6i8 



THE EDITOR'S OUTLOOK. 



gaged in scientific research tending to advance the 

 profession, the formation of kindred associations, 

 encouraging exhibitions of plants and flowers, by 

 bringing into closer relations the retail dealer with 

 the grower and wholesale dealer." 



All this calls for general education and culture, 

 and it demands a more wide-spread appreciation of 

 ornamental gardening. We have not yet come to 

 that stage in this country when gardening is in gen- 

 eral appreciated as a work of art. Ornamental gar- 

 dening is usually judged solely by its gross form and 

 color. Gardeners must get out of old ruts. They 

 must put spirit and expression into their work. But 

 this means that the gardener must be educated. 



President Jordan sees two general ways of ele- 

 vating the garden and the gardener. Cities are grow- 

 ing, and the country is taking on a better life. Gar- 

 dening is adapted to all conditions, " and it is com- 

 mitted to our hands to extend our parks and boule- 

 vards far into the country until city is linked to city, 

 and the most rural districts will feel the vitalizing 

 forces of plants and flowers." Those who are bene- 

 fitted by institutions of learning " are very few com- 

 pared with the great mass of people that frequent 

 our parks and public grounds to take object-lessons, 

 where young and old, rich and poor, learned and 

 illiterate meet on one common level to drink in 

 nature's best gifts to man." Yet in the educational 

 institutions a higher and more symmetrical culture 

 can be attained. President Jordan again calls the 

 attention of the Society to the importance of some 

 school training for the florist. "Science shows us 

 how the things we have to deal with in our homeliest 

 toil connect us (if w e but understand the linking) to 

 what is most elevating in man's thoughts and hopes. 

 It helps supply that food for the mind, without 

 which we starve in drudgery, but by the strength of 

 which we rise to a higher plane of life." 



The education problem has long been a vexed 

 question among the florists, and there is yet no ap- 

 pearance of a solution of it. Members are divided 

 by conflicting aims, and there has been no one with 

 a practicable and clear-cut proposition who could 

 lead the organization to any definite action. Many 

 are making the vital mistake of supposing that the 

 first requisite in a florists' school is a corps of florists 

 to direct it. The first requisite in any school is men 

 who can teach. When it so happens thas the 

 teacher is also a successful grower, the highest ideal 

 is attained. But the first requirement of any man 

 who imparts instruction is ability to fire the enthu- 

 siasm of his students. So it often happens that the 

 most successful teachers are distanced by their 

 pupils. President Jordan thinks that wealthy men 



could be induced to endow florists' schools, and no 

 doubt they will do so as soon as they feel assured 

 that a sufficient demand and interest exists. But some 

 of the land-grant colleges would no doubt take up this 

 work actively if the florists should once present a 

 definite plan or request to them. Nothing can be 

 accomplished without united and positive action, 

 and the apparent lack of interest in the discussion 

 which followed President Jordan's address to the 

 Society at Boston seems to indicate that the time is 



not yet ripe for florists' schools. 



* * 



* 



T^HERE comes up periodically the 

 BOTANICAL 1 attack upon botanical termin- 



LANGUAGE. ^ . 



ology. 1 his criticism possesses the 

 merit of age and of popularizing the very terms 

 which it seeks to destroy ; otherwise, it has little 

 substance. It is true that the technical terms are 

 always obscure to those unacquainted with the sci- 

 ence to which they belong, but such persons are 

 not called upon to use them. They are never 

 troublesome to the scientist, to whom they belong, 

 and who alone must pass upon the merits of them. 

 Science must have a technical language or it at 

 once ceases to be science or exact knowledge. 



But it is urged that these botanical terms are de- 

 rived from the Latin and Greek and other tongues. 

 So in the English language. Their classical form is 

 one of their chief virtues, for it allows of their in- 

 corporation in other languages with but trifling 

 modifications. Those who have occasion to read 

 German technical works may well wish that that 

 language had also drawn upon the Latin and Greek 

 for its terminologies ! No English words exist which 

 could express the ideas briefly and clearly ; and 

 when new words are to be made, it matters little 

 about source, for it is only through use that they 

 become English. To substitute a new terminology 

 for the old, as some have urged, would be to begin 

 all over again and to naturalize a new vernacular 

 as cumbersome as the old. 



It is urged again that names should be illustrative, 

 that they should "mean something." But it should 

 be remembered that terms have meanings only 

 when associated with some particular thought : they 

 possess no intrinsic worth beyond their mere his- 

 tories. It would be impossible to explain or even 

 indicate the niceties of scientific thought by single 

 words, and when phrases are used we at once invite 

 confusion. What possible terms can be easier and 

 better than diacious, polygaiitoits, proterandrous ? It 

 is an easy matter to make ridiculous and amusing 

 examples of scientific terminology ; but it is quite 

 another thing to devise a better system. 



