56 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[^Fehrnnry, 



firniation is familiar to all who know beans and 

 their facility of mixinjj, whon (HfTorciit varieties 

 lire grown together." Mr. M. said he claimed to 

 " know hcans " for thirty years jjast; had grown 

 large luimhers of varieties side hy side, saving seed 

 from them and re sowing, and had never known 

 a single case of admixture from this close prox- 

 imity. The various kinds of both Beans and 

 Peas in cultivation were in all cases evolutions 

 or as would be commonly said, "sports or acci- 

 dents," or were the results of actual manipula- 

 tions by skillful seed raisers. He had no 

 liesitation in saying that his friend was utterly 

 wrong in his impression of the fact — that he 

 did not " know beans." — and the fact that Beans 

 would not intermix though so close together and 

 so freely visited by bees, was an excellent argu- 

 ment against, instead of for, the universal insect 

 cro8.s-fertilization theory. 



Evolution. — Now that it is generally accepted 

 that plants (and animals) have been not all 

 formed at once, but that new forms appear in 

 6u<-cossive periods according to law, there is the 

 usual search for the author of the theory. Some 

 go back to the time of Adam and show that 

 even he was not made directly from nothing, but 

 was evolved from clay— dust of the earth. But 

 the more moderate do not go so far. The Scien- 

 Hji-c American thinks Goethe should have the 

 cr(<(lit : 



"Goethe also proved that certain differences 

 between the osseous sj'stems of man and the 

 lower mammalia, which had been insisted on 

 before his time, did not exist in the embryos, 

 and only appeared during and after growth. 



" It is evident that what Goethe called mata- 

 morphosis, is identical with what we call evolu- 

 tion. Witness the following expression :—' The 

 triumph of metamorj)hosis is .shown when this 

 theory teaches how simple organization begets 

 families, how families split into races, an^ races 

 into various types, with an infinity of individu- 

 alities. Nature cannot rest, nor preserve what 

 she produces, but her actions go on adinfinilum.' " 



The Arxoi.d Arboretum, of which Prof. Sar- 

 gent is director, makes its annual report on the 

 condition of the garden : 



"One hundred and twenty-eight species of 

 hardy trees and .shrul)s and many thousand 

 specimens have been added to the Arnold 

 Arboretum during the year. To relieve the 

 over crowded nurseries, 3,181 young forest trees 

 have been planted out on yarious portions of the 



Bussey Estate. The cost of planting these trees, 

 including digging them from the niirsery rows, 

 and transporting them on an average half a mile, 

 was $35.1l>, or one cent and one tenth for each 

 tree. 



" The unprecedented heat and drougth of the 

 past iSunmier, have been most unfavorable to 

 these plantations, and barely fifty per cent, of 

 all the trees planted survive. As an experiment 

 in sylviculture, the one and two year-old seed- 

 ling trees, or about two-thirds of the Avhole were 

 planted by what is known in Europe as the 

 ' notch ' system, that is, they were inserted in 

 the intersection of two cuts made at right angles 

 in the sod with a common garden spade, the 

 ground having received no previous prei)aration. 

 However successful and economical such a sys- 

 tem may be in a humid climate like that of 

 Scotland, it cannot be recommended for the 

 United States, where a more careful preparation 

 of the soil seems essential, that the young plant* 

 may resist the severe ordeal of our usually dry 

 summers. For the larger specimens of these 

 plantations, small holes requiring but a few 

 moments' labor were made ; and, as far as I 

 have observed, not a single one of the trees so 

 planted has yet suffered. Various experiments 

 in forest culture will be continued on a small 

 scale in the future, as plants accumulate, with a 

 view of arriving at the best method for New 

 England planters to ado])t. 



"The Trustees of the Massachusetts Society for 

 Promoting Agriculture (the original founders of 

 the Botanic Garden) have made me for the third 

 time a generous annual grant of $1,500, for the 

 improvement and development of the Garden ; 

 and it is my duty to call attention to the fact that 

 their sustained liberality has alone made possible 

 the increased activity and usefulness of this 

 department of the University." 



PoTATOE Moth. — This insect continues to be 

 fearfully destructive in Algeria. The larvae bore 

 into the tubers, and the excrements are so nause 

 ous that no animal will touch a tuber containing 

 them. Boisduval calls it Bryotropha solanella. 

 ' — *.»• 



QUERIES. 



Singular Analogy in Darlingtonia and Sar- 

 RACENiA. — At p. 293, Vol. 16 of the Gardener's 

 Monthly. Mr. Canby gives an interesting account 

 of Darlingtonia in connection with its insect 



