THE \ SA Y. 



627 



Green Tomato Siueet Pickle. — Pick large green toma- 

 toes, being very careful not to break the skin ; put them 

 in very strong brine and let them lie any length of time 

 until it is convenient to attend to them. Sometimes I 

 leave mine until December. Take them out of the brine 

 and cover with clear water ; set on the back of the stove 

 and keep warm, but don't let them boil on any account. 

 Keep changing the water, letting it heat up each time 

 until they are fresh, by which time they will also be soft 

 enough. Put them in the pan and pour over them the 

 hot vinegar prepared as for any sweet pickles. They are 

 splendid. 



Butternut Pickles. — Gather the nuts before the shell is 

 woody ; when a large needle can be thrust into them 

 they are still sufficiently tender. Make a strong brine 

 and while boiling hot, turn it on the nuts. Let them 

 stand in the brine nine days, making fresh brine every 

 three days. Place the nuts on a sieve to drain, leaving 

 them until they turn black. Ascertain the amount of 

 vinegar required to cover them, and to every quart 

 allow half an ounce each of mace, cloves, pepper and 

 mustard seed, and an eighth of an ounce of ginger 

 root. Steep the spices in the vinegar, and turn it boil- 

 ing hot on the nuts. Repeat this boiling process every 

 day for three days. 



The Defoliation of Trees in Autumn. — The phe- 

 nomenon of rapid defoliation in the fall is one which 

 may be often observed in our common trees. The 

 causes at work are not a little mysterious, but some un- 

 derstanding of them may be gained by considering the 

 method of formation of the separating cork-plane. This 

 cork-plane begins to be formed sometimes as early as the 

 summer, and by autumn extends almost entirely across 

 the leaf-stalk. All that is needed to insure complete 

 severance is the formation of a few more cells, and the 

 ripening of the whole into a readily separable condi- 

 tion. A sharp frost seems to hasten this final process in a 

 very effectual manner, for, so far as we have observed, 

 it is just after a "cold snap" that we have the most 

 marked defoliation. The exact way in which sudden 

 cold acts to put all parts in readiness for the separation 

 is not clear, but it may be fairly surmised that its effect 

 is felt not so much in the production of new cells as in 

 the ripening of those already formed. All who have 

 prepared specimens for an herbarium know that, with 

 many plants, the leaves separate from the plant spon- 

 taneously during drying. This shows clearly that cold 

 is not necessary to the process of defoliation, and leads 

 us to make the suggestion that it may be a dryness that 

 comes with the cold, rather than the temperature itself, 

 which gives the final touch. — F. L. Sargent, in Popular 

 Science Neuis. 



An English Growl. — The apologists for the "com- 

 mon" or "popular" names of plants, as against scien- 

 tific designations, can take comfort from the following : 



Between "the language of flowers," as understood 

 by the young people, and the terminology of the florist 

 or scientific botanist there is a world-wide difference. 

 It may be that "the rose by any other name would 



smell as sweet," but most people prefer the homely 

 names of flowers to the incredible jargons in which 

 scientific horticulturists revel. At the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society the chairman of the scientific com- 

 mittee .exhibited drawings and specimens of the flower 

 of a perfectly new plant, a " bigener," a sort of hybrid 

 between two such dissimilar parents as the raspberry 

 and the strawberry. Of this strange addition to the 

 vegetable world, we are told that "it is generally con- 

 sidered to be Rubrus Leesii Bab. " We do not dispute this 

 statement, butwhen we are further told that "pedicel and 

 sepals are finely setose, that it wants the epicalyx of the 

 strawberry, and, moreover, that the carpels are not gla- 

 brous," we are lost in admiration of the copiousness of 

 the English language. Of another remarkable hybrid, 

 a cross between the black currant and the gooseberry, 

 which was shown at the same meeting, we are told that 

 " the foliage resembles that of the gooseberry," rather 

 than of the other parent plant, which is clear enough ; 

 but what are we to understand when, in further descrip- 

 tion, we are informed that "the infloresence is a many- 

 flowered raceme," "the sepal lobes erect, the stamens 

 contabescent, and the 'style' villous?" But there are 

 profounder depths yet in these technical descriptions 

 than any we have quoted. Two botanists, the other 

 day, were growing warm over an argument in reference 

 to " the septicidal dehisence of a pericarp between the 

 laminae of the dissepiment." Here, m sadness be it 

 said, we feel compelled to draw the line. The "style" 

 is "villous," or, as we should prefer to call it, villain- 

 ous. — Evening Standard i^Lojidon). 



Two French Entanglements. — Two interesting and 

 somewhat amusing notes concerning America appear in 

 a late number of a French horticultural journal [L Il- 

 lustration Horticole). The one speaks of the mystic 

 nymphaea of the Nile, with leaves pubescent beneath, 

 and flesh-white blossoms, as being found in great abund- 

 ance in the marshes southwest of Chicago ! It also 

 states that it has been proved beyond a doubt, that more 

 than two centuries ago the aborigines of America ate the 

 root of this lotus, roasted in ashes. As it was first 

 mentioned by a Frenchman who visited this region in 

 1671, a trifle more than two centuries ago, no doubt the 

 information has descended in direct French line to the 

 present time ! 



The other note refers to our struggle for a national 

 flower, and may be translated as follows : "After politi- 

 cal flowers, such as the royalist Jieur-de-lis and the im- 

 perial violet, come the national flowers. The chrysan- 

 themum, the symbolic flower of Japan, gives Americans 

 no rest. The United States is even now seeking a 

 national flower. Some propose the hawthorn, which 

 would be very charming ; others dream of the laurel, 

 which would perhaps be a trifle arrogant for republi- 

 cans ; while others — and they are; we are assured, the 

 most numerous — give preference to the cytise." "Cy- 

 tise" is the French for "false ebony," or American 

 ebony, as it is sometimes called. It is more commonly 

 known as laburnum, and is also called "golden chain. " It 



