132 



THE AMERICAN GARDEN. 



[July, 



spaces allotted to them as well as conditions 

 permitted, so that the Eose tables appeared J 

 to good advantage, although, of course, the 

 collections were not nearly as good as we 

 have frequently seen them at the monthly 

 meetings of the society. Yet there were 

 many other choice plants in the hall, which 

 were much admired. 



E. D. Sturtevant, of Bordentown, N. J., 

 exhibited a new Water Lily from South 

 Africa — Nymphcea Zanzibariensis —with deep 

 royal purple flowers of exquisite fragrance. 

 Several rare and choice Orchids were ex- 

 hibited by Mrs. Morgan. James Halloway 

 showed a magnificent specimen of Dasylirion 

 in flower, with a spike reaching ten feet in 

 the air. A large, well-trained specimen of 

 Clerodendron Bai 'fourii, which its exhibitor 

 insisted on dubbing " Cladoradendron Bell- 

 borica," was completely covered with 

 flowers, and attracted a large share of atten- 

 tion. The platform was tastefully decorated 

 with Palms and various foliage plants, while 

 miscellaneous collections of Coleus, Gerani- 

 ums, Abutilons, etc., etc., lent brightness 

 and color to the whole. 



NATIONAL CONVENTION OF AMERICAN 

 SEEDSMEN. 



This association held its first meeting in 

 this city from the 12th to the 14th of last- 

 month. Nearly all the leading seedsmen, or 

 their representatives, were present. So far, 

 little more than the organization has been 

 perfected, officers elected, committees ap- 

 pointed, and plans laid for future action. 



When the extent and importance of the 

 seed trade in the United States is consid- 

 ered, it seems presumable that an organiza- 

 tion of this kind might be desirable and 

 productive of benefit to its members, as well 

 as tend to foster and promote the agricult- 

 ural and horticultural interests of the country 

 in general. 



The convention closed with an enjoyable 

 and delightful excursion tendered to the 

 visitors by the New-York Seed Trade. The 

 steamer Magenta having been engaged for 

 the occasion, a large company of ladies and 

 gentlemen participated in the sail up the 

 Hudson, then around the lower part of Man- 

 hattan Island, up the East River under the 

 famous bridge, around Blackwell's Island, 

 down the Bay, through the Narrows and far 

 out in the open sea, till the lowering sun ad- 

 monished to return. An elegant luncheon 

 served on board was deservedly appreciated 

 by the guests. All parted well pleased with 

 the trip, and convinced that their visit to 

 New-York, and the forming of a nearer 

 acquaintance with those whose interests are 

 so closely allied with their own, has been 

 time well spent, regretting only that the 

 pleasant hours have passed all too fleeting. 



AMERICAN NURSERYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



The members of this society held their 

 annual convention, in St. Louis, on the 21st 

 Mini 22d of June. Many nurserymen and 

 others interested in various horticultural 

 pursuits were present, nearly every State in 

 the Union being represented. Many valu- 

 able papers were read and discussed. 

 Through the efforts of ex-Governor Colman, 

 the president of the society, and the atten- 

 tions and hospitality of the citizens of St. 

 Louis, the occasion was made very pleasant 

 for the guests. 



THE CHINESE BAMBOO. 



A Bamboo, be it said, can be put to more 

 uses than any other thing of the vegetable 

 kind in the world. What would our opposite 

 neighbors in the Celestial Empire do without 

 it ? It is employed for nearly every eonceiv- 

 . able, besides some almost inconceivable pur- 

 poses on land and water, and even in the 

 air ; for kites are made of it, and so are the 

 queer little whistles bound to the tame 

 pigeons to frighten crows from the grain- 

 fields. It can be used in the whole cane, in 

 strips, in segments, or in threads, and no 

 I part comes amiss. The tubes are suitable 

 for water-pipes, and so it answers for aque- 

 ducts ; it is so strong that foot-bridges are 

 constructed of it, and light enough for rafts ; 

 so available that a whole house can be built of 

 j it — the frame, the thatch, the lattices, the 

 partitions; and it furnishes material for the 

 tables and chairs, and some of the utensils 

 and decorative articles ; it is so hard that 

 knives are made from thin slices, and so 

 delicate that it may be carved into daintiest 

 ; of boxes, and even thimbles and necklaces ; 

 1 so elastic that baskets are woven of it, so 

 fibrous that it may be twisted into ropes and 

 cordage. It supplies lining for the chests 

 of tea, strands for fishing-nets, strips for 

 fans, and canes stiff enough for oars and 

 spears and palanquin-poles. It is one of the 

 four things without which China would be 

 China no longer : rice for food, tea for drink, 

 silk for wear, and Bamboo for everything. — 

 Amanda B. Harris, in Wide Awake. 



A FIFTEEN -STORY GARDEN. 



