58 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[ February, 



ago we had a good general rain throughout the 

 State, and that gave vegetation an excellent 

 start, so that all the hills around our city have a 

 look like Spring. Indeed, we have two Spring 

 eeiisons in San Francisco — that which conies 

 after the first good rain, and tliat which follows 

 the close of the rainy season. 



Looking upon the brown hills around us he- 

 fore the rain, and then after it, the change is 

 like magic. Sometimes the range of hills on the 

 eastern side of our beautiful bay becomes swept 

 by flame, and as the lurid glare leaps and climbs, 

 one would think tliat desolation, utter and irre- 

 deemable, would be the result. But no ! These 

 hills have a fine growth of wild oats, which are 

 perpetuated most singularly, in this way : The 

 surface of the earth, after the summer's drouth, 

 becomes cracked by the sun (being of a clayey 

 loam), and as the wild oat has two ' legs,' the 

 moisture of the night contracts, or raises, rather, 

 these legs, and the warmth of the day straightens 

 them; the sharp point to each sticks into the 

 ground, and the straightening process naturally, 

 then, forces the body of the oat forward. This is 

 repeated night by night, and day by day, until it 

 creeps to one of the sun-cracks, and falls mto it. 

 These, after the first rain, ' stool ' out, and a 

 beautifully patterned carpet, the shape of the 

 cracks, becomes at once visible. As the growth 

 continues, the hills become covered with green. 

 This is our first Spring. 



Mushrooms will soon be come abundant on the 

 grassy slopes west of the bay." 



Aruxdo coxspicua.— H. M. N., Chattanooga, 

 Tenn., asks: — "What is the Arundo conspicua, 

 referred to in the February number of the Gar- 

 dener's Monthly, 1874? Is it known by any other 

 name?" 



[The extract was credited to the Gardener's 

 Chronicle, and the plant said to have merits su- 

 perior to Pampas Grass. It ought to be in this 

 country by this time, but we see it in no lists. 



All we can say in addition to what the Chronicle 

 said, is that it is more correctly Calamagrostia 

 conspicua, and is a native of New Zealand.— Ed. 

 G. M.| 



California Lilies. — A correspondent justly 

 complains of "the outrage being deliberately 

 committed by the collectors of our native lilies; 

 they are sending them all over the East and 

 Europe, with half a dozen difierent names for 

 one lily. There are only half a dozen varieties 

 of lilies on this coast, but there are lilies sent out 

 with over twenty names. A collector will write 

 a wonderful description to a dealer about a new 

 lily, and to another about another, giving any 

 name he may chance to come across, and sup- 

 ply both out of the same case. If asked why 

 they do this, they will answer you, 'That it is 

 no difference; the lilies are new, and people 

 would as soon have them under one name as 

 another.'" 



Name of Plant.— L. H. C, Buffalo, N. Y. 

 The thorny plant is Pereskia aculeata, a plant of 

 the cactus family, though apparently so difTer- 

 ent — and the kind used by English florists to 

 graft Epiphyllum truncatum on. Another spe- 

 cies, with much more fleshy stems, in cultiva- 

 tion, is Pereskia Bleo. 



Like Producing Like. — M. B. S., Bloomfield, 

 Iowa, writes : — " In the pictures of beautiful Pan- 

 sies in Mr. Henderson's advertisement, I see he 

 speaks of varieties by numbers. I always sup- 

 posed that when you sowed a package of seeds, 

 you had all sorts of colors. Is it customary for 

 these varieties to reproduce in this way ?" 



[Careful selection and care will enable a vari- 

 ety to reproduce with tolerable certainty. The 

 old idea that a species would reproduce itself 

 with tolerable accuracy, and a variety would 

 not, is proved now to be erroneous. Any gar- 

 den variety reproduces nearly as well as a 

 species.— Ed. G. M.] 



?* 





LITERATURE, Ui.RAVELS & aP'ERSONAL 



COMMUNTCA TIONS. 



HORTICULTURAL PROTECTION. 



BY W. H. W., READING, MASS. 



In the editorial comments appended to the 

 article on "Grapes at Boston," in the Gardener's 



Monthly for December last. I am asked to 

 "give the points of novelty claimed for the Sec- 

 retary grape in such language that a Patent- 

 office clerk could tell at once whether any other 

 grapist was infringing on the rights of the Sec- 

 retary." I am not sufficiently familiar with this 



