1 88 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[June, 



suffering of the cats in the bombardment of Alex- 

 andria : 



" But one feature of the scene (so it seemed to 

 me) that ought to have struck every man in de- 

 scribing the bombarded city of Alexandria, was 

 the immense number of bombarded and starving 

 cats. I had read description after description of 

 the ruined city, but none of them ever said a word 

 about the cats. The writers told me how shells 

 had blown houses to pieces, described all kinds of 

 horrors, and satiated me with catastrophe and 

 skeletons, but no one said a word about cats. Now, 

 it was perfectly impossible to go into Alexandria 

 after the bombardment and then to sit down and 

 write about it, or stand up and talk about it, and 

 not mention the cats. In fact, the whole place was 

 cats! I never saw such 'felisity' in my life. If 

 you turned the corner you would find a hundred 

 — I am talking liberally, of course — one hundred 

 cats sitting on- the ruins of a single house. Go a 

 little farther and you would see two hundred. On 

 the remains of what had been the bank of Lon- 

 don, it was stated in a telegram that the writer 

 counted three hundred and seventeen cats ! New 

 arrivals were moved with pity for the poor ani- 

 mals, but the result of sympathy was always disas- 

 trous. Your pity was rumed and destroyed by 

 the immediate rush of paupers. If you produced 

 a mutton chop for one cat, there were three hun- 

 dred cats waiting next time for three hundred mut- 

 ton chops. That made chanty look rather a 

 serious matter. After the second day the people, 

 instead of taking mutton chops to the cats, would 

 take revolvers and shoot them." 



The Oricin of Cultivated Plants. — A work 

 on this subject from the pen of M. de Candolle has 

 recently appeared. It treats of 247 species. The 

 author has utilized evidence from Swiss lake dwell- 

 ings, from ancient Egyptian monuments, and from 

 Chinese works, — better interpreted by Dr. Bret- 

 schneider than by his predecessors. He has ex- 

 amined many herbaria, consulted travelers, &c. 

 Of all the 247 species, except three, he has been 

 able to say whether they come from the old or the 

 new world, and to specify with certainty of high 

 probability the country of their origin. The ex- 

 ceptions are two species of the genus Cucurbita 

 and the ordinary kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris). 

 There are many species, however, that have not 

 yet been certainly found in a wild state. Where 

 the country of origin has been little visited by 

 botanists this is not surprising ; but the case is 

 sometimes otherwise. Certain species very long 

 cultivated seem to be in course of extinction or 

 extinct ; they have not been found wild or have 

 been met with only once, perhaps, in a single 

 locality in their native region, though the latter has 

 been well explored. Probably, too, their ancient 

 home has been more or less of wide extent, con- 



sidering the extension of their cultivation among 

 people that had little connection with each other. 

 M. do Candolle counts 44 species of the old world 

 which appear to have been cultivated more than 

 4,000 years, and 5 of the new, probably culti- 

 vated as long. Of these 49, six or seven seem to 

 be extinct or in course of extinction. Maize has 

 never been found in the wild state. The bean and 

 tobacco (Nicotianatabacum) have been found only 

 once; the chick pea, the lentil (Ervum lens and 

 Ervum ervillia), and wheat have only been found 

 very rarely and under conditions doubtful as to 

 the spontaneous quality. Most of these species 

 present the character of seeds filled with starch, 

 without any protection against rodents and insects, 

 who seek them eagerly ; and it is not wonderful 

 that they should perish in the struggle for exist- 

 ence. With tobacco (which has been found with 

 certainty in the wild state only at one point of the 

 Republic of Ecuador by M. Andre) the case is 

 different. Since the natives smoked or chewed 

 tobacco from Peru to the United States, it is prob- 

 able that the habitat of the plant was once much 

 vjider.-^Gardeners' Magazine. 



Annual Report of the N.J. State Geologist, 

 1882. — From Prof. Cook, State Geologist, New 

 Brunswick, N. J. This volume is profusely illus- 

 trated by sketches of some of the most striking 

 : features in the geology of New Jersey — chiefly in 

 connection with the sandstone formations. 



Worcester County (Mass.) Horticultural 

 Society — Transactions for 1883.— From Ed. 

 W. Lincoln, Secretary. It is always a pleasure to 

 receive this annual volume. Like that of the Mas- 

 sachusetts Horticultural Society, it represents the 

 doings of a class of intelligent horticulturists, who 

 do much to maintain the dignity of gardening in 

 our country. 



The Scientific Angler.— By the late David 

 Foster. Edited by W. C. Harris. New York : 

 Orange Judd Company, 1883. 



Foster was the most celebrated of English 

 fishers, and this work was originally the compila- 

 tion of his sons. Mr. Harris has added copious 

 notes for American readers, thus giving this excel- 

 lent work a new value in this country. 



Bacteria.— By T. J. Burrill, Ph. D., Springfield, 

 Illinois, 1882. This is a monograph reprinted from 

 the report of the Illinois Industrial University, and 

 to those who have compound microscopes will be 

 found especially interesting. The class of organ- 

 isms to which it relates have become famous since 



