1880. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



281 



An English Heath Wild in Nantucket.— 

 A small patch of the beautiful Erica cineria has 

 maintained itself in a wild condition for a number 

 of years near Nantucket. Its history is unknown. 

 It was first noticed by a New York lady in 1865, 

 and still noticed in a flourishing condition by the 

 same lady in 1879. We have a fresh specimen 

 from another correspondent now before us. 



Fowl Meadoav Grass. — Professor Beal, in the 

 Rural New Yorker, identifies this with Poa sero- 

 tina, and states that its common name is derived 

 from a belief that it was first introduced to the 

 meadows of Dedham, Mass., by means of wild 

 fowl. 



PiCKWEED. — The Chenopodium of England, 

 referred to in our last is Pig and not "Pick" 

 weed, and the Hepatica is Liverwort, and not 

 " Silverwort." Our proof reader is a very good 

 fellow, and our last issue proves this, seeing he 

 did not have the usual advantage of a final 

 looking over by the editor, who was then in 

 North Carolina. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Change in a Hose. — N. G. W., New Albany, 

 Ind., says : " A friend of mine has a white rose 

 that sent a young shoot with leaves on it from 

 the center of one of the blooms. 



How can this be explained?" 



[The flower of a rose was predestined to be a 

 branch. The petals of a rose might have been 

 leaves. It may be described as an after-thought 

 of nature to make a rose flower (or any flower, 

 out of what should have been a leafy branch or 

 shoot. Now sometimes nature is fickle, and in 

 this case she was. After starting to make a 

 branch, she concluded to make a rose flower ; but 

 before the rose flower was quite finished, she 

 changed her mind again, and let the original 

 branch grow. 



It is such facts as these which give strength to 

 what is known in botany as the science of mor- 

 phology. — Ed. G. M.] 



ViTis INCISA. — D. W. L., says : " Please inform 

 me whether the Vitis (cissus) incim of Nuttall 

 is or is not the same as Ampelopsis incisa of 

 catalogues." 



[They are the same. The lines between the 

 genera are not very definite. One may call them 

 whichever they like without badly violating 

 botanical rules. Vitis incisa is the original name, 



by Nuttall ; but its affiinities are nearer to Am- 

 pelopsis than to the ordinary grape-vine. — Ed. 

 G. M.] 



Change of Character in a Fruit Tree.— 

 Miss J. K., Columbus, O., writes: "Do trees 

 which have for years borne fruit, that is free- 

 stone, ever change their nature and bear mostly 

 clings ? 



Let me state my case. In 1862 my father, 

 (John H. Klippart), planted an Apricot tree, 

 which was then probably three feet high. The 

 next year some boys, in jumping over the fence, 

 jumped upon the young tree and broke it off 

 about six inches above the ground. Five young 

 shoots pushed out and all were left on. In the 

 course of several years it commenced bearing 

 fruit, which were (very) free-stones. It con- 

 tinued bearing free-stone fruit until about six or 

 seven years ago, when it changed and bore clings 

 only ; just about the same time we noticed that 

 the tree had been attacked by the borer. In Oct. 

 1878, (just after my father's death), we cut down 

 one of the main branches, as the tree was making 

 too much shade. In 1879 the tree had no fruit 

 at all. This year the tree was laden down with 

 fruit. The first to ripen were decided clings ; when 

 about two-thirds of the fruit was off, part of the 

 remainder changed to free-stones on that side of 

 the apricot next to the sun, and clings on the 

 other side; and the last to ripen were true free- 

 stones. Now has the borer had anything to do 

 with the chsvnge, or is it old age? 



If I wish to raise a young tree, had I better 

 raise it by cuttings, seed, or bud it on some other 

 stock. Our apricot tree is 51 inches in circum- 

 ference eight inches above the ground, and is 

 about 30 feet high." 



[We do not understand this case. So far as 

 we know all apricots are free-stones ; and we 

 suppose the apricot was grafted on a peach 

 stock, and when the apricot was broken oft', the 

 peach sprouts came up, and it is probably of 

 these our correspondent is speaking, using in- 

 advertently the word " apricot" when peach 

 should have been employed. If this is the cor- 

 rect rendering, we may say that it is not unusual 

 for freestone peaches to become under some 

 circumstances, partial clings, though we never 

 knew of a case where it was very much so. If 

 Miss K. really means that the apricot became a 

 cling-stone, it is indeed a case very well worth 

 recording, though we cannot guess at the cause. 

 To raise a tree from this one, bud it on a peach 

 or plum stock.— Ed. G. M.] 



