449 



nois, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas, may be found another species of the 

 genus S. vulgaris, called Indian currant, or coral berry ; and whoever 

 transplants a bush of this kind into the garden will find it to become a 

 favorite. • 



Of climbing vines for covering porches or arbors, our most valuable 

 kinds may be found in almost every thicket in the country ; particularly, 

 we may 'mention the Virginia creeper, or American ivy, Ampelopsis 

 quinqnefoUa, which may be distinguished from the poison ivy, BIms toxi- 

 codendron, by having its leaflets in fives, while the latter has them in 

 threes. South of the fortieth parallel the beautiful trumpet creeper, 

 Tecoma radicans, is abundant in rich bottoms, and, with a very little 

 care in transplanting, will soon make a splendid display of its large and 

 showy trumpet-shaped flowers. Farther north the less pretentious and 

 modest virgin's bower, Clematis virginiana, with its conspicuous silky 

 tufts of fruit, will furnish a handsome ornament for bower or porch. 



American plants in Great Britain. — An English journal says : 

 ''The beautiful Asclepias tuherosa is, this season, producing freely its 

 showy, bright orange-colored flowers in several collections round Lon- 

 don. This fine perennial thrives perfectly well almost anywhere, if 

 jilanted in sandy peat." In the same journal we find the following : 

 "One of the best hardy aquatic plants in flower at the present time is 

 the North American pickerel weed, Pontederia cordata, a plant by no 

 means so often met with as it deserves to be. It produces a stout spike 

 of handsome sky-blue flowers from 1 J to 2 feet high. No ornamental 

 water should be without this charming aquatic, which should, however, 

 have a x)lace near its margin." 



Again : " The American ipitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea, is thriving 

 as well as any native plant in the bog-garden in Messrs. Backhouse's 

 nurseries at York, and by its side a healthy little specimen of the 

 still more curious Barlingtonia Californica is beginning to grow freely." 



The above extracts will show that many of our native plants find a 

 better appreciation in foreign cultivation than they do in their own 

 country. It is to be hoped that our gardeners and florists will give more 

 attention to the introduction of native plants whose merits have been 

 overlooked because of their commonness. 



MICROSCOPIC mV^ESTIGATIOWS. 



By Thom.\s Taylor, Microscopist, 



Onion blight and smut. — Abeut the middle of August last, I was 

 invited by Mr. Benjamin P. Ware, of Swampscott, Massachusetts, to 

 inspect a field near his farm, consisting of four acres of onions, which 

 were badly blighted with fungi. The ground had been cultivated in 

 the usual manner, and prime seed was used. At an early stage of their 

 growth it was discovered that the onion fungus had diffused itself so 

 generally over the field that it was deemed useless to cultivate it fur- 

 ther. In the plot we found remnants of the crop, but very few onions 

 had escaped the blight. The crop was practically consumed, causing a 

 loss to the proprietor of about $2,000. I selected a few specimens of 

 the blighted onions for experiment. The blight is first observed at the 

 base of the leaves as a white mold, which ultimately spreads over the 

 •bulb, gradually blackening the surface, and penetrating through the 



