1882.1 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



247 



before the Scientific Committee of R. H. S. by 

 Mr Cummins, gardener to A. H. Smee, Esq., 

 Wallington. The spike in rising had encoun- 

 tered a stone, and as it could not go up it went 

 down and developed its flowers six inches below 

 the surface. The foliage was blanched, but the 

 flowers were richly colored with the proper blue 

 of Baron Van Tuy 11. 



Rainfall . in Utah.— A European scientific 

 journal places great stress on the following from 

 a Boston paper : 



" Horticulturists generally take the view that 

 tree planting has a tendency to increase the 

 rainfall, while the reverse is the case in sections 

 denuded of trees. The correctness of this posi- 

 tion is illustrated from the fVict that greater rain- 

 falls have occurred in Utah during the past sea 

 son than had occurred previously since the 

 Mormons have held possession of that territory. 

 During the past ten years large numbers of trees 

 have been planted throughout the farming sec- 

 tions of the territory, and the agriculturists are 

 now beginning to reap the reward of their per- 

 severance and foresightedness in this regard. The 

 subject of tree planting is one that has attracted 

 universal attention during the last decade, and 

 its benefits are beginning to be appreciated." 



To make the statement complete, it should be 

 added for every tree planted by the settler, they 

 cut away perhaps a thousand of the native trees 

 on their mountains. There is not a thousandth 

 part of the timber to-day in the Utah Territory 

 there was ten years ago. About all the planting 

 done in Utah has been fruit trees, which one 

 would not suppose to have much " forest " influ- 

 ence. Outside of the Locusts and Cottonwoods 

 of Salt Lake Cit}^ what other planting has been 

 done in the forestry way ? 



Seventeen Year Locusts. — Prof. Riley notes 

 that there are two distinct species of these. Each 

 agrees with the other in every respect except 

 that instead of seventeen years the other requires 

 but thirteen to come to perfection. The seven- 

 teen-year is named Cicada septemdecim by 

 Linnseus ; the thirteen, Cicada tridecim by 

 Riley. We should fear that in a case where 

 there was no distinction, some rascally dealers 

 could readily impose one specimen for another 

 on the unsuspecting purchasers. 



Wholesale Coining of Common Names.— In 

 referring to a plea for the manufacture of com- 

 mon names in advance of their becoming com- 

 mon (page 94), we remarked that Dr. Gray was 

 referred to in Mr. Robinson's letter as having 

 furnished an illustrious example which he was 



merely following, and that if Dr. Gray had ever 

 been led into that practice be was probably 

 sorry by this time that he ever attempted 

 it. In the last issue of Silliman's Journal, page 

 493, we read as follows from Dr. Gray's pen : 



" We have come to agree with De Candolle, in 

 urging that while vernacular names, i. e. com- 

 mon names, are freely to be used in their place, 

 they ought never to 'be made. A deliberately 

 manufactured vernacular name is a contradic- 

 tion and a counterfeit. Exceptions there may 

 be where a generic name may be aptly transla- 

 ted, but these are few." 



Tree Flowering White Mignonette.— It is 

 just where we look for the rapid multiplication 

 of easy common names that we find a new va- 

 riety of the common Mignonette referred to as 

 Reseda odorata prolifera alba. 



Substitute for Quinine.— There seems to be 

 no doubt but that a species of " Sage Brush " 

 which grows on the alkali plains of the West, 

 Artemisia frigida, one of the wormwood family, 

 has properties so nearly akin to quinine, that it 

 may possibly take the place of real quinine. 

 One teaspoonful of the extract is used in agues 

 in a glass of hot lemonade, before the chill 

 comes on. 



English Names. — The London Gardener's 

 Chronicle thinks the eflbrt to make English 

 names by translating the Latin ones no great 

 success. Even, it says, should the names do for 

 writing, they would scarcely do for " common 

 names " without causing embarrassment some- 

 times in good society. For instance it has been 

 proposed to call Cypripedium caudatum "The 

 long-tailed lady's slipper." We can get along 

 very well when we write it, providing we do not 

 forget the hyphen, but in conversation there 

 might be many an inquiry as to the kind of lady 

 intended. 



A Hybrid Cotton Plant.— The daily papers 

 have accounts of a new cotton plant raised by 

 hybridizing the Okra and the common cotton. 

 To a botanist it seems doubtful that two genera 

 like Hibiscus (okra) and Gossypium (cotton) 

 should be successfully hybridized, though the 

 genera are so closely related that such a union 

 could not be pronounced impossible. News- 

 paper statements of such facts as these, how- 

 ever, generally require confirmation. 



Opuntia Rafinesqui in Canada.— This pretty 

 hardy Cactus was recently found at Point Pelle, 

 the most southerly point on the mainland i^ 

 Ontario, by a little botanical party in which 



