October i6, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



503 



the plant itself. A great deal is said by some of the difficulty 

 of getting unscientific people to use scientific names, but, as 

 the editor of Garden and Forest very truly points out, every 

 one uses such names as Spiraea, Fuclisia, Rhododendron, and 

 when they have arrived at the stage of distinguishing species, 

 they find it just as easy, and a great deal shorter and more 

 certain, to use the specific name also, than to do as Mr. Man- 

 ning suggests and coin an English name. For many years 

 English names were coined for new plants in the Botanical 

 • Magazine, and yet 1 never hear them used any more than I 

 hear the fanciful English names introduced by Mr. Robinson 

 used by common English gardeners, or ladies, who neither 

 know nor care for the scientific name of a plant. The best 

 name, in the end, must be the name which is most generally 

 used and understood by the greatest number; but directly we 

 allow new names to be coined by persons who are too care- 

 less or too ignorant to learn the correct scientific name, end- 

 less confusion must result. 



With regard to varieties of garden plants which are not 

 known in a wild state, I think that the custom of giving florists' 

 names is perfectly right and proper, because it is highly de- 

 sirable that the garden origin of such things should be shown 

 by the name, and as the duration of a very large proportion 

 of the varieties of florist-flowers, fruit and vegetables is very 

 short, such long-worded names, as some of our Belgian and 

 French friends give their Roses and Pears, are not likely to 

 trouble us forever. I once heard a distinguished English en- 

 tomologist exclaim with warmth that such a name as Korol- 

 kowia Swertzowi was intolerable, but would not a Russian 

 have just as much reason to say that a genus named Mac- 

 lauchlanii was unpronounceable? We must always remember 

 that science, of which horticulture is only a branch, is interna- 

 tional and cosmopolitan, and though uneducated people will 

 always continue to use vernacular names for the common 

 plants, birds or insects of their own country, yet it should be the 

 common object of all who desire to advance science to use 

 names which can be understood by all who are interested in 

 the same subject. And when I know, as I do, that the editors 

 of the Gardeners' Chronicle and Garden and Forest are 

 quite of one opinion on this subject, I feel very hopeful that 

 they will do all in their power to influence their readers for 

 the common good of England, America and the world. 



Cirencester, England. //. J , Elwes. 



The City of Oaks. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir. — Raleigh, the beautiful capital-city of North Carolina, 

 has well been named the "City of Oaks." All through the 

 residence portion of the city these giant relics of the primitive 

 forest-growth are scattered, giving the city the appearance of 

 a great park. Here and there, in the bed of the streets, mag- 

 nificent Oaks have been allowed to remain and are cherished 

 with religious care, and all over the wide lawns are superb 

 specimens of White, Red, Scarlet and Black Oaks. Two im- 

 mense Oaks on the lawn attached to Bishop Lyman's resi- 

 dence are particularly noticeable. These two trees alone 

 shade over half an acre of lawn. One gentleman has an Oak 

 which he values so highly that he has effected an insurance of 

 $1,000 upon it. If it were not for the grand propordons of the 

 Oaks the Elms of Raleigh would be almost as voiceable as 

 those of New Haven. The old specimens of the American 

 Elm are remarkably fine, and the small-leaved or Wahoo 

 Elms have attained here a size which I have never noticed in 

 this tree elsewhere. The Mimosa {Albizzia Jtilibrissin) is also 

 seen of unusual size. One on Blount street, I noticed, with a 

 trunk fully two feet in diameter and a great spread of branches. 

 On Hillsboro street I observed a grand specimen of Cedrus 

 Deodara full of cones, but the tree is being crowded out of 

 shape by a couple of worthless Silver Maples. Specimens of 

 Magnolia grajidiflora abound, but all seem rather young, and 

 none are nearly as large as the specimens of this tree in Nor- 

 folk, where, in St. Paul's Church-yard, may be seen some of 

 the finest in this country north of the Gulf States. 



Raleigh is emphatically a city of homes. Its citizens will 

 have elbow room, and, though only claiming about 15,000 in- 

 habitants, it would furnish space for nearly half a million if 

 built up in the usual manner. But when a Raleigh man builds 

 a house, nothing short of half a block, and, in many instances, 

 a whole block, will satisfy him. He must have a front lawn, 

 with as big Oaks as possible, a paddock for a cow and horse, 

 and a fruit and vegetable garden. He will endure no kitchen 

 in his residence, and he gets rid of its heat and odors by erect- 

 ing a separate building for this purpose in his back yard. 



Just at this season the Tea Roses are the glory of the city. 

