180 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



removing the stamens at all, and here you observe that a doctrine 

 founded on observation comes to our aid to simplify our work. Tou 

 had better practise removal of stamens, however, for the practice 

 has its uses at times. The one grand point in effecting a cross is to 

 take pollen when full ripe, dry, granular, and breaking at a touch 

 into dust, and apply it to stigmas that are just ripe to receive it. 

 Generally speaking, the stigmas are ripe on the day after the pollen 

 is shed ; in very hot weather they are ripe the same day ; they never 

 ripen in advance of the stamens ; and therefore the case is actually 

 in your hands. 



If you have made up your mind to effect some distinct and bold 

 cross, it will be well to remove all, except two or three of the flower- 

 buds from the seed-bearing plant. The two or three left will — if 

 you arrange it so when clipping the buds out of the truss — flower 

 at distant intervals, and you will operate upon them as you have 

 determined, and this mode of procedure will reduce to a minimum 

 the probability of their being fertilized by stray pollen from flowers 

 on the same plant. The actual operation of artificial fertilization 

 consists simply in taking a little ripe pollen on the point of a dry 

 camel's-hair pencil, and depositing it on the ripe stigmas. The 

 operation should be performed at mid-day in a dry atmosphere, and, 

 if possible, while the sun shines. It may be repeated to " make 

 sure," but depend upon it the smallest grain applied at the 

 right moment will be as effectual for its purpose as any larger 

 quantity, or any number of repetitions. S. H. 



THE RESURRECTION PLANT. 



E have recently received several letters of inquiry on this suhject. It 

 appears from those before us that some little confusion exists, through 

 two perfectly distinct subjects having received the appellation of 

 " Resurrection Plant" the one being a flowering plant, and the other 

 a lycopod. 



The true "Resurrection Plant," or "Rose of Jericho," Anastatica Mero- 

 elnmtina, is an annual belonging to the Nat. Ord. Ciiucifek.1, and a native of 

 the Egyptian deserts and the dry wastes of Arabia, Barbary, and the Holy 

 Land. Its generic name is derived from Anastasis, " resurrection," in reference 

 to the property it possesses of recovering its original form and green healthy 

 appearance if immersed in water, no mutter how dry it may be. It is a dwarf- 

 growing bushy-habited plant, resembling, when in a fresh green state, a large 

 tuft or patch of green moss, but when deprived of moisture it curls up, then resem- 

 bling a bunch of dried cedar twigs about four or five inches in diameter. In its 

 native habitat this singular plant grows with remarkable vigour during the rainy 

 season, but as soon as the dry weather sets in, and the heat of the sun begins to- 

 dry up the supply of moisture, the plant dries up too, the roots detach themselves 

 from mother earth, and the plant is then blown about at the mercy of the wind 

 until the return of a few congenial showers. Immediately the roots receive a little 

 moisture they suck it up, the plants unfold in a few hours, and spread out in flat 

 tufts of the most emerald biightness, and grow away again with renewed vigour. 

 With the return of dry weather the plants again dry up as before, unless they have 

 had time to flower and perfect their seed ; of course, when this happens they perish 

 like all other plants of an annual duration. This Anastatica is by no means new, 

 as it has been known to science for nearly three hundred years, though at present 

 rare and scarce in this country. 



In Parkinson's "Paradisus" (1629), the Roe of Jericho is not mentioned; the 



