February  4,  1897. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
89 
labels  rapidly  and  neatly  in  a  standing  position.  Now,  little  chaps, 
all  this  chatter  is  not  without  a  purpose  ;  I  want  you  to  practise 
the  same  method  instead  of  having  to  clear  the  decks  for  so  simple 
an  action.  Practise  writing  labels  by  holding  them  in  your  left 
hand  steadied  against  the  breast,  and  I  trust  that  you  may  now  and 
again  be  permitted  by  your  masters  to  exercise  your  hand  in  labelling. 
On  this  question  there  is  another  little  matter  worth  mentioning 
— viz.,  there  is  often  too  much  disparity  in  a  boy’s  writing  as 
practiced  with  the  pencil  and  with  the  pen,  the  former  being  apt  to 
have  a  monopoly,  to  the  detriment  of  the  latter.  So  much  may 
this  be  the  case  that  1  have  noted  results  almost  parallel  with  that 
of  Mr.  Toodle’s  (in  “  Dombey  and  Son  ”),  who  could  write  “  with 
chalk.”  The  best  illustration  I  can  give  you  of  this  is  by  openly 
confessing  that  a  master  in  after  years  who  gave  my  pencil  work 
in  the  way  of  labelling  high  praise,  was  bo  disappointed  with  a 
specimen  of  my  penmanship,  which  he  wished  to  submit  for  higher 
inspection,  that  a  pencil-written  paper  was  substituted  for  it.  It 
should  not  have  been  so,  considering  that  on  many  a  winter’s  night 
in  the  bothy  I  have  written  for  three  hours  at  a  stretch,  but  the 
fact  remained  that  too  often  the  pencil  had  been  substituted  for  the 
pen,  hence  the  evil  pointed  out  for  you  to  avoid. 
Times  are  not  what  they  were  when  I  was  a  boy.  You  may  be 
inquisitive  now,  must  be  in  fact,  but  neither  ostentatiously  nor 
objectionably  so.  There  is  nothing  that  you  have  to  do,  or  nothing 
that  is  done,  without  a  reason.  Do  not  be  satisfied  with  doing  your 
work  mechanically,  even  though  you  do  it  well,  and  in  everything 
endeavour  to  trace  the  effect  to  the  cause — that  is  keep  asking  the 
reason  why.  But  do  rot  misconstrue  this  advice  so  that  you  are 
turned  into  a  veritable  little  torment.  Ask  yourself,  and  probably 
five  questions  out  of  six  will  upon  a  little  reflection  and  observation 
discover  themselves  to  you,  whilst  the  sixth  may  be  settled  satis¬ 
factorily  by  seeking  at  an  opportune  time  for  such  information  as 
few  right-thinking  men  will  deny  you. 
After  the  novelty  of  early  duties  has  worn  off  a  little  contempt 
may  arise  of  some  jobs  which  are  legitimately  a  boy’s  work. 
Washing  pots,  cleaning  up  the  stokehole*,  scrubbing  out  the  houses, 
you  may  possibly  regard  a*  rather  mean  kind  of  work.  It  is  not 
so  unless  you  make  it  so  ;  if  you  wash,  and  clean,  and  scrub  to 
perfection — Napoleon  could  not  have  done  more  respecting  his 
work,  and  did  not,  in  fact,  always  do  as  much.  There  is  no  work 
even  of  the  humblest  kind  but  which  if  conscientiously  performed 
is  dignified,  and  confers  its  dignity  upon  the  worker.  Endeavour 
to  feel  that  this  is  so,  and  I  trust  your  endeavours  will  be  rewarded 
by  such  encouragement  as  will  leave  no  doubt  in  your  mind  upon 
the  matter. 
Presuming  that,  even  at  this  early  stage  of  a  gardener’s  life, 
there  is  no  intention  of  turning  back,  and  taking  it  for  granted  that 
any  sufficiently  interested  to  follow  these  humble  efforts  on  their 
behalf  will  certainly  not  do  so,  we  will  now  “  zigzag  ”  in  some 
practical  matters  ;  but  it  must  be  understood  for  once  and  for  all 
that  once  *tarted  you  will — you  must — continue  with  such  aids  and 
material  for  the  purpose  as  the  daily  duties  and  leisure  hours 
afford.  If  I  can  show  to  you  the  ocean  of  knowledge  your  thirst 
should  prompt  you  to  keep  yourself  to  the  “  illimitable,”  for,,  as 
Emerson  says,  “Welcome  ever  more  to  gods  and  men  is  the  self¬ 
helping  man.”  In  the  matter  of  plant  names,  which  present  some 
little  difficulty,  so  apparently  impenetrable  are  they  upon  the 
surface,  we  may  well  here  break  ground. 
Floriits’  designations  need  not  claim  our  attention,  there  being 
but  little  danger  of  your  not  becoming  sufficiently  conversant  with 
them  in  the  different  phases  as  opportunity  occurs  ;  and  as  Mrs. 
