576 



I N D F A L L S . 



very free bloomers. I have picked a three-pint pan 

 full at one time from a bed i/zxio feet. 



Like the Israelites of old, not satisfied with the good 

 things around me, I have longed for the violets of my 

 youth, and again and again I have bought them and 

 failed to make them live over the summer. I think they 

 ought to be as tenacious of life as their single relatives. 

 — Mrs E. B. Strout, Cotteciit Co., Ala. 



Do Some Plants See ? — Lady Boughey, Miss 

 Thornevvill and maids, of England, registered at the 

 Richelieu yesterday, and went out to the stock yards 

 before the ink o f their names had dried. Lady 

 Boughey is a prepossessing, amiable lady. She has 

 been travelling around the world, and is especially de- 

 voted to botany. Talking about her pet subject she 

 said : 



" Do you know that plants can see ? Well, they can. 

 Darwin in his book on plants ventures an opinion that 

 plants have eyes, and I have proved to my own satisfac- 

 tion that he is correct. When in Japan, a few weeks 

 ago, I was sitting under a shady tree looking at a bright 

 convolvulus. Its tendrils were leaning in a direction op- 

 posite to me. While dreaming I was startled to see that 

 they were turning toward my tree. I remained quiet. 

 In an hour the tendrils had all turned so they faced me. 

 This was early. After breakfast I told Miss Thornewill 

 of my discovery, and we went out in the yard to further 

 inspect the plants and their movements. To my dis- 

 gust the tendrils had turned their backs upon my tree. 

 We got a little stick and placed it a foot from the nearest 

 branch of the plant. In a quarter of an hour the ten- 

 drils began to squirm. The upper tendrils bent down 

 and the side ones curled their tiny necks until they 

 reached the stick. In two hours they had completely 

 entwined it. It was on the side away from the light and 

 if the plants had not the faculty of sight they never 

 would have seen the stick and moved toward it." — 

 Chicago Herald. 



A Nation of Farm Gardeners. — France is pre- 

 eminently the land of small farms, some of them being 

 only a few perches in area. The law of compulsory 

 division in inheritance favors this subdivision ; but the 

 chief evil complained of is that, through successive 

 family subdi\ isions, each man's total property consists 

 of small plots scattered here and there, and the reform 

 desired is not any interference with the present law of 

 succession, but an enactment to facilitate exchange and 

 consolidation of plots, so as to give each cultivator his 

 whole property within one boundary. In France there 

 are 2,000,000 properties under 12 acres, 1,000,000 be- 

 tween 12 and 15, and only 150,000 above 100. Of the 

 whole population of about 38,000,000, 1,750,000 culti- 

 vate their own land with their own hands ; 850,000 cul- 

 tivate the land as tenants, and 57,000 cultivate by hired 

 labor. There are about 875,000 hired farm laborers. 

 The above figures represeent merely the heads of the 

 families. All the members able to do so often work in 

 the fields or patches. 



Our Insect Enemies. — We have to resort to various 



means to cope with our insect enemies. I think one 

 good plan in the case of the apple maggot is to have 

 some of the varieties, that they infest the worst, grow in 

 the poultry yard or cow pasture where they will be im- 

 mediately eaten, or if that is not convenient, have them 

 in different places to attract the flies from better fruit, 

 and keep them well gathered up and fed out green or 

 cooked so as to destroy as many as we can. — David 

 Putnam, .\'. //. 



A IVIountain Visitor. — The accompanying sketch is 

 made from one of three branches sent me during the 

 past summer when in the neighborhood of Asheville, 

 N. C, with the question, "What is this?" No one 

 seemed to know the plant, and an old man of ninety 

 years told me that he had seen it a year ago for the first 



Pyrularia Oleifera. 



time. He had not noticed any bloom, but gathered 

 some of the fruit to show me. I take it to be the oil- 

 nut, pyrularia, but would be glad for further informa- 

 tion. Is the plant of any use, or should it be extermin- 

 ated before it has established itself in its new field ? 

 The books to which I have access give no assistance on 

 this point. — "L," Charleston, S. C. 



