1882.1 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



277 



try that were mostly unknown, certainly have a 

 utilitarian aspect for this practical ag«. Then in 

 the realm of pure scientific research it is no 

 small thing to add a dozen distinct species of 

 plants, however small, to our flora, especially 

 when some of them are ferns — that family so 

 much admired. 



When we return home next autumn we will 

 send a list of our new things to the Monthly. 

 and some specimens, too, if they are dt sired. 

 Meantime, possibly you may receive other items 

 from this station. 



[Mr. and Mrs. Lemmon's friends will be glad to 

 have this word from them in the wilds where 

 they are endeavoring, at the risk of their lives, 

 to add to the sum of human comfort and hap- 

 piness. We seldom know the value of anything 

 till we find it. The most insignificant and weedy- 

 looking i)lant may come to be of inestimable 

 value. The first who saw the potato could never 

 have dreamed of the uses we put it to. Thou 

 sands may yet bless the lonely discoverers of 

 even " mere species " in the Huachuca moun- 

 tains. 



Of the tuberous potatoes we may say that 

 some years ago Solanum Fendleri was introduced 

 to culture by Dr. C. C. Parry. The writer of this 

 grew it for several years before, by some un- 

 known accident, it disappeared. It seemed that 

 there was an improved size apparent in some of 

 the tubers, and suggested the probability that by 

 judicious selection larger varieties could be ob- 

 tained.— Ed. G. M'.] 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Poverty and Productiveness. — A correspon- 

 dent of the Naturalist quotes Thome as saying, ''As 

 poverty of the soil leads to abortion so an uut 

 usual increase in the development of the axial or 

 foliar organs is the result of too powerful nutri- 

 tion." The connection between the two propo- 

 sitions is not clear. Poverty of the soil, as pov 

 erty among human beings, often leads to pro- 

 ductiveness as well as to sterility. 



A New Guess at Drift Deposits. — A newspa- 

 per says that Mr. Ignatius Donnelly, of Minne- 

 sota, is about to publish a work showing that the 

 drift formations are not the result of glacial ac- 

 tion, but have been deposited on the earth when 

 it was going through a comet's tail ! We sup- 

 pose books like these will have a wide sale, and 

 probably not one of the thousands who read 



will reflect that the tail is transparent and that 

 the head of the comet is always in a direct line 

 with the tail to the sun. 



The Sugar Maple Borer.— We noticed a num- 

 ber of fine trees of the Sugar Maple totally de- 

 stroyed, and others dying in Rochester from the 

 attacks of the ^^eria acerina, a near relative of 

 the peach borer. It was the first instance under 

 our own observation of such severe destruction 

 by this insect. 



Theory and Practice. — The word theory is 

 much abused. Properly speaking, when we 

 know that there is an undoubted fact, and we 

 want to understand how the fact came to be, we 

 construct a possible explanation of the fact, and 

 this is the theory of the thing. 



But it is common for people who only 

 guess that something may be, to call the guess a 

 theor}'. It is well to understand that a theory is 

 a system founded on facts; when a system is 

 founded on mere guess work, it is simply an hy- 

 pothesis. For instance, a boy thinks he would 

 like to go out on a sail on a pond, and takes his 

 mother's washtub. He sees that the handles 

 might make good thole pins for the oar, and be- 

 lieves there is nothing to prevent his having a 

 royal sail. This is not a theory; it is an hy- 

 pothesis. He pushes out from the shore in the 

 washtub, but is immediately pitched out into 

 the water. He thinks there must be a "water- 

 witch " somewhere about and tries it again, and 

 perhaps again, but only to be bounced out every 

 time. After finding out that sailing on a lake in 

 a washing tub cannot be done, he reasons on his 

 experience and finds that even in a boat there 

 must be a centre of gravity, and he sees the ne- 

 cessity for a keel to the washtub before he ex- 

 temporizes a washtub as a boat again. The 

 original picture in his mind is the hypothesis ; 

 the latter is the theory. 



We commend this illustration to those who 

 sometimes tell their readers that no matter 

 what other magazines may do, their pages at 

 least shall be '' free from theories," and that they 

 will give only " such facts to the reader as may 

 be sustained by the weight of evidence." 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Candle Wax Tree.— " S." writes: "On page 

 23 of the ' Account of the Meeting of the De- 

 scendants of Col. Thomas White, of Maryland 



