164 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



September, 1913 



ly concluded from the fact that in 

 country districts one may still oc- 

 casionally hear the old folk speak 

 of the Stock as a GiUy-flower. 



In passing we may remiiirk that 

 those who have made a study of 

 the derivation of words tell us 

 that hardly any of our common 

 plant names belong in truth to 

 our nati\ e Knglish. Most of them 

 come either from a French or Latin 

 root, and nothing goes to prove 

 more strongly the mixed charac- 

 ter of our common speech than 

 these time-worn names which we 

 cherish as purely English. Most 

 of ius would be read)- to credit the 

 Rose with an Knglish name, yet 

 Rose was borrowed from the 

 I/atin. The true Knglish name 

 for the plant lingers in the word 

 " hep'" or " hip," which we now 

 use solely for its fruit, though 

 once it meant both plant and 

 Ilower. It becomes us, therefore, 

 to be modest in speaking of the 

 name-origin even of our national 

 flower. 



But, taking our conglomerate 

 tongue as it is, how hard) to find 

 a name — short, diescriptive, and 

 apt — for a new plant. Anyone who 

 has tried to coin such a name 

 that will prove both altogether 

 fitting and likely to live in our 

 garden vocabulary knows the ciif- 

 liculty. W'e can scarcely revert to 

 the old doctrine of signatures 

 upon which our ancestors drew so 

 freely ; and crisp, representative 

 words are comparatively limited 

 and fail to hit th\S mark when we 

 come to ajjplv them. Here, then, 

 is a task worthy of greater intel- 

 lect and fuller knowledge than has 

 of late been bestowed upon it. 

 There are numberless plants in our 

 gardens of which we are obliged 

 to confess that they have no Kng- 

 lish names, and the botanic Greek 

 or Latin compound falters upon 

 our lips, for, as a rule, we can 

 discern that it is abpiol' >tely mean- 

 ingless, leaving no impress upon 

 the en(niirer. 



Winter Flowering Sweet 

 Peas. 



Though somewhat inferior in de- 

 corative value to the best type of 

 spring-blooming sweet peas, the 

 winter-flowering, section is useful 

 because of the rapidity with which 

 it comes into bloom. The habit 

 of growth of the two classes is 

 quite different. So marked is this 

 distinction that when first intro- 

 duced, it was thought tio hav-e ori- 

 ginated as the result of a cross 

 between the spring blooming type 

 and some dissimiliar but allied 

 family and one of the vetches was 

 widely, credited with being one of 

 the parents ; indeed, we remember 

 reading some correspondence in the 

 American horticultural press, in 

 which a commercial grower claim- 

 ed to have made the cross for the 

 express purpose of shortening the 

 period between germination and 

 time of bloom. 



The winter-flowering type _ is 

 more dwarf in growth, more sparse, 

 in foliage, and unlike the spring- 

 flowering section, it does not in- 

 dulge' in that exasperating halt 

 when a few inches high, but grows 

 right ahead till it reaches what 

 wiU be practically its full height 

 when the first bloom.s are pro- 

 duced. Side shoots are then pnat 

 out and the plant settles down to 

 its main flowering. 



In America the winter-flowering 

 sweet pea, as grown under glass, 

 is a fairly important commercial 

 crop and the question of Uts origin, 

 culture, and variental forms has 

 been investigated at Cornell Uni- 

 versity, the results being reported 

 in Bulletin 319. In this experi- 

 ment seventy-three varieties from 

 five sources in Kngland (Rngle- 

 mann's /Praecox type), Algeria 

 (Arkwright's Telemly type), and 

 America were tested. The writer 

 of the report l)efore us states that 

 not the slightest febiti'mship to 

 the vetch was observed, though se- 



COOPER'S 



STOUT. 



Full-bodied and Nourishing-, is 

 taking' the place of Imported Stout 



Recommended by Doctors. 



Write to— 



Thos. COOPER & SONS 

 Upper Kensington. 



veral varieties were, for compara- 

 tive purposes, grown and observed 

 at all stages of development. The 

 probable origin of the type is 

 traced back to the variety known 

 as Painted Lady, so common in the 

 gardens of not so manf years 

 ago, which was sent to 

 Kngland from Ceylon in I7'37 and 

 then described as 'a new species. 

 The first step in the transforma- 

 tion of the ordinary spring to the 

 winter flowering type is an inter- 

 esting instance of the effect of en- 

 vironmental conditions and is thus 

 described. " Some forty vears agd 

 a woman in northern New York no- 

 ticed and saved seed from a particu- 

 larly bright flowered plant of the 

 Painted Lady. She planted them 

 in her garden and each succeeding 

 year saved and planted seed from 

 what she thought were her best 

 plants. She did not raise miany, 

 some vears not more than a do/ien. 

 The garden was over limestone 

 ledges, where the soil, thG.ugh fer- 

 tile, was often not more than a 

 foot in depth, ^and gradually Wv 

 plants became more compact and 

 sturdy until after some ten or 

 twehe years she ceased to train 

 them, simply letting them support 

 themselv.es. JTfter about 25 years 

 of this treatment she sold a hun- 

 dred seeds to a nurseryman, and 

 from those seed came the varj 

 ety Blanche Ferry, which is tlu 

 more or less direct ancestress ol 

 the present race. The average 

 number of days taken by the ear- 

 lier varieties to come into bloom 

 is seventy days, whilst the flower- 

 ing ])eriods is given as from fi\e 

 to six months. In one experiment 

 plants of the winter flowering, 

 type had been in flower for this 

 length of time before spring flow- 

 ering idants sown on the same 

 day showed their first bloom. It 

 should be remembered, however, 

 that the spring flowerers might ha\'c.< 

 been sown many weeks later and 

 still (lowered at about the same 

 time. 



IMPERIAL HOTEL 



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