I20 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[April, 



to its original condition in the main. What was 

 prairie of old will be groves once more, and the 

 cleared farm will be forest again, as many, yes too 

 many, of the New England farms have already 

 done. 



[The question of the origin of the prairies, and 

 the origin of treeless prairies, must not be con- 

 founded.— Ed. G. M.] 



CALADIUM ESCULENTUM, ALIAS TANYAH, 

 ALIAS EDDOES. 



BY WM. T. HARDING, MOUNT HOLLY, N. J. 



Although we are informed the Caladium escu- 

 lentum was first introduced from tropical America 

 in 1739, there nevertheless seems to be some un- 

 certainty as to whether that part of the world is, in 

 reality, its original home or not. One might natu- 

 rally infer from its rank and wild abundance in 

 various parts of Africa, where it appears to have 

 flourished from time immemorial, to be indigenous 

 there. The writer has not forgotten the immense 

 area covered with Caladium esculentum, Cyperus, 

 Ehrhartia, Agapanthus, Dracaena, Richardia, San- 

 seviera, &c., which luxuriate about the creeks, 

 lagoons and lowlands on each side of the Orange 

 and Limpopo rivers, in "the dark continent." Its 

 vast quantities thereabouts, is too common to excite 

 wonder, except to the stranger. I hive forgotten, 

 if I ever knew, by what name it is there known 

 to the natives. But this much I know of it, that 

 along the Gold and Slave Coast, in tropical Africa, 

 where it grows from eight to ten feet high, the ne- 

 groes eat it under the name of Eddoes. I also 

 saw it in New South Wales, about the Darling 

 river, and other parts of Australia, where it grew 

 wild, as it does in Texas and Mexico. Again, I 

 have seen the New Zealanders, as well as the in- 

 habitants of Norfolk Island, where it seems to be 

 equally at home, roasting it for food. As with the 

 maize, it may be considered a traveling plant, and 

 like it, only stops to settle where it finds the climate 

 favorable. 



distinct things. The most common manner of 

 doubling is by the reversion of stamens to petals, 

 though according to a strange notion recently 

 started by Mr. Grant Allen, an English writer, we 

 should say " advance of stamens to petals." The 

 accepted doctrine is, however, that all the parts of 

 a flower have advanced from leaves. .\ leaf 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Plants of the Catskill Mountains. --Mr. 

 Bicknell states that more than three hundred and 

 twenty-five species, exclusive of vascular crypto- 

 grams, were observed by him during a summer 

 visit to these mountains. 



Double Flowers. — In some remarks on the 

 Australian acroclinium, it was noted that what 

 we popularly call a double flower may mean many 



Double Begonia, " Hofgartner Vetter." 

 changes to a bract, a bract to calyx leaves, the 

 sepals of the calyx to petals, the petals to stamens 

 and the stamens to carpels. At least this is the 

 successive order of development from the typical 

 primary leaf. We have here an opportunity of 

 giving an illustration of a Double Begonia, a 

 new class of greenhouse flowers, which has at- 

 tracted considerable attention in Europe. In this 

 case the doubling appears to have been brought 

 about by the retrogression of the stamens to pe- 

 tals. There are now several varieties of Double 

 Begonias. This one is called " Hofgartner Vet- 

 ter,' and was introduced by Haage & Schmidt, of 

 Erfurt. 



Bottling Fruit. — A pretty surprise can often 

 be prepared for children — even some children of 

 considerable growth — by introducing a fruit in 

 early life into a bottle, and then letting it finish its 

 growth there. The little folks will wonder how it 

 got there. By filling the bottle with alcohol, or 

 possibly by excluding the air, the curiosity may be 

 preserved for a long time. It is said that an apple 

 in perfect preservation, although ninety-six years 

 old, is in possession of a gentleman in Ulster 

 county. As it rounded up from the blossom of the 

 parent stem in the early summer of 1787, a bottle 

 was drawn over it and attached to the branch, and 

 after the apple had ripened the stfm was severed 



