1878.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



155 



says, suffer like fruit — at least half the product go- 

 ing to these feathered robbers ; and when he left 

 the Old Country they were about getting an act 

 of parliament, a sort of legislation I suppose, to 

 reimburse the farmers for the loss through the 

 English government having introduced the bird. 

 He is sure that the scarcity of bread-stuffs in 

 England is from the prevalence of the sparrow, 

 which are as thick there as the sands of the sea, 

 and he thinks that the bird must have been sent 

 over here by some enemy of our countr}', who 

 was jealous of our sending so much bread-stuff 

 to England. Now, Mr. Editor, surely a word to 

 the wise is sufficient •, and if you are going to 

 expel the wretch from Philadelphia, don't let 

 him come here." 



[All this is news to us in Philadelphia. That 

 reliable Englishman would make a good war 

 correspondent in the next fight between Russia 

 and England. We will only speak for Phila- 

 delphia, that she grows as many apples and 

 pears as she ever did. Our own pear and apple 

 trees bear abundantly, and swarm with spar- 

 rows. There were no insectivorous birds in 

 Philadelphia before the sparrows came, and 

 therefore, insects abounded. It was because they 

 abounded that the sparrow was introduced. Since 

 they came here the measuring caterpillar does not 

 exist. They do not care greatly for caterpillars, 

 but they have a great love for the moths which 

 lay the eggs, and that suits Philadelphians Just 

 as well. As for there being any excitement m 

 Philadelphia, we have not heard of it. There 

 are, of course, some who, like our correspon- 

 dent, listen to " reliable reports " of others, and 

 who can readily trace the apparition of their 

 great-grandparents in an old tree stump by 

 night, who think the sparrows are dreadful 

 things. But such people always will have an 

 existence. As to the sparrow itself, it is cer- 

 tainly not an unmixed good, and it will, there- 

 fore, get friends and enemies, just as people 

 happen to look at its work in relation to their 

 own desires. — Ed. G. M.] 



A Chkistmas Floavek. — Reader, Burling- 

 ton, N. J., writes : '' Having noticed the follow- 

 mg article in different papers, copied from the 

 Easton Free Press : Last year we made men- 

 tion of a curious plant which John Atwalt had 

 in his garden. On Christmas eve, true to its 

 nature, the ' Christa watzel' was up out of the 

 frozen ground; and between 12 and 2 o'clock 

 Clu-istmas morning it bloomed. To-day (April 



8th) it has disappeared and there is no trace of it 

 left." Can you give any information on the sub- 

 ject ? I can find nothing of it in any of the works 

 on Botan}'- Please answer through the columns 

 of the Gardener's Monthlv next month and 

 oblige." 



[We are -not sufficiently versed in the German 

 vernacular names of plants to identify this for our 

 correspondent, — but the account reads very much 

 as if the plant might be the Black Hellebore 

 which is called Schwarze Christwurz in Germany. 

 The German family name of the Hellebore is 

 Neisswurz. In England it is known as Christ- 

 mas Rose. It is generally in flower about 

 Christmas, and continues to send up flowers till 

 March, when it ceases to bloom. — Ed. G. M.] 



Botanical Xames of the Sweet Potato.. 

 — In our last we gave Convolvulus Batatas, as 

 the name of the Sweet Potato. Convolvulus 

 and Ipomtee have many points in common, and 

 some botanists confuse them. But this species, 

 is properly related to the last, and shoifld strictly 

 be Ipomoea — not Convolvulus Batatas. 



Imatophyllum. — "Plausible and amusing as 

 is the theory," says a correspondent, "that this 

 name began as Himantophyllum, and droppedl 

 its H in London, the reverse happens to be true. 

 It began in the Botanical Magazine, in 1828, as 

 Imatophyllum, and got its H, also the n in its 

 middle, in Germany, from Sprengel, sometime 

 afterwards. The n was put in for a very good 

 reason, and one that goes against your Cuyahoga 

 correspondent's surmise. The name is said, in 

 the Botanical Magazine, to have the first part 

 from ' I;uaj, ijxaToi, a thong or strap.' Kow, i|Ua$. 

 does not make its genitive t;uafo{ , but ijuavroj,. 

 in our letters imantos, or with the aspirate 

 which belongs to it, himantos. As to the drop- 

 ping of the H in London, the editor of the 

 Monthly is aware that though usually dropped 

 in ' Olborn' and 'Ighgate,' it is picked up at 

 Hepping and ' Hessex,' and many other places 

 around London." 



Insectivorous Plants. — Miss M. M. writes : 

 I have just finished Darwin's Insectivorous 

 Plants" and see in Field and Forest for Novem- 

 ber, that C. de Candolle has been investigating 

 the structures and movements of the leaves of 

 Dioncea muscipula with the following results : 

 The absorption of animal matters is no direct 

 advantage to the leaves, and not necessary for 

 the development of the plant. 



2. The margijial appendiiges and edge of th.es 



