15 
Botanical Notes. 
Poppies on Railway Embankments. The horticulturists who 
do so much to render summer railway travel agreeable in the 
more settled parts of the country by their ingenuity and taste, 
in decorating the grounds about the stations,’my perhaps be 
interested to know that in the opinion of M. Cambier, chief 
roadmaster of the French Government railways, the best plant 
yet discovered for consolidating, by the interlacing of its roots, 
the loose soil of a newly made embankment is the double poppy. 
Ten years’ trial has enabled M. Cambier, as he says, to guarantee 
that the poppy will be found far more efficient for this purpose 
than any of the grasses or clovers usually employed; and while 
these require several months for the development of their com- 
paratively feeble roots, the double poppy germinates in a few — 
days, and in two weeks grows enough to give some protection to 
the slope, while at the end of three or four months the roots, 
which are ten or twelve inches long, are found to have interlaced 
so as to retain the earth far more firmly than those of any grass 
or grain. Although the plant is an annual, it sows itself after the 
first year, and with a little care the bank is always in good con- 
dition. In France the double poppy is perfectly hardy, and can 
be sown at almost any time from March to November. With us 
it is also said to be quite hardy, and a long embankment covered 
through the later summer and autumn with the dazzling scarlet 
blossoms contrasted with green grass at the foot of the slope, 
would have a most striking effect—American Architect. 
Specimens of Cuscuta wanted. Prof. C. E. Bessey, of the 
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Neb., desires to obtain by 
exchange or purchase, specimens of Cuscute in flower or fruit. 
Queer Books in a German Library. One of the most 
curiously original collection of books in any library is said to be 
a botanical collection at Warsenstein, in Germany. At first sight 
the volumns appear like rough blocks of wood; but on closer 
examination it is found that each is a complete history of the 
particular tree which it represents. At the back of the book the 
bark has been removed from a space large enough to admit the 
scientific and the common name of the tree as a title. One side 
