The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1847-07-03
Names Of Flower.

do wish that our botanists, conchoocists,
and eniomologists, and the rest of our scientific
godfafhers and godmothers, would ST. sobery
down. little below the clouds and revis. their
classical, scholas'icai, and polyglotcal nomen.
clature! Yea, even that gardeners, and florists
especially, would take their watering pots. and
rebap,iz- all those pretty plants whose bou,bas-
tical and pedantical titles are enough 10 make
them blush and droop their modest heads for
shame. The fly -flapper is bad enough, with his
Agamemnon butterfly and Cassandra moth.
What's Hecuba to him, or he To Hecuba' But
| il is abominable to label our flowers with anti
quated, ouilandish, and barbarous flowers Of
speech. Let the horticulturists hunt through
their dictionaries, Greek and Latin, and Lem
priere's Mythology to boot, and they will never
invent such apt and elegant names rs the Old
English ones, TO be found in Chaucer, Spenser,
and Shakespeare. On, how swee,ly they sound.
look md smell In verse-charIning the owe and
nose, according 10 the Rosicrucian theory.
through the ear. Day's-eyes, ox-eyes, and lip
pes-of-cowes, have pastoral relish and poeii-
cal significance; but what song or sonnet would
be the swceter for Brunsvigia1 There is a
meaning in wind-hower, in cuckoo buds, and
shepherds clocks, whilst the harebcll Is assoca-
ted with the breezy heath, end the leporine ami
nal that frequents Il. When il IL named puss
and the bluebell spring mp in the minds eye to-
gether; but what image Is suggested by hearing
Of a schizenthus retusus! Then again, forget
me-not sounds like short quotation from Rog-
ers' "Plessures of Memory" lovc.lies bleeding
contains a tragedy in Its title, and even pick
your-mother's-h out involves q tale for the
novelist. But what story. with or without
moral, can be picked out Of a dendrobium, even
If IL were surnam~d Clu;terbuckii after the ego
tistical or sycophanticsl fashion of the present
day. There was jockey once who complain.
ed bitterly Of the sale Of race horse, just when
ne had learned to pronounce its name properly
-aoncesvalles-bu what was that hardship to
the misfortune Of u petty nuserynan, perhaps,
loosing his passion-fowcr when he had Just got
by hear, the Tacksonia pinnatipulal "Reform
il altogether" II looks selfish In the learned to
present such difficult nomenclatures, an if they
wished 10 keep the character, habits, origin, and
properties Of new plants to themselves. Nay,
more, il implies want Of affection for their pro-
fcssed favori'cs-the very objects of their atten-
tons, "liow, want Of affection, sir" Yes.
even so. my worthy Adam. For, mark me, If
you really loved your plants and flowers
'.Wsl SIR" Why, then, you wouldn't call
them such hard names.-Thomas Hood
Mustcal Devotion.
Yorkshire, and the adjoining counties of Ian
caster and Derby are celebrated for q love of mu.
sic its spirit pervades every rank of the people
in manner unknown and unfelt in the rest of
our Island. And amongst those districts famed
for musical taste and skill, Halifax stands pre-
elninently forward. There. as perhaps nowhere
else in England, may be found at stated periods,
fae justice Of the peace and the artisan side by
eide in the orchestra, practcing together their
divine art, and forgetting, for q time, the arti-
fcial distinctions set up in the world of men,
In an essay entitled e A village Oratorio," by
George Hogarth, justice, has been done to the
musicians Of this part Of Yorkshire. "Of these
singers and players" he says, speaking Of Choir.
issers ant instrumental performers, "very few
are professional. Most Of them are industrious
tradesPeoPie. cultivating music from love of the
art, and it. prsctice their dearest recreation."-
a: an instance OF devotion to the art we may
relate, that the Halifax Orchestral Society con.
sists Of between 30 and 90 member, most Of
whom reside i've or six milesft the towa, and,
for yeans past, It has seldom happened, even on
the darkest and widest night Of wsntss, ahst
any one Of IT. rustic msmben hes bssa ebcunt