HORSETAIL RUSH 



2844 



HOSMER 



to the surface only in spring and early summer 

 to lay its eggs. In burrowing into the sand for 

 food, the head, which forms part of the horse- 

 shoe shell, is thrust downward and the spine- 

 like tail is used as a brace to push the body 

 forward. As food the horseshoe crab is value- 

 less, but the strange object is interesting, as 

 it is one of the last remnants of strange ani- 

 mals which inhabited the world in its early 

 history. 



HORSETAIL RUSH, or EQUISETUM, 

 ek wise' turn, commonly known as SCOURING 

 RUSH, is a weed which quickly takes root in 

 waste and wet places. Only one genus now 

 remains, although in the beginning of the 

 world's history 

 many kinds flour- 

 ished. Some of 

 these were great 

 trees, as is proved 

 by fossil remains. 

 The present plant 

 is small and ten- 

 der, with roughly- 

 ridged stem, and 

 is easily identified 

 because of the 

 ease with which it 

 is pulled apart at 

 the joints. In a 

 few species the 

 stem is straight 

 and unbranched, while in others it branches, 

 giving the plant an appearance of a little 

 evergreen tree. The horsetail rush is flower- 

 less, and is allied to ferns and club mosses. 



HORTICULTURE, hawr'ti kulture, a word 

 which means, literally, the cultivation of a 

 garden. Horticulture, however, has long since 

 outgrown its original significance, for it has 

 developed into an important branch of agri- 

 culture, and is itself divided into four main 

 departments fruit growing, or pomology, re- 

 lating to the cultivation of orchards; the rais- 

 ing of vegetables for the home or market; the 

 raising of flowers and ornamental plants, or 

 floriculture; and landscape gardening. 



Just as scientific study has helped man to 

 derive greater profits from the practice of gen- 

 eral agriculture, so has the development of 

 horticulture taught him how to obtain more 

 satisfactory results in the cultivation of fruits, 

 flowers and vegetables. The successful horti- 

 culturist must know what soils and situations 

 are best suited to the various products of 

 orchard and garden, what special methods of 



HORSETAIL RUSH 

 (a) Sterile roots; (b) fer- 

 tile roots. 



cultivation are required for each plant, and 

 what insect pests or plant diseases are liable 

 to injure its growth. 



In America, the principles of horticulture 

 are not only taught in the agricultural col- 

 leges, but they are explained through the 

 medium of a considerable body of horticul- 

 tural literature. Between 1804, when the first 

 work on the subject was published, and 1914, 

 over 1,200 books on horticulture went through 

 the American and Canadian presses. About 

 fifty horticultural journals are now in circula- 

 tion. Another evidence of the liveness of the 

 subject is the attention given to school gar- 

 dens. This movement is rapidly gaining in 

 favor in the United States, in Canada and in 

 European countries. L.B. 



Consult Bailey's Nursery Book, also his Stand- 

 ard Cyclopedia of Horticulture; Davidson's Gar- 

 dens, Past and Present. 



Related Subjects. The articles in these vol- 

 umes which will be helpful to the reader inter- 

 ested in horticulture are very numerous there 

 are articles, for instance, on all the important 

 fruits, flowers and vegetables. It is not necessary 

 to index these here, however, as they are all listed 

 under their respective group headings. If the 

 following articles, with the Related Subjects in- 

 dexes under many of them, are consulted, the 

 range of reading will be found to be a wide one. 

 Agriculture Gardening 



Botany Herbs 



Burbank, Luther Landscape Gardening 



Disease, subtitle Nut 



Diseases of Plants Plant 

 Flowers School Garden 



Fruit Vegetables 



HOSEA, hoze'a, a prophet in the kingdom 

 of Israel, who began his ministry in the reign 

 of Jeroboam II and continued through the 

 reigns of four kings in Judah, a period of over 

 thirty years. Although a contemporary of Isa- 

 iah, he began to prophesy some years earlier 

 and ceased long before the latter's death. 



Book of Hosea, the first in the Old Testa- 

 ment by the minor prophets, not only in ar- 

 rangement but also in order of time. It con- 

 sists of two portions, the first three chapters 

 using the details of his own life and his wife's 

 unfaithfulness to him as an illustration of the 

 second part, where he laments the unfaithful- 

 ness of Israel to Jehovah in introducing idola- 

 try and other shameful rites into their religion. 



HOSMER, hahz'mer, HARRIET (1830-1908), 

 an American sculptor whose art in its tendency 

 leaned toward the classical. She was born at 

 Watertown, Mass., and studied under John 

 Gibson at Rome. In addition to a fountain 

 in Central Park, New York, and two foun- 



