Editor Horticulturist: What's in a name! How much of quality, of beauty, nay, of real elegance, a name is capable of expressing! How prone horticulturists and florists to the use of the superlative and super-superlative in naming their pets! Only think of the "gems," "pearls," "rubies," "fairies," "queens," "beauties," "triumphs," "delights," "colossals," "mammoths," "giants," "spangles," "sparkles," "grands," "nobles," "elegants" and "glories" presented in almost any good-sized floral catalogue. He must have the heart of Pharaoh who cannot, when reading these names, have his soul filled with enthusiasm, and overflow with ecstacy, as he contemplates the vast amount of wonderful beauty hid in embryo plants and seeds. How expressive, how appropriate, how practical a name may be! If we seek for elegance, tenderness and delicacy, we find it in the gentler appellations of the feminine, such as "white lady," "May queen," "ladies' jewel," "lady of the sea," "seven sisters," "little Minnie," "the bride," "princess," "the belle," "Miss Ida," "Clara's gem," etc.

In seeking the grand, stately, majestic or noble, we find them in such names as "the victor," "prince royal," "General Lee," "Lord Derby," " king of scarlets," "lion heart" and "Socrates."

Shades, colors, tints and markings, together with size and qualities, are appropriately expressed in names of fruits or flowers, and names are the most practical when they indicate most clearly these features, and at the same time are samples of brevity and simplicity. We can hardly mistake the colors of flowers when named "purple gem," "rosy morn," "cloth of gold," "le nankin," "silver queen," "bridal wreath," "blue bird," "pink beauty," or "scarlet queen," "variegated," "striped," "spangled," "spotted," "zebra," all express markings in unmistakable terms; and should we procure plants bearing these names, we should expect "star-spangled" flowers of uncertain streaks and stripings.

Our "darkness'" and "Sambo" verbenas, our "black prince," "midnight" and "sable" flowers we should expect to assume the darkest shades.

Origin, productiveness, season and habits of growth may also be shown in names of fruits, as "Rhode Island Greening," "Jersey Blue," "Russell's Prolific," "Old Mixon Freestone," "New York Pippin," "Christmas Apple," "Autumn Strawberry," "Summer Queen," "Cluster Seedling," "Mammoth Cluster," etc.

Names are of great commercial importance in the sale of new plants and trees. All nurserymen are aware of this fact, and are willing to make their articles attractive to purchasers by the use of attractive, euphonious or startling names. Western tree - sellers know the superiority, in a commercial sense; of "Russian Crab" over "Tetofsky." No doubt more or less of caprice enters into such singular names as "Honest John," "Stump the World," "Sheepnose," etc.

Again we ask, what's in a name? Is there not more of utility and beauty, more of fancy and information than most comprehend? Surely it was a vast task that Adam performed when he named the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air.