HORTICULTUKAL JOURNAL. 55 
"Victoria," might be deemed as much an outrage on our pat — riotism, as 
"Wellingtonia;" "Her most Gracious Majesty" having no more claims on 
the respect of botanists, as botanists, that I am aware of, than the "Iron 
Duke," himself. But it seems a weakness to which many botanists are 
liable, at times. A Prussian Botanist, long ago, endeavored to set up a 
genus allied to the Horse Chestnut, under the name of Wellingtonia, without 
Mr. Hovey's or any other person's objection to the name ; and Beauvois and 
Jussieu agreed in naming an African iplsbnt N^apoleonea, after "their beloved 
Emperor," without the expression of any disapprobation from the "trappers " 
of Sierra Leone. 
Were I to feel justified in drawing up any protest, it would be against the 
use of all such names in botanical science. She should be made to reward 
her own votaries, before wasting her pearls before swine. Presidents, 
generals, peers, and scions of royalty, should be measured by the patronage 
and encouragement they afford her, and be received as a citizen into "the 
republic of botany," on no other terms. I look on our Torreyas and 
Grayias, Muhlenbergias, Bartramias, Bartonias, Shortias, Darlingtonias, 
Ellisias, Purshias, Rafinesquias, Nuttalias, Wisterias, and so on innu- 
merably, as amongst the greatest trophies of American botany. 
Mr. Hovey knows that the only chance of preventing our fine trees or 
plants from being named by European botanists to suit their own political 
tastes or patriotic whims, is, not for us to propose that "should this plant 
prove to be a distinct genus," it "ought to be named this or that," but so 
to raake of ourselves students of botany, that we can say, " This is distinct 
from all kown genera, in such particular respects, — that shall be its name;" 
then should any of us propose a Washingtonia, it will be as universally 
acceded to, as Barton's Jeffersonia has been by the whole world. 
In conclusion, we can assure our English friends, that Mr. Hovey knows 
as well as any other person, that in botany, as under any other condition, 
"Knowledge is power," and that one of the greatest evils of the times is 
that "multiplication of names," which makes both the pursuits of the botanist 
and horticulturist very often subject to annoyances and vexation. 
Pennsylvanicus. 
We read the article in Hovey's Magazine above alluded to, but put it by, 
with the simple remark to ourself, 
" Risum teneatis, amici." 
Ed. Florist. 
