446 



OLTSIDE THE GARDEN. 



varieties of cultivated fruits, that we need to make 

 use of all the good characters that can be found to 

 aid in making complete characterizations.* I have 

 many times made the statement that no variety of 

 fruit can now be called well described, unless the 

 peculiarities of inflorescence and flowers are con- 

 sidered in connection with every other characteristic 

 feature. 



A knowledge of systematic botany will enable a 

 teacher or the worker in horticulture to group his 

 information, thus greatly aiding the memory and 

 shortening the process of giving or receiving instruc- 

 tion. He learns that plants known as cucurbitacejE 

 have moncecious flowers, which must be pollinated 

 by insects, wind or by hand ; that they love heat, 

 are sensitive to frost, that similar insects prey upon 

 many of them. The garden plants known as cru- 

 ciferas have many peculiarities in common, well 

 understood by botanists, such as a pungent, watery 

 juice, the seeds starting early, the young plants 

 enduring some frost, and in many cases the same 

 insects trouble numerous species. He learns that 

 seeds of the umbelliferae have a low vitality and 

 are slow to germinate. These are but a few ex- 

 amples out of many which could be given. 



The botanist understands why some varieties of 

 strawberries, apples and other fruits frequently fail 

 to "set fruit," and in some instances he can pre- 

 scribe a remedy. He has learned to see that the 

 visits of insects to the flowers aid in ensuring a 

 larger crop of fruit, as he knows that the showy 

 portions of the flowers are hung out as mere adver- 

 tisements, to attract insects ; that surplus pollen 

 and nectar are placed in the flowers as wages to re- 

 ward and encourage their visits. 



Some knowledge of botany, at least, is essential 

 to aid the judgement in selecting with intelligence 

 the sorts that may be crossed or hybridized. It is 

 also often a great help to a person in quickly de- 

 tecting some vile weed which has just made its ap- 

 pearance, while the unbotanical might scatter quick- 

 grass and other troublesome pests far and wide 

 over his premises before he became aware of their 

 presence. A knowledge of the shapes, sizes, colors, 

 markings and internal structure of seeds is valua- 

 ble to the horticulturist, enabling him to distinguish 

 the true from the spurious. 



The trained eye of a botanist is necessary to aid 

 one to see beauties, defects, harmonies and incon- 

 gruities in selecting, combining and arranging trees, 

 shrubs, flowers and foliage plants to best advantage 



(*) The reader who desires to pursue this subject further is refer- 

 red to Rep, Mich. Pom. Soc. 1873, Proc. Amer. Pom, Soc. 1S79 and 

 1881, Anier. NaturaHst iSS6. 



for producing the most pleasing effect at the least 

 outlay of money and labor. 



The man who knows the structure of a tree and 

 how it grows, would at least be amused at the fol- 

 lowing statement, once made by a " practical " man 

 at a meeting of a state horticultural society. To 

 kill the insects on leaves, to add health and vigor 

 to a fruit tree and cause it to produce abundantly 

 of luscious fruit, he bored a hole into the trunk of 

 the tree, filled it with flowers of sulphur, and secured 

 it with a plug. He was careful to avoid boring 

 very far into the tree because he might thereby in- 

 jure its heart! A knowledge of vegetable physiology 

 teaches a person the effect on a plant of flowering, 

 of seeding, of high cultivation or poor cultivation, 

 of root pruning, of pruning the top at different 

 seasons of the year. It teaches how to manage 

 plants for producing flowers, and how to manage 

 them to prevent their flowering. 



A person might as well attempt to become a 

 surgeon without a knowledge of human anatomy 

 and physiology as to become a horticulturist with- 

 out botany. The horticulturist who merely learns 

 the trade will not so quickly change his practice 

 and adapt himself to the new circumstances of a 

 different climate in a remote country, as the one 

 who has studied well the principles of plant growth. 

 Many worthless experiments have been made, wast- 

 ing time and money, attributing results to wrong 

 causes, from a lack of a knowledge of plants. 



No horticulturist without a thorough knowledge 

 of the principles of several departments of botany 

 is capable of planning and conducting and inter- 

 preting experiments. Think of the time occupied 

 in making experiments, in discussing the subject in 

 the press and in conventions on the cause or nature 

 of pear blight ! 



In horticulture, in most respects, botany will 

 make a person more capable. It will make him a 

 good observer, improve his reason, strengthen his 

 judgement, cultivate his taste, broaden his views, 

 weaken his respect for the traditions of his fathers. 

 It will sharpen his wits, make him a reliable inves- 

 tigator. It will enable him to become a leader in- 

 stead of a follower. 



Who, not a botanist, could ever have imagined 

 half of the bright thoughts stated by Asa Gray in 

 his essay "Were the Fruits Made for Man, or Did 

 Man Make the Fruits ?" Here, among other things, 

 he discusses what our pomology would have been 

 if the civilization from which it, and we ourselves, 

 have sprung, had had its birthplace along the 

 southern shores of our great lakes, the northern 



