156 POPULAR ERRORS. 



Phillips "History of Cultivated Vegetables," Vol. I, 

 page 92. 



Second Flowering of Timothy. It is a common 

 belief in some localities that timothy flowers twice, 

 and that the proper time to cut it is in its second 

 blossom. It is difficult to understand how such an 

 idea originated. Professor Beal, of the Michigan 

 Agricultural College, has shown that it may be 

 seven days from the time a head of timothy begins to 

 blossom until the last flowers upon the head have 

 faded, but that there are not two distinct periods. 



Apple Seeds. "In every perfect ripe apple," it 

 was observed in an English publication about twenty 

 years ago, "there will be found one or two per- 

 fectly round seeds, the others having one or more 

 flattened sides. The round ones will produce the 

 improved fruit, and the flat ones will produce the 

 crab." Michigan Farmer, 1855, page 53. 



Artificial Parasites. " Captain B. Mignan, in 

 his ' Travels in Chaldea,' says that the Arabs slit 

 the stems of the ' Alhagi ' (Hedysarum Alhagi, 

 L.,) near the ground and insert seeds of the water- 

 melon, which germinate and grow on the roots in 

 ground too dry for its own roots to succeed. 



" Recent French pomologists assert that a pear 

 seed can in like manner be made to germinate in a 

 slit in a pear stock. Curious facts if true." 

 Gradeners' Monthly, Vol. II, 1860, page 252. 



