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TJie Horticulturist. 



troubled times of mediaeval history. The 

 great oak at Salutes, in Southern France, is 

 ninety feet in girth, and has been ascertained 

 to be 2,000 years old. This monument, still 

 or recently flourishing, commemorates a 

 period which antedates the first campaign of 

 Julius Caesar. — Science Monlldy. 



Remedi'l Action of the Ailanthiis.— 

 The ailanthus, as an ornamental and shade 

 tree, has of late years gone into disrepute on 

 account of the offensive effluvium of its male 

 blossoms, and its planting in Washington was 

 positively forbidden by an act of Congress — 

 at least an appropriation for the District of 

 Columbia, made some years ago, was granted 

 upon the condition that no ailanthus trees 

 should thereafter be planted in the city of 

 Washington. The tree is, however, one of 

 very great value as a timber tree, and is 

 highly recommended, for growth upon the 

 Western prairies, as its development is ex- 

 tremely rapid, and the wood is equal to chest- 

 nut in mechanical properties. It is one of 

 the largest trees known, being said to attain 

 a height of 300 feet in China. Very little 

 attention has been directed to its medicinal 

 virtues ; but according to Dr. Robert of the 

 French naval fleet in the waters of China and 

 Japan, the bark of the root, in the form of a 

 powder, is more efficient in the treatment of 

 dysentery than ipecac, calomel, astringents, 

 opiates, etc. For this purpose, one part of 

 the bark of the root is cut into very fine 

 pieces and pounded up in a mortar, to which 

 one and a half parts of warm water are added. 

 The whole is to be allowed to stand for a 

 sufficient time to soften the .bark, and it is 

 then strained through a piece of linen. The 

 infusion is administered in doses of a table- 

 spoonful morning and evening, either pure or 

 in a cup of tea. This is to be continued for 

 three days under a very strict dietary regi- 

 men. After that, bread and milk may be 

 given, and subsequently, ordinary diet. If 

 at the end of eight days a cure is not effected, 

 the treatment may be renewed. This sub- 

 stance is extremely bitter, and its administra- 

 tion frequently produces nausea. In Dr. 

 Robert's experience, a complete cure was 



almost always* brought about within eight 

 days ; in only one instance was it necessary 

 to renew the application. 



The Effect of dinvphor on Seeds — 

 Cui-iotfs E.cpei'' meats — Some curious and 

 all but forgotten experiments of much interest 

 to agriculture and gardening, observes a 

 London paper, have lately been revived by a 

 German savant. Very many years ago it 

 was discovered and recorded that water 

 saturated with camphor had a remarkable 

 influence upon the germination of seeds. 

 Like many another useful hint, the stupid 

 world took no notice of this intimation ; but a 

 Berlin professor came across the record of it, 

 and he appears to have established the fact 

 that a solution of camphor stimulates vege- 

 tables as alchohol does animals. He took 

 seeds in various sorts of pulse, some of the 

 samples bemg three or four years old, and 

 therefore possessing a slight degree of vitality. 

 He divided these parcels, placing one moiety 

 of them between sheets of blotting-paper 

 simply wetted, and the other under strictly 

 similar conditions between sheets soaked in 

 the camphorated water. In many cases the 

 seeds did not swell at all under the influence 

 of the simple moisture, but in every case they 

 germinated where they were subjected to the 

 camphor solution. The experiment was ex- 

 tended to diff"erent kinds of garden seeds, old 

 and new, and always with the. same result of 

 showing a singular awakenino- of dormant 

 vitalism and a wondei'ful quickening of growth. 

 It also appears from the professor's researches 

 that the young plants thus set shooting con- 

 tinued to increase with a vigor and vivacity 

 much beyond that of those which are not so 

 treated. On the other hand, when pounded 

 camphor was mixed with the soil, it appeared 

 to exercise a rather bad effect upon the seeds. 

 The dose in this latter case was possibly too 

 strong. At all events there is here a line of 

 inquiry well worth following up by seedsmen 

 and gardeners ; and even farmers might try 

 how far wheat and barley would profit from 

 the strange property which seems to be 

 possessed by this drug over the latent life of 

 vegetable germs. 



