378 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 395. 



Asparagus Sprenglei.— This plant, as well as Asparagus _de- 

 cumbens, can be grown to excellent advantage in hanging 

 baskets for stoves and greenhouses, and even for veranda 

 decoration in the summer months. In high-roofed stoves, 

 especially where the plants in them are not tall enough to fill 

 up the space, both these species will be found very useful. 

 The former makes growths sometimes six feet long, beauti- 

 fully branched and hanging naturally over the sides of the 

 basket. The leaves are comparatively large and bright green 

 in color. If in a healthy condition the plants will produce at 

 least two crops of flowers each season, and the flowers are 

 very attractive, being almost pure white and arranged in short 

 racemes. A. decumbens is much smaller than A. Sprenglei, 

 but none the less attractive, the stems being closely branched. 

 Both plants are easily increased, either from seed or by 

 division of the crowns. ^ 



Botanic Garden, Washington, D. C. '-'■ •'■ ^■ 



Variation in Corn. — In observing several varieties of Corn 

 last year it was noticed that in the same variety there was a 

 marked variation in the number of rows upon the ear. For 

 example, in the kind known as Portland we found ears having 

 eight, ten, twelve, fourteen and sixteen rows. If was not till 

 late in the season that this variation was noticed, and, there- 

 fore, extended observation could not be made to determine 

 the prevalence of this characteristic in different varieties. 

 This season about a hundred varieties have been examined, 

 and two-thirds or more of these show variation in the number 

 of rows on the ear. We have found two ears on the same 

 stalk, each liaving a different number of rows. This presents 

 an interesting aspect of variation in cultivated varieties which 

 have been produced from crossing. The many varieties of 

 Sweet Corn have sprung from others which differed originally 

 in the number of their rows, and this fact now appears in most 

 of the cross-bred kinds in the form of row-variation. In other 

 words, while some of the characters of the cultivated crosses 

 seem to be established, so that they are reproduced with rea- 

 sonable certainty, all the characters are not definitely fixed. 



Native Plums. — The following varieties of native Plums are 

 in fruit this summer at the experiment station : Marianna, 

 Wild Goose, Wooten, Quaker, Wayland, Forest Garden, 

 Weaver, Transparent and Golden Beauty. The native Plums 

 are favorites of the curculio, and one to four slugs appear on 

 every fruit. Hardly a trace of the rot is to be seen on these 

 varieties. The Marianna and Wild Goose have already 

 ripened ; the Quaker and Wooten are now ripening, and the 

 remaining varieties are green. 



Age of Bordeaux Mixture.— It has been shown by Mr. Lode- 

 man, of the experiment station, this season, that after the Bor- 

 deaux mixttne has been prepared a long time it precipitates 

 more rapidly when mixed with water than when newly made, 

 and, therefore, the older it is the more it must be agitated. In 

 applying it to Potato plots for blight, which required one knap- 

 sack sprayer of material for each plot, the portions sprayed 

 first are comparatively free from the disease, while those 

 sprayed with the last of the material in each knapsack are as 

 badly affected as the check plots, showing that the Bordeaux 

 quickly precipitated, and was used up in the first delivery from 

 each sprayer. The Bordeaux used in these experiments was 

 made in May. Plots sprayed with the mixture made at the 

 time of each application show that the material was distributed 

 uniformly over the entire plot, for here the blight is evenly 



checked. ^ rr 



Cornell University. G. Harold Powell. 



Correspondence. 

 The Sacred Lotus in Eg3'pt. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In the issue of Garden and Forest for August 21st 

 Mr. Day makes mention of the leaves of Nelumbium specio- 

 sum from Egyptian catacombs now preserved in the Abbott 

 collection in New York City. I have not seen the collection, 

 which I know by reputation to be a very complete and valua- 

 ble one, and the fact that specimens of the leaves of the Sacred 

 Lotus exist there is most interesting. As far as I know, neither 

 leaves nor flowers were on exhibition at Giseh when I exam- 

 ined the collection there two years ago and made notes on the 

 spot. 



