1876.] 



A ND HOE TIG UL T UBIS T. 



2Y 



(for a Texas road) along the middle of the 

 island, and it is not impassable with mud in 

 winter as manv of the inland roads are. 



EDITORIAL NOTES, 



Law of purchasing plants. — A trial has 

 taken place in England in which an employer 

 refused to pay Mr. B. G. Williams for plants pur- 

 chased by the gardener. Some of these plants 

 were expensive, one of them being $150. It was 

 shown that it had been the custom on the estate 

 for the gardener to purchase plants, as it had been 

 that of the cook to purchase the meat, and the 

 bill was ordered by the ruling of the judge, and 

 the verdict of the jury, to be paid, — with some 

 sharp comments on the practice of Mr. Williams 

 in giving five per cent, of the amount of the bills 

 to the gardener for ordering the plants of him. 

 The objection to the bill was that these particular 

 plants were not ordered, but the decision is that 

 if the gardener had been permitted to order 

 before, the employer was bound by subsequent 

 orders, unless notification had been given to the 

 contrary. 



The baobob tree. — Adansonia digitata. — Before 

 the discovery of the mammoth Sequoias of Cali- 

 fornia, the baobob tree of India used to be 

 the greatest wonder among large trees. We 

 have read of it taking thirteen men spreading 

 arms and touching fingers to span one tree. An 

 English government paper on Forests, thus speaks 

 of some : — In Upper India, especially, the growth 

 of this tree is extremely slow. Two trees 

 planted at Etawah, in 1824:, are at this date only 

 50 and 55 feet high, with a girth of only 9 and 10 

 feet respectively at 6 feet from the ground ; and 

 the largest of a number of trees planted in the 

 same station, between the years 1859 and 1864, 

 by Mr. A. 0. Hume, the magistrate and collector 

 of the district, has now only attained a height of 

 24 feet, with a girth of 2 feet 2 inches at 6 feet 

 from the ground. At Lucknow, also, the largest 

 of some trees, locally reported to have been 

 planted in the reign of Asaf-ud-dowla, or between 

 ninety and a hundred years ago, is not more than 

 13 feet in girth at 5 feet from the ground. 



Dr. C. C. Parry. — This well-known botanical ex- 

 plorer, has been spending the summer in Central 

 Utah, and will winter in Southern California. 

 Few men have added so much to the knowledge 

 of American plants as he has. He has now been 



many' years engaged in various parts, with no 

 great profit to himself, but has placed us all 

 under great obligations for what he has done. 



Personal. — Tlie. Country Gentleman, one of 

 whose editors recently made a visit to Mr. 

 Meehan's nursery, at Germantown, has a kind 

 reference to the fixct that in the seventeen years 

 of Mr. Meehan's editorship of the Gardener's 

 Monthly, no one would gather from anything in 

 its reading columns that he had anything to sell. 

 This arises from the fact that Mr. Meehan has 

 no ownership in the Gardener's Monthly. He is 

 simply engaged by the owner and publisher to 

 edit it in the interest of Horticulture, and it 

 would ]ie manifestly improper to use his position 

 for his own personal ends. The Country Gentle- 

 man has our best thanks for its generous notice 

 of the fact. 



BiLLiEu's Comet Peach. — Since D. O. Munson's 

 article was printed in first form of present No- 

 (see page 14) we have the following from him by 

 vra,y of correction : 



" I still find there is a mistake in the name of 

 the Comet peach. The correct name is Billieu's 

 Comet. When first heard from the parties, the 

 name was not written plainly, and I had to partly 

 guess at it." 



Agave virginica. — We are in receipt of the 

 following striking circular from Tennessee : 

 " New Flower — Agave virginica. 



This plant was discovered a few years ago in 

 one of the beautiful valleys of East Tennessee, 

 and is well worthy of cultivation for its curious 

 structure and delicious fragrance. 



Foliage large — some plants during this season 

 having reached two feet in diameter. Some of 

 the leaves are fluted and of a deep green color ; 

 others of a pea-green shade ; others variegated, 

 spotted with blood red drops. The stalk grows 

 from three to six feet in height, having on each 

 from thirty-five to fifty flowers. It remains in 

 bloom from six to eight weeks. Its fragrance is 

 verj^ sweet, peculiar, and unlike any other flower 

 known to the discoverer. The arrangement of 

 the flowers upon the stem reminds one more of a 

 group of Chinese characters than anything else. 

 It has improved Avonderfully under cultivation. 



The soil for its cultivation should be a rich loam. 

 When the bulb is potted in the fall, and kept in a 

 hot-house or conservatory, its beautiful foliage 

 contrasts strongly against other plants, and 

 blooms early in the spring. When potted in the 

 spring, it flowers early in July, continuing into 

 September. It can also be propagated from the 

 seed, flowering the second year. 



I can furnish a limited number of these bulbs 

 at 50 cts. each, or $4.00 per dozen. Seeds, 25 cts. 



