ISO 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[May, 



particularly amateurs, who have more leisure, to 

 pay attention to the slightest deviation they per- 

 ceive, and to endeavor to fix it by budding or 

 grafting. 



[Few good observers of nature have any doubt 

 in these days that the principle of variation exists 

 in natui-e independently of seminal influence. In 

 Germantown there are several generations of the 

 English oak, all from one single parent tree, which 

 show as many variations as could be found in a 

 wood in Europe. M. De Candolle has recently 

 called the attention of European scientists to this 

 fact in the proceedings of a learned society in 

 Geneva.— Ed. G. M.] 



THE NEW BOTANIC APARTMENTS AT 

 CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, N. Y. 



BY W. J. JOHNSON, ITHACA, N. Y. 



For some time building operations have been 

 going on back of Sage College which doubtless 

 have attracted far less attention than they would 

 have received had they been carried on at a more 

 prominent position upon the campus. The build- 

 ing is an addition to the rooms of the Botanical 

 Department, together with a conservatory for 

 plants and flowers. 



The new botanical building, though now forming 

 a part of the original structure, has two entrances, 

 one leading into the special laboratory, and by 

 spiral stairs to the room for general students above, 

 and the other intended exclusively for ladies, and 

 opening into a cloak room. 



The first floor comprises a private office and the 

 special laboratory previously alluded to. This 

 room is connected with the old laboratory by a 

 large arch, and possesses an abundance of north 

 light, so necessary to microscopical work. The 

 desks are fastened to the wall, thus avoiding all 

 jar from movements over the floor. 



Passing up stairs, we enter a large room hand- 

 somely finished in hard wood, and having from its 

 peculiar ceiling the appearance of a dome. Nu- 

 merous windows upon three sides render the light 

 ample, even in the middle of the room. 



Sufficient accommodations will be afforded for 

 sixty students, and this apartment will be devoted 

 to the general work which the lectures upon this 

 subject requires. Through a wide archway com- 

 munication is afforded with the Botanical Museum. 

 The basement is to be neatly furnished and well 

 lighted. Besides furnishing a storage place for 

 coal, this part of the building will contain the boil- 

 ers, by means of which the conservatory is to be 



heated, and will also be used for potting. Imme- 

 diately adjoining these rooms will be the conserva- 

 tory. This structure will contain five divisions or 

 departments for different uses. Entering under a 

 handsome porch, the visitor will find himself in a 

 structure with a high roof. This apartment is to 

 contain tall plants such as palms, and will be 

 known as the "Conservatory." At the right, and 

 connected with the former by large doors, is the 

 "Greenhouse," or department intended for plants 

 that require a low temperature. Opening on the 

 left of the conservatory is the " Stove," not deriv- 

 ing its name, as one might imagine, from the 

 method of heating, but from the high temperature 

 to which the plants within itwill be subjected. Still 

 further to the left will be two parallel houses for 

 the growing of slips and cut flowers. 



The heating of the entire building will be by hot 

 water, the workmanship and materials will be of 

 the best, and the latest scientific knowledge will be 

 employed in its construction. 



The estimated cost of the inrprovement is 

 ^15,000, which is paid by Hon. H. W. Sage. The 

 additional space which these changes promise will 

 render much more eftective the work of the Botan- 

 ical Department. 



ON THE ABSENCE OF TREES FROM THE 

 PRAIRIES. 



Your notes from a man who has never lived on 

 the prairies, brings to my mind discussions of ten 

 years ago, when a good friend of mine, an excel- 

 lent man, stated in an essay that the willow, the 

 Cottonwood, and the soft maple must pioneer the 

 way for many generations on the prairies, and fit 

 the soil and sub-soil for more valuable woods. 

 When I took exceptions, and undertook to show 

 that these three trees had the advantage of 

 other trees only in the way of distributing their 

 seeds, to account for their being more abundant 

 than others, as the willow and cottonwood seeds 

 were carried everywhere by the wind, and the soft 

 maple seeds floating on the streams so that they 

 could be gathered by bushels in the "bayous;" 

 they could take hold and root in places where the 

 fires could not reach them; that all three of them 

 ripen their seeds in early summer and germinate 

 immediately. He squelched me by saying he was 

 brought up on the prairies. 



I was so much interested in this matter that I 

 wrote him afterwards, wanting it discussed in the 

 Prairie Farmer. He replied giving the names of 



