342 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



\Novemher^ 



the plural. But Coleus has been made a part of 

 the English language by its every day use, and 

 it will therefore have to follow English gram- 

 matical rules. It will therefore be quite safe, 

 when talking to your neighbor to say Coleus for 

 the singular, and Colenses for the plural.' There 

 is an attempt in some quarters to carry the La- 

 tin forms of plurals with the Latin words, after 

 they have come into common use as English 

 ones ; and in this case Colei would be used in 

 every day language, — but with no more reason 

 than there would be for using the various forms 

 which the Latin noun goes through in forming 

 its cases. 



The "Rural" Plant.— Mrs. D. A., East 

 Brookfield, Mass., says: "I have just read Mr. 

 A. C's questions on page 293, Oct. number of 

 the Monthly. His shrub-vine acts exactly like 

 a Variegated Snovvberry that I received from 

 you in 1871 ; it never showed the least tendencj^ 

 to climb till this season; it is identical with his 

 in every particular given ; the leaf is round not 

 oblong, like Lonicera reticulata; fragrantissima 

 is unknown to me. Eight years ago I sent you 

 five dollars, and received a fine package of 

 shrubs. Have now a purple-leaved Beech, a 

 fine Magnolia, a Lonicera, and the above named 

 Snow-berry." 



Literature, Travels i Personal Notes. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



NOTES AND QUERJESNo. 6. 



BY JACQUES. 



Protoplasm. — Everybody interested in science 

 will find Professor Allman's inauguration speech 

 before the British Association,, essential to a 

 knowledge of the present positions of science. 

 It runs through many of the larger periodicals, 

 and notably in Appleton's Popular Science 

 Monthly for October. 



Aunts and Ants. — One might suppose a con- 

 nection between the authors of Pinafore and Sir 

 John Lubbock ; the one rings the changes on 

 sisters, cousins and aunts, and the other brings 

 up with his observations on ants only, both to 

 the great satisfaction of the public. 



" Remains to he .see«," is a favorite expression 

 of our friends, who make newspapers so inter- 

 esting now-a-cfays. . The phrase is a good one, 

 and recommended to every man or woman who 

 places a seed in the ground. 



Oliver Wendell Holmes calls odors and flavors 

 of fruits and flowers, the moral characters of 

 plants. 



Philosophers and others have long been look- 

 ing out to discover reason and reflection in the 

 brute creation, but seem to find neither to any 

 great extent, except in ants. Sir John Lubbock 

 and Dr. McCook find much to amuse in the study 

 of those insects — the harvesters and the honey- 

 makers, etc.; but no animal has yet been found 

 to exhibit true concerted action, or to express 

 by external signs, distinct intellectual percep- 



tions — processes of which all men are nominally 

 capable. Apes, like dogs and cats, warm them- 

 selves with pleasure at deserted fires; yet 

 though they see wood burning, and other wood 

 lying by, though they have arms and hands as 

 we have, and the same sentient faculties, they 

 have never, so far as known, been recorded to 

 add fuel to maintain their comfort. 



Mosquitoes .^--ThQ great inventor Siemens once 

 told the writer he knew of no substance but that 

 had its enemy, and he expected his guttapercha 

 cables would be attacked in time. We animals 

 — men — have a sad annoyance in the mosquito, 

 which conquers even the most learned scientists, 

 as we find by the proceedings of a committee of 

 the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science. The members encamped at Eort 

 Wool, Virginia, where in their own words the|: 

 say, " The mosquitoes came by millions ; the 

 air was filled with them, and the "noise of their 

 busy wings sounded like an approaching storm. 

 No one slept, that was impossible." So the sci- 

 entific men gave it up and decamped. 



The Canada Horticulturist prints an eulogium 

 on "insect powder," as a great desideratum in 

 destroying the pests of the greenhouse. When 

 shall we have a powder to kill the human pests? 



Civil service reform at the Park. — "Sir, I am glad 

 to see sometimes in your notes that you have an 

 eye to the park affairs.. A 'guard' so-called, 

 is a man who has great difficulty to know how to 

 pass his time, and what he shall do with his 

 arms and legs ; weary is the day to this appoin- 

 tee, and if he were examined beforehand to dis- 



