19 



that Cryptogaraic plants hj^bridize more readily 

 than flowering plants. There is a hybrid moss, be- 

 tween two distinct genera, known to Botanists, the 

 name of which we do not now remember, but raised 

 between the well known and common moss, Funaria 

 hygronietrica, and the Phsycomitrium fasciculare. 



We believe no popular treatise on the hybridiza- 

 tion of Ferns and Mosses has ever been published. 

 One of the most accomplished students in the world 

 in this interesting brc^nch of the vegetable kingdom, 

 is probably Mr. Thomas P. James, whose essay on 

 Ferns and Mosses, before the Pennsylvania Horti- 

 cultural Society last year, is familiar to our readers. 

 If he could spare time to give our readers a chap- 

 ter on the subject it would be aippreciated. ] 



Value of Back Volumes— Nursery Cata- 

 logues —/i^e?;. Henry Ward Beecher writes: "I 

 send my annual dues for the Gardener s Monthly. 

 It is not only one of my necessaries of life, but a 

 luxury as well, and I cannot afford to do without it. 

 A good gardening paper, unlike a newspaper, is as 

 good five or ten years after date as when issued. 

 In numbers of Dr. Lindley's English Journal^ 

 which I used to take twenty years ago, in Indiana, 

 are good reading yet. There is much in Horticul- 

 ture that is fanciful and tentative, which is of little 

 interest after a year or two ; but it was of just as 

 little use or interest when published. 



Do you think it honest or honorable for a nurse- 

 ryman to publish in his catalogue a full list of all 

 trees and shrubs in all their varieties, take an order 

 from a gentleman for fifty or sixty kinds, without a 

 word, and then at the very heels of the season, 

 send two species only out of fifty, saying that they 

 had none of the others? 1 lost a year by such 

 treatment at the hands of a Boston nurseryman, 

 and I did not like it, and do not yet." 



[A nurseryman may, by a sudden turn of popu- 

 larity on a particular plant, get unexpectedly "sold 

 out" of some items named in a catalogue. Very 

 rarely can any nurseryman keep constantly on hand 

 everything in his list. Some unprincipled firms 

 take advantage of this to get out long lists of things 

 which they never have — simply for efi"ect — trusting 

 to chance to get them if ordered. Mr. Beecher' s 

 note will have the effect of calling attention to this 

 evil. In the case he mentions, if by any stretch the 

 conduct can be termed honest, it certainly was any 

 thing but honorable.] 



Sowing Magnolia Seeds— ^. K P., Gales- 

 burg, Ills., writes: " Meehan's 'Handbook,' in 

 speaking of the Magnolia, says : ' plant seeds as 



soon as ripe,' and yet I know of some being planted 

 here in the spring. How can the seeds be preserved 

 through the winter, and when should they be 

 planted in the spring ? is a question which often 

 arises in the mind of a beginner, and which I would 

 be pleased to have you answer." 



[There are many seeds which, if their shells are 

 once allowed to harden, take a long time to soften. 

 The Magnolia is one of these. If dried through 

 winter, and sown in spring, they will not come up 

 till the spring following, and if very m.uch dried 

 will not come up at all. Sowing " as soon as ripe," 

 is the best security against this risk. 



But if kept cool from the time of ripening until 

 the spring comes, and then sown early, they will do 

 as well as if sown as soon as ripe. It is heat which 

 dries and injures seeds ; and the whole secret of 

 keeping seeds of any kind for spring sowing, is not 

 to let them dry up. ] 



loNA Vines from Vineland. — Mr. J. W. 

 Cone sends us samples of vines one year from eyes, 

 raised in the op^n air, to show wUat Vineland can 

 produce. They are equal to the best any one can 

 grow, and although Vineland may be a "sandy 

 spot," it is not by any means a barren sand. 



The best Concords we saw anywhere the past 

 season was at Mr. Cone's. His crop looked so 

 tempting that some straggler who had dropped in 

 ahead of us gave him $10,000 for his 15 acre farm, 

 a rise of $7000 over what Mr. Cone gave four years 

 before. W e thought highly of Vineland, and of the 

 enterprising people we found there. We are glad 

 of the chance to say this, as we had not a very high 

 opinion of the place previously to this our first visit. 



White Black Cap Raspberry.— J/r. Matti- 

 son writes : "A friend of mine who had a fine row 

 of the common Black Cap Raspberry, found in the 

 row a seedling that came up. The wood is bright 

 yellow, also the fruit ; it |has the appearance of a 

 regular Black Cap, with the exception of the color 

 of the wood and fruit. I am informed that it 

 is as productive as the common Black Caps. Would 

 something of this kind be desirable if it should 

 prove equal to the common Black Cap ?" 



[White Black Caps are not uncommon, but none 

 have been found so hardy, or to bear so well as the 

 others, which, by the way is another instance of the 

 the correctness of Dr. Stayman's theory of color 

 and hardiness.] 



Catalogue op Roses. — M. writes: "In a re- 

 cent number of the Monthly, a wish was expressed 



