448 the; bbk-kebpBR'S GUIDB ; 



impenetrable thicket on the muddy shores of the sea. It 

 belongs to the same family as our verbenas — the vervain 

 family. 



The true mangrove (Fig. 248) has yellow blossoms, and 

 like the renowned banyan tree, sends numerous stems to the 

 earth, each of which takes root. This tree belongs to the 

 mangrove family, and is Rhizophora mangle. 



AUGUST AND SBPTBMBBR PI,ANTS. 



The cultivated buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum), (Fig. 

 249), usually blooms in August, as it is sown the first of July — 

 three pecks per acre is the amount to sow — but by sowing the 

 first of June, it maybe made to bloom the middle of July, 

 when there is generally, in most localities, an absence of 

 nectar-secreting flowers. Farmers have often grown oats, 

 then raised a crop of buckwheat which matures in two months 

 from sowing, and then have sown to wheat all the same sea- 

 son, and have secured good crops of each, all on the same 

 ground. It often fails to give a crop of honey, though even 

 then it may serve to keep the bees at work and breeding. The 

 bees rarely work on buckwheat after eleven o'clock. Their 

 visits are always a benefit, and never an injury, to the grain. 

 The honey is inferior in color and flavor, though some people 

 prefer this to all other honey. It usually sells for much less 

 than clover or linden honey. The silver-leaf buckwheat 

 blooms longer, has more numerous flowers, and thus yields 

 more grain than the common variety. The Japan buckwheat 

 is much superior to either the common or silver-hull. The 

 grain is larger, and one thousand have been taken from a 

 single stalk. Eighty bushels have been grown on a single 

 acre. Buckwheat is often plowed under to enrich the soil. It 

 is good to loosen the soil and furnish humus, but does not add 

 nitrogen, and so is not equal to clover, peas, lupines, or other 

 legumes. Sown on ground infested with wire-worms, it 

 flourishes, and the insects disappear. Heartsease, or western 

 smart-weed (Polygonum persicaria), is a close relative of the 

 buckwheat. It grows very luxuriantly along the Mississippi 

 River. The white or purple flowers hang in great clusters. 

 Mr. T. R. Delong reported at the lyincolu, Nebr., convention 



