372 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[December, 



Literature, Travels I Personal Notes. 



COMMUNICAIIONS. 



NOTES AND QUERIES-No. t9. 



BY JACQUES. 



Pronunci/iflon of Tertiu. — An amusing ex- 

 ample of the need of accuracy in naming plants 

 occurred the other day, when a gentleman new 

 to his collection of greenhouse treasures dis- 

 coursed too much on his elegant collection of 

 "Camillas;" a bookish listener asked if he had 

 many Evelinas. To this the new man replied 

 "he believed he had many fine specimens." 

 These titles designate the two clever novels that 

 were the delight of our grandmothers, and per- 

 haps to some of us, our great-grandmothers, and 

 they are still read and readable. 



The Petroleum business has grown from $27,839 

 in 1839 to 485,785,706 gallons in 1879-80. valued 

 at $37,109.58. In 1866 the value was 48 cents a 

 gallon, and in 1877, 20 cents, and in 1879-80 a 

 little over 8 cents. It is curious that this treas 

 ure was so long unknown. 



Northwestern Cedar and Tamarack wood cutting 

 is now a great industry in Michigan. 



Qems and Greengrocery.— Th& Natal Mercury, 

 speaking of the South African Diamond Fields, 

 says that next to diamonds, potatoes seem to be 

 the dearest thing, £G 10s. having been given 

 for a bag of them. At this rate, howeven 

 potatoes are still considerably cheaper than 

 carats. — Punch . 



Plant doctors, according to the Scientific Ameri- 

 can, may become a necessity ; the editor advo- 

 cates such a profession, and thinks we already 

 have made a beginning when we bore the bodies 

 of trees with gimlets and insert sulphur, and so 

 on. Who will become the first D. P. plant 

 doctor ? 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Robert Buist. — (See Frontispiece.) — On July 

 13, 1880, died at Rosedale, Philadelphia, Robert 

 Buist, aged seventy-five years. Horticulture 

 does not yet know the full value of the friend it 

 haa lost. When John Bartram was wandering 

 through the wild forests of the " Colonies," risk- 



ing his life among wild beasts and savages, and 

 exposed to innumerable privations and sufferings, 

 all for the love of flowers, he received no sym- 

 pathy from any neighborly friend. He wrote 

 rather complainingly to his friend Catcott, that 

 he knew not of a solitary one who would walk a 

 mile with him. Now, as we look back on the 

 proud position which he occupies, as the great 

 patriarch of American Botany, there are hun- 

 dreds who feel that they would gladly have 

 accompanied him and have felt proud of the 

 honor. Just so will futare horticultural genera- 

 tions feel towards Robert Buist. The present 

 know a great deal of what he has done for them, 

 but the full value of all will grow brighter as 

 time rolls along. 



Robert Buist was born at Cupar Fyfe, near 

 Edinburg, Scotland, on the 14th of November, 

 1805, and when quite young went to learn the 

 business of a gardener under the late Jamea 

 McNab, curator of the Edinburg Botanic Gar- 

 dens, where he imbibed that genuine love of 

 flowers, which was a marked characteristic of his 

 all through life. To complete his knowledge in 

 all other branches of gardening, he went through 

 a course at Eivaston Castle, the seat of the Earl 

 of Hai'rington, one of the most famous garden- 

 ing establishments in England. In August, 1828, 

 he arrived in America, and obtained employ- 

 ment in the nursery of D. Landreth, which at 

 that time was one of the best known in Amei'ica. 

 The Camellia houses were particularly famous, 

 and C. Landrethii remains to this day a worthy 

 monument of the early efforts of this firm to 

 improve the Camellia. Tliis nursery is now 

 wholly built over by the great city of Philadel- 

 phia, the ''Landreth Public School" being per- 

 haps all that remains to indicate the spot where 

 young Buist had his first lesson in American 

 experience. That first lesson was to hoe weeds. 

 Thirty years ago he took the writer of this to the 

 exact spot where he first struck the hoe in the 

 ground " with," said he, " the weeds half as high 

 as myself, and the tears running down my cheeks 

 as I thought of my native land, and wished that I 

 was still there." He soon obtained a situation 

 as gardener to Henry Pratt, who, at that time, 

 had perhaps the most beautiful garden in the 

 United States. This was at Lemon Hill, and wa« 



