io 1XTR0DUCTI0X 



by careless, irresponsible or unscrupulous growers and 

 dealers. These persons represent one of the great- 



est obstacles to our already too difficult task of 

 bringing order out of chaos; they are a serious handicap to 

 the horticultural progress of the day. Let us illustrate. On 

 working over the trade catalogs, one came to hand which 

 contained in its general list of herbaceous peonies ninety-seven 

 names, no one of which had occurred previously in any of our 

 lists or card indexes. Xo intimation was made in this cata- 

 log that any of these where new varieties, coming out ot a 

 clear sky, as it were. We grew suspicions and wrote to the 

 firm tor an explanation- Their answer was as guileless as it 

 was interesting. "Certainly," they said, "we bought a large 

 job lot of roots without names and supplied the names our- 

 selves that they might sell better." It was with a large sigh of 

 relief that we noted that their catalog was not dated and on 

 this ground it was at once consigned to the waste-basket. Bui 

 in cases where the magnitude of this sin is fully realized by the 

 offender, the spurious names may be masked and smuggled into 

 long lists of orthodox names in such a way as to make it im- 

 possible in every case to single them out. We find that Ameri- 

 can catalogs are just as bad in this regard as the European,. 

 and the enormity of this offence should in some way be im- 

 pressed on all those interested in peony growing on both sides 

 of the Atlantic. We are placing this important matter thus 

 boldly before the peony-loving public in order that a sentiment 

 shall be developed which will frown down frauds of tins kind. 

 The best we can hope for is an honor system which will prevent 

 any man smirching his own character and injuring his fellow 

 grower b\ such unprofessional and dishonest action. 



Tin-: Cornell System ©f Alphabetical Classification. 



\s soon as the work of examining the various lists of 

 varieties was begun, it became very evident that there was no 

 uniformity or system whatever in the alphabetical classification 

 commonly used. The first step therefore was to formulate a 



