THE AMERICAN BOTANIST, 



123 



tion/' Experiments with the Fringed Gentian," Plants 

 in Winter," '^CHmate and Vegetation," The Advent of 

 Spring" and others are of permanent interest and will 

 bear frequent reading while the three hundred or more 

 notes on a great variety of subjects contain an amount of 

 information about plants that can be obtained nowhere 

 else for the same money. In this connection it may be 

 noted that we now have only about 150 complete files left 

 for sale. 



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The part of the editor's garden from which he derives 

 the most pleasure is a seed-bed in an out-of-the-way corner 

 wherein are plantes the seeds which correspondents send 

 to him from time to time, or which he is able to secure by 

 ^exchange. Watching the seedlings spring up and mature 

 is like botanizing in foreign parts. In many cases the 

 «eeds are from plants whose names are well known, but 

 which he has never seen growing. Coaxing them into 

 bloom adds a zest to their study that is missing in botan- 

 izing where the flowers grow naturally. The perennials 

 that show promise are later moved into the wild-garden 

 to make the acquaintance of plants from many other 

 parts of the United States — evening primroses from Kan- 

 sas, columbines from Colorado, galax from North Caro- 

 lina and so on. At present the first handsome blossoms 

 of Adopogon montanum are opening, and earlier in the 

 season the editor had his first sight of the flowers of Shor- 

 tia for both of which he is indebted to Mr, E, C. Robbins 

 of Kawana, N, C. In some sections people might smile at 

 the cultivation of such weeds" as partridge pea (Cassia) 

 iron- weed and pleurisy-root but these are not weeds with 

 us and they get as much care as many a more pretentious 

 species. The iron- weed and pleurisy-root in the editor's 

 garden began life in Kansas and were transported thither 

 together with other plants through the kindness of Dr. C, 

 F. Menninger. Having derived much pleasure from this 

 method of botanizing, the editor recommends it to others. 

 The easiest way to make a start is to select seeds of your 



