1879.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



249 



tion to puzzle philosophers. Who can answer? 

 Is ii that we are made to acquire our s^ood qualities 

 and good things by hard work, or coukl an in- 

 ventor of great power improve upon the old 

 and the present order of things? 



At a fancy ball lately^ somewhere in Europe, 

 a lady went in the character of a mushroom. 

 Her dress ornamented with little growths of the 

 same. This reminds one of the reply to the 

 question, "In what character shall I go to the 

 ball ?" The reply was startling : "Go as a gen- 

 tleman by way of variety." 



Rats. — A Brazilian newspaper has some curi- 

 ous information about the plague of rats, which 

 may well reconcile us to our smaller annoyan- 

 ces from these prolific vermin. They have 

 destroyed almost the whole products of agricul- 

 ture the past year. The bamboo everywhere 

 abounds in the Brazilian forests. The popular 

 explanation is that every cane of' bamboo, 

 sprouts with a grub, and that when the 

 bamboo ripens and dies, the germ becomes a 

 fully developed rat. But the curious and rational 

 explanation is that the bamboo arrives at ma- 

 turity, flowers and seeds at intervals of several 

 3'ears. varying with difterent species. Each 

 cane bears about a peck of edible seeds, re- 

 sembling rice, very fat and nourishing, and the 

 quantity is enormous. The process of decay is 

 hastened by the borings of the larva, and they, 

 thinks the Brazilian , give rise to the grub develop- 

 ing into a rat ; the increase in the rodents is verj' 

 great. The crop over, the rats begin to emigrate 

 for want of food, invading the plantations and 

 houses, and consuming everything edible. If this 

 happens at the time of corn planting, the seed is 

 consumed as fast as it can be put into the ground, 

 often six times. The mandioca and rice is all 

 stolen, as is everything in the houses in the way 

 of provisions and leather, if not carefully guard- 

 ed in tin trunks. We suffer badly enough and 

 often ask why care is not more frequently taken 

 to exterminate the pests. It is said to be easily 

 done, if you know how. 



The Cochineal Insect aftbrds large profits to 

 the Mexicans, etc. Who knows but that the 

 cost of covered glass houses would not be paid 

 by our adaptive citizens? But we can command 

 a surer industry in silk culture ; the teaching done 

 at our Permanent Exhibition we expect, will be 

 followed up, till very many of our boys and 

 girls find pleasing and profitable employment. 



Let every gardener, and indeed everybody, in- 



scribe somewhere on his premises where it can 

 be daily perused, the words of the immortal 

 Gibbon, in the 12th volume of his History of 

 Rome; " In the productions of the mind, as in 

 those of the soil, the gifts of nature are ex- 

 celled by industry and skill. * * A single 

 manuscript imported from Gi-eece, is revived in 

 ten thousand copies, and each copy is fairer 

 than the original." 



The literature of gardening, strictly so-called, 

 is more extensive, pleasing, and informing than 

 is generally supposed. First among American 

 books should be placed Darlington's Life of 

 Bartram, which has fascinations for the lover of 

 nature, and of honest, natural men not at all 

 inferior, though hi a dill^erent way, to Boswell's 

 Johnson. There is a vein of beautiful simpli- 

 city, with sometimes a touch of humor in the 

 correspondence with his European friends. The 

 finding of a new plant, or new turtle, is related 

 with great accuracy and beauty, and Bartram's 

 pursuits are extended beyond his gardening occu- 

 pations. "Come over," he says to his neighbor 

 Wilson, the ornithologist, "I have caught Na- 

 poleon," meaning a great eagle. Lord Petre, 

 and his pear tree is a delightful episode. Dil- 

 lenius and CoUinson, with others of eminence, 

 admired our American, and never tired of his 

 letters and his seeds. Every lover of nature 

 should read this work. Then, Loudon's many 

 volumes are treatises of information and pleas- 

 ant reading. So industrious was he, (his wife 

 tells the story), that having lost the use of his 

 right arm by a quack shampooer, it was decided 

 to°cut it off". The surgeons found him engaged 

 on his great Encyclopaedia of Plants. Moving 

 without agitation to the operating chair, he sub- 

 mitted without a cry, and when released tried 

 to be allowed at once to return to his work. 

 These notes will still further call attention to 

 the best literature of gardening, forestry, and 

 botany. The world owes mutili to Loudon and 

 Bartram. 



Mr. Henderson writes justly enough from his 

 point of view ; but let some one ask him from 

 whence, if not from the air, do plants elaborate 

 their special and wonderfully difterent charac- 

 teristics, such as the various spices. Plant on- 

 ion and hyachith bulbs in contact and they 

 will come true from the same soil. Again, bot- 

 tanists tell us that sap and leaves contain mi- 

 nute particles of iron, whence do they obtain 

 this mineral ? 



