94 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[March, 



every earnest soul from pedantry and bad Latin, 

 love of jaw-breakers, and every other misfortune 

 and illusion. 



[Certainly, we do not " sympathize with plain 

 ways of talking," as illustrated by Mr. Robin- 

 son's letter, which is inserted only because jus- 

 tice is invoked in its behalf. We are proud to 

 believe that the style of writing, employed both 

 by Mr. Robinson and Mr. Riley as above, is not 

 popular "in the country of your adoption." 



And, as it is a question of justice, our readers 

 will see it is far off the mark. We have never 

 objected to common names when they are com- 

 mon. We have Pansy, Violet, Sweet William 

 and hundreds of similar common names. These 

 are genuine common names, and we wish we 

 had more of them. We use " May flower " and 

 " trailing arbutus ;" these came to us from the 

 common people. They are truly common names. 

 Our point with Mr. Robinson is, that he is man- 

 ufacturing and issuing names as common names 

 which are not common, and of which not one in 

 a hundred ever will be. 



Dr. Gray is referred to as though he had coined 

 names as what Mr. Robinson is doing. If he 

 has, he is probably sorry. The writer of this 

 has attempted something of the kind, and 

 certainly regrets it. He fell into the error he 

 believes Mr. Robinson is still under, of believing 

 he could make common names for the common 

 people. He found they will make their own 

 names, and however desirable and pretty they 

 may be, we must wait till they make them. It 

 is not with common names, but with what in 

 propriety we may call their spurious and whole- 

 sale manufacture that we contend, proceeding 

 which the people themselves will overturn when 

 the " names " in question become common 

 enough for the public to take a vote on them. — 

 Ed. G. M.] 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Legend of the Cornelia Cook Rose.— This 

 rose we believe was raised by Mr. Koch, florist, 

 of Baltimore, in the usual way that new roses 

 are raised. He will no doubt be amused at the 

 following account of his eflforts, as given in the 

 Philadelphia Press : 



'''Cornelia Cook' is another very beautiful 

 specimen of the flower queen. This species is 

 quite a recent addition to the variety, and was 

 forced by judicious transplanting and gra/ting. 

 It is of a creamy white color, large and full, and 



also worth fifty cents apiece. Quite a little ro- 

 mance, so I was told, is connected with its name, 

 A young florist was deeply in love with a beauti- 

 ful young girl named Cornelia, and was engaged 

 to be married to her. However, she sickened 

 and died a few days prior to the wedding. The 

 heart-broken lover was almost distracted with 

 grief, and spent hours at her grave transforming- 

 the gra.ssy mound into a bower for Titania. In 

 life the young lady had a delicate creamy com- 

 plexion, and the lover determined to produce a 

 rose which would remind him of his lost one. 

 After repeated failures with different plants, he 

 at last succeeded, and christened the graceful 

 blossom Cornelia Cook. Sometimes it is called 

 ' Love's Last Gift.' " 



Flora of Australia. — Robert Brown, in the 

 beginning of the present century, collected an 

 enormous number of species. He made no dis- 

 tribution, however, till the collection fell into 

 the hands of Mr. Bennett, in 1858. Bennett 

 died in 1876, when the collection was divided. 

 Although the collection which went to Kew was 

 but the third set, it contained the great number 

 of 3,015 species. 



Pennsylvania Fruit Growers' Society. — This 

 Society, after a struggle of twenty-two years with 

 a limited name, becomes the " Pennsylvani?* 

 State Horticultural Association." Under its old 

 name it was found next to impossible to interest 

 the general public in its real work. At the re- 

 cent meeting in Harrisburg, there was scarcely 

 more than a dozen of the citizens at the meet- 

 ing, outside of the very large attendance of mem- 

 bers from other parts of the State. The general 

 belief was that a '' Fruit Growers' Society " was 

 a body of men who met together to groan over 

 the prospective short crop of peaches which 

 never occurred, but served to put up prices on 

 the down-trodden consumer ; or similar '' shop " 

 work. The Society has always embraced among 

 its objects everything which tended to make the 

 garden not only more profitable, but more lova- 

 ble, and in the pursuit of these objects it will not 

 at least be burdened in the future with a name 

 which misrepresented it before the best classes 

 in the communit)\ 



Michigan Horticultural Society. — The roll 

 of some of our Western horticultural societies 

 shows that the Great West is growing out of 

 childhood. Mr. A. Sigler, of Adrian, has been a 

 member of the Michigan Horticultural Society 

 for a quarter of a century. It must be a source 

 of pleasure when these old members look around 

 them and note how much for good has been ac- 

 complished by their public-spirited labors. 



