1882.1 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



187 



are fastidious about euphony and Greek or 

 Latin purity. So strongly liave we become im- 

 pressed with the truth ot this view, that on sev- 

 eral occasions we bave endeavored to substitute 

 Enghsh names for the Latin or Greek coin- 

 pounds by which the genera of plants are dis- 

 tinguished. Upon turning over the later vol- 

 umes of the Botanical R^'gister many such in- 

 stances will be found in imitation of the usual 

 English words Hound's-tongue, Loosestrife. Bu- 

 glos^, Soapwort. or Harebell, &c. . . . If such 

 English names are not universally adopted, it is 

 to be suspected the circumstance is traceable to 

 the indifference of the public to partial and in- 

 considerable changes, which are unseen in the 

 ocean of botanical nomenclature. That they 

 are important must be admitted ; that the per- 

 son most careless as to the difficulties of articu- 

 lation would prefer to speak of a Fringe Myrtle 

 rather than of a Chamtelaucium, or of a Grit- 

 berry than of Coniarostaphylis, will probably be 

 allowed on all hands ; and therefore we do not 

 confess discouragement or failure, but would 

 rather invite suggestions as to the more proba- 

 ble means of success where translation is neither 

 necessary nor desirable in all cases. Many 

 Latin names have from custom been adopted 

 into the English language, and no wisdom would 

 be shown in attempting to alter such words as 

 Dahlia, Crocus, Ixia, or even Orchis," 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Scarlet Flowers from a White Geranium.— 

 " J. H. C," Strathroy, Ontario, writes : " Enclosed 

 you will tind a photograph of the geranium 

 White Vesuvius, grown in my greenhouse, giving 

 a sprout from the main stem, and producing a 

 perfect head of bright scarlet flowers, thus giving 

 on the same plant a truss of pu^e white and 

 scarlet flowers on the one plant ; showing a 

 strange, and may be uncommon, occurrence in 

 the general culture or reproduction of nature-; 

 showing as Mr. Cannell, of Swanley, Kent, Eng- 

 land says, the Wtiite Vesuvius was a sport of the 

 Scarlet Vesuvius, which in this case has returned 

 back to its original." 



[These cases are not uncommon, but no one 

 has been able to tell how the change is brought 

 about. Chemical science can tell us how to 

 make colors in dead matter, but in living things 

 the law of color is not known. Simply that it is 

 a case of reversion is all that can be said. — Ed. 

 G. M.] 



Growth of Wood. — A Bay City, Mich., corres- 

 pondent kindly sends the following interesting 

 scrap from a local paper : 



" There is on exhibition at J. C. Zeigler's jew- 



elry store a rare curiosity and strong proof of 

 the healing nature in preserving vegetable life. 

 It is a specimen from an oak tree, irom two to 

 three inches thick, and originally about eleven 

 inches wide, extending from past the centre to 

 the circumference. Seven inches and a-half 

 from the outside, in being split off, reveals the 

 scar of a woodman's axe, which penetrated al- 

 most to the heart of the then sapling. There 

 are two or three distinct scars, and on the growth 

 that covered them up are the facsimiles of the 

 scars in relief. Of the solid new wood there 

 seems to have been 101 years growth indicated 

 by the rings, while there is proof that several 

 years were consumed in healing up the scar 

 sufficiently to show a distinct ring afterwards. 

 The new growth is seven and a-half inches thick, 

 and on the outside is seen the mark of last year's 

 fire. Between the tenth and eleventh ring 

 farther in is a trace of the fires of 1871. Sixteen 

 years fartlier back is another proof that the oak 

 over-3ame the flames, and still twenty circles 

 nearer the heart is another, and thus the features 

 of the year are written in the wood. Tlie piece 

 came from a tree which Mr. Gould, formerly of 

 this city, now of Beaver Creek, Gratiot county, 

 was cutting into staves. What axe made the 

 scar so distinctly revealed, and who was the man 

 who swung it, and what was he in search of in 

 the wilderness, are questions for the imagina- 

 tion. It was an axe and not a tomahawk that 

 left its trace, and was probably in the hands of a 

 white man, who perhaps wanted to develop 

 Gratiot county 120 years ago." 



[It must be remembered that all the interior 

 part of a tree is dead matter, and not capable of 

 healing a wound. Only the last layer of wood- 

 cells beneath the bark of last year is capable of 

 making more cellf from which new wood is 

 made. These may make new wood in time, to 

 cover a hole or wound, but not repair damages. 

 The only growth that ever occurs in the interior 

 of a tree is from the layer adjoining the pith. 

 An Ailanthus or a Paulownia with a pith cavity an 

 inch wide, will often be found to have closed to 

 a quarter of an inch or less in an aged tree. 

 Prof. J. T. Rothrock, the learned botanist of the 

 Pennsylvania University, in a recent address, 

 gave it as his opinion, that wood cells could be 

 formed from those in the interior, adjoining the 

 pith, for several or perhaps many successive 

 years.— Ed. G. M.] 



Yellow Choke Cherry. — The editor of t'.^e 

 Le Journal d" Agriculture Illustre, of Montreal, 

 kindly furnishes the following note : 



" I have seen Yellow Choke Cherries several 

 times in the Province of Quebec. The ' Cerise a 

 grappe ' is very common here, and some of the 

 fruit, when dead-ripe, is by no means to be des- 

 pised." 



