62 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[February, 



the re-erection of the beautiful building were 

 on the re-opening numerous and sincere. 



High-toned Papers. — The publisher once in 

 a while drops into the Editor's box items he 

 thinks may be of interest to his department, 

 and among others he finds just now the follow- 

 ing from " W. H. O.," Geneseo, N. Y., " Please 

 discontinue the Gardener's Monthly. It is a 

 splendid magazine, but too high- toned for an 

 ordinary cultivator." I 



At the end of- every year, everj^ periodical 

 has some discontinuances among many new ac- j 

 cessions ; but it is not often that there is a dis- j 

 continuance for fear the subscriber will learn I 

 too much. The Colorado friend, referred to in j 

 our last, would not subscribe because papers like 

 ours are " not high-toned enough," — written by 

 novices who did not know enough for him. We 

 should be glad to please all parties certainly, 

 but amid so many contradictory desires, it is 

 safest to assume that most persons are striving 

 to learn more than they already know, and that 

 there is no reason why even an ''ordinary" cul- 

 tivator should rank below his neighbors in ordi- 

 nary intelligence. The true aim of the Garden- 

 er's Monthly is rather to elevate the horticultu- 

 rist, and it is a real pleasure to us to find 

 wherever we meet one who really loves his 

 garden, that he or she is generally one who, for 

 intelligence, is ranked far above the average. 



The Uncertainties of Expositions. — The 

 Emperor of Germany offered a premium of 

 $3,500, at the great Exposition at Sydney, for 

 that exposition of an industry that should be 

 likely to prove most valuable to Australia. After 

 all we have heard of Australian wool, Australian 

 meat, Australian wheat, and Australian mine- 

 rals, it is a surprise to find the premium awarded 

 to the wine makers ! After all, it will no doubt 

 please the Emperor to know that the immigrant 

 from the Rhine carried away his premium in 

 that distant land. There is this fitness in the 

 result of the award of the jury, although the 

 Australians themselves seem by no means satis- 

 fied with the award, from other considerations. 

 They contend that juries are "oncertain," as 

 some of our fellow-citizens have it. 



Masdevalleas. — Mr. Falconer informs us 

 that the magnificent Masdevalleas at Albany, of 

 which he wrote, were grown by Mr. Tweddle. 



CoL. M. P. Wilder. — Our readers will be glad 

 to learn that the health of our venerable friend 



continues excellent. He took a prominent part 

 in the Centennial exercises of the Honorable 

 Artillery Company recently, himself the oldest of 

 all living members, on which occasion he made 

 one of his usual speeches of masterly eloquence- 



The "American Naturalist." — The December 

 Number closes the 15th volume of this admira- 

 ble monthly magazine. It is one of those able 

 scientific serials of which Americans may 

 well be proud. A marked feature is the employ- 

 ment of specialists for separate departments. 

 Entomology is edited by Prof. Riley ; Botany by 

 Prof Bessey ; Microscopy by Dr. R. H. Ward ; 

 Geography by Ellis Yarnall ; Anthropology by 

 Otis Mason, and next year a new department. 

 Mineralogy, will be under the charge of Prof. 

 Carvill Lewis, one of the ablest of the rising 

 generation of scientists. 



It is published, at $4 a year, by McCalla & 

 Stavely, Philadelphia. 



The American Farmer. — This, one of the old- 

 est and best known of American agricultural 

 monthlies, has changed from the ordinary maga- 

 zine form, and appears among the folio sizes. 

 With this change of form it will also appear 

 tw'ice a month by its old publisher and editor, 

 S. Sands, Jr., Baltimore, Md. 



Transactions of the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society for 1881. — Received from 

 Secretary, Robert Manning. — Since the celebrated 

 T. A. Knight and his contemporaries made, by 

 their contributions to the Transactions of the 

 Horticultural Society of London, a work of refer- 

 ence valuable for all time, we know of nothing 

 approaching that series in excellence so nearly 

 as this. It is really worth being a member of the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society, though one 

 lives hundred of miles from the place of meeting 

 and never sees the exhibitions, even if they get 

 nothing more for the annual subscriptions than 

 these volumes. A society with a secretary like 

 Mr. Manning is particularly blessed. 



Bacteria, — the smallest of living organisms, 

 by Frederick Cohn, translated by Charles S, 

 Dolley, Rochester, N. Y. 



Bacteria, — their relations to plant culture, by 

 Thomas Taylor, Washington, D. C. 



These two pamphlets are very timely in view 

 of the recent discoveries of Prof. Burrill, in con- 

 nection with "Fire-Blight" in the Pear and the 

 Yellows in the Peach. As our readers know 

 Bacterium is the smallest of all vegetable organ- 



