438 



Garden and Forest. 



[September io, 1890. 



varieties of many plants is considered, the wonder is 

 that buyers can make their orders with such assurance that 

 almost every plant received will be correctly named. 



This weeding; out of synonyms from catalogues, how- 

 ever, is a small portion of the work which this Committee 

 is called upon to do, and many of the suggestions made 

 by Mr. Raynolds and Mr. Manning were well worthy of 

 consideration. In the first place, it is pretty clear that 

 some rules should be laid clown for the direction of all 

 persons who name new garden-plants — rules similar to 

 those adopted by the American Pomological Society and 

 now observed by all who name new fruits. The rules on 

 the nomenclature of vegetables which the Association of 

 Agricultural Colleges proposed are also worth considering, 

 and some of them might apply as well to flowering plants 

 as to vegetables. For example, the name should be short, 

 and consist, if possible, of a single word. It should not 

 be superlative or bombastic. A plant should not be called 

 a hybrid when it is not a product of true species, and it 

 may be added that garden varieties should never have 

 Latin names. One good reason for this is that since de- 

 scriptive Latin terms have been used in botanical nomen- 

 clature they should not be used in the case of plants which 

 are sufficiently distinct for garden purposes, but which are 

 botanically identical. Besides this, the addition of varie- 

 ties will bring about at last a name too cumbersome for 

 ordinary use. Good examples of these names could be 

 taken from almost any nurseryman's catalogue, and such 

 combinations as Uhnus catnpeslris aurea Wredei are by no 

 means uncommon. English names are certainly to be 

 preferred for ordinary garden varieties, and these names, 

 as has been well held, should not be descriptive. It would 

 not be difficult to formulate a code of rules which could 

 be applied to the great majority of florists' plants, and there 

 is little doubt that if some authoritative organization like 

 this Association should promulgate these rules new plants 

 would as a rule be named in conformity with them. 



As a branch of this general question an effort is being 

 made to bring the descriptions of plants in catalogues to 

 greater accuracy, and here we are at once confronted with 

 the difficulty of describing colors. It would seem that the 

 only way to convey an accurate idea of the color of a 

 flower is to have some chart of standard colors to which 

 reference can be made. As an illustration of the difficul- 

 ties in this regard it was stated in the Convention that a 

 single plant was described in seventeen different colors or 

 combinations of colors, which ranged from "pink with a 

 white centre" through " yellow orange red" up to "vel- 

 vet shaded purple." Such fearful and wonderful colors as 

 "garnet red tinted with rosy brick " and "black amaranth 

 marmorated chestnut brown " were given as attempts to 

 describe accurately the tints of some flower or leaf. The 

 sample cases of spool-silk made by the Brainerd & Arm- 

 strong Co., which have been advertised in this paper,' con- 

 tain more than 200 shades, but very few of them, it was 

 said, are found practically useful in describing flowers. 

 On another page of this issue Mr. Orcutt attempts to use 

 the "Nomenclature of Colors " adopted by Robert Ridge- 

 way for the use of naturalists. Of course, if one has not 

 this system to refer to, Heliotrope-purple and orange-ver- 

 milion will not convey a precise meaning, but if these 

 terms and others become identified with a standard print 

 they will be of great assistance to all who wish to describe 

 the tints of flowers. 



" Whatever contributes to render the scenes of nature de- 

 lightful is amongst the subjects of gardening ; . . . and nothing 

 is unworthy of the attention of a gardener which can tend to 

 improve his compositions, whether by immediate effects, or 

 by suggesting a train of pleasing ideas. The whole range of 

 nature is open to him, from the parterre to the forest ; and 

 whatever is agreeable to the senses or the imagination, he may 

 appropriate to the spot he is to improve ; it is a part of his 

 business to collect into one place the delights which are gen- 

 erally dispersed through different species of country. — From 

 Whateley' s " Observations on Modern Gardening," 1770. 



The Clark Elm. 



