l82 



THE Y SA V. 



" Florist's Flowers." — This is a term often used by 

 foreign floricultural writers, and one we are frequently 

 asked to define. Tljey are flowers with established 

 characters or habits, and such as can be propagated by 

 cuttings or division of roots or tubers. The term is 

 generally applied to greenhouse and hardy plants that 

 have been produced by hybridization and selection. 

 When a cross between species has been secured, an in- 

 numerable number of varieties will be, the result ; some 

 of these are desirable, and can only be retained by cut- 

 tings, as seedlings of any variety are not constant. This 

 is particularly the case with the verbena. If we saw the 

 seeds from any desired plant, for instance a scarlet with 

 a white eye, there is no probability that we should get 

 one plant in a hundred like the parent, and in a hundred 

 plants we could not get two precisely alike. Therefore, 

 to reproduce these varieties we must propagate by cut- 

 tings, which is the work of the florist ; hence, the name 

 "florist's flowers," in distinction from such as are 

 grown from seed. The term is also applicable to such 

 as the gladiolus and the hyacinth, which, when propa- 

 gated from the small bulblets that form at the base of 

 the old bulb, will reproduce the variety, but never when 

 grown from seed. — Queens, 



Recuperative Power of Trees. — A very large holly, 

 or rather clump of hollies, grew upon the edge of a 

 marsh on the Rappahannock river. The very high tides 

 and heavy rains of the past year so loosened the roots in 

 the soft, yielding soil that the tree fell over and lay quite 

 prostrate upon its side. While lying there it continued 

 to live, but its weight drove some of its boughs several 

 inches in the earth. Here these broken stumps of 

 branches plowed furrows in the earth from the action 

 of the wind, and became encrusted with earth dug from 

 these furrows. Having occasion recently to pass the 

 tree, I was surprised to find that the entire tree had 

 righted itself several feet and resumed almost its former 

 position. The fact was evident, as there still remained 

 the furrows which the broken limbs had plowed and the 

 limbs themselves were still coated with the earth which 

 had been excavated, but they had risen so much from 

 the earth that they could not be brought back into the 

 furrows again even by a strong exertion. I never heard 

 of such an instance as this restoration to its former po- 

 sition of so large a tree as this holly, which must have 

 been quite ten or twelve inches in diameter, and fully 

 thirty feet tall. — P. S. Hunter, Essex County, Va. 



Abandoned Farms. — Do city people know where 

 some of the abandoned farms in New Hampshire are lo- 

 cated, which the State is trying to people with foreign- 

 ers ? Some are reported in the town of Jackson, which 

 is near the heart of the mountains, and the grandest 

 scenery in New England. Jackson is beyond North 

 Conway, not far from Tuckerman's ravine, the Glen 

 House, the Crawford House, and probably the nearest 

 point to the largest mountains where land could be 

 bought at any price. Much of the scenery that has 

 been credited by artists to North Conway, is in the 

 town of Jackson and vicinity. Why not buy a delight- 



ful summer home ? This land will be priceless some 

 day. — Boston Suburb. 



A Good Planer for Soft Ground. — It is eight feet 



long and four feet wide, made of two-inch plank, with a 

 hard-wood cleat three inches wide and an inch thick on 

 the bottcJm. The planks are nailed firmly to two pieces 

 of timber, one end of each piece of timber beingvcut at 

 such an angle that the plank nailed to it is slightly in- 

 clined, so as to be drawn over the ground more easily. 

 The cleat is nailed to the middle of the flat part. It is 

 drawn by two horses after the ground has been thor- 

 oughly harrowed, and crowds down the stones and 

 grinds up any lumps of earth. It may be driven round 

 the ground or back and forth. In using the drag the 

 driver stands on it. It is useful in laying fields down to 

 grass, the seed of which is the finest we sow. Labor is 

 the great expense in farming, and the less we can use the 

 better we can compete with those more favorably sit- 

 uated. We have got to manage better and be sharper 

 than before we were subjected to such competition. A 

 brush harrow would be better on top-dressed land than 

 the drag. The latter needs the weight of the driver ; it 

 carries a little wave of earth in front and fills up the 

 horse tracks. 



Rose Experiments. — Who is to be the pioneer of 

 seedlings in the rose department ? The opportunity is 

 wide for the production of seedlings of free-blooming 

 varieties which shall be hardy enough to withstand the 

 difficulties of our changeable climate. We hear that ex- 

 periments have been made in New York by crossing 

 with Rosa rugosa, which is undoubtedly a true basis to 

 work from. Judging from experience, it would seem 

 wise to promote interest in this department by offering 

 liberal prizes, — Wm, H, Spooner. 



Barnum Should Have This! — Alexander Grogan, 

 West Rutherford, has just received by mail from his 

 brother in Mirzapore, in the northwestern part of India, 

 a plant about a foot long. It is now withered and ap- 

 parently dead. It belongs to a species indigenous to 

 the torrid plant of Hindustan, and a few months ago it 

 was regarded with awe and reverence, not unmingled, 

 perhaps, with disgust, by the natives. It is an electri- 

 cal plant, and has, when in full bloom, a current of 

 electricity passing through it so powerful that a strong 

 man touching it is staggered by the shock. Birds com- 

 ing in contact with it are killed at once, — but they 

 usually give it a wide berth. Insects are slain by thou- 

 sands on its leaves, and four-footed creatures rarely go 

 near it. It is electrified only when the sun is high. Its 

 power wanes with the closing day, and at night the force 

 of its current is not perceptible. During the rainy sea- 

 son, too, it is almost inert. Dr. Grogan will try to re- 

 vive it, but he has not much hope of success. — N. Y. 

 Tribune. 



Don't get in a Hurry to make garden when the first 

 warm days come. Take time. Time is lost by putting 

 plants out too early. It is only onions and peas that 

 ordinarily endure much bad weather in spring. 



