Botanists -- United States -- Correspondence; Gray, Asa, 1810-1888 -- Correspondence
I wish to follow your lead, but should be disposed to go rather farther
than you do in adopting English names. For instance, I would certainly
adopt Mousetail instead of Myosure. Myosure is hardly more English than
before clipping its tail a little, and Mousetail is the exact
equivalent. Corydal and Astragal I quite like, as they have really no
English names. I incline to Crowfoot as a generic appellation. To extend
it over the whole genus is only doing what is so often done with
scientific generic names. In the case of genera having very strongly
marked subgenera, would it not be possible to let the subgeneric name
govern the popular nomenclature? as say--
Pear; genus=Pyrus, under it
Pear, with its species;
Apple, 1. Common Apple,
2. Crab-Apple, etc.
There are formidable difficulties about this popular nomenclature, yet
they must be surmounted in some way or other.
As we are making much of English, why not say “rootstock” instead of
“rhizome.” I do not like French forms. I would even say “pod” instead of
“capsule,” in popular parlance.
Kindly send me proofs as you go on. I want much to see them.
Wright’s collections in North Pacific Expedition are here, and he is
turning over his Behring Straits collection and trying to work it out,
with some help from me. There is a Hongkong collection; there may be
some of these he would like to ask you to name, so far as you may off
hand. The Japan collection I will elaborate myself. There is not so much
from the north as I expected. They had no chance to explore the small
islands connecting with the Kurile Islands. I have only peeped into one
or two parcels; but in one I saw two things which will interest you as
much as they did me. Imagine the two most characteristic possible
eastern United States plants, Caulophyllum and Diphylleia, both, I
believe, our very species. Tell this to Dr. Hooker!
The only domestic news I have to tell you is, that on a hot August day
our beloved Newfoundland dog was found dead,--really a sad loss. To
console us my brother-in-law, a fortnight after, sent me a puppy of the
same breed, an uneasy, frolicsome, awkward fellow yet, but promising to
be intelligent and very handsome. We could not bear to give him the
name of his lamented predecessor; so Mrs. Gray named him Hans,--a
souvenir of Pontrilas....
* * * * *
Dr. Gray’s dogs and cats were always well-recognized members of the
family. He had a great love of animals, which was warmly returned by his
different pets. In his early married life the kittens he helped raise by
feeding them with a dropping-tube from his microscope rather preferred
him to their young and careless mother, and, confounding all other men
with him, were perpetually scrambling into laps, to the surprise of
callers. Two grew into fine cats, who demanded a regular attention and
consideration from him, reminding him by gentle taps, one on each side,
when bedtime came.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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