1880. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



21 



•much more severe ; there the influence of the 

 mysterious, beneficent gulf stream is much 

 less felt, while nothing but the German ocean 

 intervenes betwixt the northern part of the 

 •continent of Europe, from which the cold blasts 

 issue forth and sweep with biting severity. In 

 most parts of this quarter of the country the 

 above mentioned tender things have to be well 

 protected to thrive well at all. There are in 

 Scotland moorlands of mist and cloud, "glens 

 where the snow-flake reposes," mountains 

 " around whose summits the elements war," 

 where the torrent rushes and the " cataract 

 cfoams," hyperborean regions, too, where stern 

 winter sways his cold sceptre with rigor. Al- 

 though the climate may well be pronounced, in 

 a. general way damp, cloudy and wet, yet there 

 ^re some localities which may be said to be dry, 

 ^s several places on the East coast, and on the 

 shores of the Solway frith, rendered so bj' the 

 mountains of the adjoining Isle of Man arrest- 

 ing the rain clouds from the south-west. 



In connection wuth the subject of climate, I 

 inay say, that in the spring of 1838, I went from 

 the south-west of Scotland to Loudon. The 

 previous winter had been very severe — an ox 

 was roasted on the Serpentine river at London 

 that winter — I was much surprised to see 

 amongst a number of other things, shrubs such 

 :as Laurustinus and Arbutus very much injured 

 and almost destroyed by the cold, while the 

 same varieties I had left in Scotland, fully four 

 •degrees farther north, were uninjured. 



I hope you will forgive me for the length of 

 this communication, and for having digressed so 

 far from the original topic, and accept best wishes 

 for yourself and the success of your excellent 

 Monthly, to which I have been a subscriber 

 from the beginning, and to which I owe much 

 dn the way of interesting information and in- 

 struction. 



from that year until 1877 I was not able to col- 

 lect a single specimen. During the Summer of 

 the last named year, however, they occurred in 

 unexampled profusion throughout this section 

 of the country, blossoming by the roadsides, in 

 uncultivated fields, on the border of forests and 

 the banks of streams,— everywhere. The flow- 

 ers are so showy and beautiful that they attracted 

 very general attention, and specimens were fre- 

 quently brought to me by old settlers with 

 the remark, " Here is a flower that blooms only 

 once in seven years." 



I resolved to test the truth of the assertion, if 

 possible, so my sisters and myself carefully 

 marked a number of situations where the plants 

 were growing in abundance. We also trans- 

 planted several to our garden beds— a process 

 which they bore remarkably well — and we gath- 

 ered and sowed quantities of the seed. 



The succeeding Summer, however, we looked 

 in vain for the plants — they were not to be found 

 in their native haunts, nor did they re-appear 

 either from root or seed, in our garden. Xeither 

 have we been more successful in finding them 

 during the Summer just passed, and I am be- 

 ginning to credit the popular .notion concerning 

 them. 



I was at first inclined to ascribe the idea of 

 the seven-years-development to a vague associ- 

 ation with the scientific name and a misconcep- 

 tion of its derivation. None of the people who 

 mentioned the idiosyncracy of the Sabbatias to 

 me, were botanists, nor had they the least idea 

 of the technical name. But would it not prove 

 a singular and interesting coincidence between 

 name and habit, should it be found that these 

 Sabbatias do bloom but once in seven years ? 



Of course, I remember that the genus was 

 named for the Italian botanist, Sabbati, but that 

 does not make the name of the term less sug- 

 gestive of Sabbath. I should like to know what 

 your experience has been with the plant under 

 consideration. 



[The periodic disappearance of some plants is 

 believed in by most botanists. It may be that 

 the plants are in existence, but that the circum- 

 stances which induce flowering do not occur. 

 The writer of this once had a number of plants 

 of Senecio Jacobcea which remained perfectly 

 healthy for years without blooming, though 

 there should be flowers every year. Biennial 



PERIODICAL DISAPPEARANCE OF 

 SPECIES. 



SY MISS MARY C. MURTFELDT, KIRKWOOD, MO. 



There is a tradition among the inhabitants of 

 this locality, tliat two Sabbatias, which are the 



-only species I have found here, appear but once 

 in seven years; and, although I cannot quite 



■credit the statement, my own limited observa- 

 tion goes to corroborate it. In 1870, the first 



•Summer after we moved to Kirkwood, I very I plants only die from the exhaustion by flowering, 

 well remember my pleasure in finding these ' and annual or biennial gentians may remain as 



ipretty plants in considerable numbers. But ; •^mall perennial plants for years unnoticed if they 



