588 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
May 11, 1895. 
the case with the giant species above mentioned. 
Both may be seen in the nursery of Messrs. J. Laing 
& Sons, Forest Hill. 
ABUTILON SWITZII. 
Variegated Abutilons continue to increase in 
number, their differences consisting chiefly in the 
form of the leaves of the particular kind, and in the 
shade of colour constituting the variegation. This 
latter ranges from bright yellow to creamy-white, 
and is generally attractive when the plant is well 
furnished with foliage. The leaves of the new 
variety under notice are palmate, shallowly three to 
five lobed, and irregularly variegated, with a broad 
creamy-white or grey margin, ultimately becoming 
practically white. Compared with A. Sellowianum 
marmoratum and A. Darwini, the leaves are 
relatively small and pretty when seen in a mass. 
The variety, besides being useful for ordinary decora¬ 
tive purposes in the intermediate and cool green¬ 
house, might be useful in bedding designs by way of 
contrast to A. Thomsoni, A. Darwini, and A. 
megapotamicum variegatum. A. Switzii may be 
seen in the nursery of Messrs. J. Laing & Sons, 
Forest Hill. 
CINERARIA CRUENTA. 
The acquaintance of most gardeners with the genus 
Cineraria is limited to the well-known race of showy 
greenhouse plants which have been obtained by 
careful cultivation and judicious selection of the seed 
of good varieties from the above plant, and thus it is 
very seldom that we see the true species cultivr.ted, 
although it is well worthy a place in any collection 
of greenhouse flowering subjects. The aim of the 
florist in his improvement of the Cineraria has been 
to obtain plants of as dwarf and stocky a habit as 
possible bearing flowers of regular and even outline. 
The lovely strains of Cinerarias now sent out by our 
seedsmen attest to the excellence of the work done 
by the florist in this direction. Still C. cruenta is 
well worthy a place in the greenhouse, for, besides 
the interest attaching to it from the comparison 
which may be made between it and the florist's 
strains when both are grown side by side, it is a 
handsome and useful decorative plant. It reaches a 
height of several feet and its large loose cymes of 
reddish purple flowers have a distinctly graceful 
appearance. Considerable use is made of it in the 
greenhouse at Kew during the spring months; an 
example that might well be followed elsewhere. It 
hails from the Canary Islands, the year 1777 being 
the probable date of its introduction. 
PAVETTA BORBONICA. 
Of all the plants grown in gardens under the name 
of Pavetta that under notice is the most distinct and 
beautiful as far as the foliage is concerned. The 
leaves narrowly oblong, leathery, and deep green, 
with a bright red midrib, and yellow spots between 
the areas of the lateral veins. The spotting and the 
red rib gives character to the rest and beautifies the 
whole. The leaves are in pairs, each successive 
pair at right angles to the one below, and as they 
attain a length of 10 in. to 12 in., the plant really 
makes a beautiful and useful decorative subject that 
might be used for various purposes. Stove treat¬ 
ment is necessary for the plant, as in the case of 
Ixoras, to which [this plant is closely allied. We 
noted some fine plants of it in the nursery of Messrs. 
J. Laing & Sons, Forest Hill. 
VARIETIES OF ANEMONE APENNINA. 
Amongst early spring flowers none are more accept¬ 
able in their way than those of A. apennina, which 
exists in various forms in a wild state as do those of 
several other more or less familiar species. The 
flowers of the typical form are moderate in size, 
blue, and consist of ten to fourteen sepals. A. a. 
blanda has larger blooms, and flowers two or three 
weeks earlier than the type ; its stems and leaf-stalks 
are green. The sub-variety, A. a. blanda taurica, 
comes from the Taurus Mountains, and has the 
stems and back of the leaves red or purple. The 
flowers vary greatly from a deep to a pale blue, lilac, 
and rosy-lilac. Less well known is A. a. b. 
scythinica, has large white flowers, shaded with a 
beautiful porcelain blue externally. The leaves are 
bright green, with very narrow segments compared 
with those of any of the other varieties above 
named. All of them are of the easiest culture in 
moderately moist soil in sheltered situations, where 
they will not be exposed to the cold and drying east 
winds so prevalent in spring. They may be seen in 
the nursery of Messrs. Barr & Son, Long Ditton, 
Surrey. 