 Immense bushes of every shade known in this lovely race are 



covered with a wealth of bloom, and the colors have that 

 peculiar depth and richness only found in the cool autumn 

 weather. Marechal Niels clamber on porticoes and over divi- 

 sion fences with a perfect abandon, and the cool nights have 

 imparted a rosy hue to their outer petals which adds greatly 

 to the beauty of the great buds. A little later there will be a 

 grand display of Chrysanthemums. They are everywhere, 

 and the myriads of buds now showing give promise of an im- 

 mense bloom. The carpet-bedding mania has never taken 

 hold here. In all my walks about the city I have seen but one 

 clipped bed of foliage plants, and this was in the yard of a 

 German florist, who, doubtless, would profit by the introduc- 

 tion of the practice, but who, as yet, has been unable to spoil 

 the flower-gardens of Raleigh. The city has been called a 

 slow place, and so, perhaps, it is in business enterprise, but 

 there is a great deal of wealth here, and a cultivated taste for 

 natural beauty which throws an indefinable charm over the 

 whole place, and points it out as a spot where those tired of 

 the hurly-burly can find a dignified repose. _ 



Raleigh, N. c. __^ W. F. Massey. 



Recent Publications. 



Days Out-of-Doors, by Charles C. Abbott. New York : D. 

 Appleton & Co. 



Dr. Abbott is no mere fair-weather stroller. It is not bright 

 sunshine and balmy air which invite him to wander over 

 meadow and upland, by the brook-side or through the wood- 

 path. The company he seeks does not shut itself up in nest 

 or burrow because the skies are dark and the winds are 

 chill, and, therefore, this calendar leads one not only through 

 the varied seasons of the year, but through the changing 

 phases of each season, and introduces the reader to all the 

 flying and swimming and creeping things which a lynx-eyed 

 naturalist can find. And Dr. Abbott knows when and 

 where to find them, as the readers of his former books dis- 

 covered long ago. The wary crea^tures which the unobserv- 

 ing stroller never encounters, all come out to meet him, or, 

 rather, they all find him waiting for them where he knows they 

 are sure to appear, and forthwith they begin to disclose their 

 family secrets in the most unconstrained fashion. What 

 these secrets are Dr. Abbott tells in such an engaging way 

 that many a one will find himself fascinated by the description 

 of some toad or lizard, upon which he would hardly bestow a 

 glance or a thought if it should chance to obtrude itself in 

 person upon his observation ; and the reader who is not a 

 student of natural history will lie surprised to find how nu- 

 merous are the forms of lowly animal life about him, and how 

 much there is to interest him in their habits and history. 



Dr. Abbott is not primarily a botanist, but an examination 

 of the very complete and satisfactory table of contents at the 

 close of this book shows hundreds of allusions to the trees 

 and shrubs and herbaceous plants among which he held con- 

 verse with his friends, the birds and beasts, the reptiles and 

 fishes. Perhaps it is because he is less interested in the 

 classification of the wild plants than he is in their appearance 

 and their relation to the animal life about them, that his notes 

 upon the vegetation in the regions where these days out-of- 

 doors were passed have such an open-air freedom and fresh- 

 ness. The lowly growths which creep over the sands of the 

 Pine Barrens, the tall weeds by the wayside, the shrub-thickets 

 in marshy lowlands, and the forest trees everywhere, all find 

 in him an appreciative observer, who catches the spirit of 

 the scene, and portrays, as far as words can portray it, their 

 delicate and elusive charm. A few interesting passages in 

 the book, and notably one descriptive of the wild work of the 

 great March blizzard, will be recognized by readers of Garden 

 and Forest as having appeared in these pages while the 

 event was still a matter of news, and the passage seems more 

 interesting still, now that it has passed into history. 



One cannot read these pages without feeling to how great 

 a degree the pleasure of living is increased by the habit of 

 interested and systematic observation. The man or woman 

 who has learned to be alert for original information about nat- 

 ural objects will find in every brook and hedge-row and way- 

 side, material at once for study and for recreation, and whole 

 days to him are delightful which are dull to his neighbor 

 who carmot distinguish one bird-song from anotlier, nor 

 tell the name or the characteristics of the trees or shrubs which 

 he constantly passes by without seeing them. The influence 

 exerted by a book like this in the one direction of encouraging 

 the practice of taking up some branch of natural science in 

 the natural way is altogether benignant. A man who has 

 acquired a habit of this sort may add but little to the sum total 

 of human knowledge by his investigations, but his life will be 

 more full, happy and wholesome for it. 



