I would like to suggest, especially to the younger members of the association, three horticultural projects that I believe promise to be of importance, and on which nobody that I know of is doing any work. Only one of these projects has to do with a nut.
1. Utterly neglected and wasted, the fruit of the horsechestnut or buckeye, "said, to have been formerly used as food or medicine for horses," still might become an abundant food for animals, and perhaps for man, if a way could be found to deprive it of its disagreeable bitter taste and reputed, probably exaggerated, poisonous quality.[31]
There is one late flowering horsechestnut, Aesculus parviflora, a dwarf species from the Southeast, and commonly seen in Connecticut as an ornamental on lawns, which bears a nut entirely free from bitterness, and is sometimes known as the edible horsechestnut. The possibilities in crossing this with the bitter horsechestnut tree species are evident and fascinating. [Several hybrid horsechestnuts are cultivated, but none of these apparently involves any A. parviflora parentage.—Ed.]
2. In temperate zones there are, so far as I have learned, no perennial legumes the seeds of which are used as food. All our immensely valuable edible leguminous seed crops are annually planted. The only exception I think of is the honeylocust, the pods of which, under favorable conditions, are sometimes used as fodder for horses and cattle. But there are thousands of leguminous plants and trees, many of them hardy. I mention the herbaceous Baptisia australis, several hardy perennial peas, such as Lathyrus sylvestria, L. maritimus etc., Caragrana the pea tree, and species of Robinia, Cercis; Cymocladus and Wistaria. A collection of these, with as many more as one might wish, would be a fascinating group in which to spend hours with brush and forceps.
3. All over America thousands of "tired business men," and school boys who ought to be tending to their baseball, have to spend weekends and holidays pushing lawn-mowers. If an acceptable ground cover could be found that would have to be mowed only half as often, or one quarter as often, or maybe only once a year, or even (glory be) not at all, what a saving of time it would be for good healthy sport and non-depressing exercise.
There are many promising plants. Pachysandra and Vinca, don't quite fill the bill but have their good points, such as growing in the shade. There is a little round-leafed plant common in Florida and, apparently, found in the north. There are many plants that could be grown experimentally in patches a yard square. Why have we so tamely limited ourselves to grasses and clover? What a chance for a man to immortalize himself by discovering variants for grasses and clover for lawns and thus become a benefactor to millions of lawn-mower slaves!
[Footnote 31: (See letter from the American Medical Association on next page.—Ed.)]
COUNCIL ON PHARMACY AND CHEMISTRY
of the
AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION Office of the Secretary, 535 N. Dearborn Street, Chicago 10, Illinois