376 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[December, 



answer given on page 342, near top of second 

 column. 



"Line 9 from bottom-^' A 'shrewd guess' is 

 thought to be a good or happy guess. Is that 

 what you mean ? 1 don't think they are shrewd." 



[Corrections and suggestions are always wel- 

 come. It may be well to say that a very large 

 number of our correspondents forget that the 

 magazine has to go to press nearly a month before 

 the date of issue, and that an immense amount of 

 correspondence comes in a few days before the 

 month, and great efforts have to be made to attend 

 to the wants of all, rather than have them lie over 

 another month. Considering the immense field 

 covered by the Gardeners' Monthly, and the 

 rapid and brief manner in which much of this 

 correspondence must be treated, the editor is proud 

 that so few errors occur. 



In regard to the Tropteolum, though a native of 

 the American continent, it was first received into 

 English gardens from the Canary Islands, where 

 it was grown under the name of Canary-bird 

 flower. Among horticulturists it received on this 

 account the name of T. Canariensis, under which 

 it is still so well known to this day, that if its 

 proper botanical name had been employed, few of 

 our readers would have known what we were 

 speaking of. However, if we are to speak botani- 

 cally,we might tell our readers that some botanists 

 do not regard it as Tropseolum at all, but would 

 have us call it " Chymocarpus," and there is a dif- 

 .ference of opinion as to its specific name, some call- 

 ing it T. aduncum, T. Smithii, or T. peregrinum. 



Those who were not "edified" by the very 

 brief way in which we felt compelled to treat a 

 very abstruse subject, may consult at greater 

 length Herbert Spencer's Biology. Spencer is one 

 of " some botanists " to whom we referred. 



We were certainly wrong in using the word 

 *' shrewd " in connection with Grant Allen's specu- 



lations ; "plausible guesses" would have been 

 better.— Ed. G. M.] 



DoG-TooTH Grass. — Dr. Gerard writes: "On 

 page 340 of Gardeners' Monthly you remark 

 that you would venture a guess that even our good 

 friends of the Garden do not know what M. De- 

 launay means by 'dog-tooth grass.'" This is an 

 old English name for Triticum caninum, Huds., 

 the Gramen caninum of the older botanists, and 

 the Chien dent of the French. It, as well as Cy- 

 nodon dactylon, is so called, says Prior, because 

 of ' the sharp-pointed shoots of its underground 

 stems.' Some grasses are said to be emetic and 

 purgative, as, for example, Bromus purgans and 

 B. catharticus. The long roots of Cynodon dac- 

 tylon have been held in some repute as a, substi- 

 tute for sarsaparilla." 



Distribution of the White Spruce. — "A. 

 M.," Pittsburg, Pa., says : "Referring to the letter 

 of ' W. D. K.,' in your November number, permit 

 me to add that I found magnificent specimens of 

 the White (sometimes called Blue) Spruce on the 

 slopes of Long's Peak, Col., at an elevation of 

 eight thousand feet, and smaller trees of the same 

 variety, to the exclusion of all other evergreens, all 

 the way from there up to the ' timber line,' say ten 

 thousand to eleven thousand feet elevations above 

 the sea level. Lower down there was a fair mix- 

 ture of Balsam Fir." 



[This note is an illustration of the confusion aris- 

 ing from the indiscriminate use of common names. 

 The "white" or " blue" spruce of Long's Peak at 

 the lower elevations is Abies pungens — the higher 

 ones chiefly A. Englemanni — the " Balsam " Fir, 

 Abies concolor. The one referred to in the No- 

 vember number is, we took to be, the original 

 white spruce, Abies alba, but which, as Dr. Gray 

 corrects in the present number, should have prop- 

 erly been credited to the black spruce. — Ed. G. M.] 



Literature, Travels and Personal Notes. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



THE $3750 ROSE : WM. FRANCIS BENNETT. 



BY peter HENDERSON. 



I suppose that most of the readers of The 

 Monthly have heard the story of Mr. Evans, of 



Philadelphia, having paid this large amount to 

 Mr. Henry Bennett, of London, probably the lar- 

 gest amount that was ever paid for the stock of 

 any rose in this country. Cheap enough it would 

 have been in all probability had it not been tram- 

 melled with the extraordinary condition that no 



