no THE PLANT WORLD. 



in 1 89 1, in connection with one of the Boston grammar schools and the 

 results obtained. The piece of ground was only 48 by 72 feet in the 

 back yard, yet they now have growing over 150 species of wild flowers 

 and ferns. The children take all the care of the plants and show the 

 greatest enthusiasm in this study of nature at first hand. The garden 

 also affords abundant material for class-room work. According to 

 Mr. Clapp, school gardens are a prominent feature of public school 

 instruction in Europe. Thus Austria has nearly 8,000 school gardens 

 in which practical instruction is given in rearing trees, vegetables, 

 and fruits. In France there are 28,000 schools in which gardening is 

 taught, each school having a garden attached. In one of the prov- 

 inces of Southern Russia 227 schools out of a total of 504 have school 

 gardens. It is hoped that these school gardens may be ultimately 

 introduced as extensively in this country, and to this end it is urged 

 upon teachers to read this article. 



. . . NOTES AMD NEV5. 



Number 3 of the " Bulletin of the New York Botanical Garden" 

 was issued on February 15. It contains, besides certain financial 

 statements, a list of some 2,700 species of plants now growing in the 

 garden, illustrations of the proposed museum building and horticul- 

 tural houses and a map of Bronx Park. Ground was formally broken 

 for the museum building on December 31st. 



Apropos of Prof. Halsted's notes in the February issue of the 

 Plant World upon the "Growth of Stems After Being Cut," I no- 

 ticed last spring in the case of cut stems of the Swamp Pink [Helonias 

 bullatd) the same sort of elongation that he refers to. Unfortunately 

 I made no record of the exact amount of growth, but it was so marked 

 in a vase of the flowering stems as to force itself upon the attention. 

 — C. F. Saunders^ Philadelphia. 



In the first week of January many buds of the giant Christmas 

 Rose {Hcllcborns altifoli^LS), some unclosed and others partially ex- 

 panded, were frozen and remained ice-bound until after the com- 

 mencement of March. On the departure of the frost the limp stems 

 recovered their consistency and the flowers opened, none the worse 

 for their lengthened period of torpor, furnishing a gathering of per- 

 fect blooms on March 7. The Chrysanthemum blooms, im.ported in 

 solid blocks of ice from the antipodes and subsequently exhibited in 

 London, also prove that flower-petals are not injured by being hard- 

 frozen, although alternations of frost and sunshine quickly mar their 

 beauty. — .S". W. F.^ in The Garden. 



