''•'( t 



/•///•; C'.IA'/U \\/:A' S MO.\ riiiA 



[.Ac 



be in r.iiu'iiir Cio braiidu's of (ho tnt's planted in 

 tilt' onrlli, and l(H>k down on llic fronds nf (he 

 Palms and I-Vrns i)i>)<i\\ . ( )m(' dno nol know liow 

 bt>an(it\il (licsc (liiiius art- till lie has a chance to 

 view in llii< niannt r on these t'nll-m-own thini:s. 

 Thon' was a Dicksonia antarctiea. an Australian 

 tree Fern, whoscni'st-likefronds, I reinonihi-rjiad 

 a dianu'tcr across the bead of (•ii.ditt'on feet. 

 " "Why cannot we have bouses like this in our 

 country ?" Ask the frost kinj;. This bu<;e pile 

 only takes .>ix boilers to boat it. F snp])ose,said 

 I to Mr. Sniitb, " it must take a 111 lie lortune in 

 coal to warm it." " Yes/" be said, " we use .300 

 tons of coke."' " Do yon have it very cold in 

 the Winiiiy"" •' Yes, the thermometer gener- 

 ally uoes ilown to twenty, and sometimes to 

 lifteen below freezing point." And we coubl 

 have bouses, too, if this were all. It would cost 

 ns as nnicii in one year as it costs the Kew 

 bouse in ten. 



The young students are much better cared for 

 than '* when we were young." A laboratory is 

 just finished, in wliicb lectures by Baker, Hems- 

 ley, Brown, and others, on plant life are given, 

 and every convenience for the young men to ex- 

 periment in liotanieal problems are afforded. 

 There is a library of I'OO volumes at their com- 

 mand: and besides all this, the w^onderful abun- 

 dance of living plants from all quarters of the 

 globe. 



Are the young men of the present time any 

 better for all these facilities? 1 cannot say. 

 Moore tells us of 



" Love, all defying love, who sees 

 Mo gain iu tiophies wou wiili case." 



And I am not sure but it is as true of love of 

 one's profession as of the gentler passion. I 

 can only say that Mr. Smith thinks they are 

 immensely benefited, and that he sees an 

 increasing desire on the part of the students to 

 avail themselves of the increased advantages. 

 It is wonderful how popular these gardens are 

 with the people. The average attendance dur- 

 ing the past year was 5000 a day. The heaviest 

 visits are on Sundays and during the Summer 

 mouths ; these may be 18,000. As many as 

 25,000 have been there of a single Sunday after- 

 noon. Notwithstanding these immense crowds, 

 Mr. Smith says no serious damages have ever 

 been done. Ten guards over tliese four hundred 

 acres, keep in good order this huge mass of 

 people. 



But I feel that I am tresspassing on the reader's 

 good nature. Who wants to hear stories a year 



old y 1 know there are a few partial friends^ 

 \\ ho ari' pleased, but there are thousands froni 

 wlidiii I do not iiear. and who must naturally 

 \\\>\\ n 1 e I o s 1 o I ) . 



1 1 is strange how wf can travel in these daynl. 

 I iiad liarely passed out of range of the odor of 

 the eglantine in the Old World, before, from the 

 ( apes of the Delaware, the sweet snxdl of the 

 Indian corn was wafted over our good steamer;, 

 •nul I nuist confess it came as gratefully as 

 incense to a heaven-thirsting soul. I never 

 thought Indian corn so truly sweet, and yet the 

 poems are all dedicated to the " IIawthorn*s 

 blossom!" There, on the 5th of .June, in the 

 "Pennsylvania," I lost sight of America, and 

 here on the same spot, on the .30th of July, the 

 "Ohio" bad me back. I only ran across for a 

 little rest. It was my desire to .steal away and' 

 get back, and nobody be the wiser therefor but 

 myself. But I had the misfortune to "get in 

 the papers," and this and other work has been 

 the consequence. However, if 1 have interested 

 the reader, I shall be happy. 



Select Plants Eligible for Industrial. 

 Culture in Australia. — By Baron Ferd. Von- 

 Muller. There are few men who have worked' 

 so hard and so successfully as Baron Von Mul- 

 ler to make Botany practically useful to the 

 Australians. The present work of near 300 

 pages is the fifth of' a series contributed to, and' 

 published by, the Acclimation Society. It makes 

 the people of the country at once acquainted' 

 with all that is known of the value of plants in- 

 troduced into the colony. For instance, the fol- 

 lowing note on our Kentuck} Coflee: "Gymnocla- 

 dus Canadensis, Lamarck. The Chicot, a North 

 American timber and avenue tree, attaining a 

 height of eighty feet, allied to the Gleditschia^ 

 but, as its name implies, thornless. The wood 

 is strong, tough, compact, fine-grained, and as- 

 sumes a rosy color." 



Australia should feel proud that it has so 

 eminent a worker engaged in her interest as 

 Baron Muller. 



Dr. Charles Pickering— the naturalist of 

 the Wilkes' exploiing exhibition, and after whom, 

 Pickeringia was named, died at Boston on the- 

 8th of March, aged 73 years. He was a cotem- 

 porary of Thomas Nuttall, and many of the fact& 

 given in the biography of Mr, Nuttall in our 

 second volume, were contributed by him. He 

 I was a liberal-spirited man. The arrangement 

 and indexing of -the general Herbarium of the- 

 ; Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia^. 