Mr. William G. Freeman's garden, one of 

 the finest in Mauch Chunk, says the Gazette, 

 is typical of the "Switzerland of America." 

 It requires a good deal of engineering skill 

 to lay out a garden on a hill two hundred 

 feet high, and so steep that one could only 

 climb it when armed with an alpenstock, and 

 even then only by firmly inserting the toe- 

 I nails in the crevices of ihe red rock that 

 formed the precipitous bluff, and Mr. Free- 

 l man. has accomplished the difficult task. By 

 a liberal outlay of money and labor, he has 

 built a garden containing nearly an acre of 

 ground and separated into fifteen stories by 

 walls built across its entire breadth. The 

 ascent of the stories is by means of a long 

 flight of steps, several hundred in number, 

 and from a rustic arbor, somewhere up in 

 the tenth or eleventh story, a splendid view 

 of the borough is had. 



INSECTS VISITING FLOWERS, 



Mr. A. W. Bennett and Mr. E. M. Christy 

 have been reporting to the Lvnneean Society, 

 of London, the result of their observations on 

 the visits of insects to flowers. As respects 

 preference for particular colors, Mr. Bennett 

 has noticed among the Lepidoptera that 70 

 visits were made to red or pink flowers, 5 to 

 blue, 15 to yellow, and 5 to white; the 

 Diptera paid 9 visits to red or pink, 8 to yel- 

 low, and 20 to white ; Hymenoptera alighted 

 303 times on red or pink flowers, 126 on 

 blue, 11 on yellow, and 1 7 on white flowers. 

 Mr. Christy records in detail the movements 

 of 76 insects, chiefly bees, when engaged in 



visiting 2-100 flowers. He tabulates the 

 same, and concludes'therefrom that insects, 

 notably the bees, decidedly and with intent, 

 confine their successive visits to the same 

 species^of flower. According to him, also, 

 butterflies generally wander aimlessly in 

 their flight; yet some species are fairly 

 methodical in their habit. He believes 

 that it is not by color alone that insects are 

 guided from one flower to another of the 

 same species, and he suggests that the sense 

 of smell maybe brought into play. Bees, he 

 avers, have but poor sight for long distances, 

 but see well at short distances. Of 55 hum- 

 ble-bees watched, 26 visited blue flowers. 

 Of these, 12 were metlnsdie in their visits, 9 

 only irregularly so, and 5 not at all ; 13 vis- 

 ited white flowers, whereof 5 were methodic 

 and 8 the reverse ; 11 visited yellow flowers, 

 of which 5 were methodic and 6 were not; 

 28 visited red flowers, 7 appearing methodic, 

 9 nearly so, while 12 were the contrary. 



A NABOTH'S VINEYARD. 



England's wealthiest baronet is said to be 

 Sir John Eamsden, of Byram, Yorkshire. 

 His rent-roll is computed at $850,000 a 

 year. He owns almost the whole of Hud- 

 dersfield, the great manufacturing center. 

 The little bit he doesn't own was a very Na- 

 both's vineyard to his father, who, according 

 to popular tradition, once offered to its 

 Quaker owner to cover it with sovereigns if 

 he would sell it. " Edgewise, friend Eams- 

 den? " quoth the Quaker . "In that case it is 

 thine ; otherwise all Huddersfield must still 

 belong to thee and me." " Edgewise " was. 

 rather more than the baronet could swallow. 



DURABILITY OF POSTS, 



It has long been a disputed point whether 

 posts set in the ground " top end down " will 

 last longer than when set in the position in 

 which they grew. To obtain a satisfactory 

 answer to this question, some fifteen years 

 ago, when building Grape trellises, we set 

 the posts of one row "upside down," all 

 others " butt end " down. All the posts were 

 Chestnut, and when they commenced to 

 decay we could see no difference in their 

 durability — all came down and had to bo 

 replaced about the same time. 



Professor Beal's careful experiments made 

 at the Michigan Agricultural College, with 

 different kinds of timber, showed the same 

 results. In some eases it was the "top end 

 down" which lasted longer, in others the 



j "bottom end down," and sometimes there 

 was no difference in durability ; from which 



! it is inferred that where one piece decayed 

 more than the other, it was caused by some 

 trifling differences in the sticks. 



NIGHT-BLOOMING CEREUS, 



At a recent meeting of the Torrey Botani- 

 cal Club, New-York, Dr. Kunze showed a 

 Cereus serpentinus and fruit, a Cactus which 

 is not known to have hitherto perfected its 

 fruit in the United States. The flower was 

 fertilized with pollen a year old, taken from 

 Cereus Macdonaldice. The doctor stated that 

 some of these night-blooming Cerei some- 

 times flower in day-time, an occurrence prob- 

 ably due to a fall in the temperature. 



