November, 1920 
^3 Ik Slower (Brower 
171 
Naming Flowers. 
BY WILLARD N. CLUTE. 
[ Written expressly for The Flower Grower. ] 
T HE DESIRE to see one’s name in 
print is a human failing. Every- 
body is familiar with the penchant 
of the common herd for scrawling 
their names where they may be seen 
of all men and something of the same 
feeling seems to have entered our sys- 
tems of floral nomenclature and to 
have manifested itself in the naming 
of beautiful flowers after mere no- 
bodies. I do not for a moment mean 
to imply that even a majority of those 
for whom Irises, Peonies, Tulips and 
many another are named, are nobodies, 
but I do mildly suggest that many of 
them should not have been thus hon- 
ored, or if they were, that a different 
name should have been selected be- 
fore asking the public to accept the 
new introduction. 
Often the namer of new varieties is 
possessed of the worthy desire to make 
his family famous without considering 
the rights of the public in the matter. 
If the family happen to have been 
christened with poetic or musical 
names, well and good ; but if not, the 
result is not pleasing. Still worse, the 
family surname may be one that is so 
common that additional specifications 
are necessary to distinguish the one for 
which it is named and we then have 
such abominations as “Mrs. John Henry 
Smith,” which carries the suggestion 
that, perhaps, “ R. F. D. 17” should 
be added. The name of Smith is an 
honored one and as good as any for a 
surname, but this is no reason for add- 
ing a “Mrs. John Henry” to it and pass- 
ing it on to a helpless flower. When 
somebody outside the family gives a 
particularly atrocious name to a new 
form it may be charitable to assume 
that the head gardener is desirous of 
pleasing his boss, that an industrious 
foreman may be trying to ingratiate 
himself with his lady love, or that it 
is just a plain lack of appreciating the 
fitness of things. Most reprehensible 
of all is the practice of naming new 
varieties after one’s self. This doubt- 
less originated from perceiving that 
many botanists have flowers named in 
their honor. In every case of this 
kind, however, the name was given by 
someone else. It has always been con- 
sidered rather lacking in delicacy for 
anybody to throw bouquets at himself. 
Besides the grower of flowers ought 
not to compete with the makers of 
shoes, chewing gum, cough drops and 
face powder. If flowers are to bear 
the names of people at all, it seems 
only fitting that the people for whom 
they are named should be of consider- 
able eminence. It might almost be in- 
sisted upon that no name is sufficiently 
eminent if it has to be distinguished 
by a string of descriptive words. The 
names of Darwin, Edison, Washington, 
Marconi, Burbank, Poe, Gladstone, 
Lincoln and many others that will at 
once come to mind as illustrations of 
those that need no distinguishing 
marks. Occasionally, of course, the 
name is so common, or it is so univer- 
sally associated with a title, that two 
terms are necessary as President Wil- 
son, Queen Alexandra, Baroness Schroe- 
der. But however much we may feel 
like honoring a man, we ought to re- 
solve firmly not to do it by naming a 
flower after him if his family pat- 
ronymic happens to be some of the 
unpronounceable names that come to 
us from abroad. Such names actually 
hurt the sale of the plant. There are 
a good many Peonies, Irises and Tulips 
that I would not have in my garden if 
I had to call them by the uncouth 
names they were originally loaded 
with. 
Since flowers must have names, the 
captious critic may be asked what he 
would suggest in place of the catalogue 
of one’s family and friends. To this 
he might reply that flowers being 
characterized by grace, perfume and 
color, in short, beautiful, are deserving 
of names in harmony with these at- 
tributes. They should not be named 
for ugly objects, nor for objects that 
suggest disagreeable ideas. In most 
cases, flowers are named for the ob- 
jects whose qualities they suggest. 
There is a wide range of such objects 
to draw from with names that are at 
once musical, beautiful and appropriate. 
A few are suggested in the following 
list : 
Natural Objects and Phenomena. 
