1879.] 



ANJ) HORTICULTURIST. 



189 



as something outside of the Immediate wants of 

 man, and on scientific men as eccenti'ic oddities 

 who are "well enough in their wa}'," but in 

 whose success they take little concern. 



Derivatiox of Sequoia. — Mr. Lemmon ! 

 says in the Pacijic Rural Presa; "The generic 

 name Sequoia was given by Endlicher because ! 

 this genus is a lone follower (sequi, to follow) of | 

 vast colossal forests. By others said to be de- ' 

 rived from ' Sequoya,' the celebrated Cherokee 

 Indian ; but this is no doubt an afterthought 

 and unworthy to be kept up." 



The Smallest Orchid Knowk. — Baron Von 

 Mueller has recently announced the rediscovery, 

 after a lapse of twenty years, of a minute creep- 

 ing orchid, highly remarkable for its extremely 



small disk-like leaves. This little plant, which 

 grows in the vicinity of Richmond river, East 

 Australia, has been described as Bolbophyllum 

 minutissimum. Its leaves are orbicular, sessile, 

 tlat, horizontal, on a creeping rhizome, and only 

 one-eighth or one-sixth of an inch in diameter. 

 Thus this orchid has the smallest leaves of all in 

 the whole order. Indeed, on seeing the plant 

 creeping among the mosses the observer micrht 

 take it for a species of the Hepaticte. The wee 

 red flowers, which are produced singly on pedun- 

 cles hardly longer than the leaves, measure only 

 one sixth of an inch. While thus East Australia 

 possesses the dwarfest of all orchids known to 

 science, it counts among its plants also the one 

 with the minutest flowers, namely, Oberonia 

 palmicola. — Scientijic American. 



Literature, Travels I Personal Notes. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



BY JACQUES. 



Why not have a department of the-MoNTHLY 

 for " Notes and Queries?" The following may 

 <lo for a commencement : 



A fine large Marechal Neil Rose was sent to 

 a lady this season, and proved so remarkably 

 heavy that when it faded she had the curiosity 

 to count the petals, and there were two hundred 

 and eight3'-two. 



The Contemporary Review for April, 1879, 

 quotes the Journal of the Linnean Society^ Bo- 

 tany, Vol. XVII, No. 98, on the subject of car- 

 nivorous plants, and says : " The fed plants 

 were able to produce nearly two and a-half as 

 many seeds and nearly four times as great a 

 weight of seeds as the unfed. In only one re- 

 spect was the advantage on the side of the latter, 

 the unfed being slightly taller, but only in the 

 proportion of 99.9. Similar researches have 

 been recently carried out in (iermany, the only 

 tliflerence being that the plants fed on insects 

 instead of roast meat, but with the same result 



of proving the power of some plants to assimi- 

 late previously elaborated protoplasm with such 

 advantage to themselves as to produce more and 

 larger seeds and bigger roots." The entire 

 article is highly interesting as well as instruc- 

 tive ; it gives credit to our American observers, 

 Canby, Curtis, and Mrs. Treat. If this notice 

 seems to attract attention it is hoped the whole 

 article may be reprinted, containing as it does 

 the latest news on these interesting discoveries. 



A gentleman known to us, who lately pre- 

 sented the Philadelphia Park with t^n thousand 

 evergreens, had the satisfaction of seeing a bar- 

 barian hitch his horse and deliberately proceed 

 to fill his wagon with limbs of Hemlocks for 

 the Easter holidays. Where was the patrol and 

 Mr. Price ? 



Will some one tell us what Agassiz meant 

 when he told the astonished citizens of Boston 

 that " in a certain family of the Radiates every 

 female always married her grandfather?" 



When will botanists be able to inform us how 

 it comes that if we plant half a field Avith sugar- 

 cane we shall produce sugar, and the other half 

 planted with the olive will produce oil ? There 



