Letter from J.R. [John Ruskin] to William Robinson

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Scope & content: Written from Brantwood, Coniston, Lancashire. Manuscript
He thanks Robinson but he can only be sure in ‘Proserpina’ of the description of the wild flower; Robinson must answer for the potted ones; he always gives a Latin as well as an English name to every flower he has to name; one of his points is to cut out Greek except for genera to make the new name universally acceptable; he would never venture to name at all if he could not name in Latin; generally the abomination he has to deal with is in the Latin – Scrofularia [Scrophularia] etc or Funkia [now Hosta] – in this case he will keep orange lily for the lot but find a special one for this alpine species