THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



153 



also a good shipping berry. The plants 

 are very vigorous growers, and, what 

 should be carefully noted, have stood 

 the drouth here better than almost any 

 other strawberry, scarcely a leaf having 

 wilted or burned. It is well worthy of 

 trial. 



Orient should succeed in places where 

 the Monarch of the West does well, as 

 it has veiy similar habits of growth. 

 Finche^s Prolific is also a vigorous 

 growing variety, and a promising mar- 

 ket sort. Sharpless, Miner's Great 

 Prolific, Chas. Downing and Capt. Jcich 

 are other excellent varieties that succeed 

 finely in many places. 



Of the one or two hundred varieties 

 that I have been growing at different 

 times, the above, including the Wilson's 

 Albany, appear to be among the most 

 desirable.- -R. H. Haines, in Southern 

 Cultivator. 



HANGING BASKETS. 



For hanging baskets the Partridge 

 vine is invaluable, as its brilliant scarlet 

 berries enliven and relieve the sober 

 green. Take up large vines of it with 

 as many berries as possible. If they 

 are green when found they will turn red 

 shortly. Always place the vines around 

 the edge of the basket, put in some 

 Maurandia vines to climb the wires. 

 For the centre a Happy-Thought Gera- 

 nium, or what is prettier, a Myosotis — 

 Forget-me-not. 



The popular tradition, which tells how 

 the name of Forget-me-not came to be 

 applied to the plant which now bears it 

 throughout Europe, is not generally 

 known. It is said that a knight and a 

 lady were walking by the side of the 

 Danube, interchanging vows of devotion 

 and affection, when the lady saw on the 

 other side of the stream the bright blue 

 flowers of the myosotis, and expressed a 

 desire for them. The knight, eager to 

 gratify her, plunged into the river, and, 



reaching the opposite bank, gathered a 

 bunch of flowers. On his return the 

 current proved to strong for him, and 

 after many efforts to reach the land he 

 was bonie away. With a last effort he 

 flung the fatal blossoms upon the land, 

 exclaiming as he did so, " Forget-me- 

 not !" 



"And the lady fair of the knight so true 



Still remembered his hapless lot, 



And she cherished the flowers of brilliant hue. 



And she braided her hair with the blossoms 



blue, 



And she called it Forget-me-not." 



— Floral Monthlj/. 



OLD AND NEW PLUMS. 



A New Jei*sey plum grower writes to 

 the Chicago Inter Ocean the following 

 in reference to plum culture : 



"There is somnthing peculiarly 

 fascinating in this fruit — a certain 

 charm connected with it, that makes 

 the person who is presented with a 

 basket of plums generally feel that he 

 is receiving an unusual treat. It may 

 be that it is partly owing to the widely 

 prevalent theory, " That the sweetest 

 roses have the most thorns," that this 

 is so, and that consequently as it is 

 usually thought that the plum is a veiy 

 difficult fruit to grow, it is more highly 

 prized on that account. It certainly is 

 a decided favorite, otherwise persons 

 living in large cities, like New York 

 and Boston, could not be found paying 

 for plums at the rate of a cent a plum 

 at the retail fruit stands or of $2 to $3 

 for a half bushel of the fruit in the 

 wholesale markets. On some accounts 

 the plum is a difficult fruit to grow, not 

 so much from its requiring any special 

 training or cultivation, as su[)erb large 

 plums are often grown on ground that 

 is not touched by plow or hoe oftener 

 than once in five or ten yeara, but the 

 difficulty arises from the fact of the 

 liability of the plum to be stung aud 



