56 



curiously garbled is found in the case of the crepe myrtle, 

 Lager stroemia indica. Some years ago my brother Francis found it 

 growing near a house on one of the islands in Okefinokee Swamp, 

 and the people there calling it 'Ladies streamer,' a very neat 

 adaptation of the technical name." 



Gardens at the New York World's Fair. A contract was 

 recently signed by the president of the fair corporation, Grover 

 A. Whalen, and Hortus, Inc., a non-profit corporation, for a 

 horticultural exhibit to cover an area of five acres. The exhibit 

 will be a concession, with admission charged and plants and 

 garden equipment for sale. There will be a building where con- 

 tinuous flowers shows will be held. Also naturalistic, formal and 

 informal, rock and rose gardens, lily pools and a stretch of 

 landscaped lawn along the Flushing River. Mrs. Harold Irving 

 Pratt, the first secretary of the Garden Clubs of America and 

 director of the Horticultural Society of New York, is president 

 of Hortus and Mr. A. M. Dauernheim, past president of the 

 Society of American Florists and Ornamental Horticulturalists, 

 is executive vice-president. 



What is the Explanation? 



Our camp is situated at the foot of Mt. Tom, Conn, and is 

 surrounded by many acid soil plants and tall trees. 



In this Camp we burn only the useless gray birch {Betula 

 pendula). One day a pailful of ashes was taken out, carried far 

 back into the dense woods and scattered on about a seven 

 foot square spot of land. 



Two weeks later through and really upon the scattered ashes 

 dozens and dozens of small plants of Malva rotundifolia were 

 starting up. They continued through the season and grew very 

 large, but produced no flowers. 



The following season not a single specimen of the barnyard 

 mallow returned or has there been a single one since that date. 



The gray birch came from directly around our Camp, and 

 no other wood was used. Also there never had been a farm on 

 this location. 



I would like to know why this species of a neutral soil and 

 sunshine habitat should have appeared as it did. 



A. E. H. 



