December 22, 1837. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
545 
gtt «****" If ’ as is stated 
basis ” or as Mr Will eor ff anisa | lon ls desirable “on a more popular 
of the presenfciaT” howTfb^- 0 ^ the ‘Idemocratic sympathies 
no gardeners are admitted? TW-" 1 th ?. J er y firsfc organisation formed 
meeting consists of fi v ) he Committee that was nominated at the 
and one horticultural bSflder ^^^erymen, two editors, 
of them : but at least- tlirm ' blut , ls f° un d with them or any one 
to make it fair) 1 th \ ee g ardea ers who are Fellows should be added 
committee of^ °V “ ^ ” basis - » -ay be said n 
the allegation that U a 1S «°° la ^ e /°t working. What, then, becomes of 
DouglasTa Felfow of the^o ie/, , ia to ° sma11 ? Mr - da ™s 
on ? And no (lonhf- * tbmk | why could not he be put 
Fellows and if t i.„_. ere are gardeners of the committees who are 
fellowship or It! G nofc * bere ou S bt to be. It is a question if 
a seat at the tables b if “in tW •++ be a acc f sary qualification for 
Council on a more ‘tA i eommittemen had power to vote, a good 
The Pnnn”? P°P" Iar basls would soon be chosen. 
also to the fortoghtly comm . ittee meetings, 
shoiild be confine! lhe -eetings are important, and 
educational charaJter b fl! % sci f tific - horti «dturaI, and 
on the Society’s resm/J^ ^ fc f tbe sbovvs bave be en shams—drains 
them. A basis of S’ f becaus 1 e practically no visitors paid to see 
respect to these meeting ’ ^ °“ a definite princi P le > is ^eded in 
unlJss e evt S remc 0l o 0 /r Ga ^ n , in g i<lea ” « tempting on the face of it; but 
^peciaLl 1 Mresnect^L", I - in f ° Unding ifc ( if ifc bc founded), and 
ChiswiclicannoM-iim admissions, it will prove a delusion and a snare, 
likely to lack a ." ardener manufactory, for it lacks, and is 
far better “ school^’; '° b y important essentials. There are numbers of 
Chiswick and t n ex,stenc e. and to rush a lot of “pupils” through 
more harm than ° n bbe , world as gardeners, would do much 
trusted howevpr°f ° d i" A practical and representative Council may be 
Sniy stite ’ Wlth thiS n ° ti0n - if ifc ever em erges from the 
subject to^ii^mSfr^ 116 / are "° doubt desirable, and should be provided, 
obligations ^ ^ proviso namely, that money is in hand before 
safest and ? ' , And in the meantime, is not Chiswick the 
A Fellow ^ resting-place and base for conducting operations 1 — 
because^t 7 ^ 17* tbe meeting referred to was only informal 
the commitfpp nr ca led by tbe Council officially assembled, and that 
and adopted by the meeiin?! 
TRIALS AT CHISWICK. 
HorticuR L uraf°Sn'~/ n ' Mr ' Sbirley Hibberd’s speech at the Royal 
folloS! * PWe!! f \ “PA 111 " lasfc Tuesday afternoon, occurs the 
nor- ° j. b^niswick should be.a place of final proof only ” “Everv 
income foTthe SoHpr 3 '” 10 ^^ 11 ^ 1 ' be charged) tber eby making an honest 
wfek a varltv ‘ ^ , The be ,| n g charged ” for sending to Chis- 
greatly alter the “ Pi final , P + r °-°f Wl11 15(5 val ueless, unless they also 
An inLnpp h C ; h,SWlck tnal rou tine ” from what it was formerly 
contSe do ^ fr6dUently occurred - aad ^ 
Chiswipi ° so , as * on " as f have a memory of the “ final proof ” at 
seedlTn? a r ftlr r k ln? S s 7 dlin Z Potat ° I induced a friend to send. This 
for foufve^T^ beei l ra - 1Sed from systematical crosses, was grown 
proof ” 'Their “fin h f n Sub “, ltted to tbe Chiswick authorities for “ final 
other variety^InJK 71* Set * down as synonymous with some 
six S ‘ ™ the * popular, and yet the cross had been made 
Chiswick Snow’wbp m t° re ’ 6 Sa 1 ’ d variety thouyh thus condemned at 
distinct from ^ kn0Wn and grown P roven C tons of to be as 
aistmct from its synonym as anyone could wish. So much for “ Chis- 
^ut doe n s not r t 0 rm^ a p tiS -” *7 7 l*™* cha ^ d " will worl 
to sr nri + , tr ° ubl e me much. I should think it about ;the last place 
Cbiaw^W ■ T der ^ UCb condlt ions. I will only add one thing—the 
Sever rt r in F - SUlt the / aiser of tb e Potato under mention-he 
ever tried to raise another after such discouraging “ proof.”_Q. 
