1876.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



315 



that purpose. Notwithstanding the great height, 

 the gardener, Mr. Whittle, has found no difficulty 

 in keeping up the necessary temperature — the 

 thermometer never falling below 45°, even when 

 several degrees below zero outside. — Country 

 Gentleman. 



Roses in Ancient Festivals.— Lovers of roses 

 are bound to be shocked if you tell them that 

 their favorite flower was at one time intimately 

 identified with convivial customs ; so that to 

 talk in one's cups was to talk sub rosa, and the 

 nice nonsense about Harpocrates and the sub- 

 limity of silence is the nonsense that it looks. 

 The Bacchanals, who made piety a pretext for 

 licentiousness, dedicated the ivy to their luscious 

 god, but the more profane revellers of old time 

 preferred the rose, and with it crowned them- 

 selves and their ladj'-loves, and as a matter of 

 course steeped its petals in their wine. It may 

 be information to some lovers of roses who are 

 inclined to be shocked at this association of the 

 flower with the flowing bowl, to be told that the 

 wine of the ancients was sorry stuff", badly made, 

 and badly kept, and that some of the choicer 

 sorts had a decided flavor of turpentine. Hence 

 the steeping in it of rose-leaves and ivy-leaves 

 and other balsamic herbs was in some degree 

 necessary, as at this day the Germans steep the 

 flowers of Woodruff" in their Rhine wine, and the 

 manufactures of sparkling Moselle flavor that 

 exhilarating liquor with herbs the names of 

 which they carefully keep secret. If any one 

 doubts about roses having a convivial history, he 

 may turn "with advantage to Anacreon, and af- 

 terwards to Horace, and he will not long remain 

 in doubt. In the famous fifty-third ode of Ana- 

 creon we are told how the rose originated and 

 became an emblem of merriment and gallantry. 

 — M. in Gardener's Magazine. 



Monument to M. Louis Van Houtte. — Nearly 

 a thousand francs had been raised by the 1st of 

 August for this purpose, by the horticulturists of 

 Northern Europe and America. 



Fourth Annual Report of the Kansas State 

 Board of Agriculture.— From Alfred Gray, Sec- 

 retary, Topeka, Kansas. — If one desires to know 

 just what Kansas is, we know of nothing which 

 gives so clear an idea of the State as this admira- 

 ble report. 



Transactions of the Wisconsin State Hor- 

 ticultural Society.— From F. W. Case, Secretary, 

 Madison, Wis.— This is the report chiefly of the 



annual winter meeting at Madison last February. 

 The apple, which is the great fruit of Wisconsin, 

 receives exhaustive attention; but there is much 

 notice taken of grape culture, flowers, cranberries, 

 small fruits and ornamental trees. The Report is 

 neatly bound, and gotten out at the expense of the 

 State. It has 64 members. 



Orchids.— F. L. Ames, Esq., of North Easton 

 Mass., has bought the entire orchid collection of 

 Mr. Edward Rand. Mr. Ames' collection of 

 stove and greenhouse plant.s and orchids is one 

 of the most extensive and select and best kept 

 in the country. 



Botanical Party.— Dr. Engelmann, W. M. 

 Canby, John H. Redfield, Dr. Asa Gray, of the 

 Botanical Gardens, Cambridge, have returned 

 from a botanical tour in the Carolinas. 



QUERIES. 



Habits of Van Houtte. — "A Reader," Geneva, 

 N. Y., says : — In your account of L. Van Houtte 

 it says he begun work between one and two in 

 the morning, continuing until 8 P. M., with less 

 than one hour's intermission. Is there not a 

 mistake here, or is it usual for European horti- 

 culturists to begin work in the middle of the 

 night, and eat only one meal a day ? 



[We do not know much of the habits of Eu- 

 ropean nurserymen, but we have known of many 

 American ones, whom the necessities of their 

 business often compelled to be_up till near day- 

 light before they could go to bed. The writer of 

 this paragraph, in the earlier days of his busi- 

 ness life, had often enough to be up by " one or 

 two in the morning " — not occasionally, but as a 

 tolerably regular thing. We doubt whether 

 there is any body of men who work so hard and 

 get so little, in Europe or America, as the nur- 

 serymen. Our school books used to tell us, " if 

 you are industrious, you will be rich ; " but it is 

 a well known feet, that after all these long hours 

 of industry, nine-tenths who start the business 

 fail. It seems to a looker-on a very simple thing 

 to plant a nut and wait four years only to sell it 

 for a dollar. Scores are misled by these appear- 

 ances every year, and sink money. Success 

 in the nursery business means " early and late," 

 and then the chance is often ten to one against 

 you. This experience of American nurserymen 

 is the best help we can give our " Reader " to 

 understand Van Houtte's case.— Ed. G. M.] 