This is by far the largest group, in- 
cluding as it does other flowers, the 
animals, heavenly bodies, the seasons, 
rain, snow, clouds, wind and the like. 
Examples are Red Cloud, Butterfly, 
Soleil d’ Or, Blue Jay, Canary Bird, 
Dawn, Sunset, Moonlight, Silver Star, 
Snowball, and Midnight. 
Mythology. 
Gods, demi-gods, muses, dryads, fair- 
ies, gnomes, and heroes. Examples : 
Aurora, Adonis, Hector, Ganymede, 
Hebe, Fairy, Pixie, Hercules, and A pal- 
ly on. 
Authors, Statesmen, Leaders. 
Examples : Sappho, Ossian, Leonidas, 
Rembrandt, Hannibal, Tamerlane, Mo- 
zart. 
Technical Terms Suggestive of 
Qualities. 
Examples : Delicata, Innocenza, Pur- 
purea, Pallida, Lurida, Violacea, Lav- 
endulacea. 
Titles. 
King, Emperor, Knight, Prince, 
Queen, Chief, and the like. Examples : 
Khedive, Purple King, White Queen, 
Black Prince, etc. 
Women’s Names if Musical. 
Examples : Cordelia, Jessica, Kath- 
leen, Margaret, Blanche, Honora. 
Miscellaneous Terms. 
Caprice, Orijlamme, Saturne, Brides- 
maid, Gypsy, Celeste. 
The list is not intended to be com- 
plete but it is submitted that with such 
numbers to ring the changes upon and 
the great numbers of similar value that 
are not included, there is little need to 
give to a new introduction a name that 
is either incongruous or lacking in 
beauty. 
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The Glad Philosopher’s 
Musings. 
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“Of making many books there is no 
end,” wrote Ecclesiastes, the preacher, 
many, many years ago, and so there 
seems to be no end in these latter days 
of the making of books by those de- 
voted disciples of the garden who are 
gifted with literary ability. One of the 
most charmingly written books that 
has come to my notice was written 
several years ago by Frances Duncan, 
entitled “The Joys of Gardening,” and 
wac intended to serve as a “ first aid ” 
to the beginner. To read any part of 
the first chapter of this book, under the 
caption, “ In praise of Gardening,” is 
to want to read more. In this chap- 
ter, the author, who was one time 
garden editor of the Ladies Home 
Journal, says : 
“One of the sweetest characteristics of a 
garden — chiefest, I think, of its ‘ 1,000 de- 
lights ’ — is that its charm is wholly unrelated 
to the amount of money spent upon it. The 
simplest of little gardens may have more of 
this lovely and endearing quality of charm 
than the most pretentious of estates. For 
garden art for the sake of aggrandizement 
always misses charm. The display may 
have cost thousands, but if the purpose is 
to make as startling an effect as possible 
for the astounding of the visitor or passer-by, 
rather than the pleasure and happiness of 
the owner, such gardening must always miss 
charm. Like the prayer of the pharisee, it 
‘ has its reward,’ and is seen of men. The 
kingdom of art, no more than the kingdom 
of heaven, is entered into that way.” 
There are occasional blunders found 
in the writings of even some of the 
best authorities. In one of Mrs. Ely’s 
excellent garden books the author ad- 
vises raising Peonies and Irises from 
seed when one wishes to increase his 
plants of some variety of which the 
name is not known, and is therefore 
not able to order others like it. This 
advice might be valuable if Peony and 
Iris seedlings could be depended upon 
to come uniformly true to the color 
and habit of the parent, but they do 
not. 
Addison’s wise observation that the 
real substance of any bulky volume 
can be put in a small pamphlet is well 
realized by anyone who has ever started 
to wade through Luther Burbank’s 
voluminously padded work in search 
of some of the enlightenment promised 
in the prospectus. 
The Glad Philosopher. 
We have numerous letters compli- 
menting The Flower Grower. If 
these compliments continue we will 
ourselves begin to believe that The 
Flower Grower is pretty good. 