Pollock,  John  Hopper,  or  the  various  Glories  and  Perfections, 
with  other  distinguishing  or  distinguished  names  fulfilling  their 
purpose,  it  would  be  purposeless  to  dwell  upon  them,  but  do 
endeavour  to  spell  and  to  pronounce  them  correctly.  Those  which 
have  the  flavour  of  a  foreign  tongue  will  doubtless  as  time  goes  on 
be  more  or  less  familiar  to  you,  but  it  is  sincerely  hoped  that  a 
Gloire  de  Dijon  will  not  be  a  “  Glory  de  John  ”  to  you,  as  it  was 
to  an  old  friend  to  the  end  of  the  chapter.  Knowing,  as  you 
know,  that  Dijon  is  a  town  in  France  the  rest  is  sufficiently  clear, 
but  you  may  not  know  enough  French  to  set  yourself  up  on  that 
pedestal  of  conceit  a  comrade  of  mine  mounted  to  declaim  that 
“  Pomme  de  terre  meant  Pomme  de  tater,  and  anybody  could 
parlyvoo  that.”  Seriously  I  wish  I  could  invite  you  to  study  that 
elegant  language,  but  as  gardeners  it  behoves  us  to  dig  for  Latin 
roots.  “  Dry  old  roots  too,”  you  will  say  ;  well,  we  will  sample  a 
few,  which  will,  I  trust,  create  an  appetite  for  more.  Here  are 
some  I  tasted  at  your  age  and  found  them  to  be  not  unpleasant. 
Selecting  six  fairly  easy  names  relating  to  form — viz.,  round, 
angular,  pyramidal,  long,  large,  dwarf,  and  taking  them  in  the 
order  of  sequence,  the  following  plants  should  show  their  right 
to  the  names  they  bear  :  Campanula  rotundifoiia,  round-leaved  ; 
Passiflora  quadrangularis,  quadrangular — four-angled  stems  ;  Cam¬ 
panula  pyramidalis,  pyramid  shaped  ;  Pteris  longifolia,  long-leaved 
(comparatively,  see  note  to  come)  ;  with  Achimenes  longiflora,  long 
flowered  ;  Odontoglossum  grande,  large  ;  Asparagus  plumosus 
nanus — plumosus,  feathery  ;  nanus,  dwarf.  These  names  clearly 
convey  the  character  of  the  plant  they  are  appended  to,  as  do  many 
others  which  you  will  gradually  become  acquainted  with.  Others 
there  are  which  do  so  in  a  more  remote  degree,  while  again  there 
are  some  members  of  the  different  families  which  beyond  the 
family  name  they  bear  display  no  more  character  apparently  in 
their  distinguishing  appellations  than  we  ourselves  do,  but  have, 
perhaps,  the  advantage  over  the  human  family  by  its  being  the 
means  of  more  distinct  recognition. 
To  prevent  a  confusion  of  ideas  on  this  phase  of  the  subject 
you  will  bear  in  mind  that  descriptive  names  expressive  of  size  are 
comparative — viz.,  used  relatively  to  the  family  or  section  of  the 
family  to  which  they  belong  ;  thus  a  giant  of  one  tribe  is  by  com¬ 
parison  but  the  dwarf  to  another ;  for  instance,  Ferula  gigantea, 
the  Giant  Fennel,  has  no  affinity  in  size  with  Wellingtonia  gigantea, 
but  each  are  representative  of  their  types,  although  the  latter  is 
restricted  at  present  to  the  one  member  with  its  varietal  sports. 
Similar  simple  revelations  concerning  plant  names  relating  to 
colour  and  habit  will  next  be  broached  ;  plain  enough,  I  hope,  for 
you — my  youngest  reader — to  take  up  the  matter  at  once,  that  ifc 
may  go  hand-in-hand  with  daily  work  and  nightly  recreation,  for — 
“Are  you  in  earnest  ?  Seize  this  very  minute; 
What  you  can  do,  or  think  you  can,  Begin  it.” 
— An  Old  Boy.  (To  j,e  continued.) 
BRODLEA  HOWELLI  LILACINA. 
The  several  species  and  varieties  of,  the  Brodiaeas  are  well  known  to 
all  our  readers  as  flowering  plants  of  much  beauty  and  considerable 
utility.  Some  of  them  are  comparatively  scarce,  whilst  others  are 
abundant,  and  consequently  cheap.  One  of  the  newest,  B.  Howelli 
lilacina,  is  depicted  in  the  woodcut  (fig.  23),  and  was  shown  by  Messrs. 
R.  Wallace  &  Co.,  Colchester,  at  one  of  the  summer  meetings  of  the  Royal 
Horticultural  Society  last  summer.  So  beautiful  and  distinct  was  the 
variety  considered  that  the^Floral  Committee  recommended  a  first-clasa 
certificate.  The  form  of  the  flowers  is  shown  in  the  woodcut,  and  ira 
this  alone  the  difference  from  the  type  is  readily  discernible.  The  lower 
portion  or  tube  of  the  flower  is  bright  lilac  in  colour,  while  the  upper 
portion  is  pure  white, 
