156 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[May, 



reply — yes, I would do 'heap' better; there, 

 under your genial climate, I would certainly 

 find a better market for all the fine varieties I 

 either introduced or imported into this country 

 from Europe, than in this rough, mining county 

 of Nevada. I would also very likely find there a 

 better scope for my— I would not say talents, 

 but ideas and taste. This is all very true, but— 

 but it costs a great deal of money to move an 

 establishment like mine, no matter on how small 

 or large a scale it is carried on, and that money 

 I didn't and do not have; for I will tell you, 

 since you have been so kind to write me such a 

 friendly letter, that I had to start my nursery, 

 take care of it, enlarge it, with no capital at all 

 but my own'Jabor and exertions. And if to-day 

 I am the owner of the nice and valuable prop- 

 erty upon which is my nursery, I have the satis- 

 faction to say that I do owe it entirely to my- 

 self, and that I owe nobody a cent. 



" Should I be fortunate enough this season to 

 have quite a demand for trees and make a little 

 money, then I would, probably next f\ill, have 

 the pleasure of taking a trip down your way, 

 and I would indeed be very happy to make your 

 acquaintance, and live for a few days among the 

 good people of old Santa Barbara." 



CANIS FEROX CUM KETTLEBEES. 



BY "a collector." 



I see you have got a kettle to the tail of my 

 " Fremontia " dog that howled in the March 

 number (page 87). 



In many cases the kettle is the more important 

 appendage, but it seems to me that in this instance 

 the dog is the most valuable, for the kettle wont 

 hold water, whilst the dog as you see is still able 

 to howl. I may have howled on a false note, for 

 it seems to have grated on the editorial ears. 



Though we were both harping on the same 

 string, we neither of us seemed aware of it. "I" 

 also wish to say a word for American Horticul- 

 turists, those of them who are so in the broadest 

 sense of the word— not the Calendulae-culturists 

 but horticulturists with a big H— and " Ameri- 

 can " enough to try American as well as foreign 

 plants. 



I do not "suppose" there is a "dislike to 

 American plants." My orders and letters prove 

 the contrary, but the use of them is not as com- 

 mon as it ought to be. And I still maintain that 

 to be American is a smirch upon a plant's fair 

 name. But that ''nine-tenths of all the plants 



in cultivation in the Atlantic States are of Amer- 

 ican origin," makes such a hole in your kettle, 

 that the sun shines through it in the most ob- 

 vious way — in fact " nine- tenths " of it is gone. I 

 fear you have made a miscalculation, change 

 the ninth digit for the first one and you will be 

 nearer correct; don't you think so — now? 



I have no quarrel with Japan or other foreign 

 plants. I only wish florists would introduce 

 more of them. As to California trees not doing 

 well at the East, who has tried them, and what 

 sorts and where and for how long ? Give us more 

 light on this point, most sapient editor ! 



What my object in howling as I did, was "to 

 speak a word for American horticullurista," that 

 will set them thinking that our own land has 

 many handsome plants well worthy of attention ; 

 to create a love for plants to the manor born, as 

 well as foreign, not to the exclusion of either. I 

 have nothing but good to say of the Sauls, Par- 

 sons, and Suchs of America, and a few others of 

 that ilk — who are or try to be in the lead in the 

 introduction of good plants — and to whom we 

 owe much ; but to the Calendulse-culturists who 

 get their seeds " by the assortment " from Ger- 

 many, at him I howl my loudest, and I'll bite 

 him too whenever and wherever I get the chance 

 — "Cave Canem " (beware the dog). Despise 

 not the common because it is common ; praise 

 not the new because it is new; "hold fast to 

 that which is good," but try-try-try-is my mot- 

 to. Wishing you every success horticulturally,. 

 floriculturally, but not calendulse-culturally. 



[We look on a neighbor's garden from our 

 window, as we read this, and see Arborvitae, 

 Silver Maple, Am. Beech, Hemlock, White Pine,^ 

 Mahonia, Poplar, Birch, Am. Hornbeam, Cornus 

 Florida— all American. The only foreigners we 

 see from this limited window glance are Norway 

 Spruce and Tree Box. There is a vision of his last 

 autumn's perennial border. Well, we are not 

 yet prepared to retract the "nine tenths." — Ed. 

 G. M.] 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Plant Patents Again. — Those who try hon- 

 estly to find out how the discoverers of new trees, 

 flowers or fruits may reap the benefit of some 

 just legal protection such as discoverers in the 

 arts receive through the patent office, must ex- 

 pect to be indecently abused, should their care- 

 ful conclusions not happen to agree with those- 



