THE CANADIAN HORTICULTUEIST. 



101 



how it is done, we shall find out later 

 on. In the meantime we shall just 

 mention that every part which per- 

 forms a special duty is called an organ, 

 and from this out we shall often use 

 this word in this sense. 



Now look at the stem of the Butter- 

 cup. Squeeze it between your finger 

 and thumb, and observe how readily it 

 yields to the pressure. Try the Wall- 

 flower and Geranium stems in the same 

 way. They are harder, especially the 

 lower part of each. The soft stem is 

 hei'haceous, the hard ones woody. In 

 these three plants the chief use of the 

 stem seems to be to produce and carry 

 the leaves and flowers. It has other 

 uses, to be described hereafter, but for 

 the present you must know that leaves 

 are produced on stems and branches. 

 Now look at the Dandelion. Find the 

 stem. You wil] probably say it has 

 none. But it has leaves, and these 

 must grow on a stem. The leaves of 

 Dandelion are all crowded together, 

 forming a mat or rosette at the surface 

 of the ground, and the stem must 

 therefore be very short indeed. Such 

 plants as this are, in fact, often called 

 stemless. Now compare the Dandelion 

 with the Hepatica. The knowledge 

 you have gained from the Dandelion is 

 of great use to you here. You at once 

 pronounce the Hepatica to be stemless 

 also, the spaces of the stem between 

 the leaves being reduced almost to 

 nothing. 



The leaves themselves next call for 

 examination. Beginning with the But- 

 tercup, we see that the lower leaves are 

 somewhat different from the upper ones. 

 Each of them has a stalk and a spread- 

 ing flat part, the latter more or less cut 

 up into sections. The upper leaves 

 of all have no stalk. We shall call 

 the stalk of a leaf its petiole, and the 

 flat part its blade. All the leaves of 

 the Hepatica have blades and petioles. 

 Those of Dandelion and Wallflower 



simply have their blades narrowed con- 

 siderably as they approach their inser- 

 tion on the stem, but can hardly be 

 said to have true petioles. All the 

 Geranium leaves have blades and peti- 

 oles. Do you see anything else about 

 the Geranium leaves'^ Of course you 

 notice the two little leaf-like things at 

 the lower end of the petiole, one on 

 each side. These belong to the leaves, 

 and are called stipules. Do you find 

 anything like them on the other plants 1 

 Always keep a look-out for stiptiles 

 when inspecting leaves. 



Just one other matter and we shall 

 pass on to the flowers. Hold up a leaf 

 of each plant between you and the 

 light, and notice the network of veins 

 running in all directions through the 

 blade. Of course the leaves are very 

 different in shape, those of Hepatica 

 and Geranium being a little alike, and 

 also those of Wallflower and Dande- 

 lion, but in the network of veins they 

 show a similar plan. Now all leaves 

 of this sort are said to be net-veined, in 

 contiast, for instance, to a leaf of 

 Indian Corn, which is straight-vdned. 



FRUITS IN NEBRASKA. 



The Nebraska State Horticultural 

 Society recommends for general cul- 

 tivation in that State many of our po- 

 pular varieties, such as Astrachan, 

 Duchess, Snow, Wealthy, Pewaukee, 

 Grimes Golden, Ben Davis, Northern 

 Spy, Walbridge, Mann and Whitney, 

 among apples ; Alexander, Amsden, 

 Crawford's Early, Crawford's Late, 

 Smock, and Old Mixon, among Peaches; 

 and of grapes the Concord, Delaware, 

 Moore's Early, Worden, Salem, Pock- 

 lington and Eumelan. Planting of 

 pears for profit is not recommended, as 

 the trees have almost universally 

 blighted. The safest are thought to be 

 Plemish Beauty, Louise Bonne, Vicar, 

 Lawrence, Clapp's Favorite, Bartlett 



