1880. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



87 



house plant with A. B., but something very 

 closely resembling it is a native plant with us. 

 It is useless to confirm the assertion already 

 made that E. Hunter is no botanist." 



[We usually allow considerable latitude to our 

 correspondents, and it is well understood that 

 because we admit anything into our columns, it 

 does not follow that we approve either of the 

 matter or manner of the writer. We may, how- 

 ever, say here for the comfort of our fair corres- 

 pondent, that though making no pretensions 

 as a botanist, she need not be worried at not 

 readily seeing the difference between Ageratum 

 Conoclinium, Eupatorium, Ccelestina, and per- 

 haps other genera, for botanists of high repute 

 have so tossed the species about from one to an- 

 other that one hardly knows what is right or 

 wrong about them. At present (it is only safe 

 to say this, for no one knows how long it will be 

 so) the blue greenhouse plant is Ageratum Mexi- 

 canum, and the hardy one, much like it in ap- 

 pearance, is Conoclinium coelestinum. As Miss 

 Hunter truly says, they have all been Eupato- 

 riums in the past. — Ed. G. M.] 



Effect of Cold on Insects. — Psyche for 

 January contains a highly interesting paper by 

 W. H. Edwards on the effect of cold on insects. 

 The chrysalids of Papilio ajax were frozen in a 

 temperature of about 32'', and kept in the ice for 

 many days. The ones exposed but fifteen min- 

 utes emerged on the forty-third day after expo- 

 sure, while those exposed nineteen hours did not 

 appear till the ninety-sixth day, and the propor- 

 tions were just about the same in the cases be- 

 tween the fifteen minutes and the nineteen 

 hours ; concluding, Mr. Edwards says : " That 

 the effect of cold is not simply to precipitate the 

 emerging of the winter form, making the butter- 

 fly which would naturally leave its chrysalis in 

 the succeeding spring to emerge in the season in 

 which it fed as a caterpillar, is evident from the 

 fact that the shape is always that of the sum- 

 mer form, while the markings are of the winter 

 form. Those chrysalids which go over the win- 

 ter, on the other hand, do not have the summer 

 form, but the winter, and the markings agreeing 

 thereto, just as in examples in nature. On these 

 the cold has produced no effect whatever." 



Blue Salvia splendens. — Mr. Hovey says 

 in the Garden, that this is truly blue, and was a 

 sport from Salvia splendens, some one in his 

 employ cutting off the blue-flowered branch 

 from the scarlet plant and rooting it. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Foliation. — "Inquirer," Burlington, Kan- 

 sas. So far as known the buds of plants burst 

 into leaf solely from the action of heat on the 

 buds, and the temperature of the earth has no- 

 thing whatever to do with the act of foliation. 

 Root action, so far as we know, has to do solely 

 with nutrition, — and we believe has nothing 

 whatever to do with the development of foli- 

 age. 



The Flowering Raspberry.— " Inquirer." 



This is the Rubus odoratus. It is valued chiefly 

 for its fragarant and showy flowers, and not for 

 its fruit, which seems to be produced very spar- 

 ingly, as is the case with many plants having 

 fragrant and showy flowers. Plants with in- 

 conspicuous flowers, and which do not " waste 

 their fragarance on the desert air," are generally 

 the ones which produce seeds the most abund- 

 antly. 



Geography of Pell^a atropurpurea. — 

 In the Native Flowers and Ferns of the United 

 States, it is stated that this pretty Fern has been 

 found in Greenland. A friend who has made 

 the geography of ferns a specialty, doubts 

 whether it has ever been found so far north as 

 this. 



Buffalo Grass. — A. M., says : " I have been 

 looking over the February number of the 

 Monthly, and think you are mistaken about 

 the Buffalo Grass not growing at Cheyenne, as 

 I saw it at Greely, midway between Cheyenne 

 and Denver this last summer. I am pleased to 

 see that Mr. Elder was elected superintend- 

 ent of the National Antietam Cemetery in 

 which I have a strong interest, being a partici- 

 pant of the fearful battle that brought it into 

 existence. He has a fine scope to work on, but 

 very poor soil. Accept congratulations on your 

 increased editorial age." 



[The true Buffalo Grass is known to grow on 

 the plains below Denver, but it is doubtful 

 whether it ever gets up into the mountains. All 

 sorts of things are pointed out to travelers as 

 " Buffalo Grass." Oftener than anything else it 

 is a kind of Bouteloua. We once knew a very 

 intelligent gentleman who " saw a magnificent 

 field of hemp," which proved to be nothing but 

 luxuriant Erigeron Canadense. — Ed. G. M.] 



