The American Garden. 



Vol. XI. 



AUGUST, il 



No. 8. 



OUTSIDE THE GARDEN. 



SOME RELATIONS OF BOTANY TO HORTICULTURE- -THE BOTANIST IS WILLING TO CLIMB THE GARDEN FENCE. 



^^^ROFESSOR TRACY, in 1877, made 

 the statement before the Michigan 

 State Horticultural Society, that 

 horticulture had advanced but little 

 in the past 150 years, except in 

 two directions. The greatest pro- 

 gress had been made by botanists, who had by 

 systematic efforts originated new varieties. Pro- 

 gress nearly as great has been made by the ento- 

 mologist in his systematic warfare against insect 

 enemies. Probably the statement is as true in 1890 

 as it was thirteen years ago. We should certainly, 

 also, at this time, credit the botanist with many in- 

 vestigations of the life history of the lower forms 

 of plant life, which are injurious to cultivated 

 plants, and in discovering remedies for many of 

 those most destructive. 



Botany, as taught to-day by the best teachers, 

 is emphatically a science in which the student is 

 sent directly to nature for his facts. In this way 

 he becomes an accurately trained and reliable ob- 

 server. He applies numerous questions to his 

 plants, by observation, trying many experiments, 

 and in studying their behavior ; in this manner, the 

 student cultivates his judgement and learns to draw 

 correct conclusions. 



Well grounded in systematic botany, he is likely 

 to avoid falling into numerous errors so often made 

 by persons who learn horticulture as a mere trade. 

 This systematic side of botany is indispensable to 

 one in distinguishing and naming plants in cultiva- 

 tion, and in observing their affinities. 



Geographical botany may teach of the soil and 

 climate in which a certain plant thrives, and how to 

 treat it when carried to a new country. Here, 

 however, experience, experiment and the judgement 

 are all valuable aids. Plants are not always found 



in a wild state where they will thrive best. This is 

 true of many of our weeds, and of many plants 

 cultivated for various purposes. 



Who will point out the relationship of plants and 

 find suitable stocks on which to " work " our culti- 

 vated shrubs and trees ? The botanist. And the 

 botanist will know better than to attempt a union 

 of scions of chestnut on stock of horse-chestnut — • 

 something actually attempted by a horticulturist of 

 my acquaintance. The resemblance of the fruit of 

 the one to the seeds of the other deceived him into 

 thinking the union practicable. 



No one, excepting a systematic botanist, would 

 be competent to visit foreign countries to select 

 new plants worthy of cultivation. Systematic bo- 

 tany is not only essential in identifying, describing 

 and classifying plants, but it is well equipped with 

 all the necessary paraphernalia in the way of tech- 

 nical terms and methods to perform the task 

 of describing in an exact manner, all "artificial" 

 forms that have been bred or selected. The time 

 has already come for more accurate and complete 

 descriptions of varieties and races of vegetables 

 than have yet been written. 



Cultivated varieties of strawberries are usually 

 described by the fruit, with a few references to the 

 leaves and possibly to the length of the stems. The 

 botanist who had never compared the runners, the 

 inflorescence and the flowers in detail, will be sur- 

 prised to find that in them we have very marked 

 differences which could well be illustrated and de- 

 scribed. Fifteen j'ears ago or more, I discovered 

 this fact and described some varieties, though the 

 descriptions were never published. I have describ- 

 ed 150 varieties of apples by a careful examination 

 of inflorescence and flowers, in most cases making 

 drawings to equal scales. There are now so many 



