1-JO 



/•///•; i;.iA'/)/:.v/' A's mo\ riii v 



l{/>n/. 



iu»t exctM'diii'j; two years, to knowiiiulv iniitalc 

 any rotiisti-n'd trailt- mark or doal in nicrcliaii- 

 (lise hearing swell imitated marks witlionl au- 

 thority. Of eonrse. (lie invokinir of criminal; 

 law cannot be justified in this case merely as a 

 jiroleetion to (lie private in(eres(s of (hose who 

 liold trade marks, and it was not upon the theory 

 that the law was pa.ssed. It was seen (hat (hose 

 who accjuire a reputation for their jj;oods because , 

 of their superiority, have ever)' incentive to pre- 

 serve their purity, and that if they are protected 

 in the use of their brands the public will have 

 greater security for obtaininti good (jualities of 

 the merchandise it may ref]uire. Hence it be- 

 comes a public injury to counterfeit these brands, 

 and for the punishment of this the strong arm 

 of the criminal law may be properly invoked. 



Likewise it is a grevious public injury to have 

 spurious trees and plants disseminated; and if the 

 protection of the public from spurious brands of 

 coflee and soai).for example, will justify the in- 

 terposition of the criminal law, how much more 

 will its protection from the yearly increasing 

 damages resulting from the dissemination or 

 spurious trees, plants and seeds, warrant a simi- 

 lar interposition of that law !■' 



As will be readily seen, when a variety has 

 become so generally distributed, that all nur- 

 serymen have had an opportunity to obtain gen- 

 uine stock and propagate liberally from it, the 

 price of specimen trees or plants of that variety 

 will drop to the general average for specimens 

 of that species, and then there will be little in- 

 ducement to supply spurious specimens of it. 

 Hence if we prevent frauds ii. the sale of new 

 varieties, we shall put an end to the greater 

 part of the frauds now practiced. The fact that 

 with genuine stock from which to propogatc any 

 nurserymen can produce trees of the identical 

 variety produced by another nurseryman , renders 

 it impracticable to effect this reform by means 

 of simple trade marks, indicating by whom the 

 trees to which these marks may have been at- 

 tached were grown. But a copyright law would 

 give to an originator and his assigns, for a limiti-d 

 term, the exclusive use of the name he might 

 originally adopt to indicate his variety. As this 

 term would cover the entire period of the nov- 

 elty of a variety, and it is only by ihe wrongful 

 tise of an established name that these frauds can 

 be made profitable, the conclusion seems to me 

 irresistible, that a properly guarded copyright 

 law would aflbrd substantial protection against 

 such frauds. 



A^ 111 the scope of (ha( law I would suizgest 

 biictly. (hat any ]»ersnn who should make oath 

 that he bad oiigiuated a new and disdnct vari- 

 ety of (rees, shrubs, vines. plan(s, bulbs, tubers, 

 seeds or cereals, which had never been dis.semi- 

 na(ed. should, micler prr>per eondidons. receive a 

 certificate entitling him (o ]iro(ec(ion in the use 

 of the name he might originally adoj)! to indi- 

 cate that variety, for the period now given to 

 authors under the copyright law. with appropri- 

 ate damages in case of an infringement of his 

 rights. 



Provision shfiuld be made for declaring void 

 certificates granted on varieties which should 

 prove to have been previously disseminated 

 in any degree, and also for rcfpiiring the origi- 

 nator to indicate on all specimens, and in all 

 advertisements of the article, the fact and date 

 of his copyright. 



It should further jirovide thai the willful use of 

 a valid copyright name wi(hout authority in con- 

 nection with the advertisement or sale of goods 

 of the species to which the copyright name had 

 been applied, should be a penal offense, punish- 

 able by fine or imprisonment, as iw case of trade 

 mark violations. 



As I have already shown, the property in 

 copyright thus created, if the variety to which 

 it might have been applied was in fact superior, 

 would become valua1)le ; and it may be safely 

 assumed that the self interest of those who hold 

 copyrights upon names, which shall have ac- 

 I quiredsufficientreputation to ofl'er any temptation 

 { to their fraudulent use. will see that their rights 

 I are generally resjiected. and that the chances 

 I of having to surrender the profits of their fraud- 

 ulent sales and be prosecuted criminally, will 

 deter the great majority of those who now thrive 

 by frauds from continuing the same. These two 

 intiuences operating together cannot help secur- 

 ing to the public a much larger proportion of 

 genuine stock than it now gets, or fail to give 

 j to honest members of the trade a better chance 

 in the race than they now have. 



ED IT O RIAL NOTES. 



El lioi'EAN Notes by the Editor. No. 8. — 

 The public garden at Nottingham is called the 

 ''Arl)oretum," and comprises, perhaps, twenty 

 acres, but the ground is of a more than rolling 

 character, and so well taken have been all the 

 advantages that one might really believe it was 

 dou1ilp the extent. This, indeed, is the most 



