i89o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
711 
cesses, conditions, etc., in the life of plants 
are so absurd, irrational and preposterous 
that the study of botany is rendered repul¬ 
sive to these young people. Mr. Carman’s 
paper was on hybridizing, and to prove his 
case he cited such words as ‘ dioecious,’ 
‘ monoecious,’ * gyno dioecious,’ ‘ proter- 
androus,’ and so on, stigmatizing them as 
bombastic and abominable.” *** “Just 
as soon as one has a new idea there comes 
the necessity for a new word.” * * * 
“ The fact is that the same charges can 
be brought against any other study.” * * * 
“ Open any systematic treatise on birds or 
insects, on geology or medicine, and just as 
many ‘ hard words ’ will be found as the 
botanists use. The reason for this is that 
scientific language is necessary in a scien¬ 
tific treatise.” * * * “But what do the 
critics mean by ‘ hard words ? ’ Not long 
words surely. If this question was pressed 
a little, perhaps the answer would be 
• words that are not in common use.’ But 
the subjects discussed are not subjects of 
ordinary conversation, and, therefore, there 
can be no common word to represent the 
ideas and processes in question. Perhaps 
Mr. Carman, who considers ‘dioecious’a 
hard word, would say that‘deciduous ’ was 
an easy one. This is simply because the 
latter is more frequently used, but to the 
‘young person’ who learns them one is 
quite as easy as the other.” * * * “ Now, 
the same reasons which make it advisable 
to use Latin and Greek for the names of 
plants, and in fact for technical names in 
all sciences, would seem to imply that the 
roots of these universal classics should be 
used in forming all the new w ords in scien¬ 
tific language.” * '* * “ Of course, all this 
is elementary doctrine, and there ought to 
be no necessity for such an argunn nt even 
in a popular journal. But we believe that 
botany should be studied much more gen¬ 
erally by young people than it is, and, while 
we have no fears that they will be deterred 
from it because scientific language is em¬ 
ployed, wedo have fears that some of them 
or their parents may be discouraged by 
careless criticisms, which magnify supposed 
difficulties, or by arttul ridicule of the 
methods of the most advanced students of 
the science.” 
Remarks by The R. N.-Y.—What does 
our contemporary mean by “scientific 
language ?” Everything is really scientific 
that conveys an accurate idea. We waut 
truths stated in the simplest forms, and 
science should be the first to set the ex¬ 
ample, whether the science be botany, 
chemistry, mathematics, medicine or any 
other. 
We are by no means inveighing against 
the use of words, of whatever derivation, 
that convey a precise meaning. But it is 
insisted that they should be as short, as 
easily spoken, as easily remembered as may 
be. We would, however, give the prefer¬ 
ence to English simple and compound 
words. The tendency of our schools and of 
the times is to give less time to Greek and 
Latin and more to those studies which have 
a practical value in every profession; in 
every industrial occupation. The penchant 
of our .professional scientists (if we may so 
call them) is, however, so to encumber all 
studies with difficult, harsh-sounding, jaw¬ 
breaking words, as to render a knowledge 
of Greek and Latin absolutely indispens¬ 
able to the proper comprehension of their 
language. 
True, “just as soon as one has a new idea, 
there comes the necessity for a new word.” 
Why not make that word as short, simple, 
and familiar as possible ? Dr. Gray wrote 
his little elementary botany, “ How Plants 
Grow,” in language so simple that a child 
of 10 may easily understand it. Having 
mastered this, let him take up Sachs. He 
will find he has a mass of difficult words to 
commit to memory before he can under¬ 
stand a page of it—words, too, which, un¬ 
less re-studied from time to time will soon 
pass out of his mind—words which he can¬ 
not afford to remember. Alter the pupil 
has familiarized himself with “How Crops 
Grow,” he will wish to trace plants. Now, 
his discouragement will begin. He en¬ 
counters such words on the start as hypo- 
gynous, perigynous and epigynous, mean¬ 
ing simply ovary superior, ovary central 
and ovary inferior. Then he finds orthot- 
ropous, cainpylotropous, amphitropous, 
meaning that the ovules are straight, 
curved, trausverse or inverted. As he pro¬ 
gresses in his advanced botany he finds he 
must commit to memory such words as 
gymuospermous (naked-seeded) ; angio- 
spermous (covered-seed); anisopetalous (un¬ 
equal petals); anisophyllous (unequal- 
leaved); mono, di, tri and tetraphillous 
(one, two, three or four petals); villose 
(hairy); velutinous (velvety); hypoerateri- 
morphous (salver - shaped); holosericeous 
(silky), and so on without end. Why not 
use the simpler words? Why not say for 
monoecious, dioecious, proterandrous, pro- 
terogynous, etc., the familiar English 
words one-house, two-houses, antbers-first, 
pistils first, etc. ? 
Our contemporary mentions the mild in¬ 
stance of “ deciduous,” and asks if we con¬ 
sider it an easier word than “dioecious,” 
adding that “ this is simply because it is 
more frequently used; but to the young 
person who learns them one is quite as 
easy as the other.” Deciduous is a eu¬ 
phonious word and easier to remember 
than the other. The reason, however, why 
one is more frequently used than the other 
is simply because the necessity for its use 
is more frequent. As the antithesis of 
“evergreen” deciduous is not a suitable 
word. 
While all sciences are unnecessarily laden 
with hard words, strange to say, botany, 
one of the simplest and most charming of 
all, carries a heavier load than almost any 
other. For this reason, we contend, it is 
rendered repulsive to those who would 
otherwise be charmed with the study if the 
technical words were selected more for 
their simplicity than as evidence of the 
profound learning of botanical authors. 
