30 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[January, 



similar character have had an immense sale, and 

 hundreds have derived profit from them. It will 

 be no less the case with this. A capital thing, not 

 often done as well, is the Index. 



Ornamental Gardening for Americans. — 

 By Elias A. Long. Orange Judd Co., New York. 



No work issued for many years in our country 

 has come before us that we can more cordially 

 welcome than this. Books on fruits, flowers, and 

 vegetables, are common enough ; but on orna- 

 mental gardening generally, we have had nothing 

 that was worthy of intelligent attention and at the 

 same time just suited to the wants of every-day 

 life. Scott's "Suburban Home Grounds" is a 

 magnificent work. To our mind, not even Europe 

 ■with all its wealth of garden taste and wealth of 

 means, has issued its superior ; but it is a work 

 suited to the best specimens o! gardening — to the 

 wants of those already somewhat advanced in rural 

 taste ; or to the desires of those who want to make 

 perfection in the art a special study. No good 

 garden library is perfect without a copy of " Scott's 

 Suburban Home Grounds." But there are thou- 

 sands in our country who know but little ot orna- 

 mental gardening, who desire to know more, and 

 who have to be taught gardening almost as we 

 teach the alphabet to children. There have been 

 attempts of this kind before, but their misfortunes 

 were, they as a general rule mistook a want of 

 knowledge for stupidity, and they left the reader 

 with little desire to know more than what they 

 taught. This is not one of that class. Assuming 

 the reader to know little, he is not burdened, but 

 led on intelligently, till by the time he is through, 

 he will be an accomplished landscape gardener. 

 We really think that every home in the country 

 will profit by having this book in the library ; and 

 gardeners especially should get and study it. A 

 general diffusion of this book among those who 

 " lay out places," and do garden work, would be 

 a great blessing to gardening in America. 



The American Garden.— Messrs. B. K. Bliss 

 & Sons have disposed of their interest in the 

 American Garden to E. H. Libby, who will con- 

 tinue its publication. The magazine has been 

 ably edited by Dr. Hexamer, who we are glad to 

 note will continue in charge. It has been a valua- 

 ble coadjutor in the cause of horticultural prog- 

 ress, and we wish it a long-continued success. 



The Caterer.— E. C. Whitton, Phila. It is no 

 use to raise nice fruits or vegetables unless some 

 one knows how to cook them well. This is an ex- 

 cellent monthly magazine devoted to the kitchen. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Pronunciation of Veronica. — " Kate R." 

 writes; "You did not tell us which of the two 

 forms of pronunciation of Veronica we should use, 

 presuming there is but one correct way." 



[Our original correspondent who inquired about 

 Veronica has raised a storm around us — and yet 

 it shows how large is the number of people who 

 take an interest in the intellectual matters inci- 

 dental to horticulture. It so happens that for a 

 hundred years or more the same question has 

 been asked that " Kate " asks now. We can only 

 say that the correct pronunciation will depend on 

 the question of derivation. Those who believe 

 that the name is in any way connected with the 

 legend of the handkerchief will say Ve-roni'-ca; 

 those who regard it as derived from Betonica will 

 say Ve-ron'-i-ca. Horticulturists and botanists al- 

 ways use the latter pronunciation, and we note 

 that Professor Gray, in his " Manual of Botany," 

 adopts this pronunciation, though evidently lean- 

 ing, as Dr. Darlington did, to the ecclesiastical 

 theory of the name. 



To our mind the fact that this plant has been 

 named, and the pronunciation the same as Be- 

 tonica, in all probability ages before the legend of 

 the handkerchief became connected with it, is an 

 additional reason for the origin of the name as we 

 have suggested — merely a corruption of Betonica, 

 a family with which it was originally classed. — 

 Ed. G. M.] 



George Sterling. — " The subject of this notice 

 died in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 29th of last 

 May, aged seventy-nine years. His name as a 

 gardener, and particularly as a botanist, was known 

 throughout Britain. Uneducated and selftaught 

 botanist that he was, few men surpassed him as an 

 authority on the general nomenclature of plants. 

 The writer of this was an apprentice under him 

 while gardener at Melville Castle, near Edinburgh, 

 in 1842, and at that time the collection of hardy 

 herbaceous plants under the charge of Mr. Sterling 

 numbered over fifteen thousand species, and the 

 collection of Cape Heaths and New Holland plants 

 was probably unsurpassed by any private collection 

 in the vicinity, (jeorge Sterling was a stern disci- 

 plinarian though one of the kindest of men, and 

 the position of his workmen and apprentices was 

 no sinecure. Nearly every plant of his large col- 

 lection was distinctly labeled, and all too by his 

 apprentices and workmen at night on their own 

 time, often burning the midnight oil, for our own 



