DESCRIPTION. 7 



organisms may be recognized, described and classified. The 

 term is one seldom used in borticulture but sbould come into 

 common use and will be found frequently in this manual. In 

 botany, the characters are marks which distinguish varieties, 

 species, genera, etc., from related assemblages of the same 

 grade. ■ The meaning should be the same in horticulture ex- 

 tended to all horticultural groups. We should thus speak of 

 the character of the Tameuse group of apples or of the Bald- 

 win variety of apples. Usually descriptions should designate 

 only those characters which distinguish a group in order to 

 avoid repetitions as far as possible. That is, generic characters 

 should show the morphology of genera ; specific, of species ; 

 and so on with forms within the species, only what is needful 

 for each and excluding everything which belongs to another. 

 Thus in describing an apple it is not necessary to give the 

 characters of Order Eosaceae, Genus Pyrus, species P. malus, 

 but simply those of the particular variety. 



Who May Write Authoritative DESCRiPTioiirs. — There 

 are recognized authorities having to do with nearly all of the 

 cultivated plants, who ought to be consulted in naming new 

 plants and in making formal descriptions of them. Thus Mun- 

 son might properly be consulted in regard to grapes ; Waugh, in 

 regard to plums'; Card, small fruits; and so on with the other 

 fruits, flowers and vegetables. No one should consider him- 

 self competent to name and formally describe a new fruit or 

 plant without much study and observation and a clear concep- 

 tion of the exact position of his new variety. This is far from 

 present practice, and doubtless " endless confusion could be 

 avoided if horticulturists not well informed would delegate the 

 namiing and describing of their wares to some one who is rightly 

 considered an authority. 



