RUSKIN'S PROSERPINA. 109 



variety australis, forms " trees twenty-five to thirty feet high, 

 and two or three feet in diameter, with ten or a dozen 

 branches," or sometimes reaches to even fifty feet of elevation 

 according to the late Dr. Gregg, although the most northern 

 form of it is almost stemless. Its pulpy fruits are " savory, 

 like dates," are eaten fresh by both whites and Indians, and 

 are cured by the latter for winter provisions. They also make 

 a stew of the flower - buds and flowers, which Dr. Palmer 

 found to be pleasant and nourishing. The seeds are said to 

 be actively purgative. The fibers of the leaves are used for 

 cordage, the trunks for palings, or are riven into slabs for the 

 coverings of huts, and the tender top of the stem is roasted 

 and eaten. 



Professor Riley's curious paper upon the mutual relations 

 of Yuccas with Pronuba, a Tineideous moth that does the 

 work of pollination, will be read with interest. 



RUSKIN'S PROSERPINA. 



Mr. Ruskin, " having been privileged to found the School 

 of Art in the University of Oxford," now proposes to found a 

 new school of botany. 1 Of course, it will be a vagarious 

 school. One crying evil to be remedied is " that there are 

 generally from three or four up to two dozen Latin names 

 current for every flower," and " the most cm-rent and authori- 

 tative names " are " of the devil's own contriving." This is 

 not seemly. As Wesley would not allow the devil to have 

 the singing of all the good tunes, so neither will Ruskin allow 

 him to have the naming of all the sweet flowers. He proposes 

 " to substitute boldly . . . other generic names for the plants 

 thus faultfully hitherto titled." He " will not even name the 

 cases in which they have been made," but will " mask those 

 which there was real occasion to alter by sometimes giving 

 new names in cases where there was no necessity of such kind." 



1 Proserpina, Studies of Wayside Flowers, etc. By John Ruskin. 

 London and New York, 1875. (The Nation, No. 528, August 12, 1875.) 



