i88s.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



87 



like the russet of apples, can and do often come 

 where there is certainly no chance for pollen in- 

 fluence. But from this paper appears to have 

 arisen the "theory" that melons are immediately 

 influenced. Livingstone's experience with bitter 

 and sweet melons is another illustration. We know 

 in these days how this saccharine principle is af- 

 fected. A Rhode Island Greening, sour in the 

 East, is sweet in California. Melons lose their 

 flavor or change their form — degenerate is the 

 word — just as often when wholly alone, as when 

 they are near pumpkins or cucumbers. 



On the other hand, the Hon. Simon Brown, 

 of Concord, Mass., than whom New England pro- 

 duced no more intelligent or careful agriculturist, 

 in a paper in the Reports of the Department of 

 Agriculture — for 1863, if our memory serves us 

 truly — states that careful experiments in growing 

 all sorts of cucurbitaceous plants together, for the 

 purpose of testing this very question, failed to 

 show the slightest indication of change in any 

 one of them. 



We have looked carefully into the literature of 

 the subject, and find no fact adduced in favor of 

 this theory that cannot be better explained in the 

 light of modern facts, except, possibly, Indian 

 corn Ed. G. M.] 



Cedar Vine. — " L, " Salem Junction, N. C. 

 writes: " I send you, by mail, a vine called here 

 " Cedar vine, quite rare, seems hardy, and is quite 

 ornamental. What is its proper name ?" 



[Botanically, Lycopodium complanatum. Near 

 Philadelphia it enters largely into Christmas 

 decorations, and is known as Ground Pine. — Ed. 

 G. M.] 



How TO Hybridize. — "P. H.," Peterborough, 

 Ontario, Can., asks : " Is there a work from which 

 I could learn the art of hand-fertilizing the blos- 

 soms of fruits and melons, &c. ; the fertilizing the 



female blossoms with the pollen of the male blos- 

 som, or, perhaps 'hybridizing' might express it?" 

 [Crossing, or hybridizing, is very simple. We 

 take the pollen dust from one flower and place it 

 on the apex of the pistil of another. To make it 

 sure that the flower you wish to raise the seed 

 from does not get its own pollen, it is best to open 

 the flower before it naturally expands, and cut oflf 

 its anthers before they have had a chance to burst 

 and throw out their own pollen. At the same time 

 ! it is best to put the pollen of the male parent at 

 once on the stigma. The stigma is usually not 

 receptive — that is, has not the liquid exudation 

 necessary for the effective reception of the pollen 

 at this early stage, — but it remains on the stigma 

 ready for use when the stigma is ready to receive 

 it. These precautions are necessary in order that 

 we may be sure the flower receives only the pol- 

 len we desire it to receive. Some cover the flower, 

 after the anthers have been removed, until the 

 time for the use of pollen has arrived, with gauze, 

 to keep off insects that might bring other pollen, 

 — but this is scarcely necessary when done in the 

 way suggested. If any further information be de- 

 sired we shall be glad to respond. — Ed. G. M.] 



Wax-berry Candles. — "G " says: "Cham- 

 bers' Cyclopsediasays: 'Myricacordifolia, of South 

 Africa, yields wax for candles." — Art. Candleberry. 

 W. Eraser Rae, in his 'Newfoundland to Mani- 

 toba,' p. 127, says, that 'on the river Tete a Gauche, 

 New Brunswick, bay-berry candles are commonly 

 used.' I had some such candles made some years 

 since ; they were poor things. In the army we 

 once had a supply of a cerate of myrica (wax). 

 Very good it seemed to be." 



[We beheve it is a long time since any wax-ber- 

 ry candles were made in New Jersey. We should 

 be glad to have any notes about this from those 

 who know. — Ed. G. M.] 



Literature, Travels and Personal Notes 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



TREES GROWING THROUGH A TOMB- 

 STONE. 



BY JOHN WOODING. 



I noticed in the December number of the 

 Monthly, page 369, a communication by Dr. C. 



W. Greene, referring to a birch growing out of a 

 chestnut tree. A similar curious instance came 

 under my notice, in England, some fifteen years 

 ago. With a friend of mine, I visited a place 

 called Lucien, in Hertfordshire, about eighteen 

 miles from London, to see, as was said, "the 

 greatest curiosity ever heard tell of," situated in 



