ENGLISH NAMES FOR TREES 
317 
moist soil being essential to full luxuriance. 
In the colder parts of the country north of 
the Thames valley, the Nandina may be tried 
upon walls with protection in winter or grown 
in pots for the greenhouse, but under these 
conditions its native charm is so lost that no 
one familiar with the plant at its best would 
consider such trouble repaid. 
Seedlings vary in character and two distinct 
forms are grown in gardens — purpurea, in 
which the leaves are of a permanent purplish- 
crimson colour ; and gigantea, a form of free 
growth in which the foliage is more ample 
and abundant. This variety exists in the rich 
collection formed by the late Major Gaisford 
at Offington Park. B. 
ENGLISH NAMES FOR TREES. 
Perhaps the greatest treasure-house for the 
tree-lover ever likely to be opened to us, is 
in the forest wealth of North America. When 
we think of the beauty of our ov/n woodlands 
and the few trees that go to make it, one may 
well be astonished at the richness of North 
America in trees when, in the list which weare 
about to give, it is stated that there are nearly 
five hundred kinds of hardy trees. Even a 
tenth of that number, well chosen, should be 
a splendid addition to the woodlands of Britain 
and Western Europe. If they came from 
tropical or sub-tropical climates they would 
be of much less value to us, however remark- 
able, but these come from climatesoften colder 
than our own. 
One thing that hinders our use and know- 
ledge of these trees in a plain planter's way, 
is the Latin nomenclature. The first step to 
making use of such treasures would be to find 
some recognised name by which they could 
be known and asked for, and we are glad to 
say that this most welcome step has been 
taken by the American Division of Forestry 
at Washington, by the publication of a list 
of the accepted names of all the trees of the 
country — not an easy task, because many of 
them grow in a great range of territory and 
people give them different names in each dis- 
trict, so that the aim of the compilers has 
been to take what was on the whole the most 
widely accepted name. 
" While most of our forest trees are named 
both by botanists and laymen, a great number 
of entirely different kinds, or species, have 
received the same name, and also the same 
species has received a great number of names 
by which it is called in different parts of its 
range of occurrence. This confusion of names 
has led not only to many annoying incon- 
veniences and misunderstandings, but often 
to fatal mistakes, as when a nurseryman sends 
an entirely different kind of tree from that 
intended by the customer." 
It is just the same or worse in our own case. 
I Planters have not necessarily much to do with 
botanical nomenclature and they may not know 
the perplexities to which it gives rise. Take 
' for example the Western Hemlock, of which 
the name has been changed every few years ; 
in a recent manual of forestry published in the 
United States the old names are not given, 
an omission which leads to dreadful confusion 
among those who have only the books of the 
past, published in England, France, and Ger- 
many. This march of science is inevitable 
no doubt, but whatever the reason or non- 
reason of it, we have to face the facts and we 
think the greatest good is to have an English 
name, which does not necessarily prevent the 
use of a Latin name in its due place. Also we 
ought to respect our English names, many of 
which are older than some of the so-called 
scientific onesinvented by naturalists in modern 
days. We strongly advise that the English 
namesbe adopted both by nurserymen in their 
catalogues and by planters on their labels, 
giving the Latin name where need be. 
The list is published in bulletin No. 17 
of the " Division of Forestry " ; it is the 
work of George B. Sudworth, dendrologist of 
the Division, and is issued from the Govern- 
ment Printing Office at Washington. We 
omit all but the essential names, which we 
have arranged in alphabetical order for con- 
venience of reference. A certain number of 
kinds from the warmer States and unsuited to 
our climate are omitted, and in two instances 
wehaveventured to change thenames adopted 
by the American compiler. This is in respect 
of the two species of Catalpa, rendered Catalpa 
and Hardy Catalpa : Catalpa is strictly not 
English at all, and we prefer thenamesadopted 
in the Kew list and by Mr. Sargent in his 
Manual — Indian Bean and Western Catalpa. 
