1877.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



6S 



though necessariljr hurried, errors are compara- 

 tively so few. We left a note with the printer about 

 Pritchardia in our last, with no time for even 

 the regular proof-reader to see it, supposing that 

 one little paragraph might go unwatched, and it 

 appears with "peteoles" and "spring teeth." 

 Of course the reader knows what was really 

 written and it is not worth while to make 

 correction. But it was "maddening" for all. 

 Then we took up the American Naturalist, and 

 was told by the " printer " that Thomasia is a 

 " Buttuereaceous plant; the Bulletin of the Tor- 

 rey Botanical Club, where we read about " cam- 

 brinum," and a locality for "Asplenium pinnati- 

 fidim ; " then there was the Botanical Gazette, 

 with its reference to " Tritelia," and finally tak- 

 ing up Silliman's Journal, we found Prof. Gray 

 made to say that Aster undulatus meant " many " 

 leaved aster. We never felt before the sound- 

 ness of the assertion, that "misery loves com- 

 pany." 



Rambling Widow. — A correspondent of one 

 of our English contemporaries pokes this conun- 

 drum at the Editor : " What is the Rambling 

 Widow ? " It is hard to solve these deep botani- 

 cal problems, but as evolution is now a recog- 

 nized law, and as a rambling widow has a 

 good chance of turning up as a " Mourning 

 Bride," we will venture to guess it is the gar- 

 den Scabious. 



Tea in Georgia. — The " Chinese Tea," said to 

 be so successfully raised in Georgia, proves to be 

 dried leaves of Sida spinosa, a sort of mallow. 

 The way in which new "teas" are discovered, is 

 to fish out a perfect leaf from the teapot of gen- 

 uine Chinese tea, and then look about you for 

 some wild leaf of the same size and shape, and 

 you have American "Chinese '' Tea ! 



A Large Plane Tree. — Perhaps the largest 

 tree in Europe is a Plane tree near Cannosa, in 

 Dalmatia. It is over thirty feet in circumfer- 

 ence, three feet from the ground, and covers an 

 area of 250 square feet. 



Jonah's Gourd. — Mr. Leo Grindon is contrib- 

 uting a series of articles to the London Garden- 

 er's Chronicle on the classical history of certain 

 plants. In a recent one of the series he shows 

 that the Hebrew writer of the account of Jonah 

 intended the castor oil plant — Ricinus communis 

 — and not a gourd, as the plant that shaded Jonah. 



Origin of the Leek.— Mr. J. G. Baker and 

 Mr. Bentham, two distinguished English bot- 



anists, regard the Leek — Allium Porrum — aa a 

 cultivated form of Allium Ampeloprasum, a 

 native of Switzerland and Eastern Europe. 



The Eucalyptus in Mexico. — From the city 

 of Mexico to Chapultepec, a distance of three 

 miles, is a beautiful drive, lined on each side 

 with old Eucalyptus trees. It is no new idea 

 that the odor of the Eucalyptus is a febrifuge. 

 The Latin races have always thought this of all 

 odoriferous plants. The ancient Romans used 

 to make plantations of the Sweet Bay — Laurua 

 nobilis — for the same purpose. And indeed 

 trees of any kind in swampy places have al- 

 ways been found advantageous to human health. 

 The Dismal Swamp in Virginia is said to be free 

 from the fevers which abound in open j^laces. 



The Woods' Vineyard at Camden.— This 

 tract of one hwndred and twelve acres, perhaps 

 the largest vineyard in this part of the world, 

 and planted in the "best" manner by Mr. Thos. 

 Woods a few years ago, at the enormous cost of 

 $55,000, has recently been sold by the sheriff, and 

 brought $17,000. 



The Horse Chestnut. — The native country 

 of the Horse Chestnut (^sculus Hippocasta- 

 num) has long been an enigma to botanists. The 

 enigma has, however, been solved by Professor 

 Orphanides, of Athens, who, according to a 

 note in the French translation of Grisebach's 

 Vegetation du Globe, made by M. de Tchihatchef, 

 has discovered the tree in a wild state in the 

 mainland of Greece, thus confirming an opinion 

 long ago expressed by Decaisne. — Gardener's 

 Chronicle. 



Memorial Trees.— The practice of planting 

 memorial trees, is very common in England. 

 A writer in the Gardener's Chronicle refers to 

 trees planted at Inverary Castle to signalize vis- 

 its of the owner's friends. Here are trees 

 planted by the Marquis of Lansdowne, Earls 

 Russell, Livingstone, Gladstone, Guthrie, Mr. 

 John Bright, Dean Stanley, and others. Last 

 year Queen Victoria planted a tree on the Lane 

 estate, on the occasion of her visit there. 



Building up Attractive Country Places. — 

 The Boston, Lowell and Nashua R. R. has given 

 free passes to seven rich citizens of Wilmington, 

 Mass., because they built expensive houses. 

 Those who built houses from $1,000 to $2,000 

 get a two-year pass, and those of over $2,500, 

 a three-year pass, and will give similar passes to 

 all who do likewise. Would it not be as well to 



