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JOUENAL OF THE EOYAL HOETICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 
ance of the authorities at Kew, or of those botanists who have 
made a special study of the order to which the new plant belongs, 
or is supposed to belong. In this manner not only is horticulture 
benefited, hut botany also, as by this means a knowledge of many 
new forms and a better acquaintance with old ones is obtained. 
Moreover it is impossible to over-estimate the value of the know¬ 
ledge which many of our nurserymen and their assistants have 
acquired from long experience, and from having constantly under 
their eyes particular sets of plants. What professed botanist would 
not envy the knowledge of plants possessed by a Yeitch, a Dominy, 
a Bull, a Williams, to name only a few among many ? 
On the other hand, when care like that above alluded to is not 
practised, or where a knowledge of plants is defective, all sorts of 
errors in nomenclature creep in; tallies, once rightly affixed, get 
shifted and cannot be properly replaced ; other tallies suffer from 
faulty copying. Errors of spelling creep in, and having crept 
in, spread with a vigour more surprising than satisfactory. In 
this manner perversions of Latin, or it may he of Erench or 
German, names become only too common, to the bewilderment of 
the amateur, the distress of the botanist, and the utter mystifica¬ 
tion of the poor gardener. 
In what has just been said we have had in view nomenclature 
and perversions of nomenclature applied in all good faith. There 
may he instances where changes of nomenclature or an improper 
application of names are made wilfully for the sake of some sup¬ 
posed advantage. If such exist it is needless to advert to them here, 
as everyone would reprobate them, and in the end the sin would 
surely bring its own punishment. 
Another of the many difficulties which beset the question of 
the Nomenclature of Garden Plants is that arising from the 
changes which botanists, with good or had reason, make. Ought 
these changes to he followed by gardeners or nurserymen 
or should they ignore them ? When followed partially 
endless confusion arises, as it is not practicable, so far as we 
can see, to enforce universal compliance, and so the same plant in 
one nursery hears one name while in another it is called something 
else. To take an instance : few, if any, botanists now accept 
Weigela as a genus. By Bentham and Hooker, Karl Koch and 
most later authorities, Weigela , or Weigelia (for it is spelt in both 
ways), is merged in Diervilla. This being so, are we in gardens 
to say Diervilla japonica and Diervilla rosea, or Weigela japonica 
