March 18, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



131 



can live after being once started. In explanation, it must be 

 said that this region is not absolutely rainless, although it is 

 nearly so. There is an occasional winter rain, or rarely two or 

 three showers in the course of a winter, occurring at long 

 intervals. Generally such rains are barely enough to moisten 

 the ground, but that little is sufficient to cause the seeds, which 

 are lying dormant in the sand, or the bulbs beneath the ground, 

 to germinate. Once up, the seedling is kept alive by the dews 

 which fall nightly upon the earth, and by the mists that hang 

 around the hills every morning in the winter and spring-time. 

 In this way these growths obtain moisture enough to enable 

 them to reach maturity. Besides this the Atacaman plants 

 have acquired several peculiarities which admirably adapt 

 them to their conditions of life. One of these lies in the power 

 of the seeds to live for many years in the dry sand without 

 germinating. They have been known to retain their vitality 

 for ten years and then to sprout at the touch of rain." Micro- 

 scopic investigations show that such seeds have a "special 

 weather-protection." They prove in every case to have " un- 

 usually thick walls and a copious supply of albumen around 



the embryo While seeds are thus fortified against 



protracted drought, tubers and bulbs are equally well equipped 

 by the large amount of water or milk which they store up. I 

 found many of the bulbs that I collected so full of juice that I 

 could squeeze it out in a stream by hand. Another peculiarity 

 of the herbaceous flora evidently acquired is the early age at 

 which the plants begin to flower and fructify. As if aware 

 that they have only an ephemeral life, and that what they have 

 to do must be done quickly, they are scarcely above ground 

 before they put forth blossoms. Many species may be seen in 

 flower when hardly an inch in height, and go on flowering un- 

 til they reach the stature of two or three feet — if they can sur- 

 vive so long, I was continually deceived by this habit, natu- 

 rally supposing that the wee things must be different in species 

 from the plants that I had seen elsewhere only as tall and 

 robust when in flower. A little more experience, however, 

 convinced me that these Liliputians were merely taking time 

 by the forelock. 



" Still another adaptation is the extraordinary number of seeds 

 formed by many plants and scattered over the soil in which 

 they grow. This habit is not confined to species which usu- 

 ally yield great numbers of seeds, but seems common to all 

 the desert flora. Thus a little Violet which seldom attains a 

 height of three inches, common about Caldera, often exhibits 

 from thirty to forty pods full of seeds upon a single plant. 



" One other apparent adaptation deserves mention. It is said 

 that a majority of the desert plants are shrubs, or, at least, are 

 suffruticose, and this accords with my own observation. I 

 found that such growths are in the habit of shedding their 

 leaves in the summer instead of winter, thus reversing the 

 ordinary process of nature. By this means they reduce their 

 vital expenditure to a minimum at a season when they need 

 to husband their utmost strength in order to resist continued 

 dryness. This leaves them free to exert their full powers at a 

 period when they are most likely to imbibe the revivifying 

 moisture. Aided in this by their thick, long and knotty roots, 

 and close, non-evaporating bark, these shrubs, which seem to 

 be nothing but dead stocks in the summer, can withstand even 

 several years of drought." 



Many of the desert plants which Mr. Morong describes are 

 curiously grotesque in habit, but bear very beautiful flowers. 

 Such is Cynanctum viride, an Asclepiadaceous shrub which 

 lies close against the sides of rocks ; " the stock, which man- 

 ages to survive the summer, is short and stumpy, with a thick 

 head like an old Pollard Willow, from which it sends out new 

 green shoots whenever the winter rain falls." An Evening 

 Primrose (Oenothera Coquimbcnsis) commences to flower 

 " when not much larger than a needle, continuing the process 

 till it is two feet high." A Calendrinia is commonly called the 

 " Guanaco's foot," from the resemblance of its leaves in shape 

 to the hoof of the animal ; " this elegant flower throws up a 

 tall branching stem, each branch bearing on long naked pe- 

 duncles several large and brilliant purple blossoms, a con- 

 spicuous object upon the desert. . . . In clumps around which 

 the sand is often heaped in ridges as if against a wall occurred 

 an odd-looking, yellow-flowered shrub of the Apocynece 

 (Skytantkus actitus), popularly named Ciierno de cabra, or 

 Goat's horn, from the singular habit which its long, pointed 

 follicles have of twisting themselves into the shape of a pair 

 of goat's horns. The resemblance is so exact that every one 

 calls them by that name at first sight. In similar situations is 

 found an Ephedra, vulgarly ' Pingo-pingo,' the naked sharp- 

 pronged stemsof which seem just in place in such a region. 

