512 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[Octohi 



of the plants in the Cambridge Botanical Gar- 

 den, by Mr. William Falconer, the curator, with 

 the following results: 1,519 genera, all told; 

 5,901 species, all told ; hardy, 3,641; tender, 2,260. 

 Among these are 247 species of Orchids ; 387 

 species of Ferns ; 583 Cacti and other succulent 

 plants ; 42 Selaginellas ; 36 Bromeliads ; 46 

 Palms ; and 430 hardy trees and shrubs, together 

 with 112 half hardy ones, as Ancuba, Cupressus 

 and Hollies, and exceptionally small ones, as 

 Erica, Arctostaphylus and the like. 



PiCEA PUN6EKS. — Dr. Englemann decides i 

 what has been known as Abies Menziesii of 

 Colorado, and the Abies Menziesii of the Pacific 

 coast to be two distinct species, and has named 

 the Colorado plant Picea pungens. It is to be 

 regretted that this name has been chosen, as 

 on account of the confusion of generic names 

 that exists among the coniferee, it is like making 



two of one kind, as we already have a PinVis 

 pungens. It may be as well to repeat what has 

 been before noted in this magazine, that the 

 plants known as Abies under botanical rules are 

 Picea, and that those known as Picea are pro- 

 perly Abies. The transposition of these names, 

 begun in error, has been so widely circulated 

 that even botanists have held it hopeless to at- 

 tempt correction, and have mostlj'^ yielded to the 

 wrong. Dr. Englemann believes in always 

 sticking to the right, regardless of success, and 

 this is wh}'^ lie uses Picea in speaking of thi-i 

 spruce. 



The Ostrich Fern. — This rare fern,Stru- 

 thiopteris Germanica, is said by the newspapers 

 to have been found near Quakertown, Bucks 

 County, Pa., by Professor Porter. This is much 

 further south than it has ever been discovered 

 before. 



Literature, Travels I Personal Notes. 



COMMUNICA riONS. 



NOTES AND QUERIES-No. 5. 



BY JACQUES. 



Tlie writer has been asked to define the differ- 

 ence in value of a study or love for botany and 

 horticulture, and the study of music. The first 

 idea is, that bofany and horticulture contribute 

 vastly to observation and conversation. Who 

 talks music, and who, on a long journey, would 

 contribute most to the pleasure of a party — the 

 horticulturist and botanist (or say geologist, 

 also) or the performer who had wasted half a 

 young life in practicing on the piano? Surely 

 the one who understood the properties of plants 

 and the beauty and variet}^ of flowers. It be- 

 comes a question, the asking of which should be 

 a serious consideration, — Shall ladies be taught 

 botany and horticulture in colleges, or shall they 

 be crammed with metaphysics? It is useless to 

 assert that one must have a natural turn for 

 flowers in order to drink of the pleasures of the 

 garden and greenhouse — else why insist on mu- 

 sic for those who naturally care nothing for it? 



And here one is. led to observe that many a' 

 woman, when she goes into a region of flowering 

 plants, shows her ignorance at once by trying to 

 smell a fuchsia, a camellia, or a dahlia, and 

 many well known plants that are scentless. 

 We hope the time is coming when horticulture 

 will be a recognized subject in colleges and 

 schools. Till this is the case, exhibitions will 

 not be prosperous or profitable. The masses 

 must be taught. Carlyle ever condemned his 

 father for not teaching him botany and astrono- 

 my, so that he could find friends and conversa- 

 tion wherever he went. The Duke of Welling- 

 ton was asked by a lady to explain how the bat- 

 tle of Waterloo was won. He replied: "We 

 pounded, and they pounded, but we pounded the 

 hardest." So it will always be — the heaviest 

 pounders will win the day in science and be suc- 

 cessful. 



/. Veitch &i' So7i^s Catalogue of New Plants 

 for 1879, (London), is worthy of note. Two new 

 pitcher plants — Nepenthes Courtii and N. Stew- 

 artii — as figured, look ver}' tempting and desira- 

 ble, as do man}^ other figured plants, including 



