No more Grape Experiments: 135 



{/u/gcns), incomparabile, atrosanguineum^ eredum, immaculatum, and grandi- 

 florum. All of these, with various others, are now in bloom before me, as 

 well as a bed of mixed varieties, containing some equal to the best-named 

 sorts. 



The lily sold in this country under the name of Groom's Hybrid Is in 

 fact no hybrid, but merely a variety, not remarkably good, of this species. 



L. hidhifcriun differs from L. umbellatum only in having a smaller head 

 of flowers ; the former being the original species, the latter the improvement 

 on it. F- Parkman. 



NO MORE GRAPE EXPERIMENTS. 



" I SUPPOSE now you will not bother yourself any longer trying to raise 

 grapes in New England," said a friend to us last September, as we stood 

 examining our mildewed and frost-bitten vines and unripe grapes. " You 

 see that your experiments arc a failure ; for, what the mildew and rot spare, 

 the early frosts take. You had better give it up." 



" Of course we shall give it up," we replied. " We shall abandon grapes, 

 and raise something that is sure and certain. We shall grow potatoes, 

 which have never yet rotted in this part of the world ; wheat, which is 

 never affected by rust, mildew, or the chinch-bug ; apples, which the curculio 

 never touches ; plums, on which the black-knot is never seen ; strawber- 

 ries, whose foliage never burns ; and peaches, which the yellows never 

 destroy. But grapes have mildewed two years with us lately, and been cut 

 off by the frost one season ; and therefore we shall abandon them entirely." 



Our friend went off with a puzzled expression of countenance ; but we 

 did not have to explain to him that we spoke ironically, and that we shall 

 not abandon grape-culture until we meet some worse results and more 

 formidable obstacles than any that have yet appeared. 



