368 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHL Y 



[December 



most instances covered to their summit with 

 vegetation of every conceivable shape, including 

 many pretty flowers. So much so that one is 

 strangely tempted to get out but for a moment 

 to collect a few specimens — but no, we have not 

 that moment at our own disposal. So on we go, 

 thinking sometimes we would be demolished 

 against the huge rocks ahead of us ; still we pass 

 everything safely. Dome Rock, about twenty 

 or. thirty miles up the canon, is a curious specta- 

 cle, strongly resembling the dome on the cus- 

 tom house in Baltimore, save much larger. 

 We are getting up now pretty well in the moun- 

 tain and pass through some very pretty little 

 valleys, whose green turf is spotted throughout 

 with campers' tents, who are enjoying the pure 

 mountain air at their ease, away from the bustle 

 and turmoil of life. Leaving them to their pleas- 

 ure, we pass on till we reach and enter the famous 

 Mule Shoe Bend, which measures from point to 

 point seven hundred feet, and is about three 

 miles around. After turning the bend we begin 

 a very steep ascent, rising to the celebrated Keno- 

 sha Summit, which experienced travelers have 

 pronounced the greatest piece of engineering they 

 ever beheld. Passing on a few miles farther, we 

 enter one of the most beautiful spots it has ever 

 been my pleasure to witness — the South Park. 

 The railroad passes nearly through the center of 

 the park which spreads out on either side of it 

 several miles. The park is mostly level, till 

 nearing the mountains, when it begins to rise and 

 lower till it reaches the mountain, when it makes 

 a steep ascent to the snow-capped peaks ; and see- 

 ing it as we did that bright sunny day, it was a 

 sight not soon to be forgotten. We pass on, medi- 

 tating on how beautiful nature has formed every- 

 thing, and wondering what improvements man 

 could make on mother nature in this beautiful i 

 spot, till our reverie is abruptly closed by the 

 porter's announcement of Red Hill, the ter- 

 minus of the S. P. R. R., thirty-five miles from 

 Leadville, where we take the stage to finish our 

 journey, and from the rough road, together with 

 nearly being suffocated with dust, we are not in 

 much humor to note anything we are passing. 

 We reach the top of the range and Mosquito Pass 

 at dusk. There is a foggy mist overspreading the 

 mountains, and the air is very chilly, while the 

 driver is refreshing his horses, or mules rather, 

 we stop for a moment to take a look down that 

 almost perpendicular descent of rock of all con- 

 ceivable shapes to the yawning abyss below, 

 some three or four hundred feet. We turn from 



it with a sigh of relief, being satisfied with what 

 we saw in one day, in the Rocky Mountains; and 

 entering our stage, it being now dark, we know 

 nothing more till we are landed in Leadville, long 

 after comfortable hours, and also must I land, — 

 for want of paper, and possibly your patience. 



SUMMER APPLEiBLOSSOMS. 



BY J. S. CRAMER, SERGEANTSVILLE, N. J. 



I have on my grounds what to me is a curi- 

 osity. It is a third crop of apple blossoms. The 

 trees stand in the nursery in rows — the variety 

 is the Maiden's Blush. Three trees now have 

 apples on beginning to ripen; another lot about 

 the size of hickory nuts, and on the same trees 

 is a third set of blossoms. I have frequently 

 seen a second set of blossoms but never the 

 third. 



[These are formed by the elongation of 

 branches now, which usuall}'^ remain till Spring 

 and are then only "spurs." — Ed. G. M.] 



THE COMMON CALADIUM WILD IN 

 FLORIDA. 



BY B. F. LEEDS, PHILADELPHIA. 



During the early Spring of this year I saw the 

 Colocasia or Elephant's Ear, Caladium escu- 

 lentum, growing wild in two widely separated 

 localities in Florida. On the first occasion on 

 the edge of Gainesville, afterward near Lake 

 City. The plants seen at Gainesville were 

 growing along the border of a brook in rich, 

 damp earth, and amongst the interlaced roots 

 of deciduous trees and shrubs. I did not count 

 the plants; thirty was probably about the num- 

 ber, and judging from their various sizes they 

 were from one to three yeai's old. The brook 

 on which the plants were found probably ran 

 through a garden in Gainesville, and the first 

 seeds carried down the stream during a heavy 

 rain had been caught and detained by the net- 

 work of roots amongst which I saw them grow- 

 ing. 



The plant or plants, — I cannot clearly recol- 

 lect noAV whether I saw one or two, but I believe 

 two at Lake City, — were growing in the primeval 

 forest bordering one of the lakes from which 

 the town gets its name. The soil here was 

 damp, and of course shaded as at Gainesville. 

 The seeds in this instance had strayed, I fancy, 

 by the intervention of birds, as neither man nor 

 the fluid element would have carried them to 

 the spot where discovered. 