PLANT NAMES: THEIR DERIVATION 
AND MEANING.* 
I do not propose to speak about the names of the 
wild flowers of Great Britain. You are an assembly 
of gardeners, and are, therefore, naturally more in¬ 
terested in those plants which it is your business to 
cultivate, and with which you are more familiar. 
The names of the wild flowers of our country 
would, however, make a most interesting subject 
for some future paper, treating of the various names 
used by ancient writers, such as Shakespere and 
others, and also mentioning the local names of 
plants which differ considerably in different parts of 
the country ; and, if I might venture to suggest the 
idea to him, I think our friend Mr. Green would 
treat the subject in a most satisfactory way. As 
regards the common [English names of our garden 
flowers, I have been struck by noticing how few 
there are which belong exclusively to those which are 
only found in the garden or greenhouse. The Rose, 
the Violet, Heartsease, Pink, Wallflower, Mignonette, 
&c., are represented by their humbler relatives of 
the field, and there is only a limited number of 
English names for exclusively garden flowers. 
Among these I may mention the Carnation, Holly¬ 
hock, Love-lies-Bleeding, Marigold, Marvel of Peru, 
Passion Flower, Sunflower, Cockscomb, and 
Virginian Stock, while we have numbers of Latin 
names for garden favourites which are as familiar to 
us as the names of Daisy or Buttercup. For 
instance, look at such names as Auricula, Chrysan¬ 
themum, Cyclamen, Dahlia, Fuchsia, Magnolia, 
Pelargonium, Petunia, Tropaeolum, and Verbena. 
I therefore think that we must at once plunge into 
the midst of that vast assemblage of scientific names 
which it is my object to discuss this evening. And 
first let me draw your attention to the beautiful 
simplicity of our modern nomenclature, and for a 
few moments show you how we came to be able to 
describe each species of plant in the vegetable 
kingdom by two names. Previous to the time of the 
immortal Linnaeus, although generic names had been 
for long in use, the specific name of a plant was 
usually a descriptive sentence. For instance, I have 
an old book called Flora W., and I will read to you 
the specific description of the common Viper’s 
Buglos. 
Now Linnaeus got rid of all this verbage. He 
retained the generic name of Echium and substituted 
the simple word vulgare, so that henceforth the 
plant has been known as Echium vulgare, Echium 
being the generic and vulgare the specific name. 
This brings us a step farther on, and it will be my 
object to-night to say a few words as to the generic, 
for I fear we shall not have time to tackle the 
specific names, which I hope in some way or other to 
reserve for future treatment. As regards the generic 
names of plants I propose to classify them under 
five different heads as follows :— 
I. —Original names. 
II. —Mythological names and those of heroes of 
antiquity. 
III. —Names of places. 
IV. —Names of persons. 
V. —Descriptive names. 
I.—Original Names. 
By this I mean names that are found as applied to 
plants and trees by ancient authors. In the works 
of Pliny, Virgil, and other writers of antiquity there is 
abundant mention of plants and trees which are called 
by their then popular names. Very frequently their 
characteristics and habits are fully described, and it 
has been the endeavour of various authors by means 
of these descriptions to identify the species as closely 
as possible. But as you may suppose, it is frequently 
a matter of some difficulty, for constantly, when you 
may think you have settled the point, some further 
statement may appear which is quite inconsistent 
with the nature of the plant you thought you had 
identified. Therefore, though we may make use of 
some ancient Latin or Greek name for a modern 
plant, we cannot always nor even frequently be quite 
certain that the name we have used is the right one, 
though in many cases we may be pretty sure that 
we are not much in error. For instance, although 
we are tolerably certain that Beech is indigenous to 
Britain, Caesar says that the Fagus of Italy is not 
so. Yet Pliny's description of both the Beech and 
the Chestnut is so complete that we have no reason- 
A paper read by Mr. S. Arthur Sewell at a meeting of the 
Ealing Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement Society, on the 26th 
March. 
able doubt that Fagus is the Beech and Castanea 
the Chestnut—the solution being that Caesar had 
not penetrated to those parts of the island where 
they existed. We also know that Quercus is the 
Oak, Ulmus the Elm, Vitis the Vine, Rosa the Rose. 
