1883.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



287 



cast upon my intelligence as a florist, until your 

 accomplished contributor, Mrs. M. D. Wellcome, 

 expressed her surprise that the writer of ' Amongst 

 the Flowers ' had not seen a Tropitolum canarien- 

 sis for thirty-five years. Now I would like that you 

 pubhsh this explanation, for 1 beg to assure Mrs. 

 Wellcome that I have been familiar with the Trc- 

 paiclum canariensis since my boyhood, and grow it 

 every year in my garden. The plant which I named 

 among the five supposed to be lost plants was the 

 Astragalus canariensis and I can not imagine how 

 the mistake should occur in a publication which 

 shows so much care, ability and knowledge of 

 scientific floriculture as the Gardener's Monthly. 

 I thank Mrs. Wellcome heartily for her kind atten- 

 tion to the matter and assure her that I admire her 

 taste and love for that beautiful plant, the growing 

 of which to reach perfection does her great credit. 

 I can only express my regret that she lives so far 

 away from Kingston, and promise her that if ever 

 I come within convenient distance of her home I 

 shall take pains to call and enjoy an examination 

 of her beautiful ' Canary Bird Flower,' and con- 

 vince her of the truth of what I say here." 



[The change was made by the editor, in view 

 of the fact that, so far as he knows, there has 

 never been any plant called Astragalus canarien- 

 sis, so named by botanists. Then the description 

 of this unknown plant seemed to fit the Tropaiolum 

 so well, that " Astragalus " came to be regarded 

 as a slip of the pen, on the part of the writer, for 

 Tropaeolum. As the matter now stands, it is not 

 clear what this Astragalus can be. — Ed G. M.] 



Rewarding Inventors. — It is a great pity that 

 only those who invent in mechanical affairs, can 

 profit by a patent right. There are numerous 

 valuable ideas that the world gets hold of, that are 

 just as worthy of recognition from society, but 

 which the world gets and gives nothing for. So 

 far as new fruits are concerned, for instance, the i 

 matter has often been ventilated in our columns. 

 No one denies that the discoverer of a good fruit 

 or flower should be well rewarded. Every one 

 knows that too often he gets nothing at all. The 

 difficulty is to find a way by which his right to it 

 should be effectually secured. It is perhaps this 

 want of power to reward, which leads to what 

 often appears to be innocent humbug. A man by 

 careful experiment finds that a certain species of 

 grass is the very best for lawns. If he gives the 

 name of the grass, it is simply worth so much in 

 market, no more. He can get nothing for the 

 good application of the grass, which is the chief 



value. But why should he not ? So he takes 

 another harmless grass, and mixes with the good 

 one, and advertises his " mixture " as the best 

 lawn grass. For this he can get a double price, 

 and he is paid for his idea as well as the actual 

 value of the grass seed. It seems like a fraud, 

 and even Barnum would call it humbug, but the 

 man consoles his conscience by the fact that he is 

 only protecting himself from a public which would 

 certainly take the result of his brain work for 

 nothing if it could. We must leave all this to 

 moralists. The mere reference to it at all comes 

 from a letter from Mr. T. Bennett, of Trenton 

 N. J. He states that he has, and from an excellent 

 paper before us, we believe that he has, made 

 some very useful discoveries in regard to the de- 

 struction of insects. He ought certainly to be 

 very well rewarded for his discoveries, but just 

 how it should be done is a question. Some one 

 suggested that he should apply to the Department 

 of Agriculture, and Dr. Loring replies that there 

 has been no specific appropriation from congress 

 for such purposes. It seems a dampening sort of 

 a reply ; but Dr. L. could say nothing more. 



Perhaps the day may come when congress may 

 establish a fund for rewarding those who make 

 valuable discoveries which cannot be patented, 

 but of which the public gets the benefit. This 

 fund applied under the control of a judicious 

 board of commissioners, would be a very hand- 

 some example for America to set. 



Select Plants for Industrl\l Culture. — 

 By Baron F. Von Mueller. We noted recently, 

 that this very valuable work had been translated 

 into German, in the old world. It is a pleasure to 

 note that our own countrymen are not to be out- 

 done by the intelligent insight of European coun- 

 tries, and that the enterprising publisher, Davis, of 

 Detroit, is about to issue an American edition of 

 the same work. It must be very gratifying to 

 Baron Mueller to find his labors receive this world- 

 wide appreciation, and we have no doubt from the 

 great value the work must be to the American 

 people, its sales will be gratifying to the American 

 publishers. 



Credit to the Late J. C. Louden Lovers of 



justice to the memory of this great friend and 

 benefactor to intelligent horticulture, will heartily 

 thank Mr. Hovey for his note in another column. 

 At the same time it is but fair to presume that our 

 Cincinnati friends simply omitted to say "in 

 America," which was no doubt all they intended 

 to claim in Mr. Mr. Strauch's behalf. 