For the book-worm crank of one idea ; for 
the professor that is so proud of his science 
that he neither cares for nor thinks of any¬ 
thing else, “scientific” words are just the 
thing. The “common” people would not 
respect his science if he made it as simple 
to them as “ rolling off a log !” 
Do you call this “ careless criticism ” or 
“artful ridicule?” In the good time to 
come, dear boy, the “ advanced students in 
science” may employ the simplest lan¬ 
guage and look back upon the jaw-breakers 
of our time as tip top evidences of the 
“ fustian proclivities of those days.” 
SAUNTERINGS. 
An experienced gardener says, in The 
Farm and Fireside, that he can now see 
more good points in Henderson’s Bush 
Lima than he discovered last year. This 
variety has come to stay; there can be no 
doubt about it. It is true, the pod is small, 
and so is the bean. But the plant, under 
good culture, is immensely productive; the 
pods are growing in close clusters and con¬ 
sequently are easily gathered; the beans 
are of very good quality, and come several 
weeks earlter than the large Limas, and last 
until the end of the season. It is the thing for 
sections where the common Limas do not 
succeed on account of the shortness of the 
sjason, as well as for people who want 
Limas as early as possible, and indeed it 
is the thing for all lovers of a really good 
bean. It is a Lima that can be grown al- 
mostas easily as any common garden bean; 
and a small patch of it will supply a family 
during the entire season. 
The church, said Dr. Talmage in a late 
sermon, is dying of fastidiousness. We 
shed tears for the woes of the world on 
hundred dollar pocket-handkerchiefs and 
then drop pennies into the poor-boxes. We 
yearn to help the poor and the oppressed, 
but we beg to be excused from touching 
hands whose finger nails are in mourning 
for departed soap. Recalling the fact that 
Jonah had embarked at Joppa, he said that 
he could not understand why people were 
bothered about the story of Jouah and the 
whale. God always had a whale outside 
the harbor for the man who started out in 
the wrong direction, and he did not wonder 
that even a whale should get sick of a man 
like Jonah. He concluded by advising 
everybody to give up sin and start for 
Heaven at once. 
W. R. Lazenby, of the Ohio State Uni¬ 
versity, has been traveling through Canada 
of late. He writes to the Country Gentle¬ 
man that one of the most refreshing sights 
was to see apple trees well loaded with 
fruit. It is true that orchards were not 
numerous, but every apple tree was fruit¬ 
ful, and the crop, though comparatively 
small, is by no means a failure in the vi¬ 
cinity of Montreal. As these were the first 
good apples he had seen this year, he ob¬ 
served them closely and found that a large 
proportion of them were the well-known 
Duchess. He was not disappointed when 
on reaching Toronto, he visited the markets 
and found new apples one of the noticeable 
features. They were in good supply and 
most of them in excellent condition. 
Our respected friend,* J. J. H. Gregory, 
from voluminous data, tells the New Eng¬ 
land Farmer that good onions will be legal 
tender in the United States during the 
coming fall for at least $1 per bushel, and 
that a man should not be called a lunatic 
who should predict much higher prices.... 
ABSTRACTS. 
-“ Trains for heaven never have any bag¬ 
gage cars.” 
-N. E. Farmer: “I suppose there have 
been farms in Vermont lost to their owners 
through the use or abuse of intoxicating 
drinks, but it has seemed to me that the 
average Vermont young men, as I see them 
gathered at agricultural fairs and on rail¬ 
road trains, are freer from drinking habits 
and rowdyism than any similar class of 
young men it has been my fortune to meet. 
They nearly all like horses and, on occa¬ 
sions, a good carriage, but they don’t seem 
to feel that a team and a rum bottle are in¬ 
dissolubly connected or that to have a 
“good time” means to get drunk. The 
most orderly fairs of their size I have ever 
attended have been in Vermont, and that 
too where the proportion of young men was 
noticeably large.” 
“The national strength of America lies 
not in her great cities with their business 
blocks and tenement houses owned by cor¬ 
porations and occupied by transient ten¬ 
ants, but in the millions of small farms and 
village homes in the country owned by the 
men and women who occupy them.” 
“Human nature, like animal nature, is 
very much the same the world over. The 
best bred herds and flocks have inferior as 
well as superior individuals among them.” 
-T. B. Terry in the Country Gentle¬ 
man : “ Last spring C. said to me: ‘I have 
not been out of my store a day this winter, 
except to go to the city for goods.’ During 
the 20 years I have lived here I think he has 
never seen my place, so tied up with busi¬ 
ness has he been, and stjll he has failed 
wretchedly. I am not tied up so with my 
business, thank God ! We can have con¬ 
siderable time to enjoy life outside of our 
own farm.” 
“Although feeling very sorry for my old 
friends who failed in life so sadly," I cannot 
help but feel rejoiced that I got out of 
the mercantile business in town and went 
to farming.” 
“ Some farmers have butter and eggs 
that they can only dispose of by trading 
for goods. We are out of that rut. We are 
independent. We produce nothing that 
will not sell for cash.” 
-President Iowa Agricultural Col¬ 
lege : “ It will bethe fault of the farmers 
if the agricultural colleges are not held 
strictly to their work, and given an abund¬ 
ance of the best young, human material to 
work upon.” 
-Farm and Fireside : “ After Congress 
has done all that can and ought to be done; 
after legislatures have done all they can; 
after Farmers’ Alliances have done all they 
can, the farmer’s prospects will depend 
upon the farmer himself, the attention he 
gives to every detail of his work, the thought 
and the brain he devotes to it.” 
|Ui.$ccllancou.$ §MU-erti$ing. 
In writing to advertisers please always 
mention The Rural. 
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