BUDS, BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



621 



each spring, I would patch up my old every-day dress 

 and wear it a while longer, or trim over my last year's 

 hat and make it do me next summer, and in this way save 

 enough money for a beginning with flowers. Try it, 

 sisters. — Florence H. 



Botanical Nomenclature. — As an effort towards es- 

 tablishing permanency in botanical names, the following 

 rules were adopted last August by the Botanical Club of 

 the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science : J\csolvi'd, That the Paris code of 1867 be 

 adopted, except where it conflicts with the following 

 recommendations ; 



I. The Law of Priority. — Priority of publication is to 

 be regarded as the fundamental principle of botanical 

 nomenclature. 



II. Beginning of Botanical Nomenclature. — The 

 botanical nomenclature of both genera and species is to 

 begin with the publication of the first edition of Linnaeus, 

 "Species Plantarum," in 1753. 



III. Stability of Specific Names. — In the transfer 

 of a species to a genus other than the one under which it 

 was first published the original specific name is to be re- 

 tained, unless it is identical with the generic name or 

 with a specific name previously used in that genus. 



IV. Homonyms. — The publication of a generic name 

 or a binomial invalidates the use of the same name for 

 any subsequently published genus or species respectively. 



V. Publication of Genera. — Publication of a genus 

 consists (i) in the distribution of a printed description of 

 the genus named ; (2) in the publication of the name of 

 the genus and the citation of one or more previously 

 published species as examples or types of the genus, with 

 or without a diagnosis. 



VI. Publication of Species. — Publication of a species 

 consists (i) in the distribution of a printed description of 

 the species named ; (2) in the publishing of a binomial, 

 with reference to a previously published species as a 

 type. 



VII. Similar Generic Names. — Similiar generic 

 names are not to be rejected on account of slight differ- 

 ences, except in the spelling of the same word ; for ex- 

 ample, Api'os and Afium are to be retained, but of 

 Epidcndriim and Epidendron, Asterocarpus and 

 Astrocaipns, the latter is to be rejected. 



VIII. Citation of Authorities. — In the case of a 

 species which has been transferred from one genus to 

 another, the original author must always be cited in 

 parenthesis, followed by the author of the new binomial. 



COMMENTS BY READERS. 



[Readers are invited to contribute to this department. If \ 

 that recorded in any recent article in this magazine, or if you cai 

 the Editor will welcome your contributions ^^ 



Handling Vineyard Products. — A crate similar 

 to a berry crate, with oblong quart boxes holding a 

 pound to a pound and a quarter each of clusters, makes 

 a package, either for near or distant market for grapes, 

 which has given me better returns than the 8-pound 

 grape basket ; costing little more than the baskets to pack. 

 The grapes are sold by the box generally, to better ad- 

 vantage to seller and satisfaction to buyer than by weight, 

 and the handy size of the package often makes sales 

 where none would be made by weight. Packed in that 

 way, very tender grapes can be sent several hundred 

 miles in fine order. For cooperation in shipping, selling, 

 etc. , probably no more perfect system is known than that 

 devised by the "Chautauqua and Northeast Grape- 

 growers' Union," which expects to ship from 2,500 to 

 3,000 carloads of grapes (chiefly Concord) this fall. — 

 Prof. T. V. Munson, Texas. 



The Girdled Elmsthat Would not Die.— (Page 367). 

 I don't wonder at my friend Mr. Ragan's incredulity re- 

 garding the girdled elms. But the fact is, all his guesses 

 and explanations are wide of the mark. The condition 

 of things and the attendant results were precisely as I 

 stated in the original article. My observations and notes 

 were most carefully made, and all the more so because I 

 knew how greatly the case differed from all others I had 

 ever heard of, and how it would disturb certain well- 

 settled theories and notions concerning the processes of 

 vegetable growth. Mr. Ragan brushes aside my stubborn 

 facts, and on that false basis says : " The explanation of 

 the prolonged life of the elms is that they had either 



our experience, observation, or well-founded opinion differs from 

 ■ add anything of special interest to the statements of other writers 



interior folds of bark, or they had rebarked themselves, 

 else they must inevitably have died, life slowly yielding 

 to the drying and closing of the pores of the alburnum " 

 Not so ! There was not a vestige of bark, or the ghost 

 of a shred, to be found on this whole three feet of 

 girdled space, which was outwardly as dry and dead as 

 an ax-handle. There was nothing in the shape of a 

 cambium bridge over the wounds in either of the trees. 

 Nature was apparently satisfied with the internal mechan- 

 ism of those sturdy tree-trunks, and fully confident of its 

 ability to preserve life. So, instead of inevitable death, 

 there was persistent and exuberant life. The other un- 

 precedented fact, so far as I am aware, was the regular 

 normal enlargement and growth of the entire trunk of 

 each tree, both at the girdled point and below it, as well 

 as above. In short, these elms went right on about their 

 business as though nothing had happened. Only the saw 

 which finally severed them from their roots was permit- 

 ted to stop their career. My only regret is that I did not 

 secure sections of the girdled wood, after the trees were 

 felled, for the purpose of scientific examination, as I 

 might easily have done had I been more vigilant. I 

 ought also to have secured photographs of the growing 

 trees. As a penalty for all this neglect, I must now stand 

 as a target of doubt and incredulity. I have been asked 

 to send sections of this wood to various points for exami- 

 nation by anxious and evidently skeptical scientists, and 

 I have almost been ashamed to write that I could not 

 comply with the request, for the above reason. — H. 

 Hendricks. 