WE have already given a picture of a typical Ameri- 

 can Elm (seep. 287), and in this number (see p. 443) 

 we give a winter view of another characteristic form of this 

 tree as it appears in New England, where it is known as 

 the "Willow-tree type." It is a magnificent specimen, 

 standing in Lexington, and known to many, for its home 

 is amid scenes which are memorable in Revolutionary 

 annals. It is on the premises of the Clark-Hancock 

 house, whose history is summarized in this tablet : 

 "Built 1698; enlarged 1734. Residence of Rev. John 

 Hancock fifty-five years, and of his successor, Rev. Jonas 

 Clark, fifty years. Here Samuel Adams and John Hancock 

 were sleeping when aroused by Paul Revere, April 19th, 

 1775." It is within earshot, too, of the spot where Major 

 Pitcairn called upon the Lexington rebels to throw down 

 their arms and disperse. It was but a stripling on that day, 

 having been set out only five years before by the Rev. 

 Jonas Clark named in the tablet. Its age, accordingly, is 

 about 125 years. 



The trunk forks at four feet ten inches from the ground. 

 The special divisions of the two great branches spring 

 lightly upward in noble arches, the branchlets at the ex- 

 tremities sweeping the ground even in winter, while in 

 summer when the branches are weighted down by the leaves 

 the whole tree presents the appearance of an immense 

 leafy dome poised upon a tremulous edge of green. The 

 circumference of the trunk at four feet above the ground is 

 thirteen feet five inches. The circumference of one branch 

 at the point of furcation is eight feet seven inches, and the 

 other branch eight feet eight inches. The height of the 

 tree is seventy feet, and its spread is eighty-four to ninety 

 feet. 



Our illustration is from a photograph by Mr. Henry 

 Brooks, of Medford, and the tree is one of those whose 

 portraits will appear in the "Typical Elms and other Trees 

 of Massachusetts," now in course of preparation by that 

 gentleman. 



Color Notes on California Wild Flowers. — I. 



T N describing the colors of the following wild flowers of 

 J- California, I have taken pains to compare each with the 

 colored plates given in the " Nomenclature of Colors for 

 Naturalists," by Robert Ridgeway, of the United States National 

 Museum. I have matched each color as closely as I was able 

 in the field, with fresh flowers before me, usually in con- 

 sider-able numbers, so as to note the range of variation in 

 each. 



This character is frequently ignored by botanists, but with 

 cultivators of flowers it should receive very careful attention. 

 Ridgeway's " Nomenclature," above referred to, though not 

 wholly satisfactory and far from complete, is still our only 

 standard authority on the subject. To secure uniformity of 

 nomenclature no other chart can be used with safety, unless 

 compared with Ridgeway's first. The sample-case sent out by 

 Messrs. Brainerd & Armstrong Co. I have not seen, but if it 

 uses a different nomenclature from our standard, it will be as 

 mischievous as useful. Ridgeway's "Nomenclature" may 

 be had of Messrs. Little, Brown & Co., of Boston, and should 

 be in the hands of every one desiring accuracy in his descrip- 

 tions. 



California is associated in the mind with gold and " golden " 

 flowers. Frequent in literature are references to "fields of 

 green and gold " and " seas of golden flowers ;" yet it is doubt- 

 ful if the color of gold can be matched in any flower that 

 grows. The "golden " Eschscholtzia is of an orange hue, and 

 any yellow tint is golden to the popular eye. 



Fritillaria biflora, familiarly called by the children around 

 San Diego by the name of the Chocolate Lily, is an elegant 

 plant, related to the Crown Imperial. The plant grows from a 

 few inches to a foot or more in height, with broad base leaves 

 and a strong leafy stem, producing from one to live large and 

 beautiful deep claret-brown campanulate flowers, like a spray 

 of bells. The flowers are an inch long, slightly mottled with 

 green. It is one of the finest species in a large genus of stately 

 and handsome flowers. 



Allium fimbriatum is a pretty plant, abundant in the moun- 

 tains of Southern and Lower California, bordering the Colorado 

 Desert. It sends up a stout scape a few inches high, bearing 



