1876.] 



AND HOB TIG UL TUB 1ST. 



153 



would differ with the Editor's suppositions that 

 the Silver Fir is either Abies Menziesii or A. En- 

 gelmanni. It is neither, it is in appearance dis- 

 tinct, resembling more the Abies cancolor, for 

 which I have often mistaken it before I became 

 well acquainted with both trees. The Silver 

 Fir grows only in one location that I have found 

 in Kane county, and that is very near the east 

 line, at the head of Peter's Cup Creek, at the 

 east foot of the Pine Valley mountains. 



"The 'well-known writer' quoted in the arti- 

 cle above referred to, gives so good a description 

 of the Silver Fir that I will not attempt to 

 describe the tree, only saying that the tree grows 

 60 to 80 feet high, with long, straight, horizontal 

 branches, and cone shaped. I have never found 

 this species in fruit, but I will watch more closely 

 for cones than I have done before and if I find 

 them, you shall have a share of them. 



"I am led to believe that the Silver Fir is Abies 

 grandis, Lindo., but in this I may be mistaken as 

 I have not had an opportunity of seeing the 

 trees growing together, and as I remarked be- 

 fore, I have not seen the Silver Fir in fruit." 



[The "well-known writer" will have enough 

 of his attempt to give a well-known tree a new 

 common name before he gets through. Mr. 

 Siler however, does not distinguish between a 

 "Fir" and a Spruce. His tree is quite likely to 

 be Abies grandis which has a silvery stem, and is 

 readily distinguished by this alone in Colorado, 

 as it keeps this silvery character to quite old age. 

 Abies concolor, also growing in the Rocky 

 Mountains however, has the same character, 

 and is probably but a form of the same species. 

 —Ed. G. M.] 



Verbena Rust. — R. P., Indianapolis, Ind., 

 writes : " Since I have been a reader of the 

 Monthly I don't recollect to have seen anything 

 about the fungus known as Verbena Rust. Is 

 there no remedy for it? I planted out over thirty 

 varieties of verbenas last spring; we had a very 

 wet summer; rust attacked them, and I lost the 

 whole lot. I procured seed and sowed early this 

 spring; when the plants had formed the second 

 pair of leaves I could see traces of rust. Where 

 did that rust come from ? From the soil, the at- 

 mosphere, or did it inherit it from the parent? 

 I had nothing in the house affected with it, as I 

 throw away every plant as soon as I can see a 

 trace of it. I have talked with some of the flor- 

 ists here about it, but they differ as widely as the 

 poles; and what says the Editor of the Monthly?'' 



[The Verbena Rust is a fungus, a very bad fel- 

 low. What particular kind it is, or its general 

 history, has not been worked up yet to our 

 knowledge, but we will try and put some of our 

 mycologists on the track as soon as we can get 

 some good specimens. — Ed. G. M.] 



Fertilization of Clover. — A. T. L., White- 

 hall, Mich., writes: "A Swede in my employ is 

 quite an expert pianist, reads music readily at 

 sight, even if it is quite difficult, etc. After a 

 twelvemonths practice at odd tunes I 'fiddle' 

 my violin with surprisingly moderate ability; in 

 other words what he sees at a glance I have to 

 look twice to discover, but I love anything in the 

 shape of music so well that almost every evening 

 I coax him over to the house and we get at it, — 

 result, difficulty on my part to get him to play 

 the 'Old Hundred,' 'Hail Columbia,' and 

 'Star Spangled Banner,' pieces that I am trying 

 to learn, and desire on his part to go rambling 

 and scrambling up among the sharps, flats and 

 minors of some opera that I can't understand at 

 all yet. Now, as yours is the only horticultural 

 monthly, I want to urge you not to forget the 

 'old hundred' readers who have neither the 

 learning, ability nor opportunity to profit by the 

 horticultural ' operas ' which to you older heads 

 seem so simple. 



"About the idea you advance in connection 

 with the persimmon sport mentioned by E. C 

 in April number. I do not believe that it is a 

 difference in the substance, chemically consid- 

 ered, with which the clover plant feeds itself at 

 the first and second blossoming which makes 

 the difference in the amount and perfectness of 

 the blossoms and seeds, but the operations of the 

 well known law of nature that whenever a plant 

 is checked in its growth it at once puts forth an 

 effort to perfect its seeds to perpetuate its kind. 

 "Wliere the first crop is cut this cause obtains ; 

 if it is not, and the plant dies down of its own ac- 

 cord, the new plant springing up, as it does, from 

 a partially exhausted root, and generally under 

 the check of a dry soil, produces the conditions 

 requisite to make a 'case,' as the lawyers term 

 it, under the 'aforesaid' law. How much the 

 blighting influence of the hot mid-summer sun 

 affects the flower, as it does too early sown buck- 

 wheat, I do not know, but some I suspect." 



[Such suggestions as these are always welcome. 

 The musical illustration is a happy one, for the 

 opera has the same meaning to all when all un- 

 derstand it, and our correspondent has only said 



