November 8, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



351 



irritant or mineral poisons, could occasionally be taken and 

 death be caused, yet no trace was left behind, nor any irritation. 

 Generally, in the case of irritant poisons especially, there were 

 traces ; had there been any they must have seen them ; they 

 might be carried off by vomiting and purging. They found no 

 traoes of any poison whatever, nor anything to cause a natural 

 death. The evidence was negative rather than positive. He 

 inferred from this and the symptoms he observed during the 

 child's illness, and from all the surrounding circumstances of 

 the case, that death resulted from some narcotic poison. 



Dr. Williams fully agreed with Mr. Smith's evidence, and 

 said there was not very much known of the berries of the 

 Gueldres Rose, and in topological works they were not said to 

 be poison. But he had made experiments within the last few 

 days, and was now able to state that these berries were poison- 

 ous if taken internally, but at present he could not say how 

 long it would take for them to operate fatally after taken into 

 the system. 



Other evidence threw no light upon the subject, after which 

 the Coroner summed up, and the jury returned a verdict "That 

 deceased died of narcotic poison, but there is no evidence to 

 show what that poison was or how it came into the system." 

 Dr. Williams said he was conducting further experiments with 

 relation to these berries, their properties, and their effects, &c. 



BOUQUETS. 



I advise that no bouquets of real flowers should lie-employed 

 — one gets tired of the unvarying scents of Roses, Violets, and 

 Heliotropes. I have a bouquet of artificial flowers so exqui- 

 sitely made that they cannot be known from real flowers, and 

 I pnt on them any perfume I like, and change the perfume 

 whenever 1 please. — F. C. S. 



["Tired of the scents of Roses, Violets, and Heliotropes !" 

 If you ever become wearied with the sun's light, perhaps you 

 will apply to the Amerioan tallow chandler who apologises to 

 that luminary for having candles that are more brilliant. We 

 will add a narrative, also from an American source. 



TO BE PITIED. 



I happened lately to be in the room with a semi-invalid, 

 when a handful of choice flowers, the gift of a thoughtful neigh- 

 bour, was brought in by her niece. 



" See, aunt," said the young girl, " what a lovely bouquet 

 Mrs. M ■ has sent you." 



" Do you call that a bouquet ? To my notion it is about big 

 enough for a nosegay," was the querulous reply. 



" Oh, yes, a nosegay ; that is a better name, aDd it fully 

 deserves it, for it is as fragrant as it is beautiful. Smell that 

 Heliotrope, now." 



" I don't think there is anything particularly beautiful in a 

 Heliotrope ; I call it a very plain flower, and then it wilts very 

 quickly in water." 



" Well, there's a Lady Washington — that will grow and blos- 

 som in water for days." 



"Yes; but that ain't fragrant. I don't care much for flowers 

 without fragrance." 



" You love the Rose, then, the queen of the flowers," pur- 

 sued the niece, who seemed determined to make her aunt say 

 something pleasant. " That has beaaty and fragrance, too." 



"A V<ry original remark, my dear!" was the severe reply. 

 " For my part, I got tired of bearing the Rose called the queen 

 of the flowers when I was a little girl, just as if queens have 

 any more beauty or fragrance than other peopie. I have never 

 seen a Rose since, but what I have thought of the invidious 

 comparison. And there's the Carnation. Such a name!" 



Just here I stammered out some apology, and made my es- 

 cape. I wanted to keep some of my darlings unsullied. It 

 does seem, when you are in company with some people, as 

 though they would not leave you one beautiful thing to enjoy.] 



Wilson brought up the report of the Public Petitions Committee on the 

 petition of thirteen inhabitants of the province of Canterbury, praying 

 for the repeal of the Canterbury Thistle Ordinance, 1866. 



Mr. Rolleston moved that the report be printed. In the debate 

 which ensued on this motion, ^tt 



Mr. Stafford said that he believed it was absolutely impossible to 

 prevent the spread of Thistles, and that a great deal of money was 

 spent in doing only what would be like a drop in the ocean. Ho had, 

 perhaps, peculiar opinions on the subject, but he believed that Thistles 

 were really no injury to a country, but were a great improvement to 

 second and third-rate land ; so much so, that a friend of his had, 

 in reclaiming third-rate land, actually sowed Thistles on it as ferti- 

 lisers, and valuable Grasses were induced to grow when the Thistles 

 died out, which they did in a short time where the ground was not 

 ploughed. 



