62 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[February, 



zine was issued at S4.00 a year, and he believed 

 that horticulture would be served by a cheap 

 serial, which, while being intelligent, should 

 yet be able to reach the multitude where the 

 higher priced periodicals did not go. 



The war interfered somewhat with this plan, 

 as it did with so many others, and the magazine 

 had to change its course slightly ; but it has been 

 able to follow tolerably well, considering all 

 things, in the path marked out by its generous 

 founder, and the many thousands who in the 

 past have enjoyed its pages, and the many whom 

 we hope will for many years continue to enjoy 

 them, will not forget to whose foi-ethought they 

 have the work. 



Ever foremost in every good work for the 

 benefit of his fellows, and for the good of his 

 city, we feel sad at the thought that such as he 

 must go so soon, and so many useless lives left 

 behind; and yet it is only by comparison with 

 the common run of mankind that we are able to 

 see in such men as D. R. King, how much is lost 

 by the death of such a husband, father, citizen 

 and friend. 



AMxMON Burr. — We have only recently learn- 

 ed of the death of this well-known horticulturist, 

 who died at Dallas, Texas, in the Spring of last 

 year. His wife and daughters are still keeping 

 on the florists' business, in the old place near 

 the city of Dallas. 



Mr. George Gordon.— This gentleman, for 

 man}'^ years Superintendent of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society's gardens at Chiswick, near Lon- 

 don, is among the recentlj' deceased. He is best 

 known to our readers as the author of Gordon's 

 "Pinetum," which in a measure filled a great 

 want. Botanically it was an imperfect work, — 

 but it did more to make a knowledge of coniferous 

 trees known among people generall}' than any- 

 thing that preceded it, and horticulturists have 

 always been grateful to him for it. 



Those Plant Patents. — Though we have 

 often given reasons for believing that " patents" 

 for new plants are both impolitic and impracti- 

 cable, it may serve a good purpose to give the 

 following pithy chapter from the New York 

 Weekly Sun, edited by Mr. A. S. Fuller : 



" From a pretty close and familiar acquaint- 

 ance with the various new fruits that have been 

 raised in this country during the past thirty 

 years, we think the originators have received very 

 good prices for them, and in a^majority of in- 



stances five times their actual value. Nearly all 

 the new grapes have been retailed for the first 

 two or three years, and even longer, after intro- 

 duction, at from S2 to $5 per vine ; strawberries 

 at from S3 to $5, and evenSlO a dozen ; and new 

 potatoes, like Early Rose, at $100 a bushel, 

 while in one instance, S50 was given for a single 

 tuber. If we remember right, Dr. Grant paid 

 $1,500 for the original vine of the Eumelan 

 grape, and Mrs. Rebecca Peak obtained as much 

 or more for the Rebecca, and we think the most 

 ai'dent champion of patents in horticuture will 

 admit that these sums were in excess of what the 

 varieties named were worth, except for specula- 

 tive purposes. We might name scores of similiai 

 instances of exorbitant prices paid to originators 

 of new plants that proved upon propagation and 

 dissemination to be of little or no value. 



Really choice and valuable fruits, vegetables, 

 and plants always have commanded and proba- 

 bly always will command good paying prices, but 

 the poor and worthless will scarcely find a mar- 

 ket, even if they are patented. We have endeav- 

 ored to show in former articles that the granting 

 of patents for plants was entirely impracticable, 

 owing to the great rapidity with which some 

 kinds can be propagated ; when these are once 

 sent out, the idea of following or collecting a 

 roj'^ality is simply ridiculous. 



But even this is not the worst feature of this 

 proposed patent scheme, and we would like to 

 have its friends tell us where they are to get a 

 board of examiners to decide whether a fruit or 

 other plant was really a new one or not. Men 

 who have devoted their entire lives to the study- 

 ing of horticulture are certainly better qualified 

 to pass upon such products than those who do 

 not know one kind of pear or apple from ano- 

 ther ; and still if we look over the synonyms of 

 nearly every variety that has been in cultiva- 

 tion twenty or more years, it is quite evident 

 that there has been some trouble in getting 

 them properly identified 



Only a half dozen years ago two of our oldest 

 and presumably most learned and experienced 

 pomologists, together with a Professor of Bot- 

 any, visited Detroit, Michigan, as a special com- 

 mittee to decide upon the merits of the Mexican 

 ever-bearing strawberry, and they not only re- 

 ported it a new variety, but actually a new 

 species. It was named Fragaria Gilmani, but 

 it subsequently turned out to be the old monthly 

 ever-bearing, red Alpine, which had been culti- 

 vated in Europe and this country for nearly a 



