132 
JOURNAL OF THS EQUAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIUTU. 
dicate their parentage. We may think this attempt to kill two birds 
with one stone as injudicious as the combination of nomenclature 
and description in the case of the Ivies and Hollies we 
have just now alluded to, but that is a matter for the botanists. 
We prefer here to treat the question chiefly from the gardeners’ 
point of view, and from that standpoint we think it will be 
admitted that the adoption of strict scientific rule would in 
this case be objectionable. 
For botanical or physiological purposes a scientific nomen¬ 
clature is essential, and every botanist knows where to 
seek or how to frame it. For garden purposes, where no 
such lofty purpose is aimed at, a vernacular nomenclature for the 
infinite number of garden varieties seems to us to be preferable. 
Waterer’s Holly, Williams’ Croton, Yeitch’s Dracaena, Paul’s 
Crataegus seem to us preferable to Ilex Aquifolium , var. Watereri, 
and so forth. And so, for the ever-increasing hosts of new 
varieties of Camellias, of Hoses, of Pelargoniums, of Carnations, 
of florists’ flowers generally, English or vernacular appellatives 
should be used, and such as should not be likely to cause con¬ 
fusion. To call a Pelargonium which is perhaps the offspring or 
representative of fifty or a hundred artificial crosses, by such names 
as carneum , roseum, longifolium is to run the risk of creating confu¬ 
sion between the very mongrel product of the gardener’s art and 
the relatively purely bred species. 
There is one objection to the use of vernacular names that must 
not be passed over—the difficulty which foreigners have in spelling 
and pronouncing them. In this country the greatest difficulty is 
experienced in spelling and pronouncing Eussian, Polish, Hun¬ 
garian, or even names so little separate from us geographically 
and linguistically as the Flemish. In how many cases nowadays, 
when Eussian enterprise is adding so many gems to our store, are 
we not perplexed by 
“ A name which you all know by sight very well, 
But which no one can speak and no one can spell.’’ 
How seldom can the possessor of such a name rank himself, 
out of his native country, among those of one of whom it has been 
said— 
“ Thrice happy he whose name ha3 been well spelt.” 
Put so long as nationalities and languages exist, so long will this 
difficulty remain. It has been proposed in this case also to us the 
Latin language exclusively, but while this would be most desirable 