PLANT NAMES. 
also of the Royal Gardens, D KewJ ’ f0rmerly the R -H.S. Gardens, Chiswick; and 
" in a name ? That which we call a Rose 
iJj any other came would smell as sweet.’' 
— (Shakespeare, “ Romeo and Juliet,” Act ii., Sc. 2 ) 
A name should be a lighthouse, and not a dark lantern.” 
It is nearly twenty years ago since I enjoyed the privilege that some 
of you here to-night can claim-viz., that of work and of study in the 
Chiswick Garden of the Royal Horticultural Society. I believe at 
.a h H^rA h V ard ? n T s 8 °mething like thirty acres in extent, having 
, J C ,! - V st o r ed orchard, a well-stocked arboretum, a delightfully in” 
terestmg wilderness-belt or “ wild garden,” richly furnished fruit and 
plant houses, and a staff of well-tried officials, of whom only Mr. A. F 
Barron, Mr. Douglas Dick, and perhaps a very few employes now’re- 
. Tb0 , S q e ^j re - tbe last of tbe P al my days of a garden historical 
and of world-wide interest. Amongst other visitors to the garden in 
those times came Robert Fortune, formerly the Society’s plant col¬ 
lector and traveller m China; R. Thompson, late foreman of the fruit 
department, and the original author of that valuable text-book, rightly 
entitled the Gardeners’ Assistant,” the second edition of whic work 
m“’d be in every gardener’s book-case. The late Mr. T. Moore, Dr. 
Tr.™’. PI 7 @T ead; fungologist, the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, Lieut.-Colonel 
77L l e ’ and many otbers wore aIso there on all council days, 
‘ \ w 0 were young at the time, looked on these veterans with 
Q ’ ^ 0Df ered if there was any chance of our winning golden 
tbo Rpv \r aS T th n y , ha , d and have worn 80 lon g. for happily Dr. Hogg, 
S®. r v , SL J> Berkeley, and Colonel Clarke are still with us. Mr. 
i ben i a ; S , now ’ was the respected chief, and his aide-de-camp, 
i • / er . lc 'l b ’ aus e> was then busily engaged in raising the new 
1 varieties of Coleus, Caladium, and Dieffenbachia, which at the 
i TC i^ y valuable and much admired. Even the painter (C. 
pi') \ ? nt , t le carpenter (G. Davis) were men above the average 1 
an< !. ammbic George Gale has but just left us ; and the seeds- 
an, dear cha.tty Benjamin Hide, or old “Ben,” as he was familiarly 
l a ‘ lec > w ’ aS ? I°, veable character—a genial, honest member of the old 
school of what he called the “ Japonicas,” which term he used geneti¬ 
cally as including all gardeners whatever. The word “Japonica”—a 
very common specific name at Chiswick, when Fortune’s collections 
were arriving from Japan—reminds me that I am pledged to suggest 
o you something about plants and plant nomenclature, and even if 
i tell you much that, you know already, still I hope there may be a 
eW T 7 i ln ) s and su Jg est ions in this paper worth your bearing in mind. 
