184 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[June,. 



from her two lime trees, taking advantage of the 

 market when imported limes and lemons were 

 not to be bought. 



There is evidently increasing admiration and 

 patronage for the Aloe, and the whole family. 

 But what to do with it in the Winter, is a puzzl- 

 ing question, as it takes much space when 

 large. A pair of beauties were recentl}^ sold for 

 one hundred dollars. The Aloe is the emblem 

 of silence, the winds having little power to 

 move its leaves. Can any one tell what is the 

 best and most economical way to house them 

 safely in Winter ? 



Ring Marks in Trees. — Some doubts as to the 

 value of rings in tree growths as usually un- 

 derstood are lost by experiments in South 

 Wales. The rings counted on a tree known to 

 have been planted eighteen years previously, 

 were found to be thirty-six in number, or two 

 for every year. 



The Leadville Herald reports the finding of a 

 veritable glacier within twenty-five miles of the 

 town, in an unfrequented and heretofore un- 

 visited gulch. What must they find next ? 



Silk Worms. — One likes to pick up novelties. 

 In the very good book Lang's Cyprus, we find 

 that " When it is desired to hatch the silk worm's 

 eggs, the women of Cyprus wear the cloth upon 

 which the eggs have been laid round their 

 waists, and cause them to hatch by the heat of 

 the body." There was a newspaper story going 

 the rounds not many years ago, that a man had 

 hatched a duck by wearing the egg under his 

 arm for the short space of a month or so. 



The Cotton TTorTw.— The third bulletin of the 

 United States Entomological Commission gives 

 the results of Prof. Riley's researches on the 

 cotton worm, which is so injurious to the cotton 

 plant, that the average loss is estimated at over 

 twelve millions of dollars a year. Sad enough, 

 but there is a human species that wastes vastly 

 more annually, by keeping millions of men 

 under drill. It would be better to try to exter- 

 pate the latter worms than the former. 



Contrary to Darwinh conclusions, that Dro- 

 sera is carnivorous. Prof. Kegel finds on com- 

 paring a number of plants fed with meat, with 

 a series which were not, that while the aver- 

 age weight of the seeds was greater in the 

 former case, this was more than compensated 

 by their much smaller number, the gross weight 

 being considerably less. And found also, that 



the leaves were obviously injured by the flesb 

 food, and that the power of the plants to resist 

 the Winter was diminished. He thinks the 

 epithet carnivorous, improper. 



Go West. — Dr. Cyru& Thomas, of Illinois, a* 

 member of the United States Entomological 

 Commission, kindly reports to young men with 

 an inclination to go West, that the loss from 

 the chinch bug in Illinois alone, in 1850, was es- 

 timated at S4,000,000 ; an average of $4.70 for 

 every man, women, and child then living in the 

 State. In 1864 it destroyed three-fourths of the 

 wheat, and one-half of the corn crop through- 

 out the Valley of the Mississippi, a loss to the 

 farmers of $100,000,000. Crossing the river 

 they meet the Rocky Mountain Locust, a larger 

 and even more destructive insect. Kot to put 

 too fine a point, we say nothing of wind, storms-,, 

 etc., and conclude to stay East. 



Prof. Huxley's Physiogra/phia: Appletons,. 

 1878, — is a truly valuable scientific work, easily 

 comprehended.. At present, he says, the deep- 

 est mine is near Wigaii, being 2,445 feet. Ex- 

 periments on the temperature at different 

 depths, while sinking the pit, showed that the- 

 average increase is about 1'^ Fahr. for every 

 fifty-four feet. In other sinkings, different re- 

 sults have been obtained, the rate of augmenta- 

 tion being affected by the character of the rocks, 

 and it will not be far wrong to assume the- 

 average increase of 1° for every sixty-four feet. 

 At the depth of only a few miles, the heat 

 would be suSicient to fuse any known rock, and 

 whatever the general state of the earth's inte- 

 rior, there must be at least masses of molten 

 rock. jSTo less than 10,000 hot springs are said 

 to exist within the ai-ea of the Yellowstone Park. 

 On the sources of carbon in plants, the book is 

 very full and satisfactory, the supply being fronju 

 the atmosphere. 



Springs. — In Physiographia will be found the 

 true theory of springs, alone worth the cost of 

 the volume. 



Poison . Vines. — We cannot recollect that 

 any of the copious writers who described the 

 wild plants in the Philadelphia Park, com- 

 mended or even enumerated the great amount 

 of poison vines ; lately they were brought to 

 notice by the orders of the Board of Health to 

 remove them, after long possession of that over- 

 praised possession of a great city. The Boardi 

 of Health deserves credit for peeping into the- 

 doings of the other close corporation. 



