PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUMMER MEETING. 49 



ico. After a few years, instead of tubers an inch or less in diameter, 

 we grew some three inches long. Maybe for ten years we have been 

 growing Solanum Jamesii from Arizona. For the past three years more 

 especially some of the tubers have nearly doubled in size, while the out- 

 side has changed from the brown, warty surface to a clear color resem- 

 bling our smoothest potatoes in general cultivation. 



In most cases, by selecting the spot of suitable size, especially favor- 

 able for the plants of a family, we are enabled to keep them near each 

 other, but no attempt is made to plant allied families near to each other 

 or to arrange species in an artistic manner. In case of the calla or arum 

 family, the sweet flag, golden-club, wild calla, arrow arum, are grown in 

 the mud in shallow water, and just on the adjacent bank are grown 

 Indian turnip, green dragon, and skunk cabbage. On a small, inacces- 

 sible island we grow poison sumach and poison ivy, while on the neigh- 

 boring bank are six other species of Rhus or sumachs. The ferns are on 

 the north side of a moist bank and at the base of it more or less shaded 

 by trees and protected from winds. A large space sunk a foot into the 

 black soil of the creek bottom grows cardinal flowers to perfection, 

 while a mound near by is well covered by a group of harebells. Among 

 the geraniums, a depression is made extending to a soil perpetually wet, 

 and their blossoms find a congenial home. So with the marsh marigold, 

 some of the sedges, a patch of holly grass, and some species of Clyceria ; 

 and for the health of the family, a depression in the muck grows two 

 sorts of cranberry, several sorts of huckleberry, leather-leaf, a species of 

 Kalmia, and Labrador tea; ^hile those needing dryer soil are near at 

 hand. 



Near one of the ponds and on a bog about twenty-five by forty feet, we 

 are experimenting. The space is nearly inclosed by arbor vit^e or a tem- 

 porary artificial screen to prevent any sweep of air and to keep out the 

 sun, while raised on posts ten feet high is a screen of slats to check the 

 force of the sun from above. Here we are growing mosses from the 

 swamp, including other things found in such places. Calypso borealis 

 has flowered here for two years in succession. It is too soon to pro- 

 nounce it a success in every particular. 



Some plants, like violets and euphorbias, shoot their seeds in every 

 direction as the pistils ripen, often three to eight feet. On this account 

 we scatter the roots of violets around among the crucifers, and must 

 scatter the euphorbias to prevent hopeless confusion of seedling plants. 

 Rootstocks of arrowhead, juncus, burreed, cattail flag, scouring-rush, 

 and others spread so rapidly in the ponds and bogs that they soon 

 become mixed. I am planning to give each species of plant with this 

 habit a small bog to itself where nothing can intrude and where it can 

 hold full sway. In the fall of the year the large terminal buds of 

 Myriopliyllum and bladderwort sever themselves from the parent plant 

 and sink to the bottom to rise the next spring and drift away from home, 

 starting many new colonies. 



In the place where we wished to grow the mints, pulse family, and a 

 few others, the ground was rather too hard. We covered the soil with 

 about six inches of sand, which serves as a mulch and works easily. 



All weeds of much size, if any are found, are carried away to the 

 rubbish pile. In this way, after about three years, all those which are 

 7 



