1877.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



155 



pure desire, as pomologists, to see some justice 

 done to the great pomological interests, such 

 knowledge of their disposition never came to 

 Pliiladelphia: — nor we do not know that either 

 Brutus or Cassius ever did work like this ; but 

 if Massachusetts have any of these noble Ro- 

 mans in these days, she is quite welcome to send 

 some of them along next time. 



While on this unpleasant subject, we may take 

 the occasion to do justice to three of these judges 

 — Hoopes, Satterthwaite and Parry. These gen- 

 tlemen would have been extensive exhibitors 

 had they not been judges. They would undoubt- 

 edly have received honors as such, the record of 

 which they would have been proud to have 

 handed down to those who would follow them 

 as memorials of their work in the first one hun- 

 dred years of American progress ; but all of this 

 was sacrificed, because they could not as judges 

 honorably report on their own productions. It 

 is also but fair to state that while the pomologi- 

 cal judges from other parts of the country, who 

 were called in during the heavy week to assist, 

 by the Commission, were paid $100 for the week's 

 work, and which they earned much better than 

 some of the regular judges in other departments, 

 even this trifle was refused to the Philadelphia 

 judges for six months work, and it was not until 

 long after the Exhibition closed, that the more 

 honorable members of the Commission shamed 

 their associates into giving them at least enough 

 to reimburse them for the food they had eaten on 

 the grounds during the time they were engaged 

 in the Commission's work. 



We make these remarks without the gentle- 

 men forming that jury knowing anything of 

 what we write. But it is but simple justice to 

 them. The Commission would not go behind 

 the work of the New England gentleman, who 

 arranged the programme and left out Pomology; 

 the gentlemen forming the jury knew there was 

 little chance of their being recognized, yet at 

 the request of the Chief of the Bureau of Agri- 

 culture, threw themselves into a great task, 

 where there was no prospective honor or profit, 

 solely for the purpose of saving the great Pomo- 

 logical interests of the country from utter dis- 

 grace. They did at least expect to get the thanks 

 of the pomological community for this work; 

 but so far, nothing whatever has appeared of this 

 character, but very much of which this extract 

 is a choice specimen has, and this is their re- 

 ward ! 



The Tumble Weed. — Quoting our recent re- 



marks, the Prairie Farmer says : — " Oh no ! The 

 tumble bug — which by the way is not a bug — 

 could only make use of the weed as a means of 

 transportation for itself. The difficulty among 

 the masses is, they have no time to learn scien- 

 tific names. They leave that for the little circle 

 of savants who do the christening. The plant 

 is the white Amaranth, Amaranthus albus, of 

 the botanists. We think, however, it is not the 

 introduced variety, but a cousin indigenous to 

 the West, growing in clearings, in newly-culti- 

 vated prairie land, and intended, perhaps, for 

 the express purpose of scaring farmers' teams in 

 the Autumn when the tumblers are flying about 

 the roads and fields." 



This confirms what Mr. Wier says in regard 

 to the identity of the weed with its popular 

 name, though Amaranthus albus does not blow 

 about in that way, and Mr. Wier is most proba- 

 bly correct in his name, Cycloloma. Our good 

 cotemporary evidently thinks botanical names 

 a humbug — which by the way is not a bug — and 

 it is pleasant to note that it took the time even 

 to guess at Amaranthus albus. It is a new idea 

 that it takes more time to learn an intelligible 

 name, than one which requires numberless par- 

 agraphs to find the meaning of. Our friend does 

 not surely mean that intelligence is only fit for 

 "l)ig bugs" — which by the way are not bugs, 

 but "the biggest kind " of beetles ! 



[Mr. Weir's article on this subject, to which 

 the Editor refers in this note, has been crowded 

 out. — Proof reader.] 



Conservatory of Mr. Henry C. Gibson. — A 

 few days ago we enjoyed the favor of inspecting 

 the beautiful conservator}' attached to the city 

 residence of Mr. Henry C. Gibson, of Philadel- 

 phia. The structure is but about 50 feet long, 

 but is so arranged by paths taken round cir- 

 cular stands, as to seem double the size. The 

 chief object of our visit was to see a plant of the 

 exceedingly rare Vriezia Glazouiana, which is 

 probably the largest of all the Browaliaceous, or 

 to speak popularly,pine-apple like plants known. 

 It was throwing up a flower spike, already three 

 feet in height, and would probably be in full 

 bloom in a few weeks. The plant was placed in 

 a huge vase, with which it was admirably in ac- 

 cord. We were never so impressed with the 

 tasteful adaptation of these ordinary stiff" look- 

 ing plants to high architectural beauty as on this 

 occasion. The greater part of the collection is 

 comprised of very rare plants, difficult to pro- 

 cure. The small size of the structure makes 



