220 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The name velutina has also been selected by some botanists for 

 a Chinese oak of very different appearance and much greater rarity, 

 Q. vcstita, which is described in " Plantae Wilsonianae," vol. hi. 

 p. 236. 



Q. Vibrayeana (Franchet et Savatier) is a very attractive ever- 

 green, so little like the ordinary conception of an oak that it is very 

 difficult for the unlearned to accept without scepticism the assurance 

 that it belongs to that order. It makes a small tree in its own country, 

 Japan, but is not common even there : here I should doubt its being 

 even more than a fine shrub, and certainly that is the case with both 

 my plants. The finer of the two was bought some five-and-twenty 

 years ago from the Yokohama Nursery Co. and is now a large well- 

 proportioned bush, 9 ft. high by 8 ft. across. It may be worth mention 

 that a few years ago nearly a quarter of the plant took on a sickly 

 and bilious yellow aspect, making me fear that it would become 

 a wreck; this was entirely cured by the simple expedient of giving 

 the roots a free dressing with soot, which had the effect of promptly 

 restoring this rarity to perfect health and beauty. I know nothing of 

 the kind prettier than the summer growth of young shoots on this 

 oak, though the colour of the elegant, fine-pointed, lanceolate little 

 leaves is hard to convey in writing, being a mixture of chocolate, 

 purple, grey, and olive, which contrasts admirably with the dark 

 green leathery older foliage. So far my plant has never borne acorns. 

 It has, I am glad to say, proved absolutely hardy, and even the 33 0 

 of frost of February 1919 had no more effect on it than they had on 

 Q. acuta and Q. phillyraeoides. For other evergreen oaks which proved 

 less able to resist such cold, see remarks under the latter heading. 



It is very annoying that, in spite of botanical congresses and the 

 dictates of convenience and common sense, there should still be no 

 uniformity in the nomenclature adopted by English and American 

 botanists. I had hardly yet got accustomed to talking of this oak as 

 Vibrayeana, having so long known it as Q. acuta var. bambusifolia, 

 when on taking up " Plantae Wilsonianae," to study the account of 

 the Chinese oaks, I found this one figuring under the, to me, entirely 

 new name of Q. myrsinaejolia. How long this may last, whether it 

 may be adopted by Kew, or what new christening process may 

 take place before these lines are in print, I have no idea. There 

 can, however, be no doubt that these constant name changes are 

 extraordinarily confusing and irritating, and I devoutly wish that 

 learned pundits would weigh the advice usually offered by Lord 

 Melbourne, when alterations were canvassed, " Why can't you let 

 it alone ? " 



It is not merely the changing of names which gives cause for 

 complaint, but also the frightful grammatical blunders and false con- 

 cords which disfigure botanical nomenclature. I suppose it would 

 be unreasonable to expect from the namers an elementary knowledge 

 of Greek and Latin before making use of those languages, but one 

 would think they might submit their name coinage to some school 



