NOTES AND NEWS. 123 



The Garden for February 4th contains an article on Fuchsias with 

 a colored plate of the striking F. corymbiflora and its variety alba. 

 While the Fuchsias may not hold as high a place among garden plants 

 as they formerly did, they are still worthy of a prominent place, espec- 

 ially certain of the late creations. 



While collecting Pogonia opJiioglossoides in a loose sphagnous bog 

 in 1896 I was surprised to find that it spread by runners, much as the 

 strawberry, or more rarely, Ophioglossiim viilgatinn. Runners with 

 two sets were not uncommon. No work on botany available men- 

 tions this fact, and it would be of interest to learn if it is generally 

 known. I have known the plant all my life, but never where it grew 

 to such luxuriance, a fact which may account for my previous over- 

 sight — AlvaJi A. Eaton ^ Seabrook, N. H. 



The Prickly Pear {Opuntia vulgaris) grows in more or less abun- 

 dance in the sands of the New Jersey pine barrens, and its beautiful 

 yellow blossoms form one of the attractive summer sights of that in- 

 teresting region. The fruit is ripe in November. It is technically 

 known as a berry, but looks much more like a little reddish pear with 

 the end where the flower grew cut abruptly off. These pears are set 

 closely together in a row along the edge of the broad, flat stems, and 

 a plant so adorned reminds one somewhat of a rude Pan's-pipe flung 

 on the ground. The fruit, though very seedy, is pleasantly acid, and 

 if one is careful to see that no spines are clinging to it when he puts it 

 in his mouth, a handful of it will be found quite refreshing when he 

 is traveling in the candy solitudes where the plant flourishes. — C. F. 

 Saunders, Philadelphia. 



The saponaceous legumes of the Chinese Honey-locust {Gleditschia 

 sinensis) — a tree occasionally seen in cultivation in this country — are 

 extensively employed in China in the preparation of a poor sort of 

 soap, which is used for toilet purposes by multitudes of people in the 

 Flowery Kingdom, where a workman's wages of six or seven cents a 

 day puts an embargo on luxuries. Vice-Consul-General Williams, 

 Shanghai, in a recent report to the United States Department of 

 State, describes this primitive process of soap-making as follows: 

 " The pods with the beans in them are placed in layers in a wooden 

 frame and subjected to heavy pressure. The whole mass is then cut 

 up into fine shavings by a plane shoved over the exposed ends. These 

 shavings, which have the appearance of fine-cut tobacco, are gathered 

 in double handfuls and beaten with a heavy hammer on a smooth 

 stone until reduced to a putty-like mass. A little native perfumery 

 is sometimes mixed with it to make it more attractive." — C. F. Saun- 

 ders, Philadelphia. 



