98 Notes and Gleanings. 



are small and flattish, of a dull-brown color. The male catkins, when fully 

 developed, are yellow, about half the size and length of a good-sized oat- 

 corn. 



Our experience here fully proves that by selecting the seed from well-shaped, 

 fine-habited trees, the plants raised from them will fully maintain the superior 

 habit. It is therefore desirable to propagate only from such as these. — Florist. 



Slugs and Wood-Lice. — Slugs are best caught by searching for them at 

 night with a lantern. Wood-lice are not easily caught. Their numbers may be 

 considerably diminished by placing a boiled potato in a little hay at the bot- 

 tom of a flower-pot, and laying the pot on its side near their haunts at night. In 

 the morning, shake the wood-lice out of the hay into boihng water. A number of 

 potatoes may be cut through the middle, the inside scooped out a little, and the 

 pieces placed at night, hollow side downwards, near the haunts of the wood-lice. 

 In the morning the insects will be found secreted under the potatoes, and may 

 easily be destroyed in boiling water. These traps will last a long time. For 

 slugs, fresh cabbage-leaves may be laid at night near the plants eaten ; and, early 

 in the morning, the slugs may be found secreted under them. The leaves should 

 be replaced every night by fresh ones. 



Pentstemons. — These have much improved of late years. Not only has 

 variety of form and color been secured, but the size of the flower has gone on 

 increasing ; and latterly a very great advance has been made by the expansion 

 of the limb segments, which gives to the flowers altogether a bolder character. 

 Some of the new Continental sorts leave the varieties of former years very far 

 behind as regards size and form, while they show also a manifest improvement 

 in foliage and habit. They possess, moreover, what is very desirable in the case 

 of flower-garden plants, — a vigorous habit and hardy constitution. The follow- 

 ing varieties are among the cream of the novelties in question, and all first-class 

 flowers : Alfred de Musset, reddish-crimson, with beautifully pencilled throat ; 

 Edmond About, scarlet, with large white throat ; Georges Sand, bright purplish- 

 lilac, with large white pencilled throat; Indispensable, tinted rosy white, throat 

 veined with rich crimson ; John Booth, rich crimson-carmine, with beautiful 

 pure white throat ; L'Africaine, white, tinged with lilac-violet, handsome throat ; 

 Melaine Lalaulette, fine delicate rose, fringed with carmine, white pencilled 

 throat, dwarf habit, extra ; Pauline Dumont, light rosy crimson, with white 

 pencilled throat ; Souvenir de Matthieu Pernet, amaranth-purple, throat white, 

 veined with crimson ; Souvenir St. Paul, rich purplish-crimson, with white pen- 

 cilled throat ; Surpasse Victor Hugo, fine reddish-scarlet, with pure white 

 throat, extra. 



RiviNA L^vis Culture. — This native of the West Indies was gultivated 

 by Philip Miller more than a century since : yet is not so well known as it de- 

 serves ; for, of fruit-bearing, plants adapted for decorating the dinner-table, I would 

 give the preference to it. The plant produces a great number of elegant droop- 

 ing racemes, four inches in length, of beautiful scarlet berries, throughout the 