I fie first use of a name is to distinguish different individuals, different 
places, or different things, and, unless it does this definitely and pre- 
ciseiy, it is a bad name. A really good name is that which leaves no 
doubt of identity or locality, and it should be, if I may use such a homely 
illustration— ‘like a donkey’s gallop—short and sweet 1 ” The shorter 
and prettier names are the better as a general rule. Remember always, 
°T)' er i> t a g°°d name yields light, and a bad or imperfect name 
really obscures truth by disguising facts, and I want you to look a little 
c eeper than nomenclature, and to dive down for yourselves into the heart 
anti soul, so to speak, of natural things. I need scarcely remind you 
that all original workers, all reformers, all earnest men, whatever, gain 
their reputation by the study of actual things. Darwin’s nomenclature 
is ot the simplest, but he not only placed botany on a higher plane by 
ms observations and his records of the life-history of simple things, but 
he really turned the whole river of modern thought and feeling. 
Nomenclature has always been beset with difficulties, and I am 
sorry we cannot say that it is perfect now. But there is a simple way 
ror you to make it perfect for yourselves, and the condition is this : 
A ways learn the actual meaning of a name you read, be it in Latin or 
Greek. This you can do to a great extent from Johnson’s “ Gardener’s 
Dictionary, or any other good work of the same kind. 
In olden days in England men of any celebrity were named from the 
P lacas they inhabited, or after the calling they followed ; thus we had 
, il) m , 1? Conqueror, William of Wykeham, or Geoffrey of Boulogne, 
the Black Prince, named after the colour of his armour, and the first 
Earl of Pembroke was named “ Strongbow,” presumably from his 
prowess in battle. In Sir Walter Scott’s “Fair Maid of Perth” you 
will remember the brave smith, “ Hal o’ th’ Wynd,” he who “ fought for 
his own hand ; ’ and another Scotchman, handsome and young, and 
famous in song, was simply known as “Jock o’ Hazledean.” This naming 
liom native or birthplaces would not do in these times of rapid transit 
and frequent removals, and the old custom of naming a man from 
his trade results to-day in having Glovers who keep a bakery, Cart- 
wrights and Carpenters who study science or law, Smiths who are artists 
or in the Church, while Tanners and Bakers, Turners and Goldsmiths, may, 
a,nd often are, engaged in any profession or calling rather than in those 
after which their ancestors were originally named. The giving of names 
also after geographical locations, or in allusion to some peculiarity in 
leafage or blossoming of the plant itself, has led the botanist into diffi¬ 
culties ; thus, amongst many other instances, Primula longifolia has 
really shorter leaves than many other species; Libonia floribunda is 
generally a very shy blooming plant in gardens ; Vallota purpurea has 
orange-red blossoms, not purple ones; and Narcissus montanus (N. pocu- 
liformis) is said by Salisbury to grow in deep valleys of the Pyrenees ; 
while only yesterday I sent to the British Museum and elsewhere a 
self-fertilising form of a South American Orchid, called Pilumna 
fragrans, having perfectly scentless flowers. All these instances go to 
prove that descriptive names can never be safely applied until after all 
the species, and even varieties, of a genus are collected and well known. 
Clusius, one of the earliest of plant collectors in Europe, got out of diffi¬ 
culties of this kind (v. “ Clus. Hist.,” 1601) by numbering his species 
I., If., III., instead of naming them ; and seeing that so many mistakes in 
naming arise from an insufficiency of knowledge, it is a pity some pro¬ 
visional system of numbering is not now resorted to whenever a doubt 
exists, a name only being given when it is quite certain that a plant is 
new and hitherto undescribed. If a rule of this kind was generally 
followed, we should have far fewer additions to that vexatious and con¬ 
fusing synonomy whieh now exists. 
(To be continued.) 
EXHIBITING AND JUDGING BOUQUETS. 
“ Amateur Florist ” is quite right when he says I am an 
occasional competitor at shows, but I do not think he competes very 
often, or he would not recommend me to protest against such a small 
matter as putting in a few Fern fronds. I did once speak about it, and 
the answer I received was something like this :—“ Do you think we have 
nothing else to do but trouble ourselves about such a frivolous matter as 
that ? No, Mr. ‘ Learner,’ do not grumble, but take your beating like a 
