Evening star., 1932-04-06
THIS. AND THAT
BY CHARLES 4. TRACEWELL.

tuai work with plants, yet who never
theless Is keenly in love with them
and interested in every phase of their
behavior under cultivation. Such q
person may rejoice that this interest is
given to him, for 1t is one to which
Hundreds of thousands of human beings,
especially in the cities, are complete
strangers.
II has become the fashion, of course,
for most human beings under civiliza-
ton 10 profess an interest in things of
beauty. Usually they include flowers.
Actually they know nothing about them
and care less. II shown rare plant,
they will say enthusiastically, Very
pretty" and then begin talking about
something else.
Such people never fool the real plant
lover. They are the brothers and sisters
OF that huge group of human beings
the members OF which manifest re-
markable enthusiasm for the cog be-
cause they regard 1t as fashionable to
be dog lover.
When they are required to take care
OF dog. however-to feed it. to bathe
it. to clean up after it and especially
to care for it when 1t becomes ill-they
shortly show the stuff Of which they
are made as professed friends OF dogs.
The sham flower friend may be de-
tected by his scant conversation about
the flowers, the bushes, the grass the
trees, all the growing things of the
world, including the vines, the ferns,
the moses even.
The real plant enthusiast, whether a
dirt gardener or a theoretical gardener,
whether one who actually does the work
or one who enjoys its results when
done by another, to whom he Is always
ready to take off his hat. In humble
acknowledgment, may be 1dentlfled by
his willingness to talk about gardening.
The gentleman who made the re-
marks quoted at the beginning OF this
column about his Silver Moon was such
a gardener. He not only dug In his
garden but he wanted to talk about it
afterward. But he did no useless dig
ging. He used his head: he knew that
often it is better to let plant stay
where it is than attempt TO move 1t.
Another mark of the true amateur
gardener, whether he plants himself or
permits some one else to do 1t, Is his
enthusiasm for gardening books and
articles and his real interest in plant
names, both the common and the Latin
or scientific names.
We have yet to see real amateur
gardener who did not surround himself
with books on gardening or who die not
make some attempt, small though 1t
might be, to learn the fancy names"
of the plants
Some people have knack of remem-
bering such names. They can reel off
the delightful jaw-breakers which usu-
ally are given in parenthesis after the
common names in the catalogues and
flower lists.
Others find these names quite diff
cult. especially if they never studied
Latin in their younger days. Neverthe-
less, invariably they make an attempt to
learn them, sensing that in them lies
much of the history and romance of
gardening.
The use of the mind, therefore, as
well as the hands, or even more than
the hands in a way, marks the real
amateur gardener This must not be
construed as in dispraise of the man or
woman who actually digs the soil, who
puts in the plants, who sprays them for
diseases and feeds them for health.
Such are the real. gardeners, and the
amateur lover of plants who for one
reason or another cannot or will not do
all this will be the first to take of his
hat to them.
The cream of the gardeners Is the
man or woman who combines a love of
digging with a love of reading. He or
she is the best gardener-the only one
who has a right to claim that ancient
and honorable title The remainder of
us are just amateurs" 1t will be bet
ter if we leave the gardener" part of
it out of the picture Nevertheless, we
may insist. politely enough, that we rest
our claims. such as they are, on the
twin facts that we love beauty and that
we are interested in flowers: that we
read garden books and magazines, and
that We try to remember the scientific
names of Dlants