116 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



"odd and wonderful in many respects" but it cannot be half 

 as odd and wonderful as the intellect of anyone who will swal- 

 low such a silly tale. The story also lacks completeness. It 

 should add that the fruit that follows this flower is a miniature 

 log cabin. Slips of the plant have been sent to Burbank in the 

 hope that he can breed it into a six-room flat with all the 

 modern improvements. 



Government and National Health. — The Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture spends seven million dollars on plant 

 health and animal health every year, but, with the exception of 

 the splendid work done by Doctors Wiley, Atwater and Bene- 

 dict, Congress does not directly appropriate one cent for pro- 

 moting the physical well-being of babies. Thousands have 

 been expended in stamping out cholera among swine, but not 

 one dollar was ever voted for eradicating pneumonia among 

 human beings. Hundreds of thousands are consumed in sav- 

 ing the lives of elm trees from the attacks of beetles ; in warn- 

 ing farmers against blights affecting potato plants ; in import- 

 ing Sicilian bugs to fertilize fig blossoms in California ; in 

 ostracizing various species of weeds from the ranks of useful 

 plants, and in exterminating parasitic growths that prey 

 on fruit trees. In fact, the Department of Agriculture has 

 expended during the last ten years over forty-six million of 

 dollars. But not a wheel of the official machinery at Wash- 

 ington was ever set in motion for the alleviation or cure of 

 diseases of the heart or kidneys, which will carry off over six 

 millions of our entire population. Eight millions will perish 

 with pneumonia, and the entire event is accepted by the Ameri- 

 can people with a resignation equal to that of the Hindoo, who, 

 in the midst of indescribable filth, calmly awaits the day of the 

 cholera. — From Circular of Committee on National Health. 



