THE PI.ANT WORIvD 45 



My " mouth waters " as I think of those days. The rich woods were 

 full of red baneberry, blue cohosh, may-apples, spikenard, ginseng, 

 shin-leaf, tway-blade, pogonia, bracted and showy orchids, yellow and 

 showy lady-slippers, wild yams, Solomon's seal, bellwort, trilliums, and 

 jack-in-the-pulpits. Not one of these plants is now found on the farm. 

 Gone they are, with the trees they loved. 



To refer to what some reader may believe to be a sad blunder on my 

 part, viz., the showy lady-slipper in rich moist woodlands: The books 

 say in " bogs, etc."; but, alas, the books are often at fault, for in north- 

 western Illinois these plants always grew in woods, or on hillsides or bluffs. 

 Here about Chicago they behave according to the books, but not there. 

 The beautiful calopogon had the same unconventional way — growing 

 only on bald bluffs. In the woods with thin soil grew asters, shin-leaves, 

 violets, lousewort, painted cups. In the " flat openings " were found wild 

 indigo, " pennyroil," as we called it (the Koellia of to-day), pink poly- 

 galas, purple guardias. The " sloughs " (pronounced " slew ") yielded 

 turks-caps and meadow lilies, marsh bellwort, button snake-root, closed 

 gentian and pussy-willows galore. 



All are gone. I have a list made out in 1876 enumerating 355 plants 

 on that famed farm. To-day there are barely 200, and these are the 

 "plebeians" and "toughs," "tramps" and "rabble" of the plant 

 world. The royal ones are all missing. 



Here the destroying factor has doubtless been the removal of the 

 forest with its kindly influence in affording shelter and plentiful and 

 evenly-distributed moisture. A similar fate awaits, I fear, all forest 

 plants, for man seems determined to clear the earth of trees of natural 

 growth, leaving it bare and desolate under the fierce heat of our summer 

 sun. 



The Home Garden and Greenhouse. 



Conducted by Dr. F. H. Knowlton. 



[The editor of this department will be glad to answer questions of a rele- 

 vant nature, and also to receive short articles on any phase of this subject.] 



Propagation of Carnations (concluded from January issue. From 

 Atnericayi Gardening) . — The making of the cutting is very simple. Having 

 found your ideal cutting, which, with the present-day stronger growing 

 kinds, should be from 2/4 to 3 inches long, break it off intact from the side 

 of the flowering stem. Many prefer to cut away part of the grass, but this 

 is not necessary at the present season. The propagating houses at the 

 present time are kept closer on account of the prevailing dull weather and 

 colder outside temperature than they will be later on. Therefore, the 



