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THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[ApriV 



State societies, it will be only fair to this to speak 

 of it as a model one, or of its report as a model 

 document. The State society has successfully 

 established auxiliary county societies which re- 

 port to the central body, and receive all the aid 

 and encouragement the central body can give to 

 them. It has often occurred to us that this 

 should be the aim of every State society, but did 

 not know the plan was already in such success- 

 ful operation as appears to be the case in Michi- 

 gan ; and it must be observed that these societies 

 appear to be genuine horticultural societies. 

 Consideration is deservedly given to pomology. 

 Fruit growing is an essential element of good 

 culture, and no horticultural society is worthy of 

 the name that does not honor it, and indeed, in 

 many instances, give it the post of honor. But 

 we have known professedly horticultural socie- 

 ties in which any attempt at general garden cul- 

 ture, outside the thousand acre, would be frowned 

 upon; and if any member appeared at the meet- 

 ing, in any other dress than cowhide boots or 

 blue-jean pants, he would be regarded as too high 

 toned for anything. As for bringing a pot of 

 primroses.or appearing with a buttonhole bouquet 

 in the lappel of his coat, it would be regarded as 

 an outrage on the Society. Evidently the day 

 for all this low tone is gone. To judge from this 

 admirable report the local societies are in the 

 hands of the most intelligent ladies and gentle- 

 men of the counties where they flourish, and the 

 pleasures of gardening, as well as its profits, re- 

 ceive the consideration to which the subject is 

 entitled. 



Yet, as before noted, it is a pleasure to remark 

 how admirably all matters connected with fruit 

 culture arewatched, and improvement developed. 

 The local catalogues of fruits, founded some- 

 what on the plan of the American society's lists, 

 is an excellent idea, and well done. It appears 

 to us, from this report, that Michigan is leading 

 in all branches of horticulture ; and those States 

 which have thought themselves supreme must 

 look to their laurels. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



The Malefactor's Tree. — There has been 

 controversy whether the tree on which Judas 

 hung himself, was the large tree Elder of Europe, 

 Sambucus nigra, or the Cercis siliquastrium, the 

 Red-bud, or " Judas tree." The partisans of the 

 last have gained one advantage by getting the 

 name of Judas attached to it. Again, there are 

 differences of opinion as to whether the tree is 

 disgraced by the association, or whether it should 

 not rather be honored as the instrument by 

 which such a wretch was put out of the way. On 

 this we have a note from a correspondent : — 



"The idea of looking upon the Elder as likely 

 to form a malefactor's gibbet-post, or gallows- 

 tree, on which the arch-traitor was suspended, 

 is too preposterous to give credence to. The 

 sacred writers are careful to conceal the kind of 

 tree from which the wretched suicide dangled 



And even the quaint and credulous Gerard, hon- 

 est old soul as he was, scornfully rejected the 

 slander, and in its defence says of the Cercis, 'It 

 may be called the Judas tree, for it is thought to 

 be that on which Judas hanged himself, and 

 not on the Elder, as is vulgarly said.* So much 

 for a profane \vriter,who thus ter.*ely and trench- 

 ently defends the honor of the Elder tree." 



Tree Peddlers andNew Subscribers.— "G M.," 

 Rochester. N Y., writes: ''Mr. Meehan says in 

 the Monthly that the ' tree peddlers are an un- 

 mitigated nuisance;' yet our 'tree peddlers,' as 

 he calls them, are neither slandercus nor do they 

 ever favor new customers at the expense of the 

 old. But you charge old subscribers full sub- 

 scription price for the magazine, while they can 

 send a new one for $1.60. I fail to see the jus- 

 tice of this arrangement." 



[The publisher places the above in the editor's 

 box. "G. M." is mistaken all through. 



1st. The Gardener's Monthly does not re- 

 gard the tree peddler as an unmitigated nuis- 

 ance. On the contrary, he regards the honest 

 and upright tree agent as one of the most useful 

 members of the community. 



2nd. The publisher does take $2.10 from new 

 as well as from old subscribers. He makes no 

 difference between new or old, but when an old 

 subscriber takes the trouble to hunt up a new 

 subscriber, and has all the trouble of collecting 

 the money, correspondence, and so forth, he 

 gives the old subscriber — not the new one — fifty 

 cents for his trouble. — Ed. G. M.] 



The Detroit Carnations.— John Breitmeyer & 

 Sons, Detroit, Mich., say: "Looking over the 

 advertisement pages in the March number of 

 the Monthly, we, to our surprise, notice on 

 pages 13 and 27, an insertion by Mr. Aug. D. 

 Mylius, and Messrs. W. B. & W. M. Taber, in 

 which it appears that they are offering the old 

 Carnations 'Grenadine' and * Hinze's White' 

 as new, under the names of ' H. Red ' (should be 

 ' Grenadine '), by Mr. Mylius; 'James A. Gar- 

 field ' (should be ' H. White ') ; ' James G. Blaine ' 

 (should be 'Grenadine '), by Messrs. Taber. Be- 

 lieving that we were the first to introduce them 

 into commerce (more than a year ago), and as 

 we have distributed them into nearly every 

 State of the Union under the names of 'Grena- 

 dine ' and ' H. White,' we deem it our duty to 

 bring it to the notice of the readers of the 

 Monthly by throwing a little light into this 

 name changing business of our neighboring 

 florists. Said Carnations are, very true, good 

 winter-blooming varieties, and possess, to some 

 extent, the merits said gentlemen claim for them. 



We have received many letters from our cus- 

 tomers asking to be informed what the difference 

 is between all these varieties, and in order to in- 

 form them all, we would beg you to give space 

 for this in the Monthly." 



[As the proof-sheets are passing through our 

 hands, we have a note from Mr. Mylius, explan- 

 ing matters, which we shall give in our next. — 

 Ed. G. M.] 



