1877.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



339 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Forestry on Unproductive Lands. — We have 

 thousands on thousands of rock covered acres 

 on our American hills not well fitted for agricul- 

 tural purposes, but just suited to timber culture, 

 that are well worth looking after in this connec- 

 tion. 



Scarcity of Dog-wood. — Says the Boston Jour- 

 nal of Chemistry : " It is a curious fact that the 

 bellicose condition of England has so largely in- 

 creased the manufacture of gunpowder that the 

 supply of dog-wood (Rhamnus frangula) has fallen 

 short, and a supply is obtained in Germany and 

 other parts of the Continent. The government 

 formula for gunpowder calls for charcoal made 

 from dog-wood, and hence the demand. Other 

 kinds of charcoal would unquestionably serve 

 just as good a purpose, but official commands 



must be exactly met. A state of war in any 

 civilized country does not usually increase the 

 use of gunpowder. The arts of peace demand 

 the largest employment of the explosive, and 

 when men are drawn away from the mines and 

 the quarries to enter armies, the consumption of 

 gunpowder is arrested." 



If this is really intended for Rhamnus frangu- 

 la, our country could probably find in the Caro- 

 lina Buckthorn a very good substitute. The 

 writer of this saw it this Summer growing very 

 abundantly in the woods of Kentucky and Ten- 

 nessee. We have never heard of R. frangula 

 before, however, in any special connection with 

 gunpowder, nor that it bore the common name 

 of dog-wood in Europe. Its berries are highly 

 valued there in dyeing, and it might be worth the 

 while of our Tennessee friends, whom we recent- 

 ly found very intent on developing their home 

 industries, to look after the Carolina Buckthorn 

 in this connection. 



If ATURAL SlSTORY AND ffeClENCE. 



EDITOBIAL NOTES. 



QuERCUS HETEROPHYLLA. — This, which in Mi- 

 chaux's time was thought to be confined to a sin- 

 gle tree near Philadelphia, and was called the 

 Bartram Oak, proves to be widely scattered 

 through Delaware and New Jersey. The botan- 

 ists near Philadelphia are continually' finding 

 trees, notably Messrs. Canby, Commons, Bui'k, 

 and Martindale. We are still of the opinion, 

 offered some time ago, that it is but a Northern 

 form of the Southern Water Oak, though we 

 have to confess that the leaf stalks are longer 

 than we have seen in the Water Oak South. 



Helping Botanical Studies. — Managers of 

 newspapers generally underrate the intelligence 

 of their readers. There are innumerable people 

 interested in something more than mere gossip 

 and tittle tattle than might be supposed from the 

 material served up to them. Last year the 

 Philadelphia Public Ledger gave continuous arti- 

 cles on the botany of Fairmount Park with 

 popular notes on the plants, by Mr. Isaac Burk, 

 of the Philadelphia Academy, and they were im- 

 mensely popular. 



Restoring Dead Seeds. — We see some state- 

 ments apparently with scientific endorsement, 

 from time to time in the papers, which need 

 further explanation. See, for instance, the fol- 

 lowing, which is going the rounds of the papers : 



"Professor Lazenby, of Cornell, tried many ex- 

 periments with steeps on seeds kept at an 

 average temperature of G5°. The best effects on 

 cruciferous seeds appear to have been with 

 chlorine, and with camphorated water. Turnip 

 seeds, so old that hardly a tenth would germi- 

 nate under ordinary treatment, were treated 

 with camphorated water and then dried by 

 rolling in plaster. These germinated freely. 

 The difference was striking. This treatment is 

 easily given, and the experiment is worth 

 remembering and repeating. In other instances, 

 seeds which would germinate, when moistened 

 with pure water, in forty-eight hours, required 

 only from thirty to thirty-six hours when moist- 

 ened with bromide water, and twenty-four hours 

 with iodine water." 



When old turnip seed does not grow, the 

 supposed reason is that their vitality is gone — 

 really they are dead. Are we to understand 

 from these experiments that 90 per cent, of dead 

 seed among a hundred good ones are brought to 

 life by camphorated water ? Of course this can- 

 not be the meaning, but what is it then ? 