In a review of Dr. Bonavia's Flora of the Assyrian Hfoiiu- 

 ments in the same number of Garden and Forest nothing is 

 said of the chapter dealing with the Lotus. Dr. Bonavia claims 

 that Nelumbium speciosum neverexisledinEgypt, and that the 



Rose Lotus was the red variety of the white Lotus, Nymphaea 

 Lotus. And the reason he gives for the statement is, that "it 

 is not likely that a plant like the Nelumbium, so easily propa- 

 gated by seed and root, would have disappeared from Egypt 

 had it been there," which statement seems somewhat re- 

 markable in the face of many similar examples of plants which 

 are absolutely known to have flourished in Egypt thirty cen- 

 turies or more ago, and are now no longer seen there. The 

 Papyrus is one instance. The original home of Cyperus 

 Papyrus is a matter of question, too, for Boissier claims that it 

 grows spontaneously in tropical Africa, in Abyssinia, Nubia 

 and Syria, having been brought there from Egypt, and from 

 being spontaneous in the latter country it has retreated fur- 

 ther south as a result of the change in the Egyptian climate. 



It would take too much space to enumerate here the plants 

 which have disappeared from Egypt since Pharaonic times. 

 But, to return to the Sacred Lotus, it would seem as if it had 

 been too well described by classical authors to be questioned, 

 even in this doubting nineteenth century. Theophrastus, 

 Herodotus and Strabo each, and in various ways, describe its 

 rounded, peltate, concave leaves, rose petals and peculiar 

 fruit too plainly ; and the fact that still in the far east the statues 

 of the gods stand on Nelumbium-shaped pedestals seems to 

 go to prove that through Asia, from time immemorial, the 

 plant has had divine significance, for in the east things do not 

 change rapidly, and the sacred things of yesterday are very apt 

 to be those of to-morrow. 



I have not seen any record of the finding of the plant in 

 tombs of Pharaonic periods, and it will be very interesting to 

 learn the " provenance" of the leaves mentioned by Mr. Day. 

 It has been found in the Grjeco-Roman Necropolis of Hawara, 

 which would seem to settle the question, as, if it occurred in 

 Egypt then, it could scarcely have been a novelty in the coun- 

 try. But at that time the old Egyptian religion was in its deca- 

 dence, and the plant had probably lost its sacredness, and may 

 have been put to many uses forbidden in older, orthodox 

 centuries. 



The hieroglyphic name of the Sacred Lotus, according to 

 Monsieur Loret,* was Neheb, changing later to Nekheb and 

 Nesheb, and the oldest rendering of it is seen in the funeral 

 texts taken from the pyramid of Pepi I. The name of the 

 White Lotus, Nympha;a Lotus, was Soushin, and that of the 

 Blue Lotus, N. ccerulea, was Sarpat. The terminal hiero- 

 glyphic sign in the rendering of the name, an outline of the 

 flower, is, in the case of the three forms of the name of the 

 Sacred Lotus, the same, and much larger, longer and of an 

 entirely different shape than the one terminating the spelling 

 of the names of the White and Blue Lotus. This also would 

 seem to prove that the plants were radically different, and 

 were known to be different, and also that the similarity of the 

 two Water-lilies was recognized. 



The Sacred Lotus was made to serve as the cradle of Horus, 

 the God of the Rising Sun, and to its habit of closing its petals 

 in the evening and often disappearing under water for the 

 night may be attributed the reason of the very important role 

 it plaved in the Egyptian solar myth. 



EastHampton, L. I. Anna Murray Vail. 



Air Drainage. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I note with much interest the observations of Dr. Hos- 

 kins upon the importance of atmospheric drainage in fruit- 

 culture. 



During the last six years I have been so situated in the fruit- 

 growing districts of western New York and upon the prairies 

 of Dakota as to have exceptional opportunities for observing 

 the importance of this almost unheeded element of local 

 climate, and during the growing season of 1894, and again this 

 year, I have noted its influence. In 1894 late spring frosts 

 did considerable injury in districts not well drained aerially, 

 and this season the injuries have been intensified. Frosts 

 have occurred during each of the growing months of the 

 year, and in each case ice has been formed in the draws and 

 valleys, and Corn and Potatoes, while not entirely killed, 

 suft'ered a severe check, the marks of which are visible until 

 the present time. The more elevated portions escaped 

 with slight injury to these tender plants. 



A notable example was presented on the morning of June 

 28th, when Corn, Potatoes and other tender annuals growing 

 upon the flats along the Sioux River were severely frosted, 

 and as the land rises gradually for some four miles from the 

 river to the experiment station grounds, a gradual lessening 

 of the injury by the frost was noticeable until the station 



* La Flore Phiirtioltique. 



