1882.1 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



potato shows no bloom in the Middle States, 

 but it must give bloom and seed somewhere. 

 With the cane of the ' cane-brake' I have heard 

 the rumor that it does not bear seed, disputed. 

 As a fact I found young, small isolated plants of 

 it everywhere in South-western Arkansas, seem- 

 ingly seedlings. The query results, do not all 

 species bear seeds under certain conditions? Or 

 are there some that only reproduce their kind 

 by self-division ?" 



[When a botanist or gardener says " never," 

 he seldom means that there is no possibility of 

 an exception. He simply means that this is the 

 rule within a very wide experience. There is 

 little doubt but that the banana has produced 

 sometime during its existence, and possibly 

 would seed, — perhaps does seed at times 

 somewhere on the earth at the present time. 

 There are perfect female flowers and perfect 

 grains of pollen ; it is only necessary that some 

 conditions occur in addition to these to make 

 the flowers seminally fruitful. For all this it is 

 true so far as we know, that no person living 

 «ver saw a banana seed. 



Varieties, however, are not necessarily pro- 

 duced from seed. We received once from the 

 editor of the Prairie Farmer, a bunch of sweet 

 potatoes, all attached as they grew to one parent 

 stem, in which half the tubers were tapering and 

 white, and the other half blunt and red. But 

 this plant never flowers under Illinois culture. 

 The kinds originated as many other things do, 

 by " bud- variation,"— Ed. G. M.] 



Cambridge Botanical Gardens. — "Dear Edi- 

 tor : As it is not true that the late Mr. John A. 

 Lowell left $20,000 to this establishment 'on 

 condition that it be called the Lowell Botanic 

 Garden,' we should like to have you contradict 

 the statement. That would not be like Mr. 

 Lowell in any case. Certainly not in a case 



where other individuals have given as much, 

 and where other equally generous gifts are ex- 

 pected. 



" What Mr. Lowell did was to add $20,000 to 

 the original subscription fund for the foundation 

 of the garden, and to ask that this be named the 

 Lowell fund, in memory of his grandfather, who 

 originated the subscription and was most influ- 

 ential in furthering it and in founding the gar- 

 den. The announcement of the terms of the 

 bequest was, in the first instance, clear enough; 

 but one Boston paper misread it, and distant 

 papers and magazines— your own among the 

 rest— copied the error, which appears to spread 

 farther and faster than our correction. It is 

 still open to any liberal man of wealth by making 

 a sufficiently ample donation to have this garden 

 named after him. Asa Gray." 



Coco Grass.—" D. B. W.," Crockett's Bluff; Ar- 

 kansas, writes : " In our travels in Arkansas we 

 came across a grass with the local names of 

 ' coco grass ' and ' Johnson's grass,' near the 

 mouth of the Arkansas river. This grass ap- 

 pears to be a terror to the cotton planters, for 

 when it gets a start on a cotton plantation they 

 cannot kill it out or get rid of it. It grows from 

 four to eight feet high, and spreads rapidly from 

 under-ground stems, or rather suckers from the 

 roots. It also grows readily from seeds. By 

 some it is thought to be a great acquisition to 

 this almost grassless region, for it makes a great 

 abundance of most excellent pasturage for stock, 

 and on good land makes from two to four heavy 

 crops of haj^ in a season, that sells in the I^ew 

 Orleans market for nearly the same as the best 

 timothy hay. What can you tell us about it, if 

 you can recognize it by these local names ?" 



[We do not know the plants intended by these 

 local names. — Ed. G. M.l 



Literature, Travels I Personal Notes. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



NOTES. 



BY JACQUES. 



The Mandrake. 



Not poppy'nor mandragora, 



Nor all the drowsy syrups of the'world 



Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep 



Which thou ow'dst yesterday. Othello ni. 



Mandrake is a solanaceous plant and partakes 

 of the usual poisonous character of the order. 

 The roots will sometimes go four feet deep, and 

 have been known to live for fifty years. Some- 

 times they fork so as to somewhat resemble hu- 

 man forms ; but many of those offered in Europe 

 are made from grafted Bryony roots. The 



