ii6 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 263. 



But it is not only the linemen wlio interfere with these, the 

 most strikingly beautiful features of our landscape. The road 

 commissioners or highway commissioners (I do not know their 

 legal title in Plymouth County, but their proper title is road- 

 agents or highwaymen) whet their scythes when their private 

 acres have been mown, and go fprth about the middle of Au- 

 gust to dull them along the road-sides. There seems no 

 science or art, no reason or plan in their work. Here, where 

 the wild border actually encroaches upon the road, it is left in 

 peace ; there, where it discreetly keeps its distance, it is piti- 

 lessly cut down clean back to the slone wall. Occasionally 

 one sees the taller, more distant growth left intact ; but one 

 feels it has been by accident, not by design, for at the next 

 step some perfecdy wanton act of vandalage is noted. Fortu- 

 nately, road-side Nature is so bountiful and energetic with us 

 that, 'when one returns the following summer, the signs of 

 August depredation are not often painfully visible — tliat is, 

 they are not to unaccustomed eyes ; itisonly theeyesof theold 

 resident which remember that here, where there used to be 

 lovely tall thickets of wild Roses and Viburnum and tangles of 

 luxuriant vines, there is now only rough grass and the sprouts 

 of bushes and vines to come. 



Where road-side growth is so very luxuriant, some trimming 

 and pruning, and even cutting down, must, of course, an- 

 nually be done ; but there is no excuse for doing it so reck- 

 lessly, and in the middle of summer, when many weeks of 

 rich beauty are still possible, and no excuse for leaving the 

 mowed-down plants in dead brown heaps. It is dismal and 

 exasperating to see, where yesterday there were long broad 

 patches of Golden-rod just bursting into bloom, to-day long 

 broad piles of brown rubbish, hideously ugly in themselves, 

 and destructive to the effect of the hedge-rows or forest-edges 

 which lie beyond them. But Golden-rod is not the only plant 

 which is thus piled up along our drives. -Young Maples and 

 Pines and Tupelos, which, if thinned discreetly, or even if left 

 to themselves, would eventually shade tracts of road which 

 now are hot and sunny, are felled without mercy, and likewise 

 left to rot slowly on the spot, often to its disfigurement during 

 more than one subsequent season. It is, indeed, fortunate for 

 us that our soil is exceptionally favorable to the growth of way- 

 side vegetation ; for, otherwise, it is impossible to say how 

 soon the loveliest portions of our high-road borders might be 

 rendered wholly barren by the road-agent's scythe. 



New York, N. Y. ^^- G. Vail Reiisselcier. 



Vaccinium ovatum as a Hedge-plant. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — One of California's most beautiful hedge-plants is en- 

 tirely overlooked in its native state, owing to the craze for 

 foreign plants. No matter how insignificant the flower or 

 straggling the growth of a jjlant may be, if it comes from Aus- 

 tralia, New Zealand, Japan or China, it meets with a ready sale 

 here, while plants like the beautiful native evergreen Blue- 

 berry (Vaccinium ovatum) cannot be found in any nursery- 

 man's catalogue, and I doubt if there are a dozen plants in 

 cultivation in the whole state. 



This plant has several qualities which recommend it ; it is 

 an evergreen with beautiful flowers, followed by pretty berries, 

 a delight to the eye and to the palate. It grows from three to 

 eight feet high, with small, thickly set, bright, shining green 

 leaves, their edges slightly tinged with red during the winter; 

 the stems are red, and the flowers, which are borne in racemes, 

 although small, are very numerous ; they are white, tinged 

 with pink, and are followed by black or dark purple berries. 



Vaccinium ovatum is very tenacious of life and bears prun- 

 ing well ; it may be propagated from suckers, cuttings and 

 seed, which it bears in profusion, and I have occasionally 

 found ripe fruit and flowers together on the same plant. 



I have found V. ovatum growing in the Coast-range in 

 Santa Cruz Count)' and in Marin County, and on the northern 

 slope of the Siskyou Mountains near their junction with the 

 Coast-range. It grows most aliundantly on the northern 

 slopes, but is often found growmg luxuriantly on southern 

 slopes exposed to the full rays of the sun. 



Larkspur, Cal. T. H. Douglas. 



