84 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



\^March, 



week, or the first to the middle of July, the How- 

 ers open, and remain from two to six weeks, and 

 this without any connectiiin with tlie earth what- 

 ever. ^^'hcthcr it derives nourisliniont from the 

 shrub supporting it, or the air, 1 am not prepared 

 to say. 



The flowers are of various shades of pink and 

 pinkish purple; as before stated they are borne 

 in clusters of from twelve to sixty; they are from 

 one-half to one inch inch in diameter, and the 

 clusters from one to six inches in diameter. 



The bulbs are of a medium size, and very deep 

 in the ground, and so entangled with roots of 

 underbrush that it is almost impossible to get 

 them. 



CULTURE. 



To any one who can get them, I would say get 

 them. Plant about four inches deep, in rather good 

 rich soil, near some bush or shrub, so as to afford 

 some support. It will not injure it any way. 

 Cover in cold climate with suitable covering. 

 Give no water except what it gets naturally. By 

 following the above directions, I think you will 

 have success. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Interpretation of Varying Forms. — At a 

 -recent meeting of the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Natural Sciences, Mr. Thos. Meehan said that 

 William Bartram, in the last century, had found 

 forms of Liriodendron tulipifera on the Schuyl- 

 kill River, as he had been informed by his son- 

 in-law, with entire leaves; but only this year had 

 he succeeded in re-discovering them. Some of 

 these leaves he exhibited. He observed that 

 years ago such discoveries had an interest in 

 themselves. Now the botanist expected to find 

 entire leaved forms among kinds usually lobed, 

 or lobed ones among the entire class. The only 

 value now in these discoveries was in any lesson 

 they might teach. As a rule he hesitated to re- 

 fer to the unpublished observations of others, 

 preferring that the discoverers should in their 

 own good time and way, report what they had 

 found, but hoped to be pardoned on this occa- 

 sion, for saying that on a recent visit to the 

 Academy, the distinguished botanist, Dr. Engel- 

 mann, had pointed out that some oaks had lobed 

 leaves even in early infancy, while others had 

 entire leaves ; but that those which had early lobed 

 leaves assumed more entire leaves when mature, 



and those which had entire leaves when young, 

 had lobed leaves when fully grown. In many 

 oaks which he had examined, he found Dr. En- 

 gelmann's observations correct, and that it ex- 

 tended fo many other plants. The mulberries 

 generally, had lobed leaves in their younger 

 years, but when mature, the leaves were uni- 

 formly entire, and this was especially well known 

 in the case of the Broussonettia. In young Ja- 

 pan honeysuckles, the leaves were querciform 

 or variously lobed, while at maturity the ten- 

 dency to union was often remarkable. In the 

 common ivy, the halbert shaped leaves of youth, 

 always gave place to lobeless forms when of fruit- 

 ing age. But it was in cruciferous plants that 

 the differences were best seen. Here lyrate or 

 pinnatilicd leaves in infancy, often gave place to 

 entire ones as the plant grew ; while there were 

 numberless instances in which entire juvenes- 

 cent leaves gave place to pinna tified ones. 



However, the point for the present even- 

 ing was, that there was often a vast difference 

 between the leaves of a plant's early life, 

 and their form in advanced age. In Conif- 

 erae, he said, this was well known. During the 

 first few months from seed, many different species 

 in their several sub-divisions, were so nearly 

 alike that it was almost impossible to tell any 

 one apart till a little age had brought divergence 

 from the original type. He exhibited some 

 young Thujas to illustrate this. The early Thujas 

 all had cricoid leaves. In the forms which we 

 knew as arborvita;s, the conditions with which 

 we were familiar was the secondary form. In 

 these the leaves which in juvenescense were free 

 and heath-like, had become almost wholly uni- 

 ted with the branches. But there were cases 

 where the young arborvitses had never had pow- 

 er to leave their early condition. They were the 

 analogoucs of what we know in human nature as 

 imbeciles or feeble-minded ; and of this class 

 were many so called " Retino-sporas," Biota 

 Meldensis, and many Junipers and Thujas. He 

 had known the Thuja ericoides of gardens to re- 

 main fifteen years in this infantile state, and 

 then only one of thousands to regain the pure 

 adolescent or fan-like arborvitas form. 



In all these cases it is important to notice that 

 a comparative feebleness of growth, and an ab- 

 sence, more or less total, of all disposition to pro- 

 duce flowers, go with these continuously 

 juvenescent characters. With the appearance 

 of sexual characters, there is change of form; 

 and, in proportion as this change is the more 



