May 16, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



199 



Early in April we often visit a wooded hill, where we are 

 sure to find the first wild flowers. Blood-root and Twin-leaf 

 bloom together, and the hill for a few days is a beautiful sight, 

 the countless numbers of pure snowy blossoms quite covering 

 the ground. The Twin-leaf is in some demand as a cure for 

 rheumatism, and Blood-root also is supposed to have medici- 

 nal properties, but no plant-gatherers except ourselves ever 

 seem to invade this forest-sanctuary, which is in the heart of 

 the largest belt of woodland in this vicinity. 



Another secluded bit of woodland that has heretofore escaped 

 the depredations of cattle and is rich in many flowers, a very 

 large breadth of Mertensia Virginica, is now in bloom beneath 

 its Oaks. As blue is a comparatively rare color in flowers at 

 this season, one rarely sees such an expanse of azure carpet- 

 ing as these flowers, crowded together in the rich soil, present 

 on an April day. Most of the plants come into full bloom at 

 the same time, so that the clear blue of the expanded blossoms 

 pleases the eye by the purity of its tint when seen thus in the 

 mass, and the setting of Red-bud and Dogwood trees that sur- 

 round the outskirts of the plantation makes a charming wood- 

 scene that would delight an artist. 



Phlox divaricata, Stellaria, Clay tonia, Dentaria, Early Larkspur, 

 Anemone andColumbineabound. One chances on astray plant 

 of Hepatica now and then, but this is not common. Trailing 

 Arbutus is unknown here, where the ground is a clay subsoil 

 and the rocks are limestone. Eight miles away, in Berkeley 

 County, the character of the country changes. The hills are 

 covered with Pines and the soil is slaty. Here Trailing Ar- 

 butus grows sparsely, and many other wild flowers quite 

 unknown to our neighborhood. . , 



Shepherdstown, w. Va. Danske Dandridge. 



Societies. 



For Uniformity in Naming Garden-plants. 



IN our report of the convention of the Society of Amer- 

 can Florists last year, we explained certain recom- 

 mendations made by the Committee on Nomenclature, of 

 which Professor Trelease is President, which looked toward 

 the establishment of a uniform system for naming different 

 species and varieties of ornamental plants. We have been 

 requested by Professor Trelease to invite attention to this 

 matter once more, and in publishing the following note we 

 avail ourselves of the opportunity to express the hope that 

 the commercial horticulturists of America will do all in 

 their power to facilitate the labors of the committee : 



At the St. Louis Convention of the Society of American 

 Florists, last August, a resolution was adopted providing for 

 the appointment of a committee to prepare a list of decorative 

 plants handled by the American trade, for adoption as the of- 

 ficial list of the society, under the following general instruc- 

 tions : ■ 



1. Natural species and varieties to bear the Latin names 

 assigned to them in Nicholson's Dictionary, so far as they 

 are named, except that where differences exist between the 

 Dictionary and the Kew Index, now in course of publication, 

 the name adopted by the latter is to be chosen. Species first 

 published or reinstated subsequent to the date of the latter 

 (1885) to be treated in accordance with botanical customs, 

 especially that of the Kew Gardens. Any commonly used and 

 well-known name displaced in the application of the rule, to 

 be added as a synonym. 



2. Florists' varieties, races and forms to be named in ac- 

 cordance with the custom of the American Pomological So- 

 ciety and the Association of American Agricultural Colleges 

 and Experiment Stations, according to the originator or intro- ' 

 ducer, in the order named, the prior right to bestow a name 

 upon each new introduction, but seeking to secure the uni- 

 form use of short, appropriate and neat vernacular names for 

 plants of this class. 



Considering the peculiar conditions which control the no- 

 menclature of cultivated plants, substantially the same prin- 

 ciples were sanctioned for general horticultural nomenclature 

 by the Botanical Congress which met in Madison in the same 

 month. 



