SUMMER 91 



back there, have n't you ? " exclaimed one 

 visitor, as he entered our reservation ; and 

 he would n't believe it, for a while, when I 

 told him it was jimson. That was after 

 several weeks of feeding and watering and 

 stirring of the earth about its roots. Hav- 

 ing made a cultivated plant of it, it re- 

 warded us by inviting in a lot of insects and 

 blooming profusely. It has a regal and 

 tropical look, with its sleek stem and huge 

 leaves ; and its long lavender trumpets, 

 streaked with purple and delicately per- 

 fumed, are as fine as if the plant were ex- 

 pensive. The flowers last but a day or 

 so, then droop. We find them on the day 

 after blooming collapsed and depending 

 from the long, thread-like pistil at the 

 base of which the nutty-looking fruit is 

 forming. Its pet pest is a tiny black bee- 

 tle that peppers the leaves with holes. 

 The stramonium would be acknowledged 

 as a horticultural masterpiece if only it 

 would get rid of its smell the sickish, 

 soupy odor that arises whenever it is jos- 

 tled. But we put up with evil smells from 

 other plants the lantana, for example. 



