Evening star., 1932-04-08

Speaking of scientific nomenclature
/ for plantr, the hardy thrubs give the
amateur gardener and small home
cwner a diversified list of jaw-breakers
! with which he may amuse his Idle
hours or amaze his less learned friends.
| Consider Acanthopanax pentaphyllum
a good, thorny hedge, not as widely
l;nCwn or used as 1t ought to be, ac-
cording to the experts.
If gardener springs that one on an
i unsuspecting friend, he may be sure OF
creating q small sensation, as such
/ things go.
! Certain shrubs of the great rose
fanny, called Cotoneasters, are sure OF
getting a hand from the gardener who
dos not pay much attention to the
scientific names.
Many people attempt to pronounce
this word as If it were spelled cotton.
Tie proper pronuncia ion clips the first
syllable, puts the first accent on Ito, -
+ pronounces the 'e" and places the seq
! ond accent on "aster."
/ Thus this often difficult word is pro-
noun ed, roughly. "co-tony-aster."
There are PROSTATE forms Of the
! cotoneaster, but most OF the forms
/ avails BILE to the home gardener are up
right shrubs, or evergreen shrubs. Dur
! ing the past decade they have become
/ quite fashionable but still have great
deal of ground to gain in the average
garden.
! 1t will be interesting to Washington
gardeners to realize that AbcEa grand
+ flora about reaches the limit Of ITS USE
fulnes this far North. This is pretty
! little shrub with shiny lelves and small,
! inconspicuCus pink flowers. In the
/ nth it is practically an evergre n. In
Washington and the suburbs the Abeliaf
remained green until the blizzard of
/ March 6, which completely cooked
their foliage. This is one OF the choicest
little bushes one nav purchase. Every
! yard should have at least one or two. as
! there is nothing nicer for the small
| home grounds 1t is said that this bush
does better for a complete shearing back
| to the ground every year or two, but 1t
; thrives so we'll and strikes the eye SO
gratefully that one will hesitate long
about applying harsh measures to 1t.
Here is another breaker: Arcto-
| rtaphyl0s uya-ursi. Try that one on
one Of those obstreperous gardeners who
| insist on using many and long Latin
names of plants 1t IS guaranteed to
, lay him out. as 1t were; reduce him to
: complete silence.
You can have lot of fun explaining
to him how the last two syllables,
"ursi' come from the Latin for bear,
and that some people you subtly
imply such people as himself-call 1t
the bear berry. Bears are supposed to
, like it. of course. Some nurseries offer
it, but not all. 1t grows in New Eng
land along the coast.
One shrub whose common name is
known to every one is the szalea.
1t is curious fact that some scien-
tific names of plants are even better
known than their common ones.
Thus the word "nasturtium" is in the
mouth of the least inquisitive gardener,
just as the actual leaves OF these plants
once were used as salad greens"
"Azalea" is much easier word to
pronounce than "nasturtium." It is
known to all plant lovers. but perhaps
few OF them have gone to the trouble
OF sscertaining the names following,
which designate the different varieties.
Some Of these are Azalea amoena. A.
aborescens, A. ca'endulacea (thatS a
fine one. both as to name and fiower)
A. gandavensis, A. japonica A kaenp-
feri, A. mollis. A. nudifiora, A. pouk-
hanenSis (another mouthfuD, A. vaseyi,
A. ViscoSa.
Most Of ones friends would know
what one happened to be talking about
II one spoke of box. but many would be
completely In the dark If one used the
Eigh-sounding Buxus sempervirens.
This is the true box. There are many
other sorts.
Clethra alnifolia, or sweet pepper