58 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[February, 



Bipid. It is enormously productive. In one of 

 the plates is represented a specimen of this fruit, 

 natural size, taken from a shrub 13 inches high 

 .from the root, and found south of Lowell. The 

 shrub has a spreading habit, forming dense 

 masses, sometimes covering from 30 to 60 square 

 feet of ground, but usually the tufts are not more 

 than from 15 to 25 feet in area. It suckers 

 abundantly from the roots, and propagates in 

 this way as well as by seeds. It is found over 

 the greater part of the western half of the State, 

 and while it is not excluded from the richest soil 

 if dry, it seems to be partial to sandy localities 

 rich in alkaline earths. As this plum is nearly 

 related to some of our cultivated varieties of 

 cherries, and the stamens and pistils of the 

 flowers are large in both, it will require no great 

 skill to produce a cross between them ; and as 

 Fuller hixs remarked {Small Fruit Calturht), a 

 cross between the dwarf plum and a bigarreau 

 or morella variety, retaining the dwarf habit. 

 Tiger, and productiveness of the former, with the 

 flavor of the latter, would be an acquisition of 

 incalculable value, and would completely revolu- 

 tionize cherry culture. However this may be, 

 the best varieties of the dwarf clierry are valu- 

 able, as they come from the hand of Nature. 

 Many an explorer and traveller in the unsettled 

 regions has been refreshed l)y them, and the day 

 is not distant when this fruit will, as it deserves 

 to, have a place in the gardens of all the people." 



QUERIES. 



Drosera Roots and Water. — At p. 24 we en- 

 deavored to show that deep roots take in only 

 water, because there is nothing more that they 

 can take, and referred to a similar experience o 

 Mr. Darwin's in regard to Drosera. Tbe follow-f 

 ing is Mr. Darwin's : 



" The absorption of animal matter from cap- 

 tured insects explains how Drosera can flourish 

 in poor, peaty soil, — in some cases where nothing 

 but sphagnum moss grows, and mosses depend 

 altogether on the atmosphere for their nourish- 

 ment 



"We can thus understand how it is that 

 Drosera roots are so poorly developed. These 

 usually consist of only two or three slightly 

 divided branches, from half to one inch in length; 



furnished with absorbent hairs. It appears, 

 therefore, that the roots serve only to imbibe 

 water, though no doubt they would absorb nu- 

 tritiovTS matter if present in the soil, for, as we 

 shall hereafter see, they absorb a weak solution 

 of carbonate of ammonia.'" 



A correspondent calls our attention to our 

 statement, and so we give Mr. Darwin's own 

 words. Tlie Drosera roots cannot, in the sense 

 in which we said deep roots of trees could not, 

 " because there is nothing else to take." If, how- 

 ever, the expression "cannot" were to be taken 

 as " absolutely powerless," it would be an inter- 

 pretation not warranted by Mr. Darwin's words. 



We used Mr. Darwin's observation merely to 

 illustrate our own point in regard to deep roots 

 not having anything to take but water, without 

 any regard to its application to Mr. Darwin's 

 case. But since our attention has been more 

 particularly drawn to it by our correspondent, we 

 are led to ask whether the peaty or boggy places 

 in which many Di'oseras grow are really so " poor" 

 as Mr. Darwin's language would seem to imply ? 



Cross Fertilization of Fruits. — "Justice to 

 Mr. Gartield impels me to say that I had nothing 

 to do with the very interesting experiments made 

 by him upon cross fertilization of fruits, noticed 

 on page 23 of the January number of the 

 Monthly. So far as I know he is entitled to the 

 full credit of the work. C. E. Bessey." 



Cambridge, Mass., Jan. 7th, 1876. 



Plants' Names. — M. — All generic (the first) 

 names are spelled with a capital letter. No spe- 

 cific names (the second) begin with capitals 

 unless they are proper nouns or their genitives. 

 Thus we write Abies alba, the white spruce, but 

 Abies Douglasii, the spruce of Mr. Douglas. 



Fungi. — A knowledge of these minute plants 

 is of great use to the gardener. The following 

 was not sent to us for publication, but we give it 

 in the hope it may help the study. 



Dear Sir: — I beg to call your attention to some 

 collections of Fuvgi which I have made. They 

 are put up in sets of 100 species each ; correctly 

 named, and represent all the principal orders* 

 Price, $8.00 per set. Should you feel interested 

 in such plants please write for any further in- 

 formation. Should you wish some nice speci- 

 mens of Marine Algae I could furnish them. 

 Yours, very truly, 



B. D. Halsted, 

 Bussey Institution, Jamaica Plain, Mass. 



