212 TRaNS ACTIONS OF THE 



Crosse, of Scotland, became very credulous on tlie subject of the acarus 

 — Greek for mite. It is capable of living for a time in boiling water, or 

 in alcohol. Our common itch insect is one of these acarians, or sarcoptes. 



Kegel lately comments on the subject botanically. He makes parthe- 

 •nogeiicsis, which means bor7i of a virgin, another technical phrase, 

 cceUhogyne — meaning literally a baichelor woman. He denies the whole 

 notion. He finds male flowers where none were supposed to exist in 

 Spinacia, or spinach, one of a family of 63 genera and 860 species. And 

 the mercuriahs one of the eiiphorbiacece, or spurge worts, of which we 

 have 191 genera, and 2,500 species. A large portion of this order is 

 poisonous. India rubber is from one of them. 



WILD CARROT. 



The well distinguished Vilmorin, of Paris, tries to add to our stock of 

 useful plants, such as are in their wild condition even worse than useless. 

 He has taken the wild carrot, and in cultivating it in his manner for three 

 generations, has made it a good wholesome vegetable. He has also 

 created, we may say, a race of beets producing twice as much sugar as 

 their ancestors. This process was selecting the most sugary beet in a 

 crop and planting by themselves for a few generations, and the new race 

 is permanent if planted out of the reach of other sorts. 



Carrot is biennial, native of Europe and America. Here it remains 

 abundant as a weed. I show a specimen. 



DECAY IN FRUIT TREES. 



Driving nails into fruit trees to make them healthy and free of worms, is 

 an old story. It now comes up anew from California, where the treatment 

 is said to have proved of great advantage. 



The Chairman. — This is an absurdity. No change takes place to affect 

 the insects on the tree. 



Mr. Lawton. — I tried this foolish plan of driving nails into trees, and 

 killed them. At least, those died, while those not tampered with lived, 

 and so did the worms, as long as the trees were alive. 



PROPAGATION BY BUDDING. 



Mr. A. S. Fuller. — Propagation by budding has many advantages over that 

 by grafting. 



1st. It can be done in the summer, when, as a general thing, we have 

 more leisure than in the spring. Most grafting must be done in the spring, 

 or not at all ; root grafting, however, is mostly done in winter. 



2d. Many kinds of trees that it is very difiicult to propagate by graft- 

 ing, such as the peach, cherry, apricot, pear on the quince, etc., are easily 

 propagated by budding. 



3d. Budding is an economical mode. In grafting we must use two or 

 more buds, while by budding we get the same results by using only one. 

 This is of great importance when we wish to multiply new and rare 

 varieties. 



