THE amp:rican botanist. 35 



Plant Groups. — "Botany for Beginners" suggests to 

 me that I learned when studying botany the proper mode 

 of classifying b^- the mnemonic word cogs — the initial 

 letters of Class, Order, Genus, Species. About that time I 

 was playing with the mechanism of an old clock, and I 

 noted as I turned the largest wheel once around, its cogs 

 made the next wheel revolve several times, that again 

 turned another wheel still more revolutions and so on, 

 and thus in a fanciful way I connected one class with 

 several orders, each order with several genera, etc. The 

 idea served my purpose — it may helj) some one else. — 

 Elwyn Waller. [This is an excellent method and will still 

 serve the purpose, though modern ideas would change the 

 letters somewhat. As now rendered it would be Class, 

 Sub-Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. — Ed.] 



Consider the Lily of the Field. — It is surprising 

 that church decoration displays sometimes so little "con- 

 sideration" for the lily of the field ! The beautiful red lily 

 of July, for instance, growing at the roadside, is pulled by 

 the hundred by ruthless hands, for the purpose of beautify- 

 ing the church. Often the tiny bulb is dragged out of its 

 sheltering crevice, and so is lost to all the summers to 

 come. Picked thus, in great, tight bunches, and crowded 

 into vases for alters or communion tables, it can hardly 

 glorify God nor be enjoj^ed by man. This method of 

 decoration is not only not "considering the lily," but it is 

 generally singularly unsatisfactory and ineffective. In 

 fact, wild flowers are not useful for decorative purposes: 

 they need , for their full beauty, the background of solitude ; 

 — one red lily, or two, or three, with tall grass, or the 

 greenness of briers and milkweed and scrub maples, may 

 be very beautiful and suggestive ; but in a mass the 

 beauty and suggestiveness is almost always lost. It is 

 better, and far more effective, to use for church decoration 

 a large simple treatment of branches, or long lines of vines, 

 w^ith here and there, perhaps, some deep, rich note of color 

 such as garden flowers supply much better than the shy 

 and single blossoms of the fields and woods. The story is 



