1 886. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



43 



size of a walnut when I brought the plants 

 into the house. 



Very soon it will be time to commence 

 " cotton picking " at my house. All this on 

 the borders of Canada. It certainly has been 

 a delightful experience to see this important 

 Southern plant grow so fai' North. 



Sister Gracious. 



sometimes large enough to contain two gallons 

 of liquid. After remaining open for three or 

 four days the flower gradually collapses and 

 decays. 



You will want to know whether this gigan- 

 tic flower is ever cultivated. I must say it is 

 not, and owing to its peculiarities.soine of them 

 not so pleasant, and its requirements, probably 

 never will be. In the Botanical Museum, at 



Mr. Treeclimber Tells Young Gar- 

 deners of the Largest Flower 

 in the World. 



Prom the State of Indiana one of my 

 young friends sends a letter, such as I am 

 always glad to receive, for it shows that 

 the wi-iter has a desire to know more about 

 the things concerning plant life of which he 

 hears and reads. He says that in an old 

 English book he has is the mention of a 

 flower called Rafflesia, that grows on the 

 island of Sumati-a, and single specimens 

 of which ai-e computed to weigh fifteen 

 pounds. He wants to know what "Mr. 

 Treeclimber " thinks of the statement, anil 

 if true, would like to know more of it. 



The statement to which he refers is essen- 

 tially correct so fai' as given, and relates to 

 what is undoubtedly the 



LARGEST FLOWER IN THE WORLD, 

 the Rafflesia Arnoldi. That mj' young 

 correspondent and others may get a good 

 idea of this giant, the publishere have, at my 

 request, kindly made an engraving of the 

 flower, and which is given herewith. A 

 scale of three feet is also marked beneath 

 it, and this the bloom fits, for a diameter 

 of three feet is not at all uncommon to the 

 Rafflesia. What a monster it is indeed ! The 

 lai'gest wash-tub you ever saw would not 

 begin to hold a single open flower of it. To 

 see how much the parts of one would spread 

 beyond the edges of an open parlor table, lay 

 a yai'd stick on it and then form your idea. 



Or, here would be an interesting thing to do : 

 Gtet some heavy manilla or white paper, past- 

 ing several sheets together if necessary to make 

 an exact yai-d square of surface. On this draw 

 the simple outlines of the flower as shown in 

 the engraving, having the lines reach clear 

 to the edges on four sides. Then cut the 

 figure out, mark it with this inscription: 



" FORM AND EXACT SIZE OF THE RAFFLESIA 



ARNOLDI, THE LARGEST FLOWER 



IN THE WORLD.'' 



Attach it lightly to the wall of the study, 

 dining room or hall. Such a model would 

 prove quite interesting and to all who saw it 

 would impart a good lesson in natural history. 



But some further particulai-s of the plant 

 are desirable. It was discovered in the jun- 

 gles of Sumatra as eai-ly as ISas, an English 

 woman by the name of Rafiles being one of 

 the eai-liest persons to see it, and in her honor 

 it was named. In color the flower is yellow, 

 flushed here and there with pink, the petals or 

 floral leaves being marbled with lurid purple. 

 One thing against the flower — it has a fostid 



ODOR, BY WHICH INSECTS ARE ATTRACTED, 



as is done in the case of the curious Stapelias 

 of our greenhouses. 



One peculiarity of the Rartlesia plant that 

 must be mentioned is that it has neither 

 stem nor leaves, for it is a parasite, that is, 

 it feeds upon other plants, namely: on the 

 roots of a species of trailing C'issus peculiai- to 

 Sumatra. In this respect it is identical with 

 the various species of Dodder that are found 

 growing on Flax, WaterPepper,and other plants 

 in this country. The only evidence of the 

 presence of a Rafllesia plant on its first appear- 

 ance on the Cissus is a rounded hud the size 

 of a marble and proti'uding through the bark. 

 This gradually enlarges and in time 



APPEARS LIKE A HEAD OF CABBAGE, 



finally expanding its five thick, warted, wax- i 

 Uke petals, formmg flowers from one to three j 

 feet across. The central cup of the flower is 



A GIGANTIC flower:— RAFFLESIA ARNOLDI. 

 Kew, England, a few years ago, I saw an exact 

 model of the flower. Now I think I have told 

 about all that will interest you concerning the 

 lai'gest of known flowers. 



Timothy Treeclimber. 



An Accidental Lesson in Gardening. 



The most important principles in gai'dening 

 are often very simple in character, and easily 

 understood, even by the young. In a private 

 note from Mr. Peter Henderson of Jersey City, 

 one of America's most successful gardeners and 

 authors, he makes the remarkable statement 

 that he believes the one chapter he wrote some 

 yeai-s ago on firming the soil with the feet in 

 planting and sowing has been of more benefit 

 than all else he has ever mritten. This only 

 shows how very highly he estimates this one 

 simple principle in gardening. In the .1 iiierican 

 Agn'viilfid-ist he recently told how its value 

 was on one occasion most amusingly set forth : 



"It was on a truck farm of Charleston, S. C. It 

 sei>iiis that a gentleman of color, having the con- 

 stitutional weakness for chickens peculiar to some 

 of his race, got into a lipn-roo.st anil liflped himself 

 bountifully. In evading the high-roarl. he struck a 

 bee-line through a newly sowed turnip field, where 

 be left tracks that led to his detection. But these 

 tracks did more. They showed to Squire Buncombe, 

 whose chickens had "sntTered. that wherever the 

 foot of the colored citizen had fallen there had he a 

 "stand" "f turnips, and nowhere else (for they had 

 been loosely sown and the weather was dry). The 

 lesson was heeded and has been worth tens of 

 thousands of dollars to the farmers of South Carolina, 

 who, it seems, were never before sufficiently alive 

 to the importance of firming the soil until the un- 

 fortimate negro showed them the way.'' 



