1880.J 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



347 



made articlea. Surely we nre feeding our rela- 

 tives, and gradually superseding them in various 

 manufactures. 



The indebtedness of man to the vegetable world 

 is illustrated by the two substances of gutta 

 percha and India rubber ; but for these the great 

 progress in the arts would have long waited de- 

 velopment; the telegraph by sea is indebted to 

 the former for insulation, and many processes 

 and conveniences are promoted by the latter. 

 The trees which yield the largest supply of the 

 best qualitj' of caoutchouc consist of various 

 species of Hevea of South America. Some por- 

 tions of the northern districts, especially in the 

 province of Para and parts of the valley of the 

 Amazon are covered to a great extent with 

 heveas. The abundance of these in Para may 

 be judged of by the fact that this province alone 

 exported 7,340 tons in 1877. Among the species 

 the Hevea Brasiliensis attains the height of sixty 

 or seventy feet ; the Hevea Guianensis, a simi- 

 larly magnificent tree, likewise abundantly pro- 

 duces caoutchouc. The leaves are handsome 

 and adapted to greenhouse culture by their deep 

 color and general beauty, especially the Ficus 

 elastica. 



California, Colorado. — A gentleman now in 

 California writes of what must be to an American 

 a novelty of interest: "I am just going to Mr. 

 Cooper's (at Santa Barbara) to be present, at the 

 whipping of his extensive grove of almond trees ! 

 From thence I shall stop at the new institution 

 for canning fruits, especially apricots, of which I 

 hope to send a case via Cape Horn, packed with 

 American almonds." We hope this is not a mere 

 bravado. The Nineteenth Century has a pleasant 

 article from the Earl of Dunraven, who has 

 purchased Este's Park and improved it by various 

 modes. A visitor thither this summer, who has 

 seen the Yosemite Valley, and nearly all the 

 great sights, declares Este's Park the moat beauti- 

 ful scene in the world ; though not so grand it is 

 perfect in its grown trees, fine mountain views, 

 (fee, &c. The hotel of the Earl closes early in 

 the season, but we advise parties to make pre- 

 parations to visit this place next year. 



Collectors of all sorts exist in a highly populated 

 and civilized community. Kare butterflies, rare 

 plates, any rarity finds purchasers. As an illus- 

 tration, two eggs of the extinct great Auk were 

 lately sold by auction in Edinburgh, both being 

 purchased by Lord Silford, one at £100, the other 

 for 102 guineas, probably the largest sums ever 



paid for an egg, with the exception of that of the 

 Moa, a single specimen of which wa« sold at the 

 same place in 1865 for £200. The writer waa 

 dining in England with a collector of rarities 

 when, in the middle of the meal, he was called 

 out to exhibit his treasure of an Auk's egg, and 

 barely got back to tea. He valued his egg some 

 years ago at £50, so they are rising in price. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Gardening in the Soitthern Mountains. — 

 Editorial Letter: — It had long been my desire 

 to see the deciduous magnolias and the many 

 beautiful trees and shrubs of the Southern 

 mountains in their native homes. But the 

 country in which they grow is, in a measure, in- 

 accessible to the hasty traveller, and the editor 

 has but little time to spare from his pen to go 

 jogging along for weeks over rocks and hills 

 where the iron horse dares not set his foot. 

 However, there is a time when all men must 

 rest. An unusually hard year at pen work 

 made me unusually susceptible to temptation, 

 and when three of ray associate members in the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences said to me last 

 May, " we purpose to take our wives for a 

 month or two into the North Carolina moun- 

 tains ; cannot you make two more ?" it did not 

 take long to increase the party to eight. 

 A.bout the middle of June we bade good bye to 

 the city of Brotherly Love, and started on our 

 journey of twenty-five hundred miles, stopping 

 a few days at all the important pointa along the 

 road. In our leisurely stroll we took in Balti- 

 more, Washington, Richmond, Danville, Greens- 

 boro, Salisbury and across to the southern part 

 of North Carolina, then northwardly through 

 the mountains to the Ohio river, and back 

 through the Shenandoah Valley by Harper's 

 Ferry for home. This outline shows that we 

 were not in a favorable region for superior horti- 

 culture, but yet the experience in this line, as 

 well as in the observations on native trees and 

 plants, were interesting in the extreme. 



In the way of gardening as an art, and one of 

 the refining influences of civilization, we saw 

 very little after crossing the Potomac, but in so 

 far as a love of flowers and neat yards are con- 

 cerned the illustrations were abundant. In some 

 of the larger Southern towns like Lynchburg and 

 Staunton, small, neat, well-kept grounds were 



