1883.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST, 



and the bottle sealed tightly. It looks as fresh as 

 when first plucked. 



H.\RDY Cactuses. — Few people have any idea 

 of the great pleasure to be derived from the cul- 

 ture of the hardy and half-hardy species of cac- 

 tuses, of which there are numbers of marked forms 

 ir. the southwest and Mexico. Many are entirely 

 hardy here in Pennsylvania, but most are best 

 kept just free from frost under protection during 

 the winter. Their varied forms always give pleas- 

 ure, but most of them have very beautiful flowers, 

 and the watching for these is almost as enjoyable 

 as the actual realization of their beauty. Though 

 the flowering of such species seldom lasts more 

 than a week, the different species come in succes- 

 sion, so that in a not very large collection some 

 are open throughout the whole year. Last fall we 

 received one for name through the mail, from Mr. 

 A. L. Siler, of Hillsdale, Utah, who makes a spe- 

 cialty of collecting them. To-day, March 6th, it 

 has its beautiful purple blossoms open in a cool 

 greenhouse, and proves to be Echinocactus 

 Whipplei. Next week Echinocactus polyancis- 

 trus, from the same collector, will be open. The 

 following week Echinocactus Uncinnatus, sent 

 us by Vasey, from New Mexico, will about be 

 open, so that these three species alone give us 

 flowers to admire extending over nearly a month. 

 The mail is a cheap way of sending specimens 

 to the editor, who is glad to name these cactuses 

 for friends when he can. In packing, a tin can 



or cigar box is best, as the spines, pushed back 

 into the plant, cause rotting. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Nymph^a Sturtevantii. — Mr. Sturtevant re- 

 marks: "In your note in the February number of 

 the Gardeners' Monthly, you say that N. Stur- 

 tevantii is lighter in color than the parent. If you 

 will kindly read the article in the Coientry Gentleman 

 again you "will see that it was not so stated there." 



Nvmph.€;a flava. — "B. J." says: "I see that 

 the yellow water lily of Florida is regarded as 

 something new. I believe I have seen it in years 

 past, and supposed every observing person had 

 noticed them. How is it that it is only just found 

 out to be new?" 



[Botanists do not regard it as "new." Long ago it 

 was named. Modern botanists had not seen it, 

 and though it has been several times referred to — 

 often for anything we know — by popular writers, 

 botanists, with commendable caution, thought it 

 just possible that the Yellow Nuphar or "Splatter 

 Dock," was mistaken for it. Now we know there 

 is a true yellow Nymphsea in Florida, and read 

 again what the popular writers say; it is a wonder 

 that more credence was not given to what they 

 said. Mayne Reid, for instance, so faithfully 

 describes it in "Osceola," that there was httle room 

 for mistake. But then you know it is very easy to 

 be wise after the fact. — Ed. G. M.] 



Literature, Travels and Personal Notes, 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



DESULTORY NOTES ON THE DOG ROSE. 



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



It is difficult to determine with any certainty, at 



this late time, what plant Milton had in view when 



he said : 



"In spite of sorrow 



Xt my window bid good morrow, 

 Tlirougli the sweetbriar, or the vine, 

 Or the twisted eghmtine."' 



Whatever it was, it seems evident from his lan- 

 guage it was not the Rosa rubiginosa, as he al- 

 ludes to that well-known shrub, under its familiar 

 English name, sweetbriar. 



Query. Did he mean by "twisted eglantine " the 



sweetbriar, as some will have it, or was it the dog 

 rose, R. canina, as Mr. Meehan, with good rea- 

 son, alleges is its proper name ? The idea con- 

 veyed to the reader's mind from the quotation is 

 this, that the sweetbriar and eglantine are two dis- 

 tinct plants, and not "one and the same thing," as 

 they are generally understood to be. 



Shakspeare also presents the same difficulty, in 

 the following couplet : 



"Quite overcanopied with lush woodbine, 

 With sweet musk roses and with eglantine." 



That the "immortal bard" would often see and 

 pleasantly recognize the poetical woodbine and 

 eglantine, growing wildly about the banks of " the 

 soft-flowing Avon," meadows, copses and hedge- 



