1811J 



AND HORTIGULTURIST. 



24T 



to-day say that we cannot lay our hands upon a 

 species which has spontaneously changed its 

 structure and habits. The Tumble Weed, how- 

 ever, on the prairies, is a very different looking 

 and acting thing from what it is in the East. It 

 is a Tumble Weed where " it pays " it to be one; 

 but where it cannot tumble fiir, it does not at- 

 tempt to do so at all. 



This is how it probably becomes a Tumble 

 Weed : The prairie climate, which is excessively 

 dry, and again excessively wet, with a most de- 

 cided preponderance of the former condition, 

 produces a short, spreading growth, instead of 

 the taller or more " drawn " growth of the moister 

 regions; the stems and brandies are harder for 

 the same reason. Upon tlie approach of Winter 

 the plants die, and the hard branches dry and 

 curl up. The heavy winds now soon break off 

 the root, and the plant is hurled and tumbled 

 away. Send me seeds of Amarantus albus from 

 the East, and I venture to say tliat the plants 

 growing from them will be veritable Tumble 

 Weeds, although they may be the offspring of 

 the soberest and steadiest of Pigweeds. If you, 

 Mr. Editor, want to try the converse, I'll send 

 you Tumble Weed seeds ; but you need not hope 

 to see any lofty tumbling from the plants you 

 grow. 



EDUORIAL NOTES. 



Fleshy Fruits. — Before concluding this lec- 

 ture, I feel myself called upon to say a word or 

 two respecting the importance of cultivated 

 fruits, because gardeners and pomologists still 

 entertain some erroneous views relating to them. 

 Thus, for instance, it is very generally suxjposed 

 that the flesh of the fruit provides the first food 

 for the germinating plants of its seeds. Such, 

 however, is not the case, for liere, as in other 

 cases, the first nourishment is drawn from the 

 seed alone. The flesh of the fruit bears no rela- 

 tion to the embryo ; it is a kind of outcast sub- 

 stance or excretion of the plant. In most of our 

 cultivated fruit trees, too, the great mass of this 

 flesh is the result of cultivation. Thus the wild 

 Cherries of our woods possess so little flesh that 

 they do not repay the trouble of plucking. In 

 the mountains of Pontus I found Grapes so small 

 that they were not worth eating ; and Pallas in- 

 forms us that the wild Apricot, and often like- 

 wise the wild or escaped Peach, possess no flesh 



at all, the former, indeed, being like a leathery 

 two-valved capsule. — Karl Koch. 



FiRE-PROOP Wood. — One of the results of the 

 Brooklyn Theatre fire is the discovery and appli- 

 cation of what is called " Tungstate of Soda " to 

 tlie scenery used on the stage. An experiment 

 was made lately in the presence of the promi- 

 nent managers of New York and Brooklyn the- 

 atres, and the result seems to indicate perfect 

 success. A tongue of jet equal to 150 ordinary 

 gas jets was applied to a scene for two minutes 

 and the canvas did not blaze or smoke. A coil 

 of rope having been saturated with the solution, 

 was submitted to tlie fire test with no effect 

 whatever. 



According to a certain Dr. Beaupre (cited in 

 the Journal de la Societe Centrale a' Horticulture de 

 France), a Lilac after flowering profusely, as it 

 does every year, this season threw up afterwards 

 two or three suckers, which bore enormous 

 trusses of flowers, although they only appeared 

 between 2 and 3 inches above the surface of the 

 ground. The editor of the Revae Horticole re- 

 cords a similar occurrence in Aralia spinosa and 

 A. hybrida, and we have seen a similar case in 

 Ailantus glandulosa. 



Soaking Seeds in Boiling Water. — Surprise 

 is often expressed that hard shelled seeds can be 

 made to grow after boiling water has been poured 

 on them, but there is no doubt of the fact. Yet 

 one need not try it, for in practice a few days' 

 soaking in cold water answers as well. 



The Blue Glass Controversy. — All over the 

 world General Pleasanton has raised a talk. In 

 Europe it is perliaps louder than here. As our 

 readers know, we are by no means satisfied that 

 the great success of General Pleasanton is due to 

 his blue glass. But if we were to feel sure that 

 General Pleasanton's arguments were weak, we 

 should have to grant that many of the argu- 

 ments brought against him were weaker. We 

 quote for example the following, from a leading 

 English magaziiiC : 



" The effects of colored light on plants have 

 been carefully inquired into, and those who are 

 interested in the subject will find, on referring 

 back, that we have reported on numerous ex- 

 periments, and made public a variety of facts 

 and opinions. All inquiries into the ways of 

 nature, and especially as to the relations that 

 subsist between the inorganic and organic crea- 

 tions, are to be treated with respect ; for knowl- 



