246 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[August, 



withered had the appearance of a loose half- 

 head of cabbage. As the plant revived the leaves 

 unfolded, and, finally, when entirely resurrected, 

 it lay perfectly flat; the color a rich deep green, 

 and the leaves firm in texture and arborvitse like 

 in appearance. The plant seems to be neither 

 moss nor fern, and yet is like both. After 

 the resurrection I planted it in earth, and unless 

 water is kept in the saucer the leaves begin to 

 curl up. These plants can be kept dried, they 

 say, for five years, and then when planted will 

 revive and grow. I think they will prove admi- 

 rable plants for ferneries and aquariums. 



[The plant referred to by Mrs. White is no 

 doubt a Lycopodium of the section Selaginella, 

 and which is often brought to the North and 

 grown in windows. — Ed. G. M] 



GROWTH OF TREES IN FROZEN SOIL. 



BY J. M. ASHER, SAN DIEGO, CAL. 



In your May number, page 151, in reply to 

 E. F. H., you say * * * "Again cases, &c. * * * 

 There is every reason to believe that in that 

 severe winter the ground in that border was 

 frozen two or three feet thick ; but the grape- 

 vine pushed into leaf and flower on the applica- 

 tion of heat with the most perfect indifference to 

 the frozen (?) roots, so far as any human eye 

 could see. * * *" 



The " frozen roots " is what surprises me. It 

 occurs to me that for once you took too much 

 for granted. I have no doubt that the heat 

 inside that house kept that border several 

 degrees above freezing where the grape roots 

 were. I think it freezes harder in Iowa, where I 

 used to live, than it does in Pennsylvania, and 

 there under manure piles the earth did not 

 freeze, and at the edges of the heaps the ground 

 did not freeze as deep as it did a few feet away. 

 I think the radiation of heat from the house and 

 through the border is what saved the vine to 

 which you refer. If your reasoning be correct, 

 what becomes of the theory of warm soils, etc.? 



If foliation is entirely dependent on the 

 warmth of the air, what is the good of letting the 

 ground freeze twelve to fifteen inches deep, and 

 then mulch to keep it from thawing out in the 

 spring, and thus by retarding the growth save 

 the fruit from late frosts? Will not the air 

 about a tree mulched, say with a foot of manure 

 after the ground is frozen be practically as warm 

 as an unmulched tree twenty feet away ? I have 

 never found a cutting that would grow while 



frozen, and your willow log is only a cutting. I 

 have seen many cuttings grow for a time without 

 roots, but as soon as the supply of food in the 

 cutting was exhausted it died. 



[" Frozen roots " was not exactly what was 

 meant. The frozen soil about the roots was the 

 intention ; for we do not believe any vegetable 

 tissue ever becomes frozen in the ordinary 

 acceptation of the term without dying after- 

 wards. There is no more chance for continued 

 life in a frozen root than in a frozen potato. — 

 Ed. G. M.] 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Water on Rocks. — Even the continuous drop- 

 ping of water will in time wear away the hardest 

 rock. Nothing in nature is absolutely still. 

 Motion seems an inherent property of matter. 

 In some cases this motion which seems immova- 

 ble is greater than w^e have any idea of. It is 

 said that the recession of Niagara Falls proceeds 

 at a rapid rate, the falls having receded no less 

 than thirty-five feet in thirty three years, while 

 the centre of the Horseshoe cataract has gone 

 back about 160 feet in the same period. In 

 Lyell's "Antiquity of Man," a very important 

 argument bearing on the duration of man's ex- 

 istence on the earth is based on the rate of reces- 

 sion deducible from many observations. 



Poisoning by Stramonium. — The Philadelphia 

 Public Ledger says : " Mr. and Mrs. Chambers, 

 Mrs. White and Mrs. Allen reside at 2450 North 

 Fourth Street, the latter two being boarders. 

 Mrs. Chambers formerly resided in New Eng- 

 land, where a common herb known as 'pick- 

 weed ' is used for food. On removing to this 

 city she found a plant growing wild near her 

 house, which she took for ' pickweed,' and one 

 day last week she prepared some of it for food 

 for the family, all four of those named partaking 

 of it. Shortly afterwards all were taken violently 

 ill, their symptoms being great thirst, partial 

 blindness and deafness, and a sense of strangu- 

 lation, with occasional delirium. 



"A physician who was called in at once de- 

 cided the cause of these symptoms to be poison, 

 and investigating the supposed pickweed found it 

 to be ' stramonium,' commonly known as James- 

 town or 'jimson ' weed. The usual antidotes 

 were given and the suflferers were soon pro- 

 nounced out of danger, although they have not 

 fullv recovered from their illness. Stramonium 



