152 



THE GARDENERS MONTHLY 



[May, 



the cloudy and dark day, or bending with 

 majestic grace before the wind ; from the rocky 

 hills and deep ravines and swift rushing streams; 

 from the luxuriant ferns and delicate flowers, 

 almost all of them white and frail, as if paled by 

 the shadow of rock and hill. But above all, she 

 speaks from the grand snow-peaks, standing in 

 lonely grandeur, calm and unapproachable, 

 yet ever beckoning upward to a higher, purer 

 realm. 



HEREDITY IN WHITE VARIEGATION. 



BY EMILY R. TURNER, PROVIDENCE, FLORIDA. 



I enclose you a leaf of a white collard which I 

 have for years been trying to perfect. I was first 

 attracted by a few plants of light green with white 

 veins, by sowing seed from the whitest every 

 year. I last year had a large bed beautifully 

 mottled with white and green, and this year they 

 are almost snow white, only a fringe of green on 

 the edges, but a drove of cattle broke into my 

 •garden and before they could be got out, ate up 

 all but four heads. It may be a common thing, 

 but I have never seen them before. They are 

 •certainly collards, large, loose leaves, and no sign 

 of a head. 



[Mr. P. J. Berckmans has kindly handed this 

 to us for publication. The leaf sent was of the 

 well known class of cabbage popular as collards 

 in the South. The leaf was pure white, but for 

 a half inch round the edge it was beautifully 

 fringed with green. 



The point of scientific interest is that this class 

 of variegation can be reproduced from seeds. 

 There is no reason why not, for our knowledge 

 of these possibilities has widened wonderfully of 

 late years. It is now known that golden leaved 

 plants, and blood leaved plants have hereditary 

 characters, as also have weeping trees, fiistigiate 

 trees, and trees with other peculiarities. But 

 these classes of colored leaves and trees with 

 peculiar habits are not regarded as diseased 

 forms, as those with white variegations are. 

 Indeed the blood leaved Beech is a much more 

 healthy and vigorous grower, than the normal 

 green leaved form. So far as we know this is 

 the first time that it has been positively known 

 that a race of white variegated leaved plants 

 could be perpetuated from seed. 



Apart from this, the variety would have a 

 beautiful effect on many classes of ornamental 

 gardening.— Ed. G. M.l 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Nertera depressa.— In woods in the Eastern 

 United States we have a very pretty trailing 

 evergreen plant of small size known as Mitch- 

 ella repens, and sometimes commonly called 

 Partridge berry. The little plant is covered with 

 bright red berries, about the size of holly ber- 

 ries, which when the flowers happen to be freely 

 fertilized, are abundantly produced. It has been 

 found of late years ttiat the flowers are di-mor- 

 phic. In some the stamens are long and the 

 pistil short, in others the facts are reversed ; 

 the result is that the flower rarely fertilizes it- 

 self, and only the flowers from a distinct plant 

 are capable of fertilizing the flowers of another 

 plant. A white-berried variety has occasionally 

 been found, but it is of little practical value, 

 because when removed to garden culture, and 

 being effectually of only one sex, the berries are 



nertera depressa. 

 not produced. In its wild state it receives the 

 pollen from the colored flowers about it. 



It is interesting to note how nature seems 

 to nearly repeat herself in different parts of the 

 world, holding on to the same type, and yet 

 varying just enough to make things different. 

 It is this community of type which makes one 

 guess at a theory of evolution, even though 

 there were no positive facts to support the doc- 

 trine. Mitchella repens is confined to North 

 America, and there seems to be nothing very 

 closely allied to it, but in South America there 

 is a real Mitchella, M. ovata, and besides a genus 

 of a very few species, Nertera, which is so 

 nearly like it, that species have been referred to 

 both genera by some authors, uncertain to 

 which thev reallv belnnsred. One of these has 



