1880.1 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



185 



U. Wait, is the name of a New York plumber 

 who advertises that all business is promptly 

 attended to. Xo doubt this plumbing frater- 

 nity has managed to be the most unpopular in 

 all America. 



It is not often that so emphatic an announce- 

 ment is made by a respectable English paper 

 as v^e find in the Pall Mall. It says, and proba- 

 bly truly: '' We wish here to reiterate an opin- 

 ion which we hold with no less anxiety than 

 conviction, that one of the most important of 

 all facts underlying the future of England is 

 this : Throutjh its extraordinary developement 

 of the grain-growing industries abroad, the 

 operation of the irresistible system of free 

 trade, the multiplication and aggrandizement of 

 foreign navies, the people of this country, (Eng- 

 land) are exposed to great peril of starvation ; 

 or panic of starvation, in the event of any hos- 

 tile alliance against us, which does not seem 

 impossible as things go. History must repeat 

 itself. ' God save the Queen.' " With millions 

 now in Europe under arms, and taken from 

 production, what shall we say of progress. The 

 condition of Europe is not happy. It gives up 

 one-third of its male population to sterile drill- 

 ing. How happy the man in his American 

 greenhouse. Well may the Spectator say, that, 

 " Through war the situation of mankind is be- 

 coming unendurable." 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Kind Words. — While sending an interesting 

 note for publication, a correspondent says : "I 

 was much interested in the last number. In my 

 humble opinion it has improved wonderfully 

 since 1872, when I first became a subscriber. 

 The correspondents come from so wide an ex- 

 tent of country, and the contents remarkably 

 varied." 



[We have had so many of these kind words 

 lately, that it is fair to assume that it is a gen- 

 eral sentiment. We suppose some credit may 

 be taken for editorial management, — but allow- 

 ing for all this, very much is due to the many 

 kind friends who so freely send us notes of their 

 observations and experiences. In this connec- 

 tion we may say that occasionally a valuable 

 communication may stay on hand several 

 months, because of some material referring to 

 some recent question requiring precedence. It 

 is not often that this happens, — but enough so 



to make this explanation of some service. — 

 Ed. G. M.] 



Dignity of a Seedsman. — In the recent 

 election in England for members of Parliament, 

 one of the candidates for South Lincolnshire 

 was Mr. Chas. Sharpe, the well-known seeds- 

 man. The other candidate was a gentleman of 

 leisure, who rents out properties, and, amongst 

 others, owned a book-stall at the railroad sta- 

 tion. The following correspondence has been 

 published : 



Mr. Charles Sharpe, the Liberal candidate, re- 

 ceived the following letter from the Rev, G. 

 Potchett : 



"Mr. Potchett has received an address 'To 

 the Independent Electors of South Lincoln- 

 shire,' accompanied with a request of vote and 

 interest from a 'Mr. Charles Sharpe,' of Slea- 

 ford. If it is the same Mr. Sharpe who keeps a 

 garden-seed shop in Grantham, Mr. Potchett 

 hopes that a vast majority of the electors will 

 mark their disapprobation of such arrogant and 

 intense presumption. 



•' Denton, Grantham, April 1." 



Mr. Potchett received the following reply : 

 " Sleaford. April 3, 1880. 



"Sir, — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of 

 your letter of the 1st inst., and I have the honor 

 to inform you that I am the proprietor of the 

 garden-seed shop at Grantham, and that I have 

 the presumption to aspire to sit in the same 

 house with the proprietor of the book-stall at 

 Grantham Station. I am, sir, your obedient 

 servant, Charles Sharpe. 



" The Rev. G. Potchett, Denton." 



Prof. Cope and the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia.— Prof. Cope con- 

 tinues his attacks on the Academy in The Amer- 

 ican Naturalist, much to the regret, we are sure, 

 of his best friends. It would not be just to Prof. 

 Cope to say he does not believe in his own state- 

 ments, — it is much more charitable to refer the 

 distortion of facts to some other source. But, 

 in justice to the Academy, it is but right to say 

 that his statement is not correct that " Prof. 

 Cope was dropped from the Council (of the 

 Academy) on account of absence from more 

 than six of the meetings. Prof. Cope having 

 been engaged in a scientific exploration in Ore- 

 gon." It would, of course, be a strange thing 

 for a society having in view the advancement of 

 science, to " fix a penalty for the absence in 

 question," and it is evidently the intention of 



