1885.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



85 



to the cultivation of flowers, besides the mere 

 beauty involved. So far in this respect the beauti- 

 ful fern figured, introduced by Mr. Bull, has great 

 beauty. It is certainly one of the most charming 

 in the whole range of evergreen stove ferns — one 

 of the most lovely forms of a remarkably orna- 

 mental family. It has creeping whitey-brown 

 rhizomes, and from these spring up at intervals 

 the gracefully-drooping, feathery, plumose fronds, 

 which, grow on stalks a foot or more in length, 

 supporting a broad triangular lamina, which 

 curves over in the most elegant manner. It will 

 be a grand subject for all decorative purposes, 

 especially useful for cutting, and a noble fern for 

 exhibition specimens. As its name implies, it is a 

 native of the Fiji Islands. In speaking of the 

 best novelties, the Gardeners Chronicle (Jan. 7th, 

 1882, page 10), remarks: "The Davallia Fijiensis 

 plumosa is, perhaps, one of the most elegant of all 

 known ferns." It has received a first-class certifi- 

 cate from the Floral Committee of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Can Plants Sleep for Centuries ? — A Cana- 

 dian botanist writes: " I read the very interesting 

 account of your Alaska trip. There are some facts 

 in it of which I shall take advantage as occasion 

 presents. I observe that you include in your 

 list Aconitum Napellus. I should much like to 

 know whether the plant you found is the one 

 usually cultivated in English gardens, (in which 

 case it will not be native on the Pacific cbast,) or 

 is it a form of the indigenous and polymorphous 

 A. delphinifolium ? The latter has been regarded 

 as a variety of Napellus by several botanists, but 

 it appears to me to be quite distinct, the racemes 

 much shorter and more or less corymbose, with 

 longer pedicels ; the flowers brighter and of more 

 delicate texture ; foliage less coriaceous, paler, and 

 of a brighter green, &c. Your remarks on the 

 suspension of growth in plants, under the influence 

 of cold, for protracted periods, are of special in- 

 terest, and, I may add, importance. The subject 

 attracted my attention some years ago, during a 

 brief visit to the Rocky Mountains of the South, 

 and from an entirely different point of view from 

 that suggested to you. I have now an experi- 

 ment in progress, started eighteen months ago, to 

 ascertain whether roots adapted for cattle feeding, 

 cannot be kept for an indefinite period in a fresh 

 succulent condition. In a cellar on my farm 



here, the cellar built on a Colorado model, I have 

 Mangel Wurzel roots as solid and succulent now 

 as when they were taken out of the field in Oc- 

 tober 1883. They were kept all last summer with- 

 out ice or artificial cooling, except that afforded by 

 the cellar, and did not show any but the very 

 feeblest attempt to sprout, and that very late in 

 autumn, and only in some of the roots. The 

 result of the experiment so far is of great practical 

 importance, but I am desirous of ascertaining how 

 far it can be carried. Our farmers here have 

 hitherto had the greatest difficulty in keeping 

 their Mangels good over the first winter, or until 

 the advent of green grass in spring. I hope to be 

 able to show them that they can provide summer 

 as well as winter feed by growing roots, and thus 

 be independent, to a large extent, of bad or late, 

 or drouthy seasons." 



[The above refers to a paper on the Flora of 

 Alaska, contributed to the " Proceedings of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences, of Philadelphia," by 

 the Editor of this magazine. As the subject has a 

 practical value outside of its abstract scientific rela- 

 tion, we give below an extract referring to the above 

 suggestions of our correspondent. — Ed. G. M.] 



'On our return from Chilcat (written Tchillcat 

 in some charts) down the Lynn Channel, we ran 

 up ley Straits into Glacier Bay, to the fifth or 

 ^Iuir Great Glacier; and on our return, passed 

 in between the Beardslee Islands to the mainland 

 at a point opposite Cross or Icy Sound in about 

 lat. 58.30, called on our chart Bartlett Bay. This 

 is on a peninsula formed by the junction of Icy 

 Sound with the Lynn Channel, and nothing seems 

 to be known of this immense tract of land, except 

 what can be gathered from the not over-friendly 

 Indians who hve along the coast in the fishing 

 season. \x\ Indian trader, Mr. Richard Willough- 

 by, told the author that at a point about twenty- 

 five miles above this he had traveled northwest 

 across the peninsula for some forty miles to 

 Pyramid Harbor, near the mouth of the Chilcat, 

 as he was understood to say wholly on ice. It is 

 quite probable that at about a hundred miles north 

 from Bartlett Bay the country is a vast ice-sheet, 

 and there were circumstances which seemed 

 clearly to show that at no great distance of time 

 in the past the whole of the western portion of this 

 peninsula was covered by ice ; while on the eastern 

 shore, on Lynn Channel, the forest trees showed 

 the mixture of trees of various ages common to 

 old forests, the forests of the western slope were 

 all comparatively young, and none were evidently 

 over fifty years of age. The earth to fifty feet or 

 more in depth in many places was composed 

 wholly of glacial drift, and on this were the young 

 forest trees. Some remarks on these features 

 more in detail are given at page 187, 1883, of the 

 " Proceedings of the Academy." Since they were 

 published, .Mr. Dall has kindly informed the 

 author that there is historical evidence to show 



