4^ Notes and Gleanijigs. 



Mr. Editor, — In the Journal for May, page 310, you speak of "horse-rad- 

 ish." This plant has wonderful vitality, and will grow in all situations, and almost 

 without care. Still, it thrives better with cultivation. I think I succeed very 

 well with it, as 1 have had year-old roots, large enough, when grated, to fill a 

 quart jar. Let me give you my mode of cultivation. 



My soil is a deep sandy loam, of good fertility, easily pulverized, and easily 

 penetrated by roots, though a little less moist than I should select for this plant. 

 As early in the spring as the soil will pulverize, I manure highly and dig deeply, 

 and plant in rows three feet apart, placing the sets one foot apart. For sets I 

 prefer a piece of round, smooth root three-eighths of an inch in diameter and five 

 inches long ; and I plant them so that their tops will be an inch and a half 

 below the surface. It is not necessary that the sets should have any jDortion of 

 the crown left on them. Cultivate with the hoe until the leaves cover the 

 ground. 



I never use for the table any roots except those which have grown the previous 

 year. Old roots are fibrous and worthless. I dig up each spring all I planted 

 the spring before, and shift the location of my bed. 



I have tried the crowns planted deeply, as recommended in your Journal, but 

 my " hopes to have a good crop " were not crowned with fruition. 



I can assure any lover of this relish, that, if he will try my plan, his hope will 

 not fail. Truly yours, H. C. Beardslee. 



Painesville, O., May 15, 1869. 



Elms. — I am not going to discuss what is and what is not a true species of 

 elm, or of any other plant or animal. Every one who has read Mr. Darwin's last 

 book must see, 1 should think, that it is impossible for any one to draw up an 

 absolute character for a species. But assuming, for convenience' sake, and for 

 the present purpose alone, that a species of elm is a form or variety of the tree 

 between which and the most nearly allied variety there is a marked distinction, 

 without any intermediate forms known at the present time, are there not three 

 species of English elm ? — the witch elm, which does not throw up suckers; 

 the narrow-leaved elm, which grows with a straight stem, and which never has 

 corky bark, usually called, in the north of England, the nave elm, from its being 

 used for the naves of wheels ; and the very variable tree which has generally 

 more or less corky bark, and which never grows with a straight stem, to which 

 the broad-leaved elm of the south of England, the Huntingdon elm, Scampston 

 elm, &c., belong, and the varieties of which all run into one another by perfectly 

 insensible degrees. The only question is, whether, in any part of England, all 

 the intermediate forms are to be found between this and what 1 call the narrow- 

 leaved elm. I have never seen them myself, and, as far as 1 know, there is 

 this further distinction between them, that the timber of all the varieties of the 

 cork-barked elm is of worse quality than that of either of the other two kinds ; 

 whereas the wood of the narrow-leaved elm is much the most valuable of the 

 three, being remarkable for its toughness laterally, and for being very difficult 

 to split. This is caused by the grain of the wood being always satined or waved; 

 as far as I know, this is always the case with the wood of the upright-growing 



