THE SECRETARY'S PORTTOLIO. 193 



HARDINESS A RELATIVE TERM. 



Professor J, L. Bucld of the Iowa Agricultural College, in commenting upon 

 an item which indicated that the Chinese Wistaria was not quite hardy in the 

 vicinity of New York city, says : 



In our trying climate I have grown it in nursery rows and on trellis for a 

 number of years and liave not known it seriously injured. During the past 

 month I have noticed several fine, strong plants on trellis, in the central por- 

 tion of Iowa, on which scarcely a terminal branch was injured during our past 

 terrible winter. On one vine, on the grounds of Captain C. L. Watrous, of 

 Des Moines, I noticed a number of very large and well filled pods yet clinging 

 to the vine in June. I mention this to give an opportunity for saying that the 

 term hardy may have a varied meaning. The hardiness of a plant depends 

 often on its habit of determinate growth and the perfect ripening in autumn 

 of its wood cells. Plants native to the hot, dry portions of nortiiern Europe 

 and Asia may thrive perfectly in the hot, dry summer air of Iowa, and the ad- 

 vent of severe frosts in autumn finds them prepared for zero weather. On the 

 other hand, in the moister and cooler air of New York or Michigan the leaves 

 of such plants may less perfectly do their work of storing tlie cell structure, 

 causing them to be ranked as half-hardy or even tender. 



I had an opportunity to take lessons in this direction last week in Michigan. 

 Around Lansing and on the grounds of the Michigan Agricultural College I 

 was surprised to find such Chinese plants as Diei'villa Japonica, ForsyUda, 

 Spircea prunifoUa, Spircea ccdlosa, Hydrangea imniculata, Lonicera confusa, 

 Aralia cordata, and Fmnus triloba far more seriously injured by the past severe 

 winter than in central Iowa. On the contrary plants indigenous to moister 

 climates, such ascotoneaster, cystisus, hibiscus and apple, pear, plum and cherry •; 

 trees from the south of Europe endured the winter far better in Michigan than 

 on our prairies. 



NAMES IN HORTICULTURE. 



Among the originators and cultivators of fruits there exists a somewhat com- 

 mon practice of attaching to the names of their new productions the word 

 seedling. Thus we have the Albany Seedling, or even Wilson's Albany Seed- 

 ling, Hovey's Seedling, Dearborn's Seedling. Others again load down their 

 introductions with such superfluous words as favorite, king, queen, chief, and 

 numerous others, which fail to convey to the mind any special idea beyond the 

 assurance that the person bestowing the name either was thoroughly convinced 

 of its high value or otherwise had a motive for enforcing such assumption upon 

 others. 



The only results necessarily growing out of this redundancy of words would 

 seem to be that to use the name the speaker must lumber his sentences with 

 useless phraseology, while in letter, book, and catalogue the tiresome repetition 

 must be continued ad infmiiujn, ad nauseujn. 



To the use of subsidiary names, to express some valuable or distinguishing 



quality of tlie fruit or plant, or a fact in its history, there would seem to be 



less objection, although even such characterizing words should doubtless be 



used sparingly ; especially is this true of those which, from excessive use or 



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