BUDS, BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



103 



it is said will be brought from Honolulu to adorn a public 

 park at the Golden Gate, it is safe to assume that a large 

 share of the weight boasted of will be soil rather than 

 tree. 



A Sweet-scented Wood. — Thomas Meehan in his 

 new monthly journal calls attention to the fine church 

 at Metlakatla, built by the civilized Indians of Alaska, 

 which is said to be as fragrant as if incense were con" 

 tinually floating through the air, because it is constructed 

 from the wood of the great arbor-vitas — T7nija gigantea. 



Helenium puniceum, a hardy herbaceous perennial ; 

 has yellow composite flowers, and growsabout 18 inches 

 high. The flowers are about two inches across, freely 

 produced and useful for cutting. The plant may be 

 raised from seed. H. aiituinnale grows taller, blooming 

 in September. 



A FLORAL design at the funeral of a prominent jour- 

 nalist is thus described: It represented a page of the 

 paper he had edited, with the title and rules in violets, 

 the columns of white immortelles, and bore the date 

 of his death. On the page was a wreath of Catherine 

 Mermet roses. The design rested on a pedestal com- 

 posed of tropical leaves. 



Fruit and Intoxicants. — Free users of fruit are not 

 apt to love whiskey. Have you ever observed how flat 

 any kind of drink tastes after you have eaten a good 

 apple? It has been suggested that if a beer-drinker 

 could be induced to eat an apple every time he wanted 

 beer, he would never drink beer again. That sounds 

 rational. 



Garden Scholarships. — Between now and April, 

 three of the six established scholarships for garden 

 pupils, of the Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, are 

 to be awarded. Those who desire full information con- 

 cerning the great advantages offered by these scholar- 

 ships and the conditions upon which they are awarded, 

 should address the director, Dr. William Trelease. 



Flowers and Death. — We believe in the use of flow- 

 ers in the presence of the dead. Not in that extreme 

 display of designs at funerals which has of late so often 

 and justly been condemned, but in the disposing of some 

 sweet modest blossoms about the loved one's form, 

 fit emblems of this fleeting life, which is as the grass 

 and the flowers of the field. 



A DEVICE FOR budding has been invented by W. H. 

 Rowell of Florida, who claims that 12,000 buds can be 

 inserted with the machine in a day, and that any one 

 with ordinary intelligence can learn to operate it in a 

 little while. The holders for the buds are made adjust- 

 able, so that they will hold any size bud, or will operate 

 upon stock of any size. 



Large Cranberry Yield. — The shipments of cran- 

 berries for the present season from the stations of the 

 Cape Cod division of the Old Colony railroad, Mass. , be- 

 tween Middleborough and Provincetown, will exceed by 

 over 45,000 barrels the largest yield of any previous 

 year. The total shipments for 1891 up to December 

 were 134,324 barrels, with 3,400 yet unshipped, against 

 89,886 barrels last year. 



Frogs and Insects. — A recent writer in Gardeuuig 

 lUiisiiated tells how he turned a score of green frogs 

 out in his orchid-houses six years ago. They were then 

 poor little thin things ; they are now quite plump and 

 in excellent health. They have never been fed, but they 

 could not be in such good condition if food had not been 

 abundant and good. It is thought that they lived prin- 

 cipally upon wood-lice in winter. 



To GROW Cannas to perfection, they must be given a 

 deep, well-enriched soil, and as soon as hot, dry weather 

 sets in, be well mulched with coarse littery manure. In 

 dry weather water copiously. Noutoni, Ehemanni and 

 Childsii are three grand flowering varieties, but none of 

 them can compare in size of flower and freedom of 

 bloom with Star of ' 91, one of the very best plants of 

 recent introduction. — C. E. Parnell. 



Greeneries in Town. — New York is said to have re- 

 quired upwards of 200,000 Christmas trees during the 

 past season. They have mainly been young wild growths 

 of balsam fir and Norway spruce, the former preferred. 

 For the bits of natural green which were thus carried 

 into so many homes the expense was small in each case, 

 and we doubt not gave as much satisfaction as a similar 

 amount expended for any other kind of holiday greenery 

 could have done. 



Night Plowing. — We expect to hear of strange things 

 continually from the Pacific slope. The latest is plowing 

 by steam at night, the plow engines being equipped with 

 locomotive headlights. The only difficulty reported is 

 the securing of competent gangs of men to take the night 

 shift. The California Fruit Grower is of the opinion 

 that if the process becomes customary, land-tillers on 

 the coast can rush their work through in short order. 

 We should say so ! 



Thunbergia for Hanging-Baskets. — Have you ever 

 tried it ? If not, do so. Just tuck the seeds into the 

 hanging-pot already partly filled with something less de- 

 sirable, and let them come up when they get ready (they 

 won't until then, anyway); then as the Thunbergias 

 grow, thin out the others and give them a chance to 

 spread. I have one several years old which I cut almost 

 to the ground every fall and spring, and soon the new 

 growth starts and the dainty blossoms come out in pro- 

 fusion. — Elder's Wife. 



II. THRIFTY SAPLINGS. 



Export Apple-Trade. — J. C. Houghton & Co., Liver- 

 pool, report the apple-market as quiet about the holidays. 

 They quote Baldwins, $2.76 to $3.48; Seeks, #3.24 to 

 $3.48; Greenings, $2.64 to $2.88. The shipments in one 

 of the last weeks of December were : From New York 

 a total of 5,363 barrels. From Boston, a total of 12,670 

 barrels. From Portland, 4,535 barrels — a grand total of 

 25, 568 barrels, of which 19,211 are to Liverpool, 1,893 

 to London, i, 143 to Glasgow and 321 to Hamburg. The 

 total shipments to date have been 609,244 barrels to 

 Liverpool, 110,475 barrels to London, 230,441 to Glasgow 

 and 17,335 to other European ports— a grand total of 

 967.495 barrels. 



