NOTES FROM A WOMAN'S GARDEN—SEPTEMBER. 



toothed ; ovary two-celled, with two stout revolute stig- 

 mas ; capsule broadly ovate, acute, bi-coccous, about five 

 lines long, seed sub-globose, three lines broad. It grows 

 in dry water-courses on the hills and mountains of north- 

 western Sonora and has been reported from lower Cali- 

 fornia. 



Sebastiania Fabneri (Rose n. sp. ined.). A loose 

 growing shrub, five to eight feet or even sometimes ten 

 feet high, glabrous, with reddish bark ; leaves narrowly- 

 lanceolate to lanceolate, two and one-half to four inches 

 long, slightly dentate, ovary three-celled, with three 

 spreading slightly united styles; capsule oval obtuse, 

 three-celled, three lines in diameter. Collected in vari- 

 ous places in the mountains about Almos, Sonora, by 

 Dr. Palmer in i8go 



Sebasliania Pringlei (Watson n. sp. ined.). A small 

 shrub with spreading branches and brownish bark ; leaves 

 lanceolate one to three inches long, acuminate, obtuse 

 at base, minutely toothed; ovary three-celled, with 

 spreading slightly united styles. Collected by Pringle 

 in San Luis Potosi in i8go, and previously on the Alamos 

 river, in Sonora, by Professor Jose Ramirez. 



It is difficult to say which of the species Mr. Barnes 

 referred to in hi.s letter, but the reference to the seed is 

 somewhat misleading, and the reference to the pod con- 

 taining from three to five seeds is also somewhat ambig- 



uous and doubtless erroneous. Each of the carpel^ 

 contains one seed, which, when the fruit is young, in all 

 probability fills up the entire space, and the young car- 

 pocapsa larva doubtless hatches from an egg laid exter- 

 nally on the capsule, and penetrates the same while it is 

 yet quite young, eating into the true seed very much as 

 in the case of the larva of the common pea-weevil. The 

 plant described by Professor Cox, whom I have quoted, 

 corresponds fairly well with S. Pringlei. Dr. Palmer 

 found that S. Paliiieri was limited in its distribution to 

 certain canons about Alamos. He states that it is known 

 as the Palo de la Jlecha, cuero de las sitnellas brincaderos 

 (Arrow tree, which produces the jumping bean). The 

 plant exudes a good deal of milky juice, which is what 

 the Indians use on their arrow-heads. He found the 

 plant in several places, but it is recorded that the jump- 

 ing "beans" are found only in an arroya (bed of dry 

 water course) near Alamos. It is not easy to obtain in- 

 fested capsules, because boys are always on the lookout 

 for them and gather them for sale, as they find a ready 

 market. He describes the shrub as a loose-growing 

 plant, five to eight inches high, and the wood very hardi 

 the milky juice readily crystallizing into a clear, white, 

 brittle substance. 



C. V. Riley. 



U. S, Department of Agrictilttire. 



NOTES FROM A WOMAN'S GARDEN— SEPTEMBER. 



THOUGH the weatlier is de- 

 lightful, the sky never bluer, 

 the grass fresh and green, 

 and many flowering plants 

 seemingly in full glory, it takes 

 only a glance around the gar- 



I den to realize that summer 



has almost gone and the sea- 

 son of autumn is fast approaching. Much of the 

 corn has been cut and stacked, and that still grow- 

 ing is beginning to look rather pale and yellow. 

 The early beans are ripe and dry. There are 

 more seed cucumbers than green ones to be seen. 

 Melons are ripening fast, also grapes and pears. 

 The squashes and pumpkins are rapidly taking on 

 their golden hue. The currant bushes show here 

 and there a yellow leaf. The season of maturing, 

 ripening, has surely come. 



During the bright autumnal days there is much fruit 

 to be gathered ; it is not well to let any lie on the ground. 

 As far as possible, keep it from falling ; once bruised, 

 it will soon decay. There are generally heavy frosts 

 before the end of September, and all the fruit except 

 winter apples and pears should be gathered this month. 

 Keep tomatoes picked closely ; by covering the plants 

 frosty nights their season can be prolonged a little. 

 In the first hoeing of the garden many ground-cherry 



plants were left just where they had happened to come 

 up, very often between the rows of corn. Now the 

 ground near them is covered with the queer husked 

 fruit, which falls as soon or even before it is ripe. This 

 is gathered daily, and spread out in shallow trays to 

 ripen and dry. It makes a delicious preserve for winter 

 use, and the fruit will keep many weeks uncooked, grow- 

 ing sweeter as it dries. 



Old Levi carefully spreads the cucumber seeds on a 

 board, letting them dry a few days, then hangs the 

 board up in the barn for the winter ; when needed, the 

 seed has only to be scraped off with a knife. Levi is 

 much attached to this board, which he has used for 

 many years for this purpose. Once, not noticing that it 

 was other than a common board, nor observing the hole 

 made at one end to hang it up by, I was guilty of taking 

 this cherished board to use for a walk across a flower- 

 bed. 



"Wall, now," said Levi in a sorrowful tone, "if you 

 haint been and got my cucumber board ! I think that's 

 a leetle too bad. " 



Every year, in spite of close picking, the frost spoils 

 many of the lima beans. The season is hardly long 

 enough for them. One of my neighbors, when feeling 

 sure of a severe frost, pulls up the beans, poles and all, 

 and puts them into the cool cellar, and the beans keep 

 fresh for several days. 



Although it is better done earlier, it is not too late 

 any time this month to set out strawberry plants ; they 



