252 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[August, 



sented by Col. John W. Forney, of the Progress ; 

 Clayton McMichael, of the JSforth American; 

 W. W. Hardins:, of the Inquirer; Joel Cook, of 

 the Ledger; Col. Thomas Fitzgerald of the Sun 

 and Item: Y. S. Walter of the Delaware County [ 

 Republican; T. T. Worth, of the Lebanon Coiirier; j 

 Jacob Knabb, of the Reading Journal and Times; 

 Morgan M. Wills, of the Norristown Herald; the ' 

 Brothers Paschall, of the Doylesfcown Intelli- 

 gencer; Wm. W. Coxe. of the Frankford Herald; 

 with many others Mr. Freas, though 72 years 

 of age, is still in the harness, and is probably the 

 oldest editor in the State. He was born in Mont- 

 gomery county, in 1809, and at 16 years of age 

 went to learn printing in the office of the Norris- 1 

 town Herald, then published by Daniel Sower, Jr. i 

 Upon attaining his 21st year he went to German- j 

 town, where he established the Village Telegraph, 

 •with 429 original subscribers, of whom only ! 

 seven still survive The name of the paper was j 

 changed soon alter its establishment to the Ger- 

 mantoivn Telegraph, which it still retains. It was i 

 the first family newspaper in the United States j 

 to introduce an agricultural department, which 

 has always been one of its leading features. Ma- ; 

 jor Freas makes it his boast that he has person- 1 

 ally edited every number of his paper, though I 

 often confined to his bed by sickness, and has ' 

 written the principal agricultural editorials, and | 

 those racy items for which the paper is noted, j 

 Latterly he has been a severe sufferer from rheu- ' 

 matism and is partially deaf, but all his mental 

 faculties are in full vigor. His principal editor- 

 ial assistant is his son, John A. Freas, a thor- 

 oughly trained journalist and most genial gentle- 

 man, who has been his father's ' best man ' for 

 the past twenty-three years. The Major has all 

 his life been a model editor, a high-toned gentle- 

 man, a good citizen and a true and steady friend. ' 

 He never accepted public position though several j 

 have been offered him. He has been named for 

 Governor of the State on several occasions, and j 

 was offered the post of Commissioner of Agricul- 1 

 ture by President Grant. He seems to have 

 held that the post of honor, at least in the 

 editorial profession, was the private station, and 

 his successful life, evidenced by the honors paid 

 to him on Tuesday by his personal friends and 

 and neighbors, proves that he was right. Except 

 the infirmities of partial deafness and occasional 

 rheumatic attacks, Mr. F. enjoys excellent health, 

 and bids fair to continue his usefulness at the 

 head of his paper for many years." 



Correspondence. — One of the commonest of 

 letters is the one like this. " Several weeks ago 

 I wrote to ask you whether toads eat bugs, and 

 now I have the Monthly to hand, and no notice 

 is taken of my communication " Sometimes it 

 may be that "several days" was the expression 

 instead of" several weeks." It should be borne 

 in mind that it takes more than several days for 

 the editor to prepare all the matter for a maga- 

 zine like this. Our copy goes to the printer 

 about the oth of the month for our reading mat- 



ter, and about the 20th for advertisements. It 



might by chance be that the editor could insert 

 a paper or notice a query received so late as the 

 5th ; but he would be more certain of having 

 time to attend to it if it came a week or two 

 before. 



The Oleander. — Mr. Shirley Hibberd says: 

 " This handsome shrub is one of the most poison- 

 ous of its class, and therefore should be handled 

 with care, for if the hand is cut when pruning it 

 a dangerous wound may be the result. In 

 Dr. Hogg's ' Vegetable Kingdom ' occurs the fol- 

 lowing respecting it: — 'It is one of the most 

 beautiful window plants when covered with its 

 large rose-like blossoms; but in these blossoms 

 the weapon of death resides. During the Penin- 

 sular war a number of French soldiers who went 

 out foraging near Madrid returned laden with 

 the fruits of their search. One of the number, 

 with the view of securing some wood to make 

 skewers for the meat, cut a quantity of oleander 

 boughs, and, having stripped them of the bark, 

 used the wood in the meat. The result was that 

 out of twelve who ate of the roast seven died, 

 and the rest were dangerously ill. The poison- 

 ous principle is so subtle that its exhalations 

 alone are sufficient to cause serious accident, 

 and even death, to those who recline or sleep for 

 any time under their influence." 



It may be added to what Mr. Hibberd says, 

 that the stories we have in all modern botanical 

 works about Azalea and Rhododendron of mod- 

 ern botany yielding poisonous honey is purely 

 fictitious. The Oleander was the Rhododendron 

 of the ancients, and when the name was trans- 

 ferred to our present plants, the poisonous repu- 

 tation went with the name. 



i Introduction of the Moss Rose. — For an 



1 answer to an "Inquirer" we have referred to 



I many old authorities, and the results of our 



I search are that Parkinson in his " Paradisus," 



i published in 1629, Rea in his " Flora" published 



in 1665, and Bauhin in his "Pinax" published in 



1671, enumerate many roses, but the Moss is 



j not among them. It was introduced or raised in 



! Holland, probably at the close of the seventeenth 



century, for Dr. Martyn in his edition of Miller's 



I " Gardener's Dictionary," says it is in Furber's 



j catalogue in 1724. We have seen a copy dated 



1727 ; it is entitled " Catalogue of English and 



Foreign Trees Collected, Increased, and Sold by 



j Robert Furber at his Nursery over-against the 



' Park-Gate at Kensington, near London." 