Mr. Kerr, in referring to this statement, said that he knew that at 

 Panmure, in the province of Auckland, the Thistles had taken com- 

 plete possession of some very rich land, so much so that nothing else 

 could grow where they were. 



Mr. Fitzherbert, after stating that the extirpation of Thistles was, 

 in his opinion, absolutely impracticable in a country like New Zealand, 

 abounding in waste land, and whose cultivated farms adjoined millions 

 of acres owned by the natives, said that he thought the cutting down of 

 Thistles on the waste lands was a great mistake in reference to pastoral 

 lands. He could state from experience that during certain portions of 

 the year the Thistle was an excellent article of food — that period when 

 there was a lack of rain. At that time sheep fed with great advantage 

 upon the flower of the Thistle, and it would, in his opinion, be a 

 disadvantage if the Thistles were destroyed upon the waste lands. In 

 addition to that, the Thistle, by boring down into the soil with its tap 

 root, loosened it, and rendered it thereby much more capable of im- 

 provement. Where these immense beds of Thistles grew, they gradu- 

 ally gave way, and in time the place became covered with a thick 

 growth of grass. He had paid considerable attention to this question, 

 and in the eradication of Thistles he had seen great errors committed. 

 Where, then, was the remedy for the complaints made ? In England, 

 there were cases where farmers brought actions against their neighbours 

 who allowed Thistles to grow to the detriment of the farm land in the 

 vicinity, and damages were recoverable at common law where neglect 

 had been proved ; but to have an inspector, and penalties laid down, 

 would be, to his mind, a mistake, and would prove to some extent an 

 act of oppression. 



Mr. Rolleston's motion was eventually adopted. 



THISTLES NOT A NUISANCE EVERYWHERE! 



We know that at the Antipodes — that is, about Australia, 

 New Zealand, and islands thereabouts — the people are stand- 

 ing on our globe with the soles of their feet towards oars ; we 

 also know that when it is midsummer with us it is midwinter 

 with them, and now it seems that Thistles with them are the 

 cultivator's blessing. We extract the following from the Otago 

 Witness : — 



In the House of Representatives, on the 23th of July, Mr. Cracroft 



THE GREAT PEAR ORCHARD OF SANTA 



CLARA COLLEGE, CALIFORNIA. 



The grounds of the Santa Clara College contain many vigorous 

 specimens of fruit and ornamental trees. In these gardens we 

 see growing the Palm tree and the Olive, the last over forty 

 years of age, while not far off is the Fig tree, one of the most 

 beautiful of all ornamental shrubs while young. Yet we find 

 here, amidst these evidences of tropical vegetation, a fine hedge 

 of Arbor- Vitae, 15 feet high — north and south in juxtaposition; 

 how striking the contrast ! In the same garden are gathered 

 over one hundred varieties of Grapes, mostly foreign, thriving 

 in the open air with the slightest attention, and all in fruit. 

 As I looked upon the uniform success that attended the culture 

 of the Grape here, where every Vine is sure to produce its 

 fruit every year, where there is scarcely the possibility of a 

 failure of a crop, and everything is almost as sure as. the fixed 

 laws of the Medes and Persians, I turn my thoughts backward 

 to our Atlantic slope, where our vineyardists struggle on, year 

 after year, hardly depending on more than one good crop out of 

 every three, and where prices are constantly fluctuating ; where 

 early frost nips their fruit before it is all marketed ; where mil- 

 dew cuts short the health and productiveness of their Vines, and 

 a score of discouragements, which form a remarkable contrast 

 with the ease of the Californian grower ; and yet we would 

 hardly exchange places with him. Where Grapes thrive with 

 such abundance, they are too cheap to be profitable. I suppose 

 the average profits per acre of Grapes on the entire Pacific coast 

 is 60 dols. per annum, and yet how common it is for our Eastern 

 vineyards to yield from 200 to 600 dols. per acre. We suppose 

 an acre of Concords, in full bearing, will not fall below 100 dols. 

 nett, while at the low price of 10 cents per lb. ; they will more 

 often yield 200 to 300 dols. 



At a little distance from the College itself is the enclosure 

 containing the Pear orchard we have referred to. Here are 

 now six hundred trees of about sixty years of age, ladea down 

 with the most astonishing crop of Pears we ever beheld. The 

 trees, although old, would average about 30 feet in height, 

 and have a diameter of 10 to 15 feet across the branches. Ail 

 of these trees would average about a foot in diameter of the 

 trunk, and we estimated a safe capacity of 5 to 10 bushels to 



