30 



THE OARDENER'S MONTHLY 



\_January, 



Thoutjh a irrndiiiite of the Medical Department 

 of the riiivorsity of IVmisylviiiiia, Dr. Hou^^hton 

 was a native of Now Enuhuui, and in early life 

 was connected with journalism, which he subse- 

 quently ahandoned for the medical profession. 

 He was always fond of Horticulture, especially 

 fruit growing, and liis farm at Olney, near Phila- 

 delphia, gave abundant evidence of his taste in 

 this direction. He was a philosophic thinker, 

 and was fond of e.xpcrimenting on new ideas and 

 scientific discoveries in connection with horticul- 

 ture, with the result very common in such cases, 

 of benefiting others by his experience, much 

 more than himself. The early volumes of the 

 Gardener's Month!;/ are full of his generous wri- 

 tmgs, freely offering his experience to all, as are 

 the trasactions of the Pennsylvania Fruit-grow- 

 ers Society, and of the American Pomological 

 Society. The Pennsylvania Horticultural So- 

 ciety especially owes him a debt of gratitude for 

 years of unselfish work in connection with its 

 annual exhibitions. His early experience as a 

 journalist enabled him to address himself suc- 

 cessfully to the popular heart, andhe was gener- 

 ally successful in filling the hall with visitors. 

 His genial good nature never deserted him, and 

 in this feature alone, his presence among his 

 horticultural associates will be missed. 



QUERIES. 



Carnation Pinks. — M. N. Faribault, Minn., 

 asks: — "I see often advertised ' Carnation Pinks.' 

 What are they? I know Carnations, I think, 

 and I know Pinks, but what are Carnation 



Pinks?" [We hardly know what the growers 

 mean. In old times there was a distinction 

 between Carnation, Piccotee, and Pink. This 

 \v;is in the days when they were what is known 

 as " Florists' flowers." The names are all so mixed 

 now by the cut-flower cultivators that one hardly 

 knows wliich is which, and perhaps " Carnation 

 Pinks " moans that you can take your choice of 

 a name. Carnation is however the best name. — 

 Ed. G. M.] 



Foreign and Amkkican TrBERCSES. — A Buf- 

 falo, N. Y., correspondent writes : — " In the No- 

 vember number, page 348, you allude to Mr. E. S. 

 Rand, in connection with a gross misstatement 

 from the pen of "one of Boston's leading horti- 

 culturists" without apparently suspecting that 

 it was made on the antliority of Mr. Rand him- 

 self. The statement is " that the bulbs (tube- 

 roses) are im])orted from Italy and France, as 

 our seasons are not long enough to ripen them." 

 Now, in E. S. Rand's " Flowers for the Parlor 

 and Garden," it is said of the Tuberose (which he 

 prints Tube Rose) that "Our dried roots are 

 annually imported from Italy, where they ripen 

 their bulbs in the open air." (p. 199), and again 

 (p. 202), "Our climate is too uncertain to insure 

 a i)roper ripening of the bulb." 



[It may be that when Mr. Rand was preparing 

 the MSS. for his work, it was not as well known 

 as now that American tuberoses were exported 

 to Europe in immense quantity as well as used 

 so largely at home as to be almost the only ones 

 in use. At any rate allowing that the mistake 

 was originally Mr. Rand's, those who have so 

 recently used the statement in Boston, ought 

 to have known better than their teacher by this 

 time.— Ed. G. M.] 



ORTICULTURAL ^§OCIETIES. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Pennsylvania Fruit Growers' Society.— The 

 annual meeting of this Society will be held 

 this season at Lancaster, commencing the third 

 Wednesday in January. 



The Western New York Horticultural 

 Society. — Most of the winter meetings of the 

 State societies were held in December, but we 

 received no notice of them till after that number 

 went to press. We are glad of having an op- 

 portunity of saying that the W. N. Y. Hort. So- 

 ciety will be held at Rochester, beginning with 

 the 27th of January. 



