June 16, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



239 



as Rosa setigera and Harrison's Yellow, the yellow Austrian 

 Brier, the old Persian Yellow and others adapted for such a 

 position, where Teas and even Hybrid Perpetuals would be 

 out of place. 



Shepherdstown, W. Va. 



Danske Dandridge, 



Edible Wild Plants. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir,— This is the season of "greens" and of more or less 

 speculation on the edibility of wild plants. Looking over the 

 list, and omitting the fruits of native plants as well as the bark 

 of the Birch and the Sassafras, the young growth of the Beech- 

 nut and one or two species of Allium, all of which are eaten 

 raw, if at all, the number left for cooking entire is remarka- 

 bly small. 



Besides, there is no little misconception of the wholesome- 

 ness of many well-known plants. A writer on wild flowers has 

 published a volume in which the reader is warned against the 

 poisonous qualities of the Trillium, and there are many less 

 learned notions equally as erroneous, so that the seeker after 

 herb-food is unnecessarily timid. There is nothing poisonous 

 about the Trillium, as I can testify from personal use of it for 

 greens, particularly T. erectum and T. erythrocarpum, both of 

 which are esteemed by those who have eaten them. T. grandi- 

 florum is, no doubt, quite as wholesome, but it did not happen 

 to grow within the limit of my excursions for native plants in 

 boyhood days. 



Early " greens " gathered in the lowlands include the Cowslip, 

 a common name for the Marsh Marigold, Caltha palustris, but, 

 like most edible plants, it becomes tough and bitter when in 

 full blossom, and it is therefore soon worthless. About the 

 cities the Dandelion is the great dependence for greens, and 

 no amount of attack with knives in cutting off the crown of the 

 plant will kill it— as in case of the Burdock and many other 

 tap-rooted plants— for the Dandelion root is too much of a 

 root-stock not to sprout again. 



Many plants of the Musiard family, which are related closely 

 to the Mustard itself and the Cabbage, are good for greens. 

 Turnip and Cabbage stumps are sometimes planted in spring 

 for this purpose. Of the Borage family, the Comfrey makes 

 good greens when gathered young. The common Adder's- 

 tongue, Erythronium Americanum, is sometimes used, and 

 one or two species of Nettle, gathered with gloves, come into 

 the list. Milkweed, treated much after the fashion of Aspara- 

 gus, is esteemed where it grows in plenty. 



Of weeds in cultivated grounds the narrow-leaved Dock, 

 Rumex crispus, is used, but its neighbor, the Yellow Dock, R. 

 obtusifolius, though much resembling it, is rejected. The 

 common " Pusley," Portulaca oleracea, would also come into 

 the list but for the fact that its stems, even after they are 

 cooked, suggest angle-worms too vividly. There is a species 

 of Amaranth common as a rampant weed in gardens where 

 it obtains a foothold, sometimes known as Red-root, Amaran- 

 thus retrotlexus, that is closely enough allied to the Beet and 

 to Spinach to approach their high standard for greens. It 

 must be used young, before the root becomes woody. The 

 tall Pigweed, or Lamb's-quarters, Chenopodium album, is 

 eaten, but its mealiness is not always relished. 



Potato tops may be used in connection with other plants, 

 but, as a rule, the Solanum family is too close to the line of 

 poisonous plants to be eaten in the wild state. There is an 

 innocent plant which, where it is plentiful, furnishes all the 

 requisite qualities for greens. This is Hydrophyllum Vir- 

 ginicum, sometimes known as Boston Cabbage. It grows 

 rampantly and usually forms a mass of broadly pinnate leaves. 

 Coming up early, it will reappear after being picked off, and it 

 does not become woody or bitter for a long time. As it takes 

 full possession of the ground when given the opportunity, and 

 is in no sense a weed, it seems that it might be introduced into 

 semi-cultivation with profit, choosing a moist and partly 



S Buf&io?N°Y. John Chamberlin. 



