174 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF NURSERYMEN 
Report of Committee on Nomenclature for June 1921 
Your chairman is Secretary of the American Joint 
Committee on Horticultural Nomenclature and a mem¬ 
ber of the Subcommittee doing the actual work of pre¬ 
paring the new Official Catalog of Standardized Plant 
Names; the other members of this Subcommittee are 
United States Botanist, Dr. Frederick Y. Coville and 
Frederick Law Olmsted. While the chairmen of the 
Joint Committee, J. Horace McFarland has been in con¬ 
stant consultation with this Subcommittee. 
The Subcommittee has finished its labors so far as 
preparing the initial copy for the forthcoming edition is 
concerned, and now follows the job of printing and dis¬ 
tributing. 
This Subcommittee has spent literally months in a 
most difficult, trying and laborious task, that both scien¬ 
tific and common plant names may become standardized 
in the American Horticultural world, toward the desir¬ 
able end of making buying easier. 
As the Subcommittee got deeper and deeper into this 
work they began to realize more fully that they were up 
against a man’s size job in every sense of the word and 
that only by giving solid time in approximately ten day 
units, would it be accomplished. Even then it would not 
have been possible to get ready for the printer this 
spring had not Dr. Frederick V. Coville and the United 
States Department of Agriculture fully backed up the 
Committee’s work by providing offices and almost unlim¬ 
ited library and office assistance, and the aid of many ex¬ 
perts in the Department. 
The result is manuscript for a book of probably 500 
pages, which the Subcommittee has placed with the Mc¬ 
Farland Company for printing, feeling certain this ac¬ 
tion would be approved by the American Joint Commit¬ 
tee; for in the preparation of this semi-technical work, 
the Subcommittee found it absolutely necessary to have 
constant advice and help in the matter of type and make¬ 
up from the printer who was to print it. Moreover, it 
was felt that accuracy, so far as humanly possible should 
be a controlling factor, and that a press that had success¬ 
fully printed Bailey’s monumental Cyclopedia had pre¬ 
eminently the required organization. 
The amounts subscribed by the constituent organiza¬ 
tions of the American Joint Committee has sufficed to pay 
the current expenses of the Committee and there is still 
a balance of $377.93 in the treasury of the Committee. 
But instead of a pamphlet we have a large book, which 
will cost from $4,000 to $6,000 to publish in numbers 
which will be at all adequate to insure wide enough dis¬ 
tribution to accomplish our prime object, namely, uni¬ 
versal adoption. 
Therefore, it must be immediately decided whether the 
organizations comprising the American Joint Committee 
will subscribe enough to finance the undertaking, or fail¬ 
ing, will progressive nurserymen and other horticultur¬ 
ists underwrite the publication? Surely, this burden 
should not be placed on the Subcommittee who have 
freely given months of their time lo a most exacting and 
laborious job, that American Horticulture might profit 
thereby. 
Attached to and made a part of this report are printed 
proof-sheets which show better than I can tell it, just 
what the new Official Catalog will be. You will see that 
it is a strictly alphabetical list of common names and La¬ 
tin names for practically all trees, shrubs, fruits and 
perennials in the American trade today, and including 
many new ones which it is expected will soon he intro¬ 
duced to general cultivation. 
Special groups supplied by organizations, societies, 
individuals specially interested in such groups and best 
fitted to give authentic name lists, appear in alphabetical 
order,, while certain large groups such as fruits, Iris, 
Rhododendrons, Azaleas and Peonies which have ex¬ 
tremely large lists of named horticultural varieties will 
appear suitably arranged in an Appendix. 
Labor difficulties and high costs of material have com¬ 
bined to delay typesetting; but with these conditions 
clearing up, and financing arranged for, the work should 
reach publication before 1922. 
It will be not only an absolutely necessary work of ref¬ 
erence in every nurseryman’s office, but a handbook and 
guide for every live employee in the field. It is a big 
beginning toward standardizing horticultural trade prac¬ 
tice in America. Even to those who are entirely commer¬ 
cially minded it will be a godsend—for if it is consist¬ 
ently and intelligenty used it means that the nurseryman 
and florist really will know what he is growing, advertis¬ 
ing and selling; and still more important his customers 
and prospective customers will also know; and that 
means tremendously increased business. 
Moreover, standardization of scientific and common 
names means a body-blow to the unscrupulous nursery¬ 
man, making deceit much more difficult, and detection 
and conviction more certain; and that in turn means more 
and better business for the honest tradesman. 
The American Joint Committee on Horticultural No¬ 
menclature should be a permanent Committee, for many 
corrections and improvements must be made, and so long 
as horticulture progresses so long will new plants ap¬ 
pear and new names be necessary; while hundreds of 
plants of necessity still must have suitable common 
names supplied. Registration of new plants and ap¬ 
proved names will become a necessity. If we believe in 
our business, let us waken to the fact that if we falter 
in the standardization of our business that Congress and 
State Legislatures will attempt to do it for us—and dis¬ 
astrously to American Horticulture. 
The Subcommittee believes that underwriting this 
publication is a safe proposition, and that sales that may 
be reasonably expected should return cost. But if every 
nurseryman becomes a booster for the Official Catalog of 
Standardized Plant Names, sales should be such that the 
American Joint Committee would have a substantial 
profit to continue the work now so well begun. It’s a 
business proposition and it’s up to you. 
For the Committee, 
Harlan P. Kelsey, Chairman. 
