Book IT. 



EDUCATION OF GARDENERS. 



1137 



hlance between the new name ai^d a known name, as William, wild yam ; Thomas, to 

 mass, &c. 



' 7733. The principal names whick a gardener has to recollect are those of plants ; to assist him in this know- 

 Sedge, the etymologies of all the generic names, and of the specific names, which are substantives, is of great 

 advantage ; the ordinary specific names being adjectives, are easily understood and recollected. The generic 

 names of plants and animals are of three kinds ; those composed of words indicating something of the na- 

 ture, or appearance, or uses, of the plant, as Gypsophylla, Helianthus, Linum, &c. ; those composed of 

 the name of some eminent individual, as Hellenia, Gordonia, or after some town, as Colchicum ; and those 

 composed of native or local names, as EUettari, Acacia : the first are of easy recollection, because the na- 

 tural soil, the sight of the flower, or the recollection of its image or its uses, will recal to mind the name ; 

 the second may be recollected by considering who the name-father was, and by associating his figure and 

 some action of his life, real or imaginary, with a specimen of the plant. Thus Gordon was a nurseryman 

 at Mile-end, a short, lame, sailor-looking man, who dressed in blue trowsers, chewed tobacco, and was 

 without offspring; it is easy to imagine his wife reproaching him with the last circumstance, while he 

 points to Gordonia Lasianthus. All those names, whether of science, or those which occur in the common 

 intercourse of life, as of persons and places, are to be recollected on the same principle; that is, either by 

 the name itself calling up an image, by its resemblance to some other name already known, or by forming 

 an association between it and some known or familiar visible object ; and the more ludicrous the associ- 

 ation, the better will it be recollected. In forming these associations, it is essential that the object em- 

 ployed to aid the memory be one capable of being seen ; to associate any particular object with a sound, 

 smell, touch, or taste, would give little aid to the memory ; and to associate it with abstract nouns or 

 ideas, none at alL " If I am told that the Dutch merchant Schimmelphenninck was a very wealthy or re- 

 ligious man, that will not assist me in recollecting his long name ; but if I say to myself there is some re- 

 semblance between Schimmelphenninck and skim-milk.pen-and-iyik, the resemblance may enable me to do 

 so ; or if I have recourse to a Dutch dictionary, and discover that schimmel is grey, and phenninck a penny, 

 I have greypenny, as a s)monym, which, with the operations the mind has undergone in getting at it, will 

 most probably impress the original name on the memory. If a Highlander tells me his name is Macpher- 

 son, T immediately interpret it mac-pearson — mac parson, — son of a parson — son of a Catholic priest and 

 a Highland maid." 



7734. Figures maybe recollected by gardeners with readiness and certainty. For all num- 

 bers not exceeding 24 they have only to associate the figure with the name of the corre- 

 sponding Linnaean class, or with one of the plants of it. Thus, if a lad in a nursery is 

 sent to the fruit-tree ground for plants of number 19 and 21 of pears, he has only to think 

 of Syngenesia and Moncecia. For all numbers exceeding 24, and under 250, he may make 

 use of the terms of the first ten orders, in addition to the 24 classes; and thus. No. 241 

 will be Cryptogamia monogynia, 249 Cryptog. enneagynia, 208 Gynandria octogynia, 

 and so on. To any one but a gardener or botanist, this mode of recollecting numbers 

 has no advantages over any ordinary system of artificial memory ; but as there can be no 

 gardener to whom these classes and orders are not perfectly familiar during the whole 

 period of his life, or at least of his practice as a gardener, to him it is superior to all the 

 artificial systems. It is easy to add to the certainty of remembrance by associating the 

 figure of any known plant or plants belonging to the class or order ; thus, for 24 he may- 

 think of Osmunda regalis, for 245 Osmunda regalis and Daucus carota, or a fern-frond 

 and a carrot-leaf, for 16,213 he may think of a nosegay composed of a Canna glauca. 

 Narcissus triandrus, Olea fragrans, and Rosa provincialis, or he may fancy himself plant- 

 ing these plants in a row or in a pot. If a gardener rides through twenty turnpike-gates 

 in a day, he may recollect the pass-number of them all. He has only, in passing through 

 them, to place a pot of the indicating plants on each of their gate-posts. 



7735. JSfumbers may also be recollected by gardeners by their going through the oper- 

 ation in imagination, of cutting them on a number-stick, either by the common (Jig. 160.), ' 

 or by Seton's method. (Jig. 161.) Names may be recollected in like manner, by their 

 going through the operation mentally, of writing or printing them, or writing them in 

 some particular hand, or imagining how some particular friend, with whose handwriting 

 they are acquainted, would write them. They may be supposed to be written on any scrap 

 of paper, or against the day of the month in a common pocket-book, or what is prefer- 

 able, after the last entry made in the pocket memorandum-book (7741.), to be afterwards 

 described. 



7736. The memory, both as to Jigures and words, may also be materially assisted by study- 

 ing the postures of the human figure, corresponding to the first ten Italic numerals, and 

 the letters of the Roman alphabet. Plates of these are to be had in the juvenile libraries. 

 Some useful hints on the subject of memory will be found in Feinagle's work on the sub- 

 ject, and especially in a tract by Jackson, in which Feinagle's system is greatly improved ; 

 but the machinery of both systems, though they enable a student to recollect an astonish- 

 ing deal in a short time, yet, like other complicated machinery, it soon goes out of order 

 when not in constant use. It is, therefore, unfit for practical men. 



7737. The uses of things and their history, is the next thing which a gardener has to acquire. The uses 

 of the implements, tools, utensils, and machines of gardening, he will acquire by manually exercising them 

 in performing the labors and operations of gardening under the direction of his master. He should not only 

 know how to use them, but how to use them in the best manner ; and also the history of each implement 

 or machine, derivation of its name, why one form is preferable to another ; in short, he should know the 

 rationale of the formation and operation of all of them. The essential part of this he may acquire by reading 

 Part II. of this work, and the rest from the study of the principles of mechanics, and by conversing with 

 intelligent carpenters, millwrights, and engineers. 



7738. The uses of the commoner garden plants he will find in the third part of this work. Books I., II., and 

 III., something more he will find in Book IV., and for the rest he must have recourse to books on cook. 

 «ry, medicine, chemistry, and farming, which go more into detail. . Much information on all the arts con.. 



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