Would not our florist friends who wish to introduce rare and beautiful plants to public notice find it just as profitable to tell people just what the plants are which they offer, instead of manufacturing new fancy names for them, and not mention their scientific ones ? This practice is leading to a great accumulation of "common" names for various plants, which is undesirable. In the last American Garden one firm offers the "Orchid Water Lily," and gives no information as to its botanical name. The plant offered is evidently Pontederia crassipes, and is no more a lily than the so-called water lily and other plants called lilies. It is worthy of all the praise these gentlemen give it, and I hope they may sell a great many, for it is a very easy and interesting plant to grow in a tub of shallow water with a little fertile soil at the bottom. The plant has already been called. "Water Hyacinth," and though no more related to hyacinths than to lilies, the spike of bloom suggest the hyacinth more than the lily. - W. F Massey, N. C. Experiment Station.