1876.1 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



341 



RAIN-FALL AND THE LAKES. 



BY J. JAY SMITH, GERMANTOWN, PHILA. 



I was very much pleased with your paragraph 

 on page 310, of the October Magazine, regarding 

 " Trees, Rain-fall and the Lakes." Writers on 

 these subjects often run away rapidly with what 

 appears a good and netv theory. But has it been 

 proved by lengthened observation, carefully car- 

 ried out, that cutting down the trees prevents 

 rain-fall ? I observe in some recent foreign publi- 

 cations that it is doubted, and they bring, in 

 confutation, observations on the summer drying 

 up of the Arno, to show that Florence has always 

 suffered, though it is but lately that the moun- 

 tains which feed the river have been in the 

 course of destruction, or the denudation of their 

 trees. 



Let us try. Have the Falls of Niagara de- 

 creased in volume, or has the flow of the Missis- 

 sippi diminished in any material degree ? What 

 is wanted is " observation with extensive view," 

 and facts that science can recognize. 



[It is a great pleasure to have this brief bvit 

 pithy note from so intelligent a source as this. 

 The Editor of this magazine has had to stand 

 almost alone in opposition to the deductions of 

 the celebrated author of "Man and Nature," 

 and these too backed up by the full force of the 

 influential American Association, which adopted 

 a report of one of its committees in favor of 

 Mr. Marsh's views. We do not say Marsh's the- 

 ories are not true, but we do say that the rea- 

 soning ought not to satisfy a truly logical and 

 scientific mind. — Ed. G. M.] 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Vernacul.\r Names. — As we grow older we 

 get out of all patience with what are called 

 common names. It has been the writer's luck 

 to be a juror in several departments of the 

 Centennial Exhibition, — amongst others "Legu- 

 mes " and grains from foreign countries — in 

 cases where it was thovight his botanical knowl- 

 edge might be of some service in determining 

 what the different peoples were talking about. 

 We all know, for instance, that the English 

 " common " name of the Anagallis arvensis, is 

 " Pimpernell," but there are Austrians and 

 Hungarians in abundance who will stick you 

 out in an argument that " Pimpernell " is 

 Poterium sanguisorba. " Algaroba " we all 



thought was the Ceratonia siliqua, — and which 

 receives from our people the common name 

 of "St. John's bread," — but our experience at 

 the Centennial teaches us that if you send to 

 Spain or Portugal for " Algarobas " you may 

 get a dozen different things. One thing we 

 noted that whatever they were they were al- 

 ways Legumes — and perhaps the word is a 

 generic — a common name, and not a specific one, 

 as we have always believed. Again we find 

 among Spanish leguminous products " Lupins " 

 that are not of the genus Lupinus; and large 

 numbers of Beans with very different common 

 names by different growers. In fact we foiind 

 to our sorrow that the " common " names of 

 the world were entirely too common for us, — 

 and it was a great comfort to find in the mag- 

 nificent collection of Baron Angelo Porcari of 

 Palermo, that he had the botanical names to 

 his labels, as well as the common ones. It 

 enabled the judges to do full justice in tracing 

 out the origin of the articles exhibited, and 

 thus understanding from what they were "im- 

 proved," and was thus regarded by the jurors 

 as one of the most sensible and instructive of 

 all the world's contributions. 



We have a suspicion that "common" names 

 made all that great trouble at the tower of 

 Babel. 



How Error is Propagated.— It is more than 

 probable that much of the supposed differ- 

 ences of opinion which prevail on scientific 

 subjects, between distinguished men, come from 

 their imperfect understanding of each other's 

 statements. The writer notices this frequently 

 in his own case, and it is doubtless so in those 

 of others. A very distinguished English author 

 quotes some " observations of Mr. Meehan on 

 trees all growing together in his garden in Ger- 

 mantoim." By reference to the paper itself it 

 will be found that nothing was said as itali- 

 cised. They were not all growing together, 

 and any one knowing that fact, but not read- 

 ing the original paper, might infer that "Mr. 

 Meehan was not particularly exact in his facts." 



A"-ain in the English edition of Sach's Text 

 Book of Botany, Meehan is given as authority 

 for the statement that the various species of 

 Rubus rarely perfect seed in America. As 

 everybody knows the Blackberries seed freely, 

 they must have a poor opinion of Meehan's 

 facts. But if they will turn to the original 

 they wili;^see that what he really said was that 

 plants from seed in the natural state are of 



