126 Editors' Letter-Box. 



Editor of Journal of Horticulture. 



If you please, I would like to ask, through the Journal, a question which 

 some of your readers who have had experience in such matters will, no doubt, 

 be kind enough to answer. 



I wish to know whether or not a stream that affords twenty gallons of water 

 per minute would, with a fall of six feet, be sufficient to turn a light wheel with 

 force enough to work a pump and raise water twe'nty or twenty-five feet ? 



And if answered in the affirmative, I should be doubly thankful for a few hints 

 as to the best manner of constructing such an arrangement, kind of pump, etc. 

 Truly yours, ■ F. D. T/iurJuaft. 



Atlanta, Ga., December 23, 1S65. 



We are not much versed in such matters, but we should suppose a hydraulic 

 ram would effect the object our correspondent has in view in the cheapest man- 

 ner. Doubtless there are many among our readers who have, or know of, such 

 an arrangement as he wishes, and would be happy to give him the desired in- 

 formation. 



J. E. Tilton & Co. 



Enclosed please find three dollars, subscription for Tilton's Journal of Hor- 

 ticulture for 1870, which please send to my address. Please also inform where 

 the ferns mentioned in your number for the present month, pages 374-6, can be 

 procured ; and oblige your friend. 



Respectfully, JoscpJi Bancroft. 



Wilmington, Del., 12th Mo. 25th, 1S69. 



Messrs. Hovey & Co., of Boston, have all or most of the ferns described in 

 our December number, and probably most of the leading nurserymen in the 

 country could supply them. 



J. C, Fishkill, N. Y. — The specimens of Selaginella were misplaced when 

 they came to hand, so that we cannot designate them by the numbers ; but the 

 finely cut species is S. IcpidopJiylluiii, and the broader leaved S. stolonifera. 



W. G., Cambridge, Mass. — When we answered your query about the Canada 

 plum in the December number, wc knew we had seen somewhere a statement in 

 regard to its cultivation and varieties, which we endeavored in vain to recall ; but 

 we have since come across it. It is in Nuttall's continuation of Michaux's Sylva, 

 vol. ii., p. 20, and is as follows : — 



" When ripe it contains a very sweet, thin pulp, with the disadvantage, how- 

 ever, of having a tliick, bitterish acerb skin ; but by cultivation it is considerably 

 improved, and the fruit is sometimes, as Dr. Darlington remarks, as large as a 

 common apricot. In Upper Canada, where it was formerly cultivated, I have 

 seen as many as twelve distinct varieties in the same orchard. It is also free 

 from the attacks of insects, which have proved so fatal to nearly all the cultivated 

 plums. In the western part of the State of New York it is very common, and 

 in some instances (as it appeared to me in 1810) it has been cultivated by the 

 aborigines, around their dwellings, in the same manner as the Chickasaw plum." 



