1870.1 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



247 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



The Sleepy Plant.— That remarkable 

 plant,of which we suggested last month Rip Van 

 Winkle probably ate, and of which our smart 

 daily editors made so much— it was to " add 

 untold wealth, to the coffers of happy human- 

 ity — turns out as any one of good judgment should 

 have suspected, to have been a sort of April-fool 

 story nicely put together by an Australian news- 

 paper employe. His Chief now threatens to 

 discharge the " lying scamp " if he can discover 

 which one it was. "We hope he will not be 

 found out, but will try his genius again. There 

 is good fun in "gull-fishing." 



The Season in New York.— S. F. T., Sara- 

 toga Springs, N. Y., writes : "Average tempera- 

 ture for May 67", with three frosts at the end." 



Men with Tails.— It is now discovered be- 

 yond a shadow of doubt that there is a race of 

 men in Australia with tails. Mr. B. S. Wil- 

 liams' plant collector came on them. The tails 

 extend about half way down their legs. The 

 natives were peaceable, and as they wei-e 

 wholly naked, Mr. Goldie and his party had a 

 good opportunit}' of seeing and examining them. 

 Bjjt the tail, though calculated to mislead a 

 frightened observer, was found by these botanists 

 to be made of a peculiar grass, and securely 

 fastened by a very strong but fine thread about 

 their loins. 



Pranks in a Pear. — We noted recently the 

 case of a pear from Rochester, which did not 

 push out its petals — that is to say flower — till 

 long after its ovarium, the future pear, had 

 grown, and several weeks after its proper sea- 

 son. Before that paragraph appeared in print 

 our correspondent, the Rev. E. P. Powell, 

 wrote as follows, under date of June 17th. "I 

 have a Rosteizer Pear tree that has every pear 

 in blossom ; full perfect blossoms. The pears 

 are as large as the end of your finger. It is a 

 curious sight. Tree twenty feet high." 



Beautiful Botanical Gardens. — It is a 

 pleasure to note that Prof. E. W. Hilgard in the 

 California Horticulturist takes ground against the 

 miserable weedy concerns once known as " Bo- 

 tanic Gardens," and makes a convincing plea for 

 the combination of beauty with science in these 

 establishments. 



A Poisonous Plant. — A Grundy Co., Tennes- 

 see correspondent writes : " Many cattle poi- 

 soned by seed of a pear-shaped fruit, upon a 



plant about two feet high. The first effect of 

 the poison is excessive thirst, causing the animal 

 to drink large quantities of water. It then puffs 

 up, grows weak, lies down, and never rises again. 

 It refuses fodder, and ceases to ruminate, dying 

 in from one to four days. Stomach and entrails 

 visibly ' blighted.' " But it is a pity that " sci- 

 ence " is at such a discount, or some botanist 

 could be found to let us know more about " a 

 pear shaped fruit upon a two feet plant." 



Agriculture in Print. — The way in 

 which sparks of wisdom fly from the columns of 

 some shining lights in the agricultural press is 

 almost blinding. One gravely tells us that the 

 " period at which clover is cut for hay materially 

 influences its quality ; thus, according to Wolff, 

 the amount of nutritive substances in red clover 

 at beginning of flower is 11.26 per cent.; red 

 clover in full flower, 13.04 per cent. Red clover 

 hay, cut at beginning of flower, contained 55.43 

 per cent, of nutritive matter, while the same 

 cut in full flower contained 46.07 per cent." 



It may perhaps be a great consideration with 

 the poor farmer whether in a hundred parts he 

 will get twelve and a quarter, or thirteen parts of 

 "nutritive substances;" but the condition of the 

 weather, the drive of his work, or the weight 

 per acre of the produce will be more likoh- to 

 decide " the period at which clover should be 

 cut " than the gain of three-quarters of one per 

 cent, in the " nutritious substance " of the hay. 

 There is no harm in knowing the fact that there 

 is a difference in quality, but we fear it will have 

 little influence in deciding the " period." 



The Most Northern Plant.— Among the 

 plants collected by Dr. Bessels on his Polar 

 voyage we noted as among the most northern of 

 the plants he collected a small dwarf Poppy, 

 Papaver nudicaule and a minature Danilelion. 

 The Poppy has been found beyond the eight}'- 

 third parallel of latitude, and is believed to be 

 the most northern species hitherto found. It 

 has yellow flowers, and is quite lai'ge and showy 

 for so small a plant. 



Botanical Studies. — Prof. Meehan, in the 

 Independent , remarks that there are few scien- 

 tific fields that aftcrd more scope for original 

 and interesting observation than the botanical. 

 There is hardly a day but some student 

 strikes on a novel feature, audit will V)e manv 

 years yet before we shall have discovered in it all 

 that is to be known. In an English paper re- 

 centlv we have an interesting account of the 