The Common Names of Plants. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest ; 



Sir, — I read with interest the remarks of your correspon- 

 dent, H. Christ, about the Edelweiss craze and the origin of 

 its romantic name, its original people's name being quite un- 

 romantic. It is a sort of text for a sermon. Much super- 

 sentimentalism has been printed as to the familiar names of 



plants, and much contempt expressed for their scientific 

 names ; as though English names, however meaningless, 

 were more poetic and, so to speak, affectionate than Latin 

 ones. To a certain extent this is true ; but it is a truth which 

 rests mainly upon habit. This very plant, Edelweiss, has a 

 foreign sound in English mouths. If these had begun by 

 calling it Leontopodium, that name would be as pleasant to 

 hear as the German for noble white. Everybody nowadays 

 speaks familarly of Gladiolus, Lantana, Begonia and scores of 

 other common plants, as one does of Rose, Lily and Violet. 

 To the real lover of plants, as well as to the systematic 

 botanist, the Latin names sound as sweetly as the English. 

 There has been no little superficial gush written about the old 

 names which have come down to us through the changing 

 speech of the old English people, names which had no mean- 

 ing to them beyond the mere sound. In some cases they 

 have, unquestionably, a certain prettiness. But I am willing 

 to say that the Latin names are, in most instances, as eupho- 

 nious, and in many cases more so, as the English ones. The 

 meaning of the English names, in very many instances, 

 originates in their reputed medicinal properties, not from any 

 poetic associations among the English peasantry, 



I give a few examples of the common and scientific names : 

 Marigold: from Mary Gowles, Ang. Sax., mean- 

 ing marsh, horse, gowl, .... Calendula. 

 Mullein: French, moleine, scab in cattle, . . Verbascum. 

 Columbine : Latin, columba, a pigeon, . . Aquilegia. 

 Cowslip : Flemish, kousloppe, hose flap, . . Primula. 

 Motherwort : from supposed medicinal quali- 

 ties, Leonurus. 



Maiden: a prefix to several plants; not love 

 meanings, but they were supposed to have 

 medicinal effects. 

 Pink : Dutch, old word for Whitsuntide, . . Dianthus. 



Rose : like the Latin, Rosa. 



Lily: <<■>.< Lilium. 



Violet: " " " Viola. 



Pansy : from the French, pensee, . . . Viola. 

 Daisy : Day's-eye, Bellis. 



Flower de luce, ) French, fleur de Louis, . Iris. 

 Fleur de lis, ( ' 



;;fi'acr"''[ ^^--^^ 



Candytuft, Iberis. 



Honeysuckle, Lonicera. 



Primrose : a vulgarization of the French prime- 

 role, prime-rolles, Primula. 



Bachelor's Buttons, ...... Scabiosa. 



Lady's Smock : in England, from the white 



flowers in spring, Cardamine. 



Cuckoo-buds : which blossomed when the 



cuckoo came, Ranunculus. 



All of these Latin names are as pleasant to say as the English 

 ones. A study of the derivation of the old English names de- 

 prives most of them of all the sentiment with which time and 

 association has clothed them. The truth is, that what we are 

 familiar with we become fond of, and our children and grand- 

 children will associate with the Latin names, now used famil- 

 iarly, all of the poetry and sentimentality which we and our 

 progenitors have associated with the old English ones, em- 

 Ijalmed in poetry and romance. Emerson's lines to the Rho- 

 dora have more tenderness and beauty than if he had called 

 it a Swamp Pink. n '^ <^ 



Boston. ^- J • •^• 



Annuals for Cut Flowers. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In the flower-garden on our farm at Littleton, New 

 Hampshire, there are fourteen regular oblong beds. I do not 

 remember their dimensions, but they are wide enough to allow 

 the centre to be reached easily. Can you suggest to me the 

 best annuals to plant in these beds, such as are easily grown, 

 and to be used entirely for cut flowers. The intention is to 

 grow only one variety in each bed. The garden is formal and 

 not in sight from the walks. 



I do not wish to include Poppies, Lupins or Sweet Peas, 

 which we grow in large quantities in other places. 



Chicago, III. F. M. G. 



[Annuals are so numerous that one would hesitate to 

 name fourteen as the best ; but as our correspondent notes 

 that they shall all be useful for cutting, the problem is 

 much narrowed. We should recommend as the most last- 

 ing annuals, China Asters (Comet, Truffant and Victoria), 



