SUMMER MEETING. 8T 



scion. My own observation is, that the rapid-growing varieties are far 

 more subject to the disease than those that make a slower growth and 

 therefore likely to be of harder wood. 



The Object of Roots. 



In a recent address, Dr. Wm. Anderson states that " the popular 

 belief is that plants are nourished through their roots, which for that 

 reason are believed to be the all-important parts, while the leaves are 

 mere ornaments, enjoying the upper air and sunshine and profiting by 

 the work done underground. But a juster knowledge, one of the fruits 

 of abstract investigation, tells us that the roots are mainly useful in 

 holding the tree erect, and have comparatively little to do with pro- 

 viding the materials for building up its structure. It is the leaves 

 which form the great laboratory in which the main components of the 

 plant are extracted from the region where superficial observers would 

 least expect to find them — namely, the atmosphere ;" and there is 

 enough truth in what the Dr. says to warrant observation and experi- 

 ment ; but when he has deprived the tree or other plant of roots and 

 still holds it in place, as they would, he will yet discover that all the 

 elements of the atmosphere will not sustain life. 



A Simple Botanical Classification. 



The primary idea of a garden is to display plants — trees, shrubs, 

 or plants of more humble growth — in such manner that they will attain 

 their greatest and best development, and if possible arrange them as a 

 harmonious pleasing whole — a gem in the landscape. This can never 

 be done without considerable definite knowledge of the individuals 

 composing the vegetable kingdom. 



Now, the science of botany has been devised to aid that know- 

 ledge, and all the botanists, above the rank of herbalists, have adopted 

 some classification. 



Without classification the human mind would be utterly unable to 

 grasp the vast multitude of natural objects — whether plants or other 

 bodies. The botanical schools vary greatly ; there are those who 



