[1880. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



317 



and beautiful, and it was no doubt the lily of 

 the fields which our Saviour referred to when he 

 described the glory of Solomon in comparison 

 with the beauty of the flower. Other and more 

 modern writers believe the flower referred to by 

 Jesus was a true lily. 



Nurseries in Canada. — A Brookville (Out.) 

 correspondent writes that there is not a nursery 

 in all Eastern Canada. 



Napoleon's Willow. — The Gardener's Record 

 says : — " When the Empress Eugenie started on 

 her pilgrimage to the scene of her son's death 

 she took with her slips from a willow growing 

 in Dean Stanley's garden, to plant at the foot of 

 the young Prince's monument in Zululand. The 

 tree in the Deanery garden has grown from a 

 slip taken from the willow over the tomb in 

 which Napoleon I. was interred at St. Helena. 

 The strange tradition is related about this tree, 

 that its condition is affected by the fortunes of 

 the Bonapartos. It is remarkable that on the 

 day of Sedan a large bough fell off", and on the 

 day of the Prince Imperial's death in Africa 

 another bough fell." The Record does not tell 

 whether branches have ever fallen at other 

 times. 



Mr. Henry Shaw, the well-known munificent 

 founder of the Missouri Botanical Gardens at 

 St. Louis, celebrated his 80th birth-day on the 

 24th of July. 



The Plough versus the Spade. — We have a 

 note from Mr. Henderson in regard to the 

 "English Gardener's" complaint, too late for 

 this, but which shall appear in our next. 



Mahlon Moon. — In a letter of a Bristol corres- 

 pondent of a city paper, we learned that " Mah- 

 lon Moon, the well-known florist of this place," 

 died in the maimer indicated in our last. We 



are now informed that ii was "Mahlon Moon, 

 flourist," of that place, who was referred to. The 

 identity of name, and similarity of flour with 

 flower is so remarkable, that it is no wonder the 

 correspondent or his printer got the matter 

 mixed. It is a pleasure to add that Mahlon 

 Moon, nurseryman, is remarkably well for one 

 of his years. 



Kew Herbarium. — A young English gardener, 

 Eobert Allen Rolfe, in an open competitive ex- 

 amination, has obtained the position of second 

 assistant curator in the Kew Herbarium. It is 

 said that many of those in competition had 

 many more early advantages than the young 

 gardener. 



Professor Asa Gray. — This distinguished 

 botanist sailed on the 4th of September, in the 

 British steamer Marathon, from Boston for Eng- 

 land. Dr. Gray will spend a year among the 

 botanical riohes of Kew, preparatory to the fin- 

 ishing of some work on which he has long been 

 engaged. 



Experiments at the Michigan Agricultural 

 College. — This is a lecture by Prof. N. J. Beal. 

 We have often remarked that the vice of horti- 

 culture is that many of its teachers will talk for 

 an hour rather than experiment five minutes. 

 Prof. Beal is a worthy example of the other side. 

 He talks and endeavors earnestly to spread in- 

 formation through the world, but he also tries 

 experiments, and thus knows of his own labors 

 whereof he talks. We have had many heavy- 

 bound books come to our table that were not 

 half as valuable as this unpretentious pamphlet. 

 It ought to have an extended reading by profes- 

 sional gardeners. We hope to make use of Prof. 

 Beal's facts from time to time for the benefit of 

 our readers. 



Horticultural Societies. 



COMM UNICA TIONS. 



HUMBUGS IN HORTICULTURE. 



ESSAY, BY PETER HENDERSON. 



(Continued from page 287.) 



He looked at me pityingly and said, " My 

 dear sir, you expect too much; these Moss 

 Rose just come over in the ship from Paris, you 

 take him home and plant him and he bloom 

 right away and he keep on blooming." I did 

 not take him home, but I took the story, some- 

 thing in the shape it is now told, and had it pub- 

 lished in one of the leading New York papers, 



and, in less than a week, the " Blue Rose Men " 

 had pulled up stakes, but, no doubt, to pitch 

 their camp somewhere else, and set their traps 

 for fresh victims. The " Blue Rose Men " are 

 very impartial in their wanderings, and rarely 

 omit a city of any size, beginning usually in New 

 Orleans in January, rounding northward, and 

 ending up with Philadelphia, New York, and 

 Boston through April and May. 



These humbuj^s in Horticulture have their 

 comical side. Tlie other year in passing St. 

 Paul's Church (Broadway), New York, an old 

 negro had squatted on the pavement with a 

 great bundle of plants carefully mossed up, lying 



