GARDEN NOMENCLATURE. 



31 



The familiar oak-apple is not even a fruit, but a gall, a growth on the 

 oak caused by the grubs of a gall-fly. 



The pear, like the apple, belongs to the order Bosace^£, but the 

 prickly pear is a Cactm. And while the French call potatoes "earth- 

 apples," they are known in Sweden as " earth-pears." 



The word " currant " seems to belong primarily to the well-known dried 

 fruit, the produce of a vine {Vitis vinifera), while the red and black 

 currants of our gardens are of the genus Bibes, and belong to the goose- 

 berry division of the Saxifrage order. The word " currant," indeed, is said 

 to be an abbreviation and corruption of ' raisins de Corinth,' that is, 

 Corinthian grapes. 



The cherry is usually placed in the gemis Primus, of the order Rosacece, 

 while the winter cherry is a Physalis, order Solanacece. 



The bryony and black bryony belong to two widely separated orders. 

 The former is the sole representative in this country of the Cucumber 

 family, and the latter is our only native species of the Yam family. 



There are many people who object to what they call the barbarous 

 Latin names of flowers. Mr. Justin McCarthy expresses this sentiment 

 in one of his novels as follows : — 



" One stores the chambers of the mind with a variety of quaint and 

 delightful names of plants, the names that figure in the ' Shepherd's 

 Calendar,' and that are so many thousand times more delightful than the 

 rigid Latin names of the scholar." 



But, in the first place, the scientific or botanical names of flowers are 

 not always, or necessarily, Latin. They are not infrequently Greek. 

 Thus asparagus, both the popular and the scientific name of the well-known 

 vegetable, and Cramhe, the botanical name of seakale, are the Greek 

 names of the same plants. Botanical names may even be Arabic. Thus 

 Nuphar, the yellow water-lily, is from the Arabic naufar ; while Cakile, 

 the S9a-rocket, and Alchemilla, lady's mantle, are both x\rabic words also. 



And as to harharous — well, if the term must be applied either to the 

 botanical or the common name — it is certainly not to the former. I do not 

 propose to dwell here on the enormous advantage to science of the beauti- 

 ful binomial system of Linnaeus — the system of giving to each plant a 

 generic and a specific name. I wish rather to indicate what an interesting 

 study these botanical names may be, and to urge that all lovers of flowers 

 ought to cultivate an acquaintance with them. 



Many botanical names are picturesquely descriptive. There is a tree 

 in Demerara known as the Hya-hya, or cow tree, because it yields a drink- 

 able milk-like juice. It is named Taberncsmontana utilis, that is, the 

 useful mountain tavern. So we picture to ourselves the thirsty traveller 

 resting beneath its shade and refreshing himself with a draught of its 

 nutritious and thirst-quenching sap — a useful tavern indeed ! 



Again, take the name of our native yellow balsam, Impatie^is Noli- 

 me-tangere. There is almost a touch of humour about it : "I am irritable, 

 don't touch me," it says, which refers to the fact that if you do touch the 

 ripened capsules they burst and throw the seeds at you, so to speak. 



The deadly nightshade Atropa Belladonna. Atropos was one of the 

 Fates — the Fate that cannot be avoided : and the first name of the night- 

 shade emphasises the deadly nature of the plant— it plays the part of 



