338 



CLOVES 



COBBETT 



like odor, and it has become the type of the great order 

 Caryophyllaceaa, which, however, is far removed botani- 

 cally from the Myrtacea?. The word "gilliflower " is a 

 corruption of caryophyllus. and, until Shakespeare's time 



500. Clove. 



Spray of leaves and flowers (1) ; an unopened bud or clove (3) ; 

 the expanded flower (2). 



and after, was applied to the carnation, but now-a-days 

 it usually refers to several cruciferous plants of the 

 genus Cheiranthus and Matthiola. 



CLUB MOSS. See Lycopodium. 



CNlCUS (Greek, knizein, to injure). Compdsitce. 

 THISTLE. A genus of perhaps 200 species, containing 

 many much-hated weeds, especially the common Thistle, 

 C. lanceolatus, and the Canada Thistle, C. arvensis, Fig. 

 501. About a dozen species have been slightly culti- 

 vated in rockeries and wild gardens. The genus Chamae- 

 peuce, now referred to Cnicus, contains 3 plants slightly 

 used abroad in subtropical and carpet bedding: C.Afer, 

 C. Casabonm, and C. Diacantha, which are cult, for 

 their rosettes of prickly Ivs. The fls. appear the second 

 year. C. benedictus is an old name of the Blessed This- 

 tle, for which see Carbenia. 



COBBETT, WILLIAM (1762-1835). The once 

 famous English author had two periods of en- 

 forced residence in America, and wrote "The 

 American Gardener," which is one of the spiciest 

 books in the whole history of American horti- 

 culture. Plate II. He was of thorough Saxon 

 ancestry, and while a gardener's lad and during 

 eight years of military service, made strenuous efforts at 

 self-education. In 1792 his personal liberty was endan- 

 gered by the publication of "The Soldier's Friend" (an 

 appeal for an increase of pay), and he came to Phila- 

 delphia in the autumn of that year. His first success 



was a pamphlet entited," Observations on Dr. Priestly s 

 Emigration," a bitter attack on the French Revolution. 

 He took the loyalist side in American politics, and is re- 

 garded as the founder of the American party press. 

 His attack on Benjamin Rush, the leading physician of 

 Philadelphia, for his advocacy of unlimited bleeding 

 for yellow-fever, resulted in a libel suit, and damages 

 of $5,000, which nearly ruined Cobbett, and sent him to 

 England in June, 1800. In 1802 he began "Cobbett' 8 

 Weekly Political Register," which he edited for 33 years, 

 and until his death, except during an interval of im- 

 prisonment and a second withdrawal to America. His 

 real work was domestic reform, and the circulation and 

 influence of his journal were immense. In 1801-2 he 

 reprinted his American writings in 12 volumes, entitled, 

 "Porcupine's Works." After 1804 he usually lived on 

 his farm at Botley, in Hampshire, where he conducted 

 many experiments. In 1817 he was again compelled to 

 leave England, and for the next two years he lived in 

 America. His life was one incessant conflict. He lived 

 to see the reform of 1832, and his work was fittingly re- 

 warded by a place in Parliament, but he was then too 

 old to do much damage, and he died within three years 

 thereafter. Cobbett's faults are all obvious, his egotism 

 towering above the rest, and barely falling short of sub- 

 limity. He was not a genius, but his talents were extra- 

 ordinary, and his versatility amazing. His "English 

 Grammar" (London, 1818), written from Long Island in 

 the form of letters to his 15-year-old son, was said by 

 Bulwer Lytton to be the only amusing grammar in the 

 world. Hazlitt declared that it is as interesting as a 

 story-book, and Alfred Ayers, in his admirable edition 

 (New York, 1883), declares that it is probably the most 

 readable grammar ever written, and that for purposes of 

 self-education it is unrivalled. (For a list of Cobbett's 

 writings, see Edward Smith's excellent sketch in the 

 Dictionary of National Biography.) After Cobbett's 

 death, his sons published in 6 volumes (beginning 1857) 

 " Selections from Cobbett's Political Works ; being a com- 

 plete abridgment of the 100 volumes which comprise the 

 writings of 'Porcupine, 'and 'The Weekly Political Regis- 

 ter.'" These 100 volumes, of course, do not take into 

 account his non-political writings, nor his editorial work 

 in the 36 volumes of "Cobbett's Parliamentary History 

 of England from the Norman Conquest, in 1066, to the 

 year 1803" (continued as Hansard's Parliamentary De- 

 bates), nor Cobbett's Complete Collection of State 

 Trials (afterwards known as Howell's), nor many other 

 works which he either edited, translated, or published. 

 The anti-Cobbett literature is exceedingly voluminous, 

 and almost every charge has been made against the 

 man, except that of being uninteresting. According 

 to Henry Cabot Lodge (whose masterly appreciation in 

 "Studies in History" [Boston, 1885], should be consulted 

 by the student immediately after direct contact with 

 Cobbett's writings), Cobbett's true value is understood 

 by his thoroughly representative character as a type 

 of his time and people. As historical documents, his 

 works are indispensable. 



Cobbett's horticultural writings of chief interest to us 

 are "Cottage Economy," "A Year's Residence in the 

 United States of America, and, most of all "The Ameri- 

 can Gardener " ( 1821 ) , which was reproduced with con- 

 siderable modifications as "The English Gardener," in 



501. Leaf of Canada Thistle (X %). 



London, 1827. The American edition of Wm. Forsyth's 

 excel lent "Treatise on the Culture and Management of 

 Fruit Trees," was published at New York and Phila- 

 delphia in 1802, and in Albany in 1803, and was one of 

 the most influential books on fruit growing in the 



