136 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
provisional name may, and sometimes does, become a permanent one, 
hence the importance of its being well chosen; and a name like the one in 
question, though suitable to indicate the origin of a garden hybrid, should 
not be given to a wild plant. It is a geographical name, and no more 
applicable to a plant from New Guinea than B. anglicum would have been 
because it flowered in England. But don’t suppose for one moment that 
the present case is an isolated one, or any worse than plenty of others 
which could be pointed out. 
This nomenclature question has come very much to the front of late. 
The other day I stumbled across the following notice in the Gardeners’ 
Chronicle, which has some bearing on the above case :—‘‘ To CLASSICAL 
ScHOLARS.—Wanted a provisional system of nomenclature for garden use 
applicable to imperfectly-known plants. It must be founded on Greek or 
Latin roots, preferably Latin; and it must be so constructed as not to 
clash with the ordinary specific Latin names given by botanists. For 
instance, numerous supposed natural hybrids, and, more excusably, many 
known artificial hybrids, now receive Latin names, indistinguishable as to 
their form from those which are used to designate known species. The 
consequence is unnecessary confusion, and an extremely overloaded 
synonymy. For artificial hybrids and garden varieties generally there 
is much to be said for the use of vernacular names.” 
Now, it seems to me that we have too many systems already, which are 
in danger of getting inextricably mixed, and I am not at all clear that a 
new one will be an unmitigated blessing. And as to the latter part of the 
notice, I would observe that the Royal Horticultural Society’s Nomenclature 
Committee recently recommended that “hybrids, between species raised 
artificially should be named in Latin, with the addition of the word 
hybridus,-a,-um, or of the sign of hybridity, X.’’ It-is my opinion that if 
this rule were loyally carried out we should be much better off than we are- 
In any case it is not the use of Latin names which gives the unnecessary 
confusion and extremely overloaded synonymy, but the multiplicity of 
different names for the same thing, to which I called attention at page 72- 
It is as well to lay the burden on the right shoulders, and whether it 
becomes more tolerable in the vernacular is a mere matter of taste. 
But to return to the wanted new system. A week later came some 
suggestions from Mr. G. S. Boulger, who very rightly pointed out that there 
_ were already several systems in vogue. He recommended that the most 
practical step towards the solution of the difficulty would be to write “f," 
for ‘‘ forma” or ‘‘ form,” before all garden names, or “h,” for ‘‘ hortorum” 
or “hortense.” But even then he points out the desirability of using the 
