176 The Nomenclature of Agricultural Plants. [May, 



To turn from agricultural to garden plants, much valuable 

 work has been done lately. At the Annual Convention of the 

 Vegetable Growers' Association of America in 1919 a com- 

 mittee was appointed to study the problem of vegetable nomen- 

 clature. A further committee with a similar purpose was 

 appointed by the American Seed Trade Association at their 

 1920 Annual Meeting. These two committees held a joint 

 meeting in October last at which certain lines of action were 

 decided on which give promise of real progress in the solution 

 of this difficult problem. 



Previous to this joint meeting a questionnaire had been 

 issued to members of the Association asking (1) whether they 

 were in sympathy with an attempt to standardise the names of 

 vegetable varieties, (2) whether they had any points to suggest 

 in connection with form of name, spelling, provision for the 

 identification of private strains of standard varieties, &c, (3) 

 whether they would supply the Committee with a list of the 

 varieties definitely understood to be renamed standard varieties, 

 and also a list of the new varieties introduced by each firm 

 which had been generally accepted as new varieties, (4) 

 whether a transition period of one, two or five years should be 

 adopted as the period during which renamed varieties should be 

 followed in brackets by the Standard name, and (5) whether 

 they would be prepared to forward trial samples of all new 

 varieties to be tested and registered at an official trial ground 

 at least one year in advance of their public introduction. 



The replies to this questionnaire were very satisfactory and 

 encouraging. 



The joint committee decided that one of the first problems 

 which presented itself was the necessity for collecting com- 

 plete information with regard to the trade names and 

 comparative market quality of the different vegetables and 

 their varieties. It was clear that to obtain these particulars 

 the assistance of a wide circle of competent persons would have 

 to be enlisted. The Committee therefore grouped vegetables 

 according to their natural relationship and twenty-one sub- 

 committees of the leading authorities in the seed-trade of 

 America were suggested as group committees. A plan of work 

 was mapped out for these committees. 



The joint committee also drafted a suggested code of 

 vegetable nomenclature modelled on the code adopted by the 

 American Pomological Society. 



In addition to the controlling of the type of name to be 

 adopted, the code lays down that there shall be a Board of . 



