162 



to be the most important in the years 

 immcdiatel}' ahead. As Dr. Crow of 

 Canada once said: ". . . horticultural 

 science could make no greater mistake 

 than to underestimate the importance 

 of Horticulture at large to the amateur 

 and his special interests." 



Abraham Cowley in his essay on 

 "The Garden" explained the esteem 

 in which gardening should be held by 

 reminding us that: "The three first 

 men in the world were a gardener, a 

 ploughman, and a grazier; and if anv 

 man object, that the second of these 

 was a Murtherer, I desire he would 

 consider, that as soon as he was so, he 

 quitted our Profession, and turn'd 

 Builder." 



L. H. Bailey has written: "Every 

 generation sees some great addition 

 to the depth and meaning of the home. 

 . . . Every perfect home has its library; 

 so in turn it must have its garden— a 

 room, perhaps out-of-doors, in which 

 plants grow. . . . One third of our 

 city and village improvement is horti- 

 culture. Another third is achitecture; 

 and the other third is common cleanli- 

 ness and decency." 



Dr. W. H. Camp tells us that gar- 

 dening began 20,000 years ago when 

 man first used cultivated plants for 

 food. Many of these plants remained 

 as a matter of sentiment or because 

 they had become associated with re- 

 ligious ceremonies. Tulips, hyacinths, 

 narcissus, Star-of-Bethlehem were first 

 used as bulbous crops, like onions and 

 garlic. Others had medicinal properties, 

 as foxglove {Digitalis purpurea) from 

 which is derived digitalis; and sweet 

 scabious (Scabiosa atropurpurea) which 

 was used as a cure for the itch. Rose- 

 mary, sage, lavender, and many mints 

 were valued as herb plants. Tlie root 

 of elecampane was used as a tonic. Its 

 age is indicated by its name, which is 

 a corruption of the Roman inula cam- 

 pana. The garden pyrethrum (Chrysan- 

 themum commineum) is closely related 



IIORl ICULTURE 



to the source of the insecticide, pr)re- 

 thrum, derived from the dried heads 

 of C. cinerariaefolium, used to rub on 

 the body against lice and fleas. 



Perfume, too, had its value, as a 

 substitute for soap and water in times 

 when baths were less frequent. The 

 sweet-scented, orris root was used as a 

 dusting powder. Rose petals, lilac, lily- 

 of-the-valley— how many of the fra- 

 grances we value have come from 

 flowers. The dye, saffron, is from Cro- 

 cus sativus. The drug colchicine is from 

 the autumn crocus {Colchicum autum- 

 nale). 



Someone needs to chronicle more 

 completely the importance of Horticul- 

 ture to modern society. Tlie fleur-de-lis 

 appears in heraldry. The Chinese wil- 

 low pattern involving peach tree, wil- 

 lows, and garden, is only one of many 

 familiar horticultural designs on din- 

 nerware and dinner service. Rugs, 

 tapestries, wallpaper, mural paintings' 

 furniture, Corinthian columns, iron 

 work, pottery, jewelr)^— all have some 

 touch of Horriculture. Bailey savs "Rob 

 the race of the art suggestions that it 

 has had from plants and you rob it of 

 its architecture and its decorarions." 



In music we find the "Last Rose of 

 Summer," MacDowell's "To a wild 

 Rose," Tschaikowsky's "Waltz of the 

 Flowers." Most of such music is soft, 

 warm, tender, or sweet. In poetry' there 

 are Wordsworth's daffodils in "I Wan- 

 dered Lonely as a Cloud," Tennyson's 

 "Flower in the Crannied Wall," the 

 Mother Goose rhjmes of childhood, 

 Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of 

 Verses," and the senriments of James 

 Whitcomb Riley. 



In triumph we give the laurel 

 wreath, or in modem usage, "Orchids 

 to you"— a combinarion of the highest 

 phylogenetic form and the ulrimate in 

 modernity! In sorrow, we give the fu- 

 neral wreath and the floral tribute. In 

 affection we oflfer flowers— "A rose by 

 any other name, would be as sweet." 



