CURRENT GARDEN LORE. 



but there were just three inches between the fence and 

 the stone, and she planted a row of balsams. These 

 grew straight up, but had very brilliant flowers and were 

 a restful spot to the eye after the glare of the sun on 

 brick and stone. Another had a little place under her 

 back step. She was country-born and bred, and on one 

 of her visits brought some ferns and soil from the woods. 

 The ferns flourished and were a cool bit of green in that 

 wilderness of a city. A really tasteful thing, at the back 

 of an old house where dwelt a cobbler, delighted me. A 



The Cannon-ball Tree (Couroupita Guianensis). 



hogshead was placed so as to catch the roof-water. He 

 .had planted morning-glories all around it, and fastened 

 strings from the ground to the top. The lovely vines had 

 completely covered the ugly barrel, and in the morning 

 hundreds of graceful blossoms of every shade waved in 

 the breeze. Put a box in your kitchen window, inside 

 in winter, outside in summer, and plant parsley. The 

 leaves are a rich green, pleasant to the eye, and make a 

 nice seasoning for soups and grains, as well as a pretty 

 ornament for dishes of meat and fish. — Success zuith 

 Floiuers. 



Cannon-ball Tree.— This curious-looking tree (Co;<r- 

 oupita Guiaiiensis) is often met with in woods and pas- 

 tures. Its peculiarity is principally due to the mode in 

 which the flowers are borne on long branches, which 

 grow from around the trunk, commencing at its base and 

 continuing many feet upwards. They are arranged in 

 terminal racemes, and fall soon after expanding ; the 

 peduncle, however, instead of falling or withering hard- 

 ens and enlarges, producing racemes of flowers m suc- 

 cession at its extremity each season. Years afterward 

 the woody pedicels may still be seen 

 ~I upon the flowering branches. So 

 nearly does the arrangement of the 

 latter resemble a creeping plant 

 I growing upon a tree that it is difii- 

 ! cult to convince people to the con- 

 .„ : trary, and that they bear the flowers 

 of the tree itself. In color the large 

 cup-shaped flowers are red within 

 and yellowish white without. They 

 I measure 4 inches across. The large 

 brown, ball-shaped fruits, unlike the 

 fragrant flowers, emit a disgusting 

 odor rivaled only by the flowers of 

 Termatiilia Bclcrica. The latter, 

 when in flower, scents the atmos- 

 phere of the garden in a way which 

 suggests to the uninitiated that the 

 sanitary arrangements of the district 

 are in a bad condition. The courou- 

 pita forms a large tree some 50 to 60 

 feet in height, and bears a dense mass 

 of shining green leaves, becoming 

 deciduous once, or sometimes twice, 

 during the year. The leaves on these 

 occasions fall very rapidly, and are 

 replaced again in a few days by a 

 new set. — W. E. Broadway, Royal 

 Botanic Ga>-dc/!s, Trinidad, in 

 Gardeners' Chronicle. 



Nature's Chestnuts. — Nature 

 planted the chestnut forests on light 

 and well-drained soils, and especially 

 on the red-sandstone formation of 

 New Jersey and southward, where 

 this tree is found in abundance and 

 of great age and luxuriance. It also 

 extends northward and westward on 

 ;o far as my observation enables me 



similar soils, but, 

 to judge, it avoids the heavy clays and localities where 

 limestone is the prevailing rock. The mineral elements 

 in the soil do not, however, appear to be of so much 

 importance to the chestnut as good drainage, for we 

 find it on the slate and granite hills in many of the 

 eastern states, but rarely on the heavy clay ; and for this 

 reason I think a man would be unwise to select such as 

 a site for the chestnut orchard. Still, it is by running 

 counter to nature in just such ways that we are enabled 

 to show skill as horticulturists. If land be too wet, we 



