686 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 801 



words which are most often looked up in a 

 dictionary. I do not have to remind the 

 members of the section that at the Wash- 

 ington meeting in 1903, a committee was 

 appointed to define the simple word "bud," 

 and their difficulties apparently have been 

 so great as to prevent them reaching a 

 unanimous conclusion, since no report of 

 this committee has been recorded. 



In the Connecticut Agricultural College 

 an attempt has been made to establish a 

 garden largely on the plan of the pocket 

 dictionary and a concrete description of 

 what has been accomplished and what has 

 been planned for this garden, may perhaps 

 be the best method of bringing before the 

 section what I have to say on the subject 

 assigned me. 



The public for which this garden has 

 been planned is composed, first of regular 

 students in the agricultural college, sec- 

 ondly of students in the summer school 

 who are for the most part teachers through- 

 out the state, and thirdly of visitors who 

 are more or less interested in agriculture. 



One section is devoted to school gardens, 

 which are planted and kept in condition 

 by school children of the neighborhood, and 

 which serve as examples to the members of 

 the summer school class in school gar- 

 dening. 



The largest division is the systematic 

 section. In it are grown, arranged accord- 

 ing to their family relationships, in full 

 plots 9X5 feet in size or in half plots, 

 all the chief species of agricultural impor- 

 tance in the state. So far as conditions 

 will allow, the different plants are grown 

 in the same way in which they are culti- 

 vated as farm or garden crops, and this 

 section might well, therefore, be called a 

 ' ' crop garden. ' ' The familiar weeds, how- 

 ever, and some of the commoner wild plants 

 are included in their proper order along 

 with the economic forms. The Solanacese 

 may serve as an example of the arrange- 



ment of one of the families. A plot of 

 cherry tomato heads the row and with its 

 small berry of two carpels shows the primi- 

 tive condition of fruit. This is followed 

 by varieties to show the modifications in the 

 fruit brought about through cultivation in 

 size, shape, color, texture of coat and num- 

 ber of carpels. In the row are also repre- 

 sented varieties of egg plant, peppers, 

 potato, black nightshade and its more culti- 

 vated, though morganatic sisters— the gar- 

 den huckleberry and wonderberry, as well 

 as bitter sweet; petunias — single and the 

 derived double-flowered form; tobacco; 

 jimson weed, and matrimony vine. In a 

 similar fashion the Leguminoss, Graminese, 

 the Cruciferse and the more important gen- 

 era are represented by native and culti- 

 vated forms. 



The question which decides the admission 

 of a native form is not, "Is it rare?" but 

 "Is it common?" Perhaps the rarest 

 flowers in the garden are those that are 

 seen on such common biennials as cabbage, 

 beets and parsnips which are planted the 

 second year and allowed to show their sys- 

 tematic position by their flowers and fruit. 

 The commoner ornamental plants are not 

 neglected. Among the Compositae, for ex- 

 ample, dahlias, sunflowers and golden glow 

 will be found alongside of lettuce and chic- 

 ory, and among the Liliacese day lilies are 

 found as well as leeks and onions. It is a 

 continual source of wonder to the visiting 

 agriculturalist to see in a botanic garden 

 the dandelion lying down by the side of the 

 lamb 's quarters, and both led to live within 

 bounds a life of unobnoxious cultivation. 

 These weeds, as also the pig-weed and 

 "pusley" scorned by the farmer, are known 

 to every boy with the hoe, yet experience 

 shoM's that their names are often confused. 

 The very commonness of the dandelion 

 makes it all the better as a type to head 

 the row of the composite family. 



Edible fruits are left to ripen on the 



