THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 73 



ner is unexplained. Possibly it is a survival from early an- 

 cestors in which a single apical cell carries growth upward, as 

 in ferns, where first one cell and then another is cut off from a 

 single apical cell in a never-ending spiral. The leaves of plants, 

 are also arranged on the stem in spirals and twining stems wrap 

 themselves about their supports in a similar way. If a twining 

 stem that has risen above the earth and is feeling about for a 

 support be watched, it will be found to travel round and round 

 in ever-widening circles, and this is also caused by the peculiari- 

 ties of cell growth already referred to. It is possible, therefore, 

 that the twist in the bark and wood of trees is produced in the 

 same way. In trunks of trees that have been stripped of their 

 bark, such as those used for telegraph and telephone poles, the 

 twist in the wood is sometimes very noticeable. 



A Despiser of Gardens. — Probably there is no subject 

 in the whole world that everybody would agree on ; even the 

 gentle art of gardening has its critics. One of the world's fore- 

 most literary men, noted for his culture and refinement, wrote 

 as follows in reference to gardening. "A garden is an ugly 

 thing. Even when best managed it is an assembly of unfortun- 

 ate beings, pampered and bloated above their natural size ; 

 stewed and heated into diseased growth; corrupted by evil 

 communication into speckled and inharmonious colors; torn 

 from the soil which they loved, and of which they were the spirit 

 and glory, to g"lare away their term of tormented life among 

 the mixed and incongruous essences of each other, in earth that 

 they know not and in air that is poison to them." Pretty strong, 

 isn't it ? And the writer was John Ruskin ! 



