584 



HORTICULTURE 



June 21, 1919 



HORTICULTURE 



Established by William J. Stewart In 1904 



VOL. XXIX 



JUNE 21, 1919 



NO. 25 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

 147 Summer Street, Boston, Mass. 



EDWARD I. FARRINGTON, Editor. 

 Telephone, Beach 292 



ADVERTISING BATES: 



Per Inch, 30 inches to page $1.25 



Discount on Contracts for consecutive insertions, as follows: 



One month (4 times), 5 per cent.; three months (13 times), 10 

 per cent.; six months (26 times), 20 per cent.; one year (52 times), 

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Page and half page space, not consecutive, rates on application. 



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Entered as second-class matter December 8, 1904, at the Post Offlc* 

 at Boston, Mass., under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. 



There are florists who are yet out of 



The publicity sympathy with the publicity campaign 



campaign now being carried on, but the number 



is continually diminishing. More and 

 more, the rank and file are coming to catch a glimpse 

 of what this work means to them personally. Then 

 they become ready to take a hand and help push the 

 thing along. The committees, officers and many enthu- 

 siastic members have "worked like beavers," for a year 

 and a half, incessantly, in an effort to make all florists 

 see the wisdom and far-reaching effect of our Publicity 

 Campaign," but there are some "logs" on which the 

 teeth as yet have failed to leave a mark. While it is 

 felt that this labor has not been lost, it is fervently hoped 

 that response will materialize very quickly now. How 

 much better it would be if those designated "non-sub- 

 scribers" would voluntarily send in the subscriptions 

 they are prompted to make, rather than wait until a 

 personal representative should call upon them. To be 

 obliged to cease effort simply for the reason that the 

 requisite funds were not forthcoming would mean noth- 

 ing less than disaster. A regular and persistent re- 

 minder to a forgetful public has worked wonders for 

 the florists' trade. We must keep the ball rolling. 



Beware the Law 



What marvelous men are the lawmakers of a country 

 — so earnest in their endeavors to make laws, so anxious 

 to protect everything and everybody by laws, ever on 

 the lookout for opportunity to extend the authority of 

 the law. to make it so all-embracing that we their flock 

 may be so sheltered and protected that no hurt can 

 reach us. How happy the people with such an army of 



wise, guardian law-givers. How proud Moses on his 

 celestial throne must be to know that the ten commands 

 he was intrusted with have been so amplified that a 

 million and more ponderous tomes rather than two 

 tables of stone are required on which to inscribe the 

 law. Blessed are the lawgivers, they shall inherit the 

 earth. Beg pardon, "acquire" is a more correct word, 

 and it is questionable whether the future tense is at all 

 necessary. 



Our newspapers keep us fully informed of the wise 

 and thoughtful work in general accomplished by the 

 lawmakers, and the journals devoted to more limited 

 interests detail the attention our guardians give to 

 every detail of modern life. Thus in Horticulture 

 of June 7th I read that "a bill has been referred to the 

 House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce 

 making it a misdemeanor for any person to ship in inter- 

 state commerce any nursery stock which does not bear 

 on each tree, shrub or plant, or on the original unbroken 

 package thereof, a label stating the true, accepted and 

 correct name of the variety of such nursery stock, the 

 name of the person who grew it, and the place where 

 grown. Under the head of nursery stock are included 

 all field and greenhouse-grown plants, such as fruit trees, 

 fruit tree stocks, trees, shrubs, vines, cuttings, grafts, 

 scions, buds, and all other plants or parts of plants for 

 planting or propagation." 



The system of naming plants in present use is 

 founded on the work of Linnaeus published in 1753, and 

 from then until now botanists have differed among 

 themselves as to the "true and correct name" certain 

 plants are entitled to bear. In this country there are 

 two schools of botanists. One adopts the so-called 

 Philadelphia code of rules, the other adopts the so-called 

 Vienna code of rules, and they cannot agree as to 

 whether a Pecan, Pignut and Shagbark should be gener- 

 ieally called Hicoria or Carya. The views of the two 

 schools may be likened to parallel straight lines, "being 

 in the same plane, do not meet, however, for they are 

 produced in both directions." 



What an extraordinary body of men the nurserymen, 

 seedsmen and florists must be in the eyes of Congress 

 who is going to make them umpire on all these veed 

 questions of botanical nomenclature and punish failure 

 with fine and possible imprisonment. It is my pleasure 

 to know many nurserymen, seedsmen and florists in this 

 country (and in other countries too for that matter) and 

 1 esteem them as wise business men but truth to tell 1 

 never realized until Congress pointed it out that the 

 wisdom of these men exceeds that of Solomon and all his 

 ilk. 



E. H. WILSOX. 



P. S. — Since writing the above it has occurred to me 

 that, since Congress considers the nurserymen, seeds- 

 men and florists capable, of settling all the botanists' 

 difficulties as to the "true, accepted and correct names" 

 plants should have, it might be a fit and proper thing 

 to send a few of these men to Washington, Paris, Mos- 

 cow, Peking and other places where differences of 

 (■pinion obtains and let them settle the trivalities cur- 

 rent there. Hanging, or, the Chinese method of slicing 

 into a thousand pieces, might be considered fitting pun- 

 ishment for anv failure. E. H. W. 



