THE PLANT WOKLD 153 



BRIEFER ARTICLES. 



Everyone will appreciate tlie following graphic description of a 

 "New Kind of Plant" wliicli recently appeared in the columns of one 

 of our leading metropolitan dailies: 



An entirely new plant has been produced this summer by a man 

 living in the suburbs of Chicago by means of a cross between the Scotch 

 thistle and the ordinary greenhouse carnation. The flower is called the 

 Centura and is purple and white. The stalk is smooth like that of the 

 carnation, although stronger, and the leaf is similar to that of the this- 

 tle, but softer to the touch. The blossom, too, resembles the thistle, 

 but is larger and more delicate and ornate. The plant blooms pro- 

 fusely and can be grown out of doors in all but the most severe wea- 

 ther. The plants in this man's gardens have now attained a height of 

 two feet, and the only point in which they are inferior to either of the 

 parent plants is in lack of perfume. The fragrance is faint, and slightly 

 like that of the thistle. 



Of course no reader of The Plant "Woeld needs to be told that a 

 carnation, belonging to the Pink Family, could not possibly be crossed 

 with a plant belonging to the Compositae! It seems strange that news- 

 papers do not employ upon their staffs specialists in the more import- 

 ant branches of science, who would see that this and similar absurdities 

 were avoided. — C. L. Pollard, Washington, D. C. 



Louisiana Woods at the Exposition. 



Louisiana is rich in woods. The most important include the long 

 and short leaved pine, water elm, pecan, the southern hickorj^ bittei' 

 pecan, hackberry, persimmon, red oak, water oak, sycamore, beech, wil- 

 low, magnolia, thorn-locust, locust, red maple, box elder, red gum, black 

 gum, tupelo gum, blue ash, white ash, bass wood, cedar ash, prickly 

 ash, red haw, wild plum, cotton wood, yellow poplar, cypress, and the 

 osage orange or bois d'arc. Bois d'arc is an exceedingly hard wood, 

 bright orange in color, and is used extensively for paving blocks and 

 fence posts. This wood is also used as a substitute for box wood in 

 making roller skate wheels and rollers for x>ulleys. The cypress is 

 used extensively for making i^osts and railroad ties, shingles, splints, 

 and is bought largely by brewers for cooperage purposes. C^'press is 

 more durable and lasting than cedar. Samples of all the woods men- 



