IS?*?.] 



AND BOBTIGULTURIST. 



349 



with him, and now that our art promises to re- 

 vive and assume somewhat of its ante bellum 

 greatness, he feels a renewed spirit in the task. 

 Never has there been so much interest felt in 

 the work as during the past year, as our numer- 

 ous and widely distributed list of con-espondents 

 show. The Editor has no cause to complain of 

 the support given him in his department. It is 

 magnificent. He may be pardoned for hoping 

 that at this season the publisher will be as well 

 remembered. 



Every year young people are taking the 

 place of older horticulturists, and the ranks 

 in various ways are being filled by new re- 

 cruits. These will take it as a favor if made ac- 

 quainted with the existence of the Gardener's 

 Monthly, and many may be able to send on a new 

 subscription with their own. 



It may be as well to state that the Gardener's 

 Monthly stands alone in its aim and objects in 

 the literature of this country. It takes up hor- 

 ticulture where agriculture drops it, and there- 

 fore every person wdio takes but one agricultural 

 paper and is fond of gardening, will need the 

 Gardener's Monthly as a supplement. We do 

 not aim to fill the Magazine with matter that the 

 bulk of the readers already know, or that they 

 could easily find in their regular agricultural or 

 family paper, but write for those who want to 

 read something about trees, plants, fruits and 

 flowers, which will add to their general intelli- 

 gence as members of cultivated societj', and 

 which will redound eventually to their pleasure 

 and profit. There never was a time when peo- 

 ple revolted more at the superficial education of 

 the present day, and the shallow pursuits in 

 which so many are engaged ; and in the efforts 

 which are being made to direct the attention of 

 the people to natural beauty, and to an intelli- 

 gent knowledge of all that is about them; we are 

 proud to know that the Gardener's Monthly oc- 

 cupies no mean place. As the season for re- 

 newed subscriptions is at hand, we may be par- 

 doned for indulging in a word of this kind. 



The Lilies of Utah. — Mr. John Muir thus 

 closes an article on the Lilies of Utah, which has 

 appeared in a California paper: 



" Liliaceous women and girls are rare among 

 the Mormons. They have seen too much iiard 

 expressive toil to admit of the development of 

 lily beauty eith.er in form or color. In general, 

 thoy are thick set, with large feet and hand.s, 

 and with sun-browned faces, often curiously 

 freckled, like the petals of Frilillaria atropurpu- 

 rea. They are fruit rather than flower — loaves 



of good brown bread. But down in the San 

 Pitch Valley at Gunnison I discovered a genuine 

 lily, happily named Lily Young. She is a grand- 

 daughter of Brigham Young, slender and grace- 

 ful, with lily-white cheeks, tinted with clear 

 rose. She was brought up in the old Salt Lake 

 Lion House, but by some strange chance has 

 been transplanted to this wilderness, where she 

 blooms alone, the " Lily of San Pitch." Pitch is 

 an old Indian, who, I suppose, pitched into the 

 settlers, and thus acquired fame enough to give 

 name to the valley. Here I feel uneasy about 

 the name of this Lily, for the compositors liave 

 a perverse trick of making me say all kinds of 

 absurd things wholly unwarranted by plain 

 copy, and I fear that'" The Lily of San Pilch" 

 will appear in print as the widow of Sam. Patch. 

 But, however this may be, among my memo- 

 ries of this fair, far land, that Oquirrh Moun- 

 tain, with its golden Lilies, will ever rise 

 in clear relief, and associated with them will al- 

 wavG be Lily Young, the prettiest lily lass in 

 Utah." 



Bequest for Tree Planting. — A gentleman 

 of Philadelphia, named Neil, recently deceased, 

 provided in his will $50,000, for the purpose of 

 " tree planting in Fairmount Park." 



The Hashish of the Egyptians. — The Gar- 

 dener's Magazine tells us about this famous 

 article : — 



"An odoriferous resin much used in Eg)'pt, 

 is Hashish, which is prepared from the tops of 

 hemp, which has degenerated as a textile plant. 

 The rtowers contain a resin, which is extracted by 

 boiling the tops in alcohol and afterwards preci- 

 pitating the resin with water. This preparation 

 possesses all the narcotic properties of the plant 

 in a high degree. The Arab preparations of 

 hashish have all a greasy base, being prepared by 

 boiling resin with butter. From these various elec- 

 tuaries are prepared with the addition of sugar, 

 honey, almond, dillerent scents, &c. These are 

 made up into little cakes, or into a syrup which 

 is concentrated into a jelly by cooling. The 

 abuse of these preparations, which with impress- 

 ionable subjects produce ecstacy or extravagant 

 hilarity has led to the suppression of their sale. 

 The elfects of hashish have long been known. 

 The plant forms the principal ingredient in a 

 species of diink which has often been used by 

 iinposters for fanatical ends and the working of 

 protended miracles. With it, Hassan Saba, 

 Prince of the Assassins, better known as the Old 

 Man of the Mountain, was wont to plunge his 

 fanatic disciples into extravagant c.xtacics, re- 

 quiring them ill return for the ephemeral pleas- 

 ure to sacrifice their lives wherever his hates or 

 cupidity called for it." 



Express Charges. — People who send us fruit 

 or other things for name or examination, always 

 pay the freight and generally mark it " paiil" on 

 the box. A few years ago we had to tell our 



