82 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Kale is another vegetable too little known. It's culture is 'simple, its 

 growth strong, and, cooked as cabbage, its flavor is delicious. 



Prof. Taft: It is as good as cauliflower and more easily grown than 

 cabbage. 



Prof. Teacy: Swiss Chard is a vegetable which also has not the atten- 

 tion it deserves. There is no vegetable I like better. The beautiful, 

 white leaf -stalks are the part eaten, and whether dressed like asparagus or 

 put into pickle, it is very fine. Like all other vegetables, it should be put, 

 for cooking, into hot and slightly salted water. 



Prof. Teacy: Savoy cabbages are very superior in flavor to the other 

 varieties. They are greatly preferred in the New York market, and have 

 been much improved under American cultivation, both in size and flavor. 



watee lilies in lawns. 



Mr. L. B. K.ICE of Port Huron told how he successfully grew water lilies 

 last summer. Having secured from southern New Jersey roots of a 

 dwarf white variety, he got some barrels, sawed them in two and filled 

 them one third full of clay and muck, in which the lilies were planted and 

 the tubs were filled with water. The lilies bloomed in four weeks and 

 continued blossoming all summer. In August he made a i)ond 8x12 feet 

 and three feet deep, with brick and scantling guard and cement sides and 

 bottom. Clay and muck to a foot in depth were placed in this, and the 

 lilies therein planted bloomed in September. He added roots of pink and 

 blue water lilies, which did well but did not bloom that season. 



Evening Session. 



Prof. Taft of Michigan Agricultural college, instructed and entertained 

 the audience with the following lecture upon 



WHAT IS A FUNGUS ? 



Before attempting to give a definite answer to the question. What is a 

 fungus? we can wisely spend a few minutes in considering some of the 

 more general characteristics of the various groux^s of these interesting and 

 often destructive organisms. 



In the past, owing in part, perhaps, to their size, which is often micro- 

 scopic, little attention has been given them, even by botanists; and many 

 horticulturists, whose crops have been destroyed by them, are not aware 

 of their existence. 



The fungi are among the lowest of what are known as cryptogamic 

 plants. We generally tliink of plants as possessing such organs as roots, 



