 

 such a name. If one in use in its native habitat or elsewhere, 

 or one given by the discoverer or botanist who classified it, is 

 not available, it would be the duty of the distributor to invent 

 one, short, easily understood and pronounced, descriptive of 

 the plant in some particular, or referring to some association. 

 If the botanical name only is used it is copied at first, but if 

 the plant is widely distributed and popular it is sure to receive 

 a popular name, often several in different localities. 



A complete botanical name with a generic and specific name 

 of the same character is seldom if ever used in a popular way, 

 but the generic is often adopted, and with it an English prefix 

 to distinguish it from other species. Such names when estab- 

 lisiied are popular names, and often very serviceable, but it does 

 not seem that the union of Latin and English can be as desir- 

 able as simple and expressive English names which may be, 

 and so often are, used to express the same things as Latin 

 generic and specific names. 



When a cultivator creates a new variety and gives it a reason- 

 able name, that name should be respected by everybody, and 

 it should become odious for anyone afterwards to attempt to 

 give the plant a new name, especially if this is done for a com- 

 mercial purpose. A person who applies to a plant already 

 having a good and sufficient name, one that better suits his 

 individual fancy, and puljlishes it, should be held guilty of an 

 inexcusable act. Only when a plant has a very conspicu- 

 ously unfit or inelegant name should an attempt be made to 

 give it another, nor should it even in such a case be made 

 except with the approval of some notable body. 



We need a work in which every name in use among the people 

 to any considerable extent will be recorded and explained. 

 Such a work would be valuable for reference for every one 

 wishing to determine the meaning and application of unfamiliar 

 names, but its highest value would be in its establishing a 

 standard. It might be the work of an individual but better of 

 an organization. However undertaken, the help would be 

 needed of many specialists in sympathy with its objects, in 

 every branch of botany and horticulture. 



Brookiine, Mass. Warren H. Manning. 



[A uniform vernacular nomenclature for all plants is, 

 of course, desirable, but the difficulty of learning and 

 using scientific names is greatly exaggerated. Kalmia 

 for example, is now used almost as generally as Laurel, 

 and is not more difficult to remember, and, when it is 

 used, there is no doubt as to what plant is intended, 

 while Laurel is used to designate at least half a dozen 

 different plants. In one part of this country Ivy means 

 Kalmia ; in another it means Ampelopsis or Rhus,, while 

 the true Ivy is an entirely different plant. That Latin 

 names may be learned and used generally, is shown by 

 such names as Spirtea, Paulownia, Rhododendron, 

 Azalea, Euonymus, Fuchsia, Dahlia, Coleus, Coreopsis, 

 Weigelia, Victoria, Begonia, AUamanda, Stephanotis, Cat- 

 tleya, Mahonia, Ailanthus, Arbutus, and so forth. Such 

 names are as familiar and just as easily remembered as 

 many vernacular names which are used indifferently, 

 sometimes, for a dozen distinct plants, and, therefore, 

 when used, do not convey any clear idea of the object 



spoken of. Latin names only appear pedantic when they 

 are unfamiliar, and while it is, of course, undesirable to 

 substitute a Latin for a common name, which has become 

 a recognized part of modern language, it might be a mis- 

 fortune if English names were invented for all newly dis- 

 covered or introduced plants, in addition to the Latin ones, 

 bestowed upon them by scientific botanists, and as easy to 

 learn as new English names. 



In the case of new varieties of garden plants, an English 

 name is preferable to a Latinized one, and the custom of 

 giving such names now prevails, or should prevail. One 

 reason for this is that these varieties may be distinct, for 

 garden purposes, while they are practically identical in 

 botanical characters, so that they do not deserve distinct 

 botanical names. — Ed.] 



Bits of Color. 

 To Editor of the Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — We all return to the city too soon for the full glory of 

 the foliage, but in August, even, there is much beauty to be 

 seen. Autumnal coloring is not an effect of frost; it is rather 

 a ripening as of the cheek of an apple. Frost withers, oxida- 

 tion colors, so, at this comparatively early season, one will 

 note elegant bits of color. A Sugar-Maple, otherwise green, 

 will show one branch of glowing crimson. We have no Oaks, 

 or Walnuts, or Chestnuts liere, but the Elms grow yellow or 

 russet. The wayside Ferns are rich in imiber or sienna. 

 The Ostrich Fern throws up its rigid plume of dark olive- 

 green. , 



Some of the deepest colors I have noticed are afforded by 

 the leaves of wild Sarsaparilla {Aralia midicaiilis and A. racc- 

 mosa). These are of a very sombre purple. The same is 

 true of the Virginian Anemone, whose tall fruit spikes along 

 the roadsides look not unlike cannon sponges. In any 

 account of autumnal colors the Golden-rods must be included. 

 Here they abound and give a mellow glow to whole hillsides. 

 They nod over the borders of forest-trails, and are of infinite 

 variety of form, strict spikes, graceful wands, or broad, flat 

 cymes. The Asters, too, begin to light up their pale stars of 

 blue or white. Among the fruits we have the scarlet of the 

 ever-present Bunch-berry, the fine red globes of the Viburnicm 

 Opiihis, the deep-blue clusters of the Clintonia, or the single 

 glowing pod of the Trillium. Some flowers have a second 

 blooming. Thus we see everywhere the acrid or tall But- 

 ter-cup in flower, and we have even found the dwarf Cornel 

 and the pretty Linnjea. Its English name of Twin-flower, 

 it shares with the Mitchella. Everywhere before the houses 

 here there is a tree of Crab-apples, very rosy and charming. 

 They are, apparently, grown only for ornament. Regretfully 

 we record a bit of vandalism : the ruthless mowing down of the 

 wayside shrubbery. It is with a pang that we see this reckless 

 destruction of lovely masses of foliage, the graceful Sumach, 

 the feathery Ferns, young Alders, Osiers, Viburnums, 

 Elders and Cherries. What a misapplication of the word im- 

 provement ! Last year, in Orange County, New York, we were 

 told that such destruction was enforced by law. If such is the 

 case it is time to look after the law-makers. 



Sugar Hill, N. H. W. Whitman Bailey. 



Recent Plant Portraits. 



Botanical Magazine tor August : 



Stapelia gigantea, /. 7068; the great flowered species dis- 

 covered thirty years ago in Zululand, and more lately found 

 in Namaqua Land, on the opposite side of the African Conti- 

 nent. The corolla is twelve to fomteen inches broad. 



Catasetum Garnettianum, /. 7069; one of the Orchids 

 which have so much scientific interest on account of variation 

 of the perianth, due to sexual dimorphism. 



Grevillea ASPLENIEOLIA, /. 7070; a species sent from New 

 South Wales early in the present century, and well-known in 

 green-houses. 



Berberis angulosa, /. 7071; a rare Himalayan species with 

 the largest flowers and fruit of any of the thirteen species 

 found on that range. In Sikkim it is a shrub four feet or 

 more in height, and growing at elevations of from ii,ooo to 

 13,000 feet, where it forms a striking object in autumn from 

 the rich golden and red coloring of its foliage. The fruit is 

 edible and less acid t]i;m in the common species. 



Anoiganthus mrevikolius, t. 7072 ; an acceptable addition 

 to cultivated Cape l)ulbs. The perianth is a bright yellow, an 

 inch to an inch and a half long. 



