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THE GARDENER^S MONTHLY 



[March, 



Francisco ; a collection of seeds made in South- 

 cm Florida by Dr. Edward Palmer, and another 

 made by the same collector on Guadeloupe 

 Island off the California coast ; a collection of 

 seeds made in Colorado and Utah by Dr. C. C. 

 Parry; a fine collection of plants and seeds from 

 P. J. Berckmans, Esq., of Augusta, Georgia; a 

 collection of exotic Orchids by General Rathbone, 

 of Albany, N. Y., and many rare seeds by Dr. 

 George Englemann, of St. Louis, and Dr. J. H. 

 Mellichamp, of Bluffton, South Carolina. 



It is again my duty to call attention to the fact, 

 that to the very generous annual grant made to 

 the Garden by the Trustees of the Massachusetts 

 Society for Promoting Agriculture is due its 

 increasing usefulness as a means of illustration 

 for Botanical instruction, and as a scientific estab- 

 lishment, through whose agency many useful 

 and beautiful plants are annually introduced into 

 this country ; and from this country into all parts 

 of the. world. C. S. Sargent, Director. 



Rhode Island Bent Grass. — Dr. Channing's 

 article in another column came to hand as we 

 were sending that department to press ; and the 

 imperfect specimens sent, appeared to be Agrostis 

 Bcabra, as we said in the appended note. Since 

 then we have a perfect specimen from Dr. C, 

 and find that the real species is Agrostis canina. 

 Tt seems to vary a little from the European 

 specimens of that species, but is, no doubt, speci- 

 fically the same. 



Botanic Gardens. — Some of our larger cities 

 are now turning their attention to the forming of 

 botanic gardens, for the amusement and instruc- 

 tion of the people. There is no reason why these 

 gardens may not be artistic as well as botanically 

 viseful, and we take pleasure in introducing to 

 our readers the following from the Garden, with 

 which we entirely agree : 



"There is a phrase in last week's Nature which 

 well illustrates the ideas of a certain school of 

 botanists as to design in botanical gardens. The 

 writer, speaking of the proposed changes in the 

 Oxford Botanic Gardens, deprecates ' transform- 

 ing a botanic garden into a pleasure ground, in 

 which the needs of study must once more be subordi- 

 nated to artistic effect.' With reference to the 

 words in italics, as well might it be said to young 

 artists, ' It is wrong to learn painting under the 

 influence of a noble gallery of pictures !' If any- 

 thing is wrong and foolish, it is the suggestion 

 that botanical study cannot be pursued in a gar- 

 den artistically beautiful. The greater the natu- 



ral beauty in a garden the more likely is the stu- 

 dent to become a lover of plants and a good bo- 

 tanist. Who, for example, would not rather 

 study plants on Mr. Backhouse's beautiful rock- 

 garden than on many ugly excrescences that we 

 need not name in public gardens? Is not the 

 study of trees more attractive as they stand in 

 groups round a glade in a beautiful park than in 

 some narrow old botanic garden where their 

 naturally stately forms are crammed into narrow 

 beds, as in many old-fashioned botanic gardens ? 

 Are the plants in Glasnevin, w'hich is, in parts, a 

 picturesque and beautiful garden, any the less 

 interesting or attractive than in the old Chelsea 

 Garden, which consists of a series of squares, and 

 beds, and walks ? Surely the herbarium and not 

 the garden is the place for packing plants closely 

 together in a 'systematic' manner." 



QUERIES. 



Plants for Name. — Mrs. Norton, Iowa. — ^The 

 numbers have been mislaid. The purplish grass 

 was Agrostis scabra, the very small bit some 

 Sporobolus, the pretty little Iris like flower Sisy- 

 rinchium Bermudianum, and the other, with 

 numerous small, tine, head-like flowers, one of 

 the wormwoods — Artemisia dracunculoides. 



Mixing of Potatoes by Pollen. — H. says : " I 

 send you a potato of a pink tint, which I am 

 positive grew on a plant of the Peach Blow 

 variety. Not far from where these grew were 

 some Early Rose. Does not this prove that the 

 pollen of the Early Rose reached the flowers of the 

 Peach Blow, and that this cross fertilization in- 

 fluenced the sap, and in this way had an imme- 

 diate effect on the tuber? 



[Not that we see. The editors of the Prairie 

 Farmer sent us some years ago some red sweet 

 potatoes on the same root with white ones. As 

 the sweet potatoes never flower, how did the 

 " pollen " act in that instance ? All of this discus- 

 sion originates with people who have not kept up 

 with the progress of the times, and have no idea 

 of the plants' innate powers of change, quite 

 independent of any external influences. — Ed. 

 G. M.] 



The Tomato Disease. — The "American Garden^ 

 eners' Monthly, in quoting our account of the to- 

 mato disease around London, says : ' So far as 

 we know there has been nothing of this charac- 

 ter seen in the United States. Occasionally we 



