474 



was fairly well-known to non-botanists who, in the course of hundreds of years, 

 had applied a very large number of vernaculars to plants, many of them unambiguously. 

 Both Bentham and Gray must be referred to to see how difficult the adaptaiton of 

 vernaculars is, even under conditions far more favourable than in Australia. 



Then we have Ruskin's " Prosperina, Studies of Wayside Flowers, etc." (" The 

 Nation ", No. 528, 12th August, 1875). See Asa Gray, I, 199. Ruskin trounces the 

 nomenclature of the botanists, and laboriously endeavours to be funny at their expense ; 

 but Gray with his imperturbable and kindly humour, shows, from Ruskinian extracts; 

 what a fool the philosopher makes of himself when he dogmatises on a subject that he 

 obtrusively confesses he knows nothing about. 



In " Plant Names," P. J. Wester, " Philippine Agric. Review ", Vol. X, 55-63 

 (1917), draws attention to the absurdity of vernacular names in use for tropical plants 

 But he by no means confines himself to these. The paper is a valuable one, and shows 

 the pitfalls and absurdities which are the result of reliance upon attempts to utilise 

 existing vernaculars, or to improve upon them. He concludes by stating that writers on 

 agricultural and horticultural subjects in the tropics " would make their papers much 

 more instructive and intelligible if they quoted the botanical names after the various 

 popular ones, many of which are but little or not at all known outside the countries of 

 their origin." 



Again, " Scientific and Vernacular Naming," " Agricultural News " (Barbadoes 

 XIV, No. 353, pp. 353-355 (1915), is a useful article dealing with aspects of the perennial 

 question. A trouble as regards vernaculars is that they may be coined and applied equally 

 by the illiterate and the educated, the only recommendation to the crowd is that they may 

 be catchy," and this is most often secured by the former class. Few people have the 

 faintest idea of the responsibility they assume when they coin a new name. As one 

 who has travelled much in Australia, I can say that the use of local vernaculars is 

 intensely subdivided. As regards the giving of new botanical names, it is well known 

 that botanists have varying ideas of their responsibilities to the botanical world in this 

 respect. Reverence for types is by no means as wide-spread as it should be. 



b. Use of botanical names the ideal.. 



I feel ve y strongly that any attempt at a stable trade nomenclature of Eucalyptus 

 timbers, based on vernaculars, is doomed to disappointment. We will do our best to 

 establish one, but when people become better educated in the technical schools and 

 universities such a provisional arrangement will be swept away. In a very few years 

 we shall have an approximately stable botanical nomenclature for Eucalyptus, and an 

 educated public will study it because of the direct practical advantage of its use. The 

 timber-getter, the timber-merchant, and the user will all plainly see the pecuniary 

 advantage to them of the use of botanical names. This is not a matter confined to botany 

 for it affects zoology and palaeontology also, 