 We frequently rode through mounds of sand in which clumps 

 of these two shrubs were completely buried." 



The Cacti of this region, says Mr. Morong, are among the 

 most curious he had ever seen. "The most noticeable of all 

 belongs to a genus created by Philippi, and is, I believe, con- 

 fined to this desert, named Eulychnia breviflora. It throws up 

 from a cluster of roots numerous columnar stalks about as 

 large in diameter as a man's arm, and armed with innumera- 

 ble long, unequal, needle-like spines. The flower is on the 

 summit of the stalk, not unlike a large cup in aspect, the lower 

 part of which is covered with crinkly velvet hairs of a lavender 

 hue, above which rises a single row of stiff white petals, in- 

 cluding a host of delicate stamens. Another Cactus of the 

 Melon variety, not over eight inches high, and not unlike a 

 pineapple in shape, has its spines twisted about the stem, so 

 that they resemble a bird's nest, inside of which the small red 

 flowers hide like eggs." An Alstroemeria, "which exhibited 

 great lilac flowers, the petals streaked with blue veins and yel- 

 low blotches " ; a shrubby Euphorbia, five or six feet in height, 

 with large white flowers and an excessive amount of milky 

 juice ; a delicate vine, Tropatohim tricolor, " which climbs 

 upon shrubs in thick masses, profusely decorated with spurred 

 corollas, whose bright tints of orange, red and blue offer a 

 standing invitation to all the humming-birds that live in its 

 vicinity," and Euphorbia Copiapina are among the other in- 

 teresting plants described as inhabiting different parts of the 

 Peruvian desert. The last-named "has a multitude of short 

 stems which rise directly from a huge underground tuber, and 

 lie in a circle upon the ground. The stems, leaves and flowers 

 are lurid in hue, as if burnt by a tropical sun, and the tuber, in 

 aspect much like a big turnip, is full of milk. Other things 

 might perish in that rainless climate, but such a tuber would 

 be preserved for many years in the dry sand." 



Notes. 



Stachys tubcrifera, the Chinese vegetable introduced a few 

 years ago, is said to be growing in favor where it has been 

 tried in England. 



We have received an excellent photograph of a striking 

 variety of Dendrobium nobile which is now in bloom in the 

 houses of Mr. Charles J. Carpinder, New Brunswick, New 

 Jersey. Its flowers are said to be much larger than those of 

 the type, and the coloring is remarkably distinct and beautiful. 



The cultivation of the Pecan is said to be increasing in 

 Texas every year. A farmer near Fort Worth has just planted 

 a grove of forty acres. The demand for the best variety of 

 Texan nuts seems to be unlimited, and the trees will probably 

 grow much more rapidly under cultivation than they do when 

 left wild. Single trees have been known to earn for their 

 owners from $40 to $80 a year. 



In his famous " Natural History of Selborne," first published 

 in 1789, Gilbert White speaks of a vast increase in the produc- 

 tion and consumption of vegetables as having occurred within 

 the memory of people then but middle-aged, and he adds : 

 " Potatoes have prevailed in this little district by means of pre- 

 miums within these twenty years only, and are much esteemed 

 here now by the poor, who would scarcely have ventured to 

 taste them in the last reign." 



According to Mr. S. D. Willard, the best-paying Pears during 

 two years past have been the Bartlett, Duchess and Kieffer, the 

 latter excelling all as a profitable orchard sort. One grower with 

 214 trees on little more than an acre received a total of more 

 than $3,000 for three successful crops, and this last season's 

 yield brought $1,313.50. No pear is more rapidly gaining 

 favor as a canning fruit, its elegant appearance always giving 

 it a good sale. So far the tree has been free from blight. 



The memorial stones in Japanese grave-yards, says Sir 

 Edwin Arnold, stand very close together, for, as a rule, only 

 the ashes of the dead are interred. On the stone are inscribed 

 not the names that had been borne in life, but some appella- 

 tion, most often fancifully poetic, conferred by the priests after 

 death. At the foot of the stone a little cup is hollowed out to 

 contain water in case the spirit should return and wish to 

 drink ; and on either side stands a Bamboo joint containing 

 sprigs of the Shikimi or Evergreen Anis e (Illicium rcligiosum). 



At a small party given recently in Indianapolis, the Indian- 

 apolis Tribune says that the hostess departed from the cus- 

 tomary serving of ices in glasses, and had them in real calla 

 lilies. The large spadix was removed and the flower con- 

 tained quite as much ice as the ordinary receptacle. When 

 the cup so filled was laid on an exquisite plate the effect was 

 very attractive. Callas filled with bunches of sweet English 



