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CURRENT GARDEN LORE. 



Sink this tin pail in the tank, and by hooks or otherwise 

 fasten it to the bottom so that it remains fixed. Have 

 the hose, fastened to the side, so as to be a little above 

 the top of the pail. Fill the tank with water to the 

 dotted line, and arrange so that it cannot fill more and 

 submerge the pail. Now put a 50-cent oil stove, U, into 



Plant of Kniphofia (Tritonia) Northle. 



the pail, with oil enough to run it one hour, and put it 

 (lighted) into the bottom of the pail. Put on the pail 

 cover, and the water in the tank will soon be warm 

 enough. It is best to have a cover for the tank that can 

 be shut down and hold in the heat that escapes from the 

 pail. The tube, (z, supplies the air to keep the fire going. 

 The fire, of course, goes out when the oil fails, and there 

 can be no possible danger. A pint of oil, costing less 

 than one cent, will warm a tank of water. The cost of 

 this apparatus, all told, is : Pail, $1 ; stove, 50 cts.; hose, 

 20cts.; the rest — gumption. — Country Gentleman. 



The Tribow Fruit-Basket, first illustrated and de- 

 scribed in The American Garden, is becoming popu- 

 lar with growers at 

 Winona. Tribow 

 means simply 

 "three handles," 

 and in this con- 

 sists its peculiar- 

 ity. The handles 

 seem to be a com- 

 plete protection 

 for the fruit. The 

 baskets may be 

 piled upon one 

 another as high as 

 may be necessary, 

 without injury to 

 the fruit ; and fur- 

 ther, the handles will so separate layers of baskets from 

 one another as to afford a free circulation of air. — Ca?ia- 

 diati Horticulturist . 



Kniphofia Northiae. — The accompanying illustration 



The Tribow Fruit-Basket. 



of the entire plant, as now growing in the open air at 

 Belgrove, gives a good idea of the fine appearance of its 

 handsome foliage. It is, however, only valuable, from 

 a horticultural point of view, for its foliage ; its flow- 

 ers are unfortunately of no beauty whatever, having, 

 when produced under glass as in the succulent-house at 

 Kew, when more or less starved in a pot, a pale green 

 tube with white tips ; and when bloomed in the open air 

 from a fully nourished plant, flowers of a dull orange 

 color with lighter tips. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



Natural Devices for Cross- Fertilization. — Exam- 

 'ne a bunch of flowers from the Indian-bean tree [Catalpa 

 hipionioides). The flower is somewhat two-lipped, with 

 five irregular lobes to the corolla, and a groove in the 

 under lip leading into the tube. The stamens are two, 

 and open — as it would seem — inwardly, but they really 

 open outwards {exirorse), because the pistil is in back 

 of them. In a young flower the style is pressed against 

 the upper lip of the corolla by the two stamens, which, 

 as has already been stated, shed their pollen from the 

 pistil, and so cannot possibly fertilize it. See left-hand 

 figure. Later, when the pollen has been shed, the sta- 

 mens relax, and the style forces its way through them 

 and bends downwardly into the tube of the corolla, at 

 the same time ripening the two stigmatic surfaces, which 

 spread apart. See right-hand figure. It can now be 

 seen that an insect on entering a flower in the first stage 

 would get its back dusted with pollen, and on coming in 



contact with the ripe y— ~\ ^ y ^ 



and declining style 

 of a riper flower, it 

 would invariably 

 fertilize the same. 

 There are a few 

 points which might 

 prove that this is 

 not the original 

 state of the flower, 

 and that formerly it 



was regular, and fertilized itself. The three stamin. 

 oidea at the base of the corolla account for the three 

 missing stamens, and the reason they have atrophied is, 

 there was no use for them. The torsion in the fila- 

 ments of the two remaining stamens, which can plainly 

 be seen, has taken place from within outwards, com- 

 prising a turn of 180 degrees. Without these changes 

 we would have a flower with five stamens opening 

 toward the pistil, making it possible to fertilize itself. 

 So we see that the necessity for cross-fertilization among 

 plants is so great that they will develop for themselves 

 devices which almost seem to be the result of a reason- 

 ing process. — Popular Science News. 



E. P. Roe Strawberry. — A new strawberry is being 

 introduced from New York state bearing the honored 

 name of E. P. Roe. Mr. Roe was extremely difiident 

 about giving his name to any of his seedlings or intro- 

 ductions, and we may be excused for wishing that any 

 fruit named for him, expecially the strawberry, his favor- 

 ite, shall be, at least, not 2d rate. — Orchard and Garden. 



Development in Catalpa 

 Flowers. 



