SOME TREES AND SHRUBS. 



221 



In transplanting, the field is marked out in rows three 

 feet apart, and the roots are put two feet apart in the 

 rows. They are planted with a dibble, inserting each 

 root wholly in the ground, down to the leaves, and press- 

 ing the soil firmly around them. If all the conditions 

 are favorable — and plenty of moisture is the all import- 

 ant one — the plants will scarcely receive a check and 

 soon make new roots, and 

 shoot up in branchy stalks, 

 which will, by the first of 

 Julv, completely cover the 

 ground. To ripen the seed 

 perfectly, dry weather is im- 

 portant. In favorable sea- 

 sons the crop will be ready 

 to harvest in September. At 

 the time of flowering, the 

 roots attain an enormous 

 size. The long varieties are 

 often the size of a large long 

 blood beet, and the turnip- 

 rooted varieties as large as 

 turnips. The stalks grow 

 from three to four feet high 

 in ordinary soil, and in more 

 favored places from four to 

 five feet. 



Unless the season is very 

 favorable for ripening the 

 seed and drying the pods, the 

 stalks must be stacked like 

 wheat and remain in that condition until the following 

 season, as it is almost impossible to thresh the seed 

 clean until the pods are perfectly dry ; but a more im- 

 portant reason is that if thrashed too soon the seed is 

 liable to heat, unless very thinly spread in a dry 

 room, which the small farmer cannot do, as he has not 

 the facilities. In England, the seed is invariably left in 



Fig. 



stacks until the following year before threshing. In 

 threshing the flail is still used, and the threshing floor is 

 the hard ground in front of the dwelling, except with the 

 very few of the large farmers who have sufficient barn 

 room for the purpose, and even then, in most instances, 

 the floor is earth, firmly packed down. 



The seed is cleaned by the use of hand sieves of vari- 

 ous sizes, which is a very 

 slow process, as the larger 

 pieces of pod must be picked 

 out by hand, while the finer 

 are carried off by the wind. 

 There is also considerable 

 -<j gravel taken up with the. 

 seed, which must be taken 

 out by hand. Mills for 

 cleaning the seed are to be 

 found at the warehouses of 

 all the foreign dealers who 

 have their seeds grown in 

 France, but the growers are 

 too suspicious to permit their 

 use. 



To obtain seed of the win- 

 ter sorts, the seed is sown in 

 the spring, but in drills 

 much farther apart, and the 

 plants given more room in 

 the drill. They may be 

 transplanted in the fall, but 

 the more common and better 

 practice is to take them up in the fall and put in trenches, 

 covering slightly with straw, over which a little dirt is 

 thrown to keep it in place. The roots are then put out 

 in March and the crop of seed is ready to harvest the 

 next September, for selling in the trade the following 

 winter. 



Long Isla)id. C, L. Ai.li;n. 



Round White Egg-Plant. 



[to be continued. 



SOME TREES AND SHRUBS. 



Haniaiiielis Virginiia. — The "Witch Hazel" is one of 

 the most interesting plants in our woods. It is not of 

 large or imposing dimensions, but in exceptional cases it 

 attains a height of 20 feet, though being profuse in the 

 production of branches, it is seldom seen more than 15 

 feet high. The peculiar season at which it blooms, 

 together with the fact that it bears flowers and fruit at 

 the same time, is its chief source of popular interest. 

 Of some importance to the medical faculty is the medi- 

 cinal oil obtainable from its seeds. The flowers usually 

 appear in the winter, though sometimes in fall and early 

 spring. The sepals are insignificant, but the long nar- 

 row petals are curious and showy. Numerous clusters 

 of the greenish-yellow fruit may be observed side by 

 side with the flowers. In mere outward form the fruit 

 resembles an acorn flattened at the apex. 



What I suppose to be an abnormal development of it 



came under my notice last season. The deformed fruit 

 was green and covered with soft spines, otherwise it 

 closely resembled the husk or covering of beech nuts in 

 a green state, except that while the beech husk is more 

 or less pointed at the apex, the other was rounded. At 

 the base of each deformed fruit a small aperture was 

 noticeable. On cutting one through, the center was 

 found to be hollow. The interior surface was perfectly 

 smooth and the cavity was well filled with winged in- 

 sects of a dirty black color. The small aperture pene- 

 trated to the interior and may be regarded as a provision 

 for the escape of the insects. On being liberated in a 

 warm atmosphere, the latter showed signs of life bv 

 crawling about in various directions, and under the in- 

 fluence of genial sunshine some of the more robust flew 

 away ; in a cold atmosphere they showed no signs of 

 animation. There was not a single normal fruit upon 



