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plant is a sea onion. The bulb is large, stands on top 

 of the soil, and has a peculiar way of throwing off its 

 outer covering when the latter is out-grown, like a child 

 that bursts through its garment. The color of the bulb 

 is a delicate green, and the bulblets pop out of the sides 

 in a comical way ; the flower stalk grows four feet, and 

 the flowers are green and white, very pretty when ex- 

 amined closely. The tradescantia, or wandering Jew, 

 makes a pretty addition to more stately plants ; some of 

 the leaves are pure white, or green, striped with white ; 

 they do well planted at the sides of the big pots contain- 

 ing the abutilon, or jessamine, and droop over the sides 

 gracefully. Moss does well and looks green all winter 

 when tucked into shady corners ; and grass seed will 

 sprout if sprinkled upon it. — Sister Gracious. 



Succory or Chicory [Cic/torin?n Iiilyhus, L.) — Blue 

 chicory is the most common term for this plant in the 

 Vermont portion of the Champlam valley. It grows 

 about three feet high, has many branches, and comes 

 from a very deep root. The stem leaves are usually ob- 

 long and partly clasping, while the lower leaves next to 

 the ground are longer, narrower, and coarsely cut- 

 toothed, much like those of the dandelion. Indeed, when 

 the plant is cut off close to the ground, or eaten down in 

 the pasture, one not familiar with it might take it for a 

 dandelion. In pastures well eaten down by stock, it 

 is not so much of a pest ; yet even here it, no doubt, 

 crowds out grasses which are much more nutritious. It 

 is in meadows and cultivated fields that it is the most 

 harmful. A tall coarse weed, towering above the tallest 

 grasses, it injures the value of hay, and unless it is pulled 

 or taken out, makes it unfit for market. Cultivation and 

 enriching the soil only help it ; it seems to delight in a 

 rich clay or clay loam, and its roots go so deep that a 

 prolonged drought never seems to affect it. It propa- 

 gates itself from seed, but more slowly than some noxious 

 weeds, partly owing, I believe, to the fact that its seed 

 does not usually mature until after haying is over, and 

 most of it is cut while in flower, or before. I have no- 

 ticed that where the plants were allowed to stand on 

 road sides it increased much faster. If it is a slow spread- 

 ing weed, what is lost in time is apparently gained in 

 strength, for when once it has a hold upon the soil it is 

 almost impossible to eradicate it. In digging or pulling 

 it, the roots often break and pieces left in the ground 

 sprout and form new plants. Charles Russell, of 

 Shelburne, Vt., formerly of Hinesburgh, who has had 

 as much experience with it as any one I know, says that 

 pulling it in July after a heavy rain is the best way of 

 getting it out that he has found. He considers it the 

 worst weed he ever had to contend with, and never has 

 succeeded in entirely clearing any portion of his farm of 

 it. He has tried many remedies, all of which failed ; 

 even salt, he claims, will not kill it, but seems to help it. 

 He thinks it would be impossible to clear it from land 

 that is badly infested. Mr. Russell writes as follows : 

 "I do not know of a single farm but it could be 

 found on, but perhaps there are exceptions. Few are 

 willing to admit that they have any, but on examination 



it is found in greater or less quantities." It may be kept 

 back by taking it in time, as I can attest. I know of 

 farms that had an occasional plant ten or twenty years 

 ago, and though there has not been a time since it was 

 discovered on the land when a few plants could not be 

 found, yet not more than two-score could be found on 

 them now. Their owners never allowed it to go to seed, 

 but searched for it carefully each year, and though they 

 may not have taken it all out, they kept it from spread- 

 ing. One way of its spreading is in grass seed. When 

 timothy is left to go to seed, the chicory will have time 

 to mature at least a part of its seed, and many farmers 

 find it coming in on newly stocked land. Too much care 

 cannot be used in selecting pure seed, and a farmer who 

 would knowingly sell seed with chicory in it, ought to be 

 subject to prosecution, I think, as much as the man who 

 sells unwholesome beef or pork. — F, H. Horsford. 



Junctions of Twigs Store-houses of Starch. — It 

 is a common saying that in a tree one year's growth be- 

 gins when the last one ended. There is a period of in- 

 activity passed by every tree and shrub, in fact, by all 

 plants which live for more than one year. In case of 

 the tree, the wood layer of one year may be distinguished 

 from the one formed the season before and the succeed- 

 ing year. This is due to the difference in the density of 

 the wood formed in spring and that formed in autumn, 

 and gives rise to the "ring" so-called, that is rendered 

 evident from the fact that a porous wood is brought close 

 to that which is dense. It is natural that there should 

 be this difference, for in the spring and early summer 

 the leaves are fresh and in better condition to perform 

 their functions than later in the season, when they be- 

 come more or less choked up with the accumulation of 

 useless substances. Burn a full sized but young leaf 

 and another of the same area late in the season, and note 

 the great difference in the amount of ashes that is left 

 behind in the two cases. More than that, in the early 

 summer there are usually better conditions for the for- 

 mation of wood than later on, and owing to the greater 

 vigor the wood cells are formed faster and not filled up 

 so full as later in the season. 



But it was of the branches and young twigs that men- 

 tion was intended to be made in particular in this connec- 

 tion. 



A twig grows in length from year to year, but at the 

 close of each season it forms a large terminal bud by 

 developing a number of small thick leaves which 

 overlap each other and inclose and protect the tender 

 part within, called the growing or vital point. As the 

 bud begins its growth the next spring, among the first 

 things it has to do is to throw off its thick covering of 

 scales. As these fall away there is left behind a series 

 of marks upon the outside of the twig which usually in- 

 dicate for some years the distance to which the twig had 

 attained at the time when the scales were formed. After 

 a few years this external marking disappears, and the 

 surface will be one continuous line of bark. 



If one makes a longitudinal section through a terminal 

 bud, he will find that a short distance below the bud the 



