In the " Ramble " — Fourth Excursion 



tree, a shrub of only five or ten feet in New York, has 

 three times the altitude west of the Mississippi. Not to 

 multiply instances, these examples show how sensitive to 

 slight changes in climatic conditions our hardiest growths 

 really are. 



Reverting to the matter of popular names, most of 

 them originate either in some fancied or real property 

 of bark, root, or leaf, or in some trivial or utilitarian 

 aspect of the plant. How unfortunate that our stateli- 

 est and most picturesque growths should be thus belittled 

 by such commonplace terms. Shingle oak and box 

 elder must be so called because the timber happens to 

 be good for shingles and wooden -ware; '^pignut" 

 hickory, because swine eat them; "fetid" buckeye, 

 because of offensive odor ; ''clammy" locust, because 

 leaf-stems are sticky, when pink locust would have em- 

 phasized the glorious masses of rosy bloom ; and one of 

 the handsomest oaks must have its vulgar utility ever- 

 lastingly obtruded upon us in the name of '' post " oak, 

 when its cruciform, glossy, leathery leaf affords data for 

 a more dignified title. How prosaic, too, are hack- 

 berry, honeyshucks, choke-cherry, cucumber-tree, and 

 sour gum. One of our most ornamental growths in 

 early spring, a white mist in the April bareness, has 

 been nicknamed shadbush, simply because the *' run of 

 shad " occurs at about the same time. One of the 

 most honored names in horticulture at the present time 

 is ''dogwood" ; yet originally it was probably given 

 as an opprobrious epithet, for the worthlessness of its 

 timber; " dog " in past times having been a term of 

 contempt, as it is now under exasperating circum- 



113 



