190 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



\June, 



was no sugar and no oil in the ground. Do not 

 Avriters on Botany rather shirk the topic ? 



The attention of the Agricultural Department 

 of the Government was called to the article 

 which appeared in the Monthly on planting 

 the Cork Oak. Can any one tell us if the 

 acorns were planted? 



DISTINGUISHING VARIETIES FOR PRO- 

 TECTIVE LAWS. 



BY MR. JACOB MOORE, MOUNT VERNON, ILLS. 



I presume Mr. Eugene Glen is the author of 

 the phrase "novelty entitling to protection," 

 and if so to him must you look for the definition 

 you require. Also I refer you to Downing's 

 work " Fruit and Fruit Trees of America " for 

 definition or descriptions of varieties. The long 

 lists of synonyms that work contains prove con- 

 clusively that varieties can be and are identified. 

 Doubtless it would be necessary to describe pro- 

 tected sorts as completely and minutely as pos- 

 sible, and in addition furnish a correct painting 

 of the fruit, plant or flower, with outlines of 

 various parts as might be deemed requisite. It 

 is necessary to call attention to the fact that one 

 feature of my system of protection is to give 

 protective letters only for sorts sufficiently dis- 

 tinct to be identified, and to remind objectors 

 that the system itself is in part only based on 

 the patent laws. The word exotic in previous 

 communication should be existing. 



[Downing's works nor any work would de- 

 scribe novelties with the precision required 

 for patent purposes ; nor would they if accom- 

 pained by colored plates. These works are use- 

 ful as approximate guides ; they help us by indi- 

 cating what any kind is not. If a person were to 

 have a Rhode Island Greening Apple, and igno- 

 rant of its name, and search Downing, he might 

 feel sure it is not Baldwin or Red Astrachan, or 

 some hundreds of others, but out of the two 

 thousand kinds described there he would come 

 at last to a few dozen wherein the descriptions 

 are so nearly alike that he nor any man could 

 tell what it was ; and the man who did decide 

 the variety for him at least would be some one 

 who had had personal experience with the fruit. 

 Xot even Mr. Downing with his vast knowledge 

 would undertake to name a score of apples that 

 he had never seen before from descriptions alone. 

 These facts are so well known to experienced 

 pomologists that we are compelled to look on 

 the discussion about patents for fruits as so much 

 waste paper. No Board of men at "Washington 



would undertake to decide questions of novelty 

 involving legal claims on the best worded de- 

 scriptions or drawings, unless they were of that 

 class which the poet says will go 



" Where angels fear to tread." 



We have given more latitude than perhaps we 

 ought to these discussions out of good feeling to 

 our correspondents, but believing that no better 

 suggestion than this of Mr. Moore can be offered, 

 we must decline further articles on the subject. 

 —Ed. G. M.] 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



A Rare Chance for Fine Orchids. — It is 

 a received maxim that money invested in Orchids 

 is equal to a chance in a good gold mine. The 

 larger they grow the more they are worth, as 

 they increase but slowly under culture, and 

 there are but few chances of getting stock but 

 by the very expensive plan of sending collec- 

 tors to tropical regions to hunt for them. The 

 leading English nurserymen send collectors 

 abroad especially to scrape up Orchids to supply 

 the demands of customers. There is a chance 

 now to prove whether the maxim is true in our 

 country as in Europe, as we learn that the very 

 fine collection of Mr. Geo. Howland, of Fish- 

 kill-on-the-Hudson, is for sale. We note some 

 very rare species in the list before us. 



Sam'l S. Boardman. — We may supplement 

 our note on Mr. Boardman's editorial career by 

 saying what we did not know at the time of 

 writing, that he is now attached to the American 

 Cultivator of Boston, which, already among the 

 leaders in the agricultural press, receives in- 

 creased strength by this annex. 



George Husmann. — This well known horti- 

 culturist who did so much to successfully intro- 

 duce grape culture in Missouri, has recently 

 been elected professor of Agriculture and Horti- 

 culture in the Missouri State Agricultural Col- 

 lege, and has also been added to the editorial 

 staft" of Colman''s Rural World. 



Entomologist to the Department of 

 Agriculture. — It is now said that Dr. Cyrus 

 Thomas was offered but did not accept the office. 



Franz Klaboch, — Nephew of the celebrated 

 Roezl, and one of the most enthusiastic collec- 

 tors of seeds and living plants, and especially of 

 Orchidaceous plants, died on the 17th of Janu- 

 arj' at Oajaca in Mexico. It was his second visit 

 to Mexico ; on his first he discovered the double 



