1880. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



219 



— can be rendered green again by steeping in 

 water along with a little zinc powder. 



The Chloride of Methyl is now used in extracting 

 the odoriferous principles of plants. 



A lost ring is making newspaper paragraphs ; 

 the favorite story of Sir Walter Scott was about 

 the same topic: A serving man was sent by his 

 employer to a neighboring town to have a dia- 

 mond ring mended ; crossing a brook he dropped 

 it into the stream, ran away to India and return- 

 ing wealthy after twenty years, went with a 

 friend to make restitution. Coming to the stream, 

 "there" said he, "I lost that terrible ring " ; as 

 he spoke he placed his cane in the water, and on 

 withdrawing it, behold the ring was on the 

 ferule at the end of it ! 



Matilda— Yes, it is one of the curious and new 

 impressions of travel to an American to find 

 large trees growing in European ruins. At the 

 old Schloss at Baden Baden, they are found 

 growing in what must have been the parlors ; at 

 Heidleburg the same curious facts strike the 

 traveller in the old castle. Where ladies re- 

 ceived the returning warrior knight the walls 

 still stand uninjured ; but trees of considerable 

 size grow where the footfalls of ladies and their 

 admirers figured in times not extremely ancient. 

 So at Verona, the Coliseun built of enormous 

 rocks, considerable trees have taken root high 

 up in the walls, and wave their branches in 

 every wind. So the American finds constant 

 surprises at things he never saw at home. 



More Wax. — The white Chinese wax has a curi- 

 ous history. It is the result of an unhealthy con- 

 dition aggravated by an uncongenial climate. 

 Tn the province of Keen Chang there grows an 

 abundance of the Ligustrum lucidum, an ever- 

 green tree with pointed ovate leaves, on the 

 twigs of which myriads of insects spread them- 

 selves like a brownish film every spring. Pre- 

 sently the surface of the twigs becomes mounted 

 with a white waxy substance secreted by the 

 insects, increasing in quantity until August, 

 when the twigs are cut off and boiled in water ; 

 the wax rises to the surface, is melted and cooled 

 in pans. It was discovered that by transporting 

 the insects to a less genial climate, the amount 

 of wax was vastly increased by preventing their 

 breeding. You meet hundreds of wax merchants, 

 each carrying his load of female insects to the 

 wax farms, over a journey rough and long, and 

 a fortnight's sun would precipitate the hatching. 



which should take place after the females have 

 been attached to the trees. The birth of the 

 young is the signal for the death of the parent ; 

 six or seven of their prolific mothers are wrapped 

 in a palm leaf and tied to a branch of the Ligus- 

 trum, when soon swarms of infinitesmal insects 

 creep forth and cluster on the twigs, where 

 they fulfil their mission. Baron Richthoven 

 considers the value of the annual crop to be on 

 an average upwards of thirty-two millions of 

 dollars, and during 1878 there was exported 

 from one port upwards of forty-one thousand 

 dollars worth of it. Pretty well for an insect. 



The Cawthorp Oak in England continues to 

 attract admiration as their largest tree. The 

 size of the roomy hollow of its stem may be 

 estimuted when it is stated that seventy children 

 were packed in it at one time. It is but a cripple. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Editors and Correspondents. — The Garden 

 says : " Our friend Meehan is enlightening us as 

 to our decadence, in his Gardener's Monthly: — 



' England may in some senses thank herself 

 for the ruin of her late crops. She has for many 

 years drained her land to such an extent that all 

 the rainfalls flow immediately into drains, not 

 stopping long enough to penetrate the earth. 

 The result is a quick filling of her little rivers 

 and water courses; these overflow their banks 

 immediately; hay is set afloat and ruined; 

 grain is damaged either when cut or in the 

 ground ; sheep are drowned, and not unfrequent- 

 ly cattle. Drainage in certain cases is very 

 valuable; but the English in their over-zeal 

 have carried it too far, and are now obliged to 

 ask food of their once despised cousins.' " As a 

 matter of fact the extract is from a correspon- 

 dent's letter, and not from the editor's pen. 

 Many papers have a standing notice that the 

 " editor is not responsible for the opinions of 

 correspondents." We have never thought it 

 necessary to make such a public disclaimer. 

 We doubt even* whether the Garden adopts the 

 views of its correspondents as its own. 



Charles C. Frost. — Lord Byron somewhere 

 tells us that it is one of the easiest things in the 

 world to be a self-sacrificing philosopher when 

 all the world is looking on and applauding the 

 good deeds. Generally, the devotee of science is 

 as indifferent to personal glory as any class of 

 his fellow mortals; but he relishes praise for all. 