The Nomenclature of Abies. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir,— Professor Greene (Garden and Forest, vol. x., p. 188) 

 thinks that I overlooked some important considerations in my 

 discussion of the nomenclature of the White Spruce. As a 

 matter of fact, these considerations had presented themselves 

 to my mind, but not attributing any very great importance to 

 them I refrained from bringing them into the discussion. A 

 binomial, or species, is published, according to the Rochester 

 code, either by citing one or more binomials, with the name 



of the author, publication, date, etc., as synonyms, or by giving 

 a proper diagnosis in some scientific or other publication. In 

 1739 Gronovius published a flora of Virginia, in which he de- 

 scribed an Abies foliis solitaris .... membranaceis. So far 

 as I am aware, all subsequent authors have considered that 

 Gronovius had in view and described the Hemlock. In 1760 

 Miller described an Abies foliis piceas .... laxis {/cones, i., 

 t. 1) ; there is no question but that Miller described, as he in- 

 tended to, one of the Spruces other than the Hemlock. In 

 the Species Planlarum, in 1763, Linnasus published a Pinus 

 Canadensis, with the diagnosis P. foliis .... submembra- 

 naceis, and quoting as first synonym the Gronovmn descrip- 

 tion, Linnasus thinking (though erroneously) that Miller's 

 species was the same, cited the latter's description as a second 

 synonym. Professor Greene suggests that the Linnasan and 

 Gronovian descriptions, which, at any rate, are synonymous, 

 may not mean anything other than the White Spruce, but it is 

 not likely that authors have since their time been so uniformly 

 mistaken in interpreting their meaning. A reference to the 

 Gronovian and Linneean herbaria may throw some light upon 

 this question, however. Miller in 1768 described an Abies 

 Canadensis, using the Linnasan diagnosis, and quoting his own 

 earlier description. Three things, then, are evident : that 

 Gronovius and Linnasus had in view and described the Hem- 

 lock ; that Linnasus erroneously thought that Miller's plant was 

 the same as the Gronovian, and therefore that two species en- 

 tered into the make-up of his Pinus Canadensis, which was 

 founded primarily upon the Gronovian description — the Hem- 

 lock ; that Miller followed Linnasus in thinking that his plant 

 and the Gronovian were one and the same, but differed from 

 Linnasus in having in view one of the Spruces instead of the 

 Hemlock. Now, regardless of the fact that Linnasus had the 

 Hemlock in view for his Pinus Canadensis, and that Miller had 

 in view one of the Spruces for his Abies Canadensis, the two 

 names must be considered according to the Rochester code 

 as synonymous, since the diagnosis and synonymy in both are 

 the same. 



Detroit. Mich. O. A. FarWell. 



Recent Publications. 



The Plant World. lis Romances and Realities. Com- 

 piled and edited by Frank Vincent, M.A. New York : 

 D. Appleton & Co. 



This is one of the series of books which has been pre- 

 pared under the supervision of W. T. Harris, United States 

 Commissioner of Education, to furnish systematic home 

 reading on natural history and other subjects. The books 

 are prepared to carry out the University Extension idea 

 and furnish opportunities for self-cultivation after school 

 days are over, and this one, devoted to botanical subjects, 

 can be used as a school reader. Ofcourse, there cannot be 

 much systematic science included in the fifty disconnected 

 extracts found in this little volume, but they are all on 

 interesting subjects, they are usually prepared by compe- 

 tent hands, and they certainly have the charm of variety. 

 We have no reason to expect that the study of botany or 

 any other science will receive any essential impulse from 

 efforts of this sort. The real beginning of the study of nature 

 comes from direct observation of natural objects. Neverthe- 

 less, books like this present in an interesting way many facts 

 which ought to be known to persons of ordinary cultiva- 

 tion. It is a good thing for any young person to know 

 something about the distribution of Ferns, the uses of the 

 Cocoanut-tree, the Bread-fruit-tree and the Bamboo, and to 

 get some idea of the botanic garden at Paradenza and the 

 Cinnamon gardens of Ceylon. These are some of the 

 topics treated in this collection, while among the selections 

 which seem to have been arranged by chance are sprinkled 

 short poems by Shelley, Longfellow, Whittier, Thomson 

 and others. An editor thoroughly conversant with the 

 literature of botany might have made a hundred books of 

 this size, each one as good or better than this, and we 

 should have liked this better if our Sequoia did not appear 

 in it under the name of Wellingtonia. The illustrations are 

 suggestive and helpful, and the frontispiece shows an 

 avenue of Royal Palms in Rio Janeiro which in a striking 

 way sets forth the value of these remarkable trees for what 

 may be termed architectural planting. 