Brief Notes Compiled by a Botanist. 



A beautiful species of Mushroom is worshipped in 

 Guinea. 



The Scab ou Apples is a nunature forest of plants 

 of the Fungus family. 



The idea of sex in plants was recognized as early 

 as the days of Herodotus, 400 years before Christ. 



When plants grow old. as has well been pointed 

 out, they t^nd to protect themselves by reason of 

 the density and hardness of the parts they develop. 



Thorns, as a iide. are less abundant above the 

 level commonly reached by animals in browsing, 

 not being needed here to protect the crop of leaves 

 from being consumed as fooil. 



The botanic gardens of the world, most of them 

 scientific in character, are reported to number 197. 

 of which C.ermany has thirty-four. Italy twenty- 

 three. France twenty. Great Britain and Ireland 

 twelve. West Indies six and the United States five. 

 More than half are supported by govemment and 

 only five per cent by private enterprise. 



A very large specimen of Bur-dock i Lappa 

 major, (Isertn.), foimd at the tatersection of two 

 streets in Columbus was 7 1-8 feet high, and the 

 branches sprea<I 9 feet. It bore 720 large heads 

 of flowers, hkely to produce the average number 

 of seeds; anrl 384 smaller heads, not mature 

 enough to determine the quantity of seeds they 

 might produce The average number of seeds 

 inkcnes) produced by each head, determiued the 

 prexious .se.ason, was 551!, making a total of 

 400,328 seeds the second year of it« existence, 

 the plant being a biennial.— iVo/e««or Lazenby. 

 of the Ohio State Farm. 



Horticulture, remarks Trelase. is so closely 

 related to botany that it is scarcely necessarj- to 

 mention the dependence of the successful gar- 

 dener, fruit-grower or florist upon an intelligent 

 understanding of. and conformity to. the laws 

 of vegetable physiology in the operations of his 

 every -day life. The nurseryman and florist are, 

 perforce, botanists. To them a general knowl- 

 edge of systematic botany, and that careful 

 development of the powers of observation which 

 a close study of the characters of plants gives, 

 goes far to assiwe success when combined with 

 shrewd busmess tact and a practical famiharity 

 with the manual processes of this vocation. 



In the Tropics, often the finest Orchids are 

 found in the tops of the highest trees, at such an 

 elevation that they can only be reached by cut- 

 ting down the tree, while few are seen in the 

 lower shades of the forest, which are singularly 

 bare of bloom. Perched high in air and shaded 

 by the fohage of the tree upon which it grows, 

 the orchid makes its home, and the perilous ex- 

 I periences of coUectors in their attempts to find 

 I some new and rare species would fill voltnnes. 

 Instances are not uncommon of expert collectors 

 having been sent thousands of miles across the 

 I ocean to some remote part of South America, 

 India, or the Malayan .\rchipelago, to secure 

 J some Orchid of which a specimen or two may 

 have been brought home. 



What is a flower? It is not essential, says Pro- 

 fessor Bailey in "Talks Afield." that any flower 

 have showy colors, or even the parts called sepals 

 or petals, or stamens, or pistils. .\nd we might even 

 take exception to Webster's careful definition that 

 the flower is " that part of a plant which is destine<l 

 to produce seed." for the flowers of the cultivated 

 Snowball and Hj-drangea, and the outer ones on 

 the heads of all Sunfiowers, and the staraen-Howers. 

 of the Willow cannot produce seeds. This defini- 

 tion may be regarded as in the main correct, how- 

 ever, and the so called neutral flowers (of Snow- 

 balls, elc.,1 are to be looked upon as anomalies. If 

 om- definition nnist include the stamen-bearing 

 flowers of the Willow, we nmst modify it after this 

 manner: The flower is that part of the plant which 

 is destined to produce or aid in producing the seed. 

 Concerning a remarkable tree growth after gird- 

 hng, M. E. S. writes that on his farm in Vermont, 

 in June, 1884, he attempted to kill a Poplar tree by 

 gu-dling. He removed a strip of bark about three 

 inches wide entirely aroimd the tree, at a place 

 about tour feet from the ground, scraping off the 

 pulp that had formed between the wood and bark 

 that year. The wood thus left bare sea.soned over 

 that summer, but the tree did not die, and has con- 

 tinued to grow till the present time, above the place 

 where the bark was removed, but has not grown 

 any below that. The measiu'enients are given as 

 36 1-2 inches in circiunference above the place 

 where the bark was removed, and 21 inches in cir- 

 cumference below. The tree did not put out leaves 

 quite as soon as the other trees near it, but it blos- 

 somed as full as any of the Poplai-s around, and is 

 looking as healthy as they Ave.—ScientifirAntencan. 



The WiNTKR Exhibition of the Illinois Horticul- 

 tural Society will be held during the meeting of the 

 Society at Jacksonville. III. on December 14. 15 and 

 16 next. There is promise of a large and successful 

 meeting. Reduced rates on railroads and at hotels. 



The Anxcal Meeting of the Michigan State Hor- 

 ticultural Society will be held in Grand Rapids. 

 Mich., on November 30th, and December 1st and 2d. 

 The scheme of "Topics, " to be brought forward and 

 discussed is varied and rich. A great meeting is 

 expected. Reduced railroatl fares_and hotel rates. 



