Evening star., 1925-05-27
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TR4CEWELL.

The words gladiator and gladiolus,
while worlds, apart. are alike in one
thing: Both are derived from the
Latin word for sword" Hence, the
gladiator was a man who fought in
the Roman arena with a sword.
So the. gladiolus. one of the most in
teresting and beautiful of flowers, has
sword like leaves, shooting up out of
the ground perfect miniature straight
cutting Instruments, to add touch of
difference to the Summer garden.
This flower, because of it's ease of
culture and beauty, has come to oc-
cupy foremost place in many a home
garden. although much missionary
work yet remains to be done to inter
est thousands in it, despite the large
number Of commercial growers.
No matter how good a thing may be,
there are many who yet have to make
it's acquaintance, just as libraries hold
books for years before an individual,
in a given case, may find the volume
that had been. waiting just for him, it
seems.
Perhaps it Is the difficulty of pro-
nunciation OF the name that has
held many back from possessing the
gladiolus. at any event. It is not
Next to the rose, there is no more
beautiful bloom. and some there are
who place II even ahead of the So
called queen of flowers.
The glad" as it is commonly alb
breviated, is an African flower that
has been transplanted with such in
finite success, and so carefully hy-
bridized by cross -pollenization, that
it has a range of color today perhaps
unequaled by any other growing thing.
X X
Of
nunciation, which, l am convinced,
scares away many from the cultiva-
ton of this wonderful flower:
There are two ways of pronounc-
ing the name. If you prefer the
Latin, you say "glad-eye-olus.' with
the accent very decidedly on the Sec
ond syllable.
If, on the other hand, you are ad.
dicted to good old English, as l am.
you say "gladi-o-lus," with the accent
on the 90"
1t is interesting to note that no
less an authority than Webster, in
the latest and biggest dictionary, de-
clares:
1.-The penultimate in this word
is short. and the accent, therefore,
as Latin, properly falls on the
antepenult: glad-i-o-lus is, however.
common in popular or colloquial
usage"
This authority gives plurals as fol.
lows:
Latin. gladioli; English. gladio-
luses.''
The matter, therefore, resolves it
self down to the old one OF which
way one prefers to regard Latin
words in our language, whether it
be better to treat them as Latin
still. and so give them the Latin ac-
cent, or hold them to be so much
a part of our language that they
should be given the normal English
accents and vowel sounds.
One who wishes to be meticulously
proper will continue to pronounce
according to the classic Latin, while
one who loves English above any
other tongue will probably put the
everyday preference.
1t will be enheartening to the lat
ter to know that Webster supports
them in their natural choice, even
to the extent of giving the plural
"gladioluses.'
AS one grower has said, the gladio-
lus is one flower you can grow and
yet keep. This is a case of eating
your cake and having it, too.' for the
bulb or CORN from which the plant
springs grows one or more new ones
each season, with a number of bulb
let's or "cormels" to make sure of
future propagation. These latter, If