1886.] TRANSACTIONS. 15 



A prize gained after close competition, upon the award of a 

 competent judge, is worth something for that reason only, if its 

 intrinsic value is slight. But what shall be the worth of awards 

 that ignore pomological science, asserting distinctions witliout a 

 difference and founding varieties upon a mis-nomer ? Yet, at a 

 recent Cattle-Show in this City, separate premiums were awarded 

 to Bonne cfEz^e and Brockworth Park, Pears; although they have 

 been identified, for years, as one and the same variety. The lat- 

 ter title being a fraud, — the synonym of a pretended novelty 

 quite "English, j'ou know ! " 



" What is /mn/y .^ " is a question not now for the first time 

 considered in these Reports. " Gardening Illustrated," a very 

 instructive English magazine, puts the conundrum in this wise, — 



"Wintering LobeHa Cnrdinalis : — I shall be much obliged by your 

 informing me how I ought to treat some plants of Lobelia Cardinalis 

 during the winter. I have only a small covered frame, which however 

 is not tolerably frost proof. Will the Lobelia plants stand being ex- 

 posed to winter weather, or must they be taken up and sheltered'?" 



To which the Editor replies ; — 



"The scarlet [crimson (!)] Lobelia is one of the curious plants that 

 puzzle even the wisest. In some gardens that we know, and no doubt 

 in hundreds that we do not know, it is perfectly happy in the open air 

 in winter. Places where it lives out of doors in winter are generally 

 seashore districts, where the plant is put in sandy loam. In the Lon- 

 don district, it is generally necessary to take the plants up after flower- 

 ing and keep them in a cold frame or in a greenhouse." 



All which must amuse or be news to the florists of Massachu- 

 setts, who can count upon the brilliancy of the Cardinal-Flower 

 with as much certainty as August recurs. By the brook-side and 

 along the margin of shallow ponds ; in every place, especially, 

 where cattle have been wont to wade and tread in the seeds 

 borne down upon the stream. The degrees of Fahrenheit are 

 not reckoned nor is proximity to the seashore taken into the 

 account. But the scythe too often exterminates. For the ques- 

 tion heretofore asked by the writer, — Is Lobelia Cardinalis more 

 than biennial? remains undecided. Charles M. Hovey insists 

 that it is not perennial. And if not, — how easy to explain its 

 disappearance in those meadows and along those rivulets where 