The preparation of such a list of decorative plants has now 

 been begun by a committee of the Society of American Flor- 

 ists, which comprises some of the most intelligent members 

 of the American trade ; and to facilitate their worth, each 

 American dealer, who issues a catalogue including plants of 

 this class, is requested without delay to send three copies of 

 any catalogue issued within the last year to the chairman of 

 the committee, Professor William Trelease, of St. Louis, Mo. 



The nomenclature of florists' plants is much confused, and 

 the only practical way of simplifying it appears to be to pre- 

 pare such a list as is proposed, which, sanctioned by the so- 

 ciety, will afford the means of securing uniformity in the cata- 

 logues ; and any assistance rendered the committee will help 

 in the attainment of this object. 



Recent Publications. 



An Island Garde?i. By Celia Thaxter. With pictures 

 and illustrations by Childe Hassam. Boston and New 

 York : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1894. 



Mrs. Thaxter's garden is said to be famous all along the 

 New England shore, and therefore it is worth writing 

 about, even if it is only fifty feet long by fifteen feet wide. 

 Monsieur Alphonse Karr wrote a much larger book than this, 

 describing a tour around his garden, and he could have gone 

 on in the same way and written half a dozen more that would 

 have been equally entertaining and instructive But, then, 

 Monsieur Karr had a habit of making some correct statements 

 in every chapter on subjects relating to the art of horticul- 

 ture or to the sciences of botany or of entomology or 

 chemistry on which it rests. The reader is lured along by 

 his genial and sympathetic guide, who is a humorist, a 

 poet and a philosopher by turns, but always observing 

 sharply and recording accurately, so that while making a 

 delightful acquaintance, he is acquiring a great deal of 

 substantial information, and is encouraged in a hundred 

 ways to use his eyes and investigate for himself. This is 

 hardly Mrs. Thaxter's way. The testimony as to the 

 charming character of her garden is quite unanimous, and 

 yet we hardly discover why it is so attractive, from the de- 

 scription of it in this beautiful volume, unless, indeed, we 

 consider the mistress of the garden as an essential part of 

 it. In truth, the book is hardly so much a picture of the 

 garden itself as it is of Mrs. Thaxter's emotions. No one 

 was ever so absorbed in the cultivation of three or four 

 square rods of soil. All the year through the garden lifts 

 her into a constant ecstasy of delight. She is in raptures 

 over the pleasure of hoeing and weeding, and even the 

 slug and the cut-worm are glorified, since the garden 

 elevates everything which comes into contact with it, 

 whether the relation be friendly or hostile. In short, the 

 book is a sort of rhapsody ; at least, it is written in such 

 exultation of spirit and with so many exclamation points 

 on every page that one hardly expects to find in it cool 

 statements, simple descriptions or any prosaic advice on 

 practical garden subjects. And when Mrs. Thaxter does 

 drop into details her counsel is to be accepted with caution. 

 We should not advise a novice, for example, to sow the 

 seeds of his annuals in January when he can have his 

 flowers quite as early by sowing them a month later, nor 

 would it be advisable for other persons to leave Gladiolus- 

 bulbs in the ground during the winter, with the expectation 

 that they would prove hardy and sprout in the spring, as 

 they do for Mrs. Thaxter. 



What the sympathetic reader will find in this book is a 

 demonstration of the truth that the care of a few square 

 feet of earth can be made a perennial source of genuine 

 pleasure to its owner. This is a truth worth setting forth 

 in every possible light and on every possible occasion, and 

 this fair volume will serve a most useful purpose, we trust, 

 by encouraging many other women to make the experi- 

 ment and find how much health and pleasure can be 

 derived from planting and watching and nursing into 

 beauty the common annuals which can be purchased at 

 any seed-store. 



Childe Hassam is an artist of distinction, but, with one or 

 two exceptions, the reproductions of his work in this volume 

 will hardly satisfy any one who does not admire a riot of 

 colors which are never seen on sea or land. Perhaps, how- 

 ever, the surprising character of these illustrations is 

 appropriate to the somewhat excited style of the text, and 

 the two may work together effectively in drawing atten- 

 tion to the cultivation of flowers as an absorbing and 

 refining pastime. 



