CURRENT GARDEN LORE. 



759 



only plenty of moisture to make them crack open well. 

 Many a fruit-grower buys his pits in early fall, before 

 they become dry, mixes them with damp sand and places 

 them in some cave or cellar 

 until spring. If the earth 

 has been very moist and 

 the cellar rather warm, he 

 finds his stones cracking 

 open fast, sometimes too 

 fast when spring comes. 

 Sometimes the pits get too 

 dry at first ; then nothing 

 seems to bring them 

 round again. Keep them 

 moist from the 

 St a r t. They 

 can b e sown 

 outdoors as 

 soon as pro- 

 cured, or kept 

 in boxes of 

 damp earth, 

 and will grow 

 very well either 

 way. They 

 generally grow 

 e X c e e d i n gly 

 well when they 

 lie u n d e r a 

 heavy coat of 

 snow all winter 

 where, while 

 free from the 



CaNDLEWOOD {Fouqimra spUndens.) 



hanges of weather, they are kept moist all winter long. 

 -Joseph Mcehan, in Practical Farmer. 

 The Vine-Cactus in Mexico.— In the coarse gravel 

 on Mexican hillsides is found the vine- 

 cactus {Fouquiera splendens). This is 

 not a true cactus ; its appearance led to the 

 name. The plant consists of from one or 

 two to half a dozen stalks, about an inch 

 ameter, nearly straight, and about 

 five feet tall. The stalks are gray in 

 color, armed with abundant spines, and 

 bear comparatively few small green 

 leaves. At the top of the stalks are one or 

 more clusters of orange-colored flow- 

 ers or fruits. These plants, as in- 

 significant in appearance aso the 

 mullein-stalks of the east, serve many 

 useful purposes. Set up in a line 

 close together, they make a living 

 hedge that even a jack-rabbit cannot pass, 

 and many yards and gardens are fenced 

 in this manner. Set more closely in line 

 around a rectangle five feet wide and ten 

 feet long, with an opening at one end 

 and a covering of brush over the top, 

 they make a complete house for a family 

 of Mexicans of the poorest class, — Report 

 of Departmant of Agriculture. 



Flowers of Ficus elastica.— A cor- 

 respondent sends us some buds taken from 

 the axils of the leaves of an india-rubber, 

 which he took to be an abortive flower- 

 bud, but which, on being cut open, ap- 

 peared more like an immature fig. This 

 is not a freak, because the plant usually 

 known as india-rubber is really a fig. 

 These little buds frequently appear in 

 india-rubber plants, but we have not 

 known them to perfect themselves in our 

 country. We should be glad to know 

 whether this does occur 

 at times under cultiva- 

 tion. An examination of 

 these buds is verj interest- 

 ing to those who under- 

 stand the structure of the 

 fig. We may say, in com- 

 mon language, that the fig 

 is a bunch of flowers 

 turned inside out. The 

 flowers of the fig are all on 

 the inside of this bud — 

 some of them are purely 

 staminate and others pis- 

 tillate. We are quite sure, 

 thstanding the opinion of some botanists, 

 we have found both barren and fertile 

 flowers in the same fig. And they will be found 

 occasionally in the fruit of Ficus elasticas. 

 When examined with the lens, these little flower. 



