374 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



{December , 



out of which there shoots the colossal flower- 

 stalk with its hundreds of white bells. Some 

 Yuccas are found with two and three of such 

 flower stalks. 



The nearer you approach the rivers or its tribu- 

 taries the more sombre the vegetation gets to 

 be. Here you find in great quantities the small 

 fan palm, Sabel minor, Cannas with their splen- 

 did red and yellow blossoms studding thickly 

 the shores, and finally Caladium esculentum 

 which covers for miles and miles with its gigan- 

 tic leaves the waters of the Comal and the San 

 Pedro, and in the Guadeloupe and San Antonio, 

 covers every little island and every open place 

 along their water courses. Of grapes we find 

 Vitis bipinnata, V. cordifolia, and V. ma- 

 crocarpa. 



The flora of the mountains is but little different 

 from that of the uplands, and some shrubs and 

 trees of even the valleys appear there, although 

 in rather reduced proportions, such as Sophora, 

 Cercis, Ungnadia, Yucca. The last named is, 

 in solitary instances, found on naked rocks along 

 the Sabine Eiver. Standing in thick groups 

 along the creeks, on the rock and on the high 

 mountains, we see Prunus rivularis, three to six 

 feet high ; fruit round, light red, size of a cherry, 

 pleasant acid taste, called in Texas the Taw- 

 akony Plum, because that tribe of Indians 

 used to preserve it in honey. Further we find 

 the mountain side covered with a creeping grape 

 vine, Vitis rupestris ; fruit light red, small, very 

 aromatic, sweet of taste. Further the wild 

 Persimmon, ten to twelve feet high ; evergreen, 

 blue green foliage, fruit large, but of nauseat- 

 ing sweetness. Further divers kinds of sumac, 

 Rhus verruscosa and R. copallina, the Ameri- 

 can Pepper Tree. Xanthoxylum Carolinianum 

 and the Texas myrtle, Oreophylla myrtifolia. 

 These cover hill and dale all along from the 

 Medusa to the Colorado River. 



Rhus copallina contains eighteen to twenty- 

 one per cent, of tannin, is useful for tanning 

 sheep and goat skins and for the coloring of 

 glove leather. It is most abundant, and gets to 

 be sixteen feet high. 



Astonishingly rich and luxurious is the smaller 

 world of plants. It is hardly possible to give 

 the reader a bare idea of the copiousness and 

 diversity of the flowers in this State. As I 

 said at the beginning of the first article, you find 

 here not only a good deal of the flora of other 

 zones and other parts of our globe, but also a 

 great many flowers which are natives of, and 



peculiar to the State. Some of them appear in 

 such quantities that whole prairies and moimtain 

 sides seem clad in the particular color of their 

 blossoms, and some of them appear in varied 

 shapes and in different colors of bloom. For in- 

 stance the Qilnothera serrulata, capillifolia, 

 longiflora, Drummondii. macrocarpa, alata, 

 uncinata, sinuata, Roehmeriana and speciosa 

 show so many varieties and such diversities that 

 }'ou are tempted to see a new species. 



In this middle zone we also meet now for the 

 first time with Cacti. Opuntise, mammallarise and 

 Echdrinocacti, also several Yuccas of the habitus 

 of Aloes. Amongst them a red flowering one, 

 the knowledge of which has reached botanists 

 only a year ago. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Our Colored Plate. — The publisher would 

 like to remind the reader that the colored plate 

 he has been giving annually for some years, is 

 not part of the original plan of the Gardener's 

 Monthly, but is his annual present to the sub- 

 scribers for the many favors done him, chiefly 

 in the way of getting new subscribers. Some 

 may think the money spent on this plate could 

 be spent more advantageously in " pushing " for 

 new subscribers in some other wa}^ It is a pleas- 

 ure to him to feel that the very existence of the 

 Magazine, has been solely on the good will of 

 its friends, who often show their appreciation 

 by enclosing a new name with their own sub- 

 scription. 



Ohio State Horticultural Society. — 

 Twelfth Annual Report. From M. B. Bateham, 

 Secretary. Full, as it always is with matter of 

 great interest to Ohio horticulturists, and the 

 fruit growing portion particularly. 



Transactions of the Massachusetts Hor- 

 ticultural Society, for the year 1879, Part I. 

 Edited by Robert Manning, Secretary. — One of 

 the most difficult arts is to report correctly the 

 discussions at agricultural and horticultural 

 meetings. In many of the reports that come 

 before us, it often happens that there is no evident 

 relation between the questions and answers, and 

 the result is more like a report of an assemblage 

 of lunatics than of rational beings. But these 

 Transactions are a model of perspicuit3^ The 



