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TliG Black Alder (^Ilex verticilatci) is to us in New England 

 what the Holly is in the mother country. Its berries are 

 more vivid in their scarlet glory, if possible, and the plant 

 might well take the same place in our winter decorations 

 with an effect uniformly good. The fruit of this shrub is 

 not quite as durable in its beauty as the Holly berry, but 

 suflficently so for all necessary uses. 



The Garget, Poke or Scoke, is another plant of interest. 

 It is full of color. The black, plentiful berries are bursting 

 with juice, whose rich purple seems only employed in mak- 

 ing hideous the faces of strolling boys in pasture ways. If 

 some means could be found to fix this beautiful color and 

 give it the necessary permanency, the dyer's art would find 

 a vast acquisition. The root is possessed of powerful prop- 

 erties ; and the village cow-doctor habitually resorts to it 

 to cure the ailments of his favorite patients. Its efficacy in 

 such cases is much extolled, but, never having observed the 

 experiment, the speaker could not decide upon its merits. 



The Yellow Snapdragon or Toadflax, (^Linaria vulgaris,') 

 is a very common plant in some situations with us, but not 

 to the same extent as in the Middle States. There it rises 

 to the rank of a pernicious intruder into cultivated grounds, 

 and causes the husbandmen as much trouble, nearly, as the 

 the White-weed does in New England. 



John M. Ives, of Salem, desired to call attention to the prac- 

 tice hitherto pursued by gardeners, of stripping the grape 

 vine of its leaves, in order to facilitate the ripening of the 

 fruit. This practice was thoroughly founded in error ; for 

 the leaves are as lungs and digestive organs to every plant, 

 and to take them away is to destroy the only means that can 

 produce perfection in the fruit desired. Collateral to this, 

 and illustrating the same topic, is the experiment of "gird- 

 ling" or "ringing" the branches of the vine, for the purpose 

 of increasing the size and excellence of the berries. This 



