134 
ON NAMING FLORISTS FLOWERS. 
(long flowered Blushwort). — A sub-erect 
shrubby plant, with spreading and rooting 
branches, opposite oblong lance-shaped leaves, 
nearly entire at the margins, and large band- 
some axillary flowers growing in aggregated 
clusters, each on a separate stalk, placed close 
together and quite erect ; they are upwards 
of two inches long, tubular, slender and 
straight at the base, but larger and also 
curved towards the top ; the colour is a rich 
deep velvety crimson scarlet. It is a native 
of Java, and is found in damp forests 3000 
or 4000 feet above the sea. Introduced by 
Messrs. Veitch in 1845. Flowers in Novem- 
ber, and probably through great part of the 
year. It is also called Lysionotus longiflorus 
(Biume). 
Besides these species of .^Eschynanfhus, 
Messrs. Veitch of Exeter possess at least two 
other kinds, of which we have only seen 
small plants, and these not in a flowering 
condition. These plants appear to be distinct 
at least from all the preceding. One is named 
JEschynanthus zebrina (garden name) ; it has 
opposite lance-shaped pointed leaves, which 
are on the upper surface of a deep green 
colour, marked by paler lines or streaks in 
the position of the embedded veins, the under- 
side is blotched with reddish brown. The 
other is called JEschynantkus atrosanguinea 
(garden name) ; this has opposite ovate lance- 
shaped pointed leaves, which are deep red 
beneath. The latter indicates in its appear- 
ance a near relationship with JE. Lobbianus 
and JE. miniatus ; the former has the ap- 
pearance of the more familiar kinds, such as 
^E. grandiflorus and JE. maculatus. 
ON NAMING FLORISTS' FLOWERS. 
We frequently judge of a man's taste by very 
trifling acts, and sometimes fancy we can take 
the measure of his capacity by the names he 
gives to his flowers. Some men exhibit a 
rare consistency, by taking all the names they 
require from the same source, and selecting 
them with some regard to their applicability 
to the subject itself, as names from the 
Heathen Mythology, or from the Waverly 
Novels, or winning race-horses, or great 
statesmen and their ladies, or commanders of 
renown and their wives ; sometimes, indeed, 
this is carried on so far as to name a flower 
after a lady not in existence, but simply be- 
cause there has been a lord of the name. To 
instance the utter want of taste among some 
men, imagine two persons having raised a 
red flower ; one. calls his Miss Taylor, and 
the other Mars ; now, had there been a Miss 
Taylor with a very red face, and he had de- 
sired to remind the lady and her friends of her 
infirmity, one might have given him credit 
for his common sense, if we had condemned 
his cruelty ; but Miss Taylor, the young lady 
he desired to compliment, was an elegant and 
exceedingly delicate young lady, at home for 
her holidays ; now this man, in such a trifling 
act as that, betrayed sad ignorance and vulgar 
taste, or rather want of taste. It was what 
the world calls a left-handed compliment. The 
one who called his red flower Mars, offended 
no rule of propriety ; and when we see among 
the flowers raised by the same person, the 
name of Diana given to a white flower, and 
Flora given to a beautiful one, Hercules to a 
large and strong one, Cupid to a small one, 
there seems to be some consistency and 
thought about him. But the rage for names 
has rather subsided, in consequence of the great 
check upon the number tolerated; formerly 
there used to be from one to three hundred 
new dahlias a-year, and having answered the 
purpose of the owners, by bringing a price equal 
to the best, and been grown one year, they 
have been heard no more of,. At that time, all 
the sources for names were ransacked ; the 
names of songs, among other sources, supplied 
a number, — the Rose of Yarrow, Poll of Ply- 
mouth, Crazy Jane, Joe the Marine, and many 
others ; the names of wines were resorted to, 
Claret and Burgundy, Constantia and others, 
will be recollected by many. The stars shed 
their influence over the novelties, for we had 
Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Ursa Major, and 
many more. Then there were many botanical 
names, the most stupid of all, because many 
were inapplicable, and the distinctions so 
ridiculously small or unimportant ; thus Rubra 
coerulea, from which we may expect red and 
blue, or a bluish red, was a dirty purple, and 
there were fifty others of the same colour ; 
Picta formosissima was a striped flower, of no 
form at all, whereas its name signified it was 
in that particular superior. If such names 
were adopted in earnest, they should be de- 
scriptive of strong points only ; but it was an 
affectation altogether, to pretend to describe by 
botanical terms characters shared in common 
with scores. Then some of our florists were 
fond of plays and theatres, and one lot would 
be honouring all the dramatists, another would 
be selecting from characters in the plays, while 
a third selected the favourite performers, male 
and female. But of all the sources that were 
resorted to for names, the most improper was 
the Bible. It was a wanton attack upon the 
scruples of many pious Christians ; a perver- 
sion of sacred things. It betrayed a species of 
ignorance not pardonable in the age we live 
in ; a folly, if not a wickedness, without an 
excuse. If it were done in ignorance, it was 
bad ; if in contempt, it was worse. Names are 
in general given to flowers in compliment to 
somebody or something, but what can be the 
motive when taken from the sacred writings? 