A great many plants are also called by original or 
native names, such as Bamboo, the Indian name for 
the plant, Aucuba, which is the Japanese name, and 
so on. 
II.— Mythological Names. 
Some plants are called from mythological names or 
from those of heroes of antiquity. To this class 
belongs the genus Achillea, named after Achilles. 
Goddesses, youths, and nymphs have been favourites 
for the naming of beautiful flowers. Take for instance 
Amaryllis, Adonis, Andromeda, Hyacinthus, and 
Iris. Narcissus, we are told, was so beautiful a 
youth that being slightly conceited he actually fell 
in love with himself one day when he saw the reflec- 
of his face in a fountain, and so serious was his love 
sickness that he actually died of it, while from the 
place where he fell there sprung up the beautiful 
flower which has since borne his name. 
III.— Names of Places. 
Some of the genera of plants are named from the 
places where they are supposed to have originated, 
such as Arabis from Arabia, Aconitum from Acone, 
Berberis from Barbary, and Castanea from a place 
of that name in Thessaly ; but I do not find many of 
them. As a rule the country is more frequently 
named in the specific, such as Pyrus japonica, Scilla 
siberica, etc. 
IV. — Names of Persons. 
Here we come to a very much larger division. It 
seems to me that almost every Continental botanist 
that has ever existed is represented in the calendar. 
I say Continental because for some reason or other 
very few British names appear in the list, while 
Germans and French are legion. It will suffice to 
give a very few illustrations of well-known plant 
names, which are also the names of people:— 
Aubrietia from Aubriet, a Frenchman; Begonia 
from Michael Begon, a Frenchman ; Dahlia from 
Andrew Dahl, a Swede and pupil of Linnaeus; 
Gesnera from Count Gesner of Zurich; Fuchsia 
from Leonard Fuchs, a German professor ; Clarkia 
from Captain Clarke, who explored the Rocky 
Mountains; Gardenia from Alexander Garden of 
Charleston; Eschscholtzia from Eschscholtz, a 
German. Of the small plant called Linnaea borealis 
it has been thus written:—"Dr. J. F. Geonovius 
with the concurrence of Linnaeus selected this little, 
despised, abject, early-flowering, long overlooked 
northern plant to transmit the illustrious name of 
Linnaeus to posterity. All we can say is that the 
mighty naturalist requires no epitaph to make his 
name live for ever." 
V. —Descriptive Names. 
And now, having to a certain extent cleared the way, 
I have come to what is the most important and at 
the same time most difficult part of my subject. We 
have eliminated all the names of plants which may 
be called original, and have no meaning in them¬ 
selves except from a philological point of view ; also 
those names which belong to mythological or heroic 
pesonages of antiquity; names given as a consequence 
of their supposed place of origin; and names bestowed 
in honour of modern, gardeners, and men of science. 
We have therefore arrived at my fifth and last sec¬ 
tion, namely, those names with a descriptive meaning. 
As regards these I must premise that great numbers 
are excessively fanciful, others extremely far fetched, 
and many extremely doubtful. They are names 
principally if not entirely composed of Greek or 
Latin words, and are supposed to represent some 
leading characteristic of the plant. In this way all 
parts of a plant are requisitioned, but only one part 
in each plant. With one it is the stem, in another case 
the leaf, and in a third the root has suggested the 
characteristic epithet for a specific name. Then, 
again, whether it is tall or stout, large or small, has 
supplied the motive for a name. Its medicinal 
qualities are frequently invoked, and these attributes, 
I need hardly say, are in most cases rather doubtful. 
Some of the names are extremely dubious as to 
their origin, and are matters of entire conjecture, 
while in many it is useless to try and find out what 
they can possibly mean. Indeed, the result of my 
researches for the purpose of this paper has not given 
me such a high idea of the practical claims of our 
name-givers as wonder at the extraordinary richness 
of their imagination; and in explaining the meaning 
