THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 117 



Japan likes his chrysanthemum salad, made from the petals 

 of his national flower. In England the taste seems to rim to 

 drinks, and just now the children are busy gathering cowslips 

 to make cowslip wine. — Gardening. 



Fasciated Dandelions. — From Miss Mabel Dimock, 

 Peekamose, N. Y., we have recently received excellent speci- 

 mens of faciated dandelions. In these specimens there has 

 apparently been a slip in the machinery of nature with the re- 

 sult of uniting what would ordinarilv be two or more flower- 

 heads into one. In some years these freaks are quite common 

 and may be distinguished from the normal flower-heads at 

 some distance by their unusual size. Fasciation has been re- 

 ported in many other flowers, and De Vries, by cultivation 

 has been able to produce a race of fasciated plants from sev- 

 eral including the dandelion. It is interesting to note that the 

 coxcomb (Celosia cristata) often found in old fashioned gar- 

 dens is a fasciated plant that has almost replaced the normal 

 form. 



The Farmer's Mental Equipment. — It is believed by 

 some dwellers in the city that the farmer lives on a farm be- 

 cause he hasn't brains enough to do anything else. The Ash- 

 land Gazette sizes the case up differently and says that a suc- 

 cessful farmer must know considerable of several sciences. 

 "He must have botany enough to enable him to understand 

 the nature of his crops and how they grow ; geology enough 

 to know the different kinds of soil and their properties ; 

 entomology enough to know which insects are pests and which 

 are friends ; ornithology enough to know which of the birds 

 are injurious and which are helpful ; forestry enough to know 

 hovv' to properly reserve, extend and harvest his woodland ; and 

 horticulture enough to know how to manage his fruit and 

 vegetable gardens." Ordinarily the farmer does not go in 

 much for botany as such ; in fact, he may imagine he has no 



