148 ihn Carta's Jtlonthlg. 



mosses the transition from the algoid pro-thalhum 

 to the leaf forming stem, takes place before impreg- 

 nation, which causes only the development of the 

 spore forming capsule : in the Ferns, on the con- 

 trary, the preparatory structure does not go beyond 

 the leafless pro-thallium, and the advance towards 

 the leaf-forming stem, depends on the impregna- 

 tion. 



Hybrids were known amongst Ferns before the 

 discovery of the impregnation organs. The hybrid 

 must develop, as it were, grafted on the mother 

 plant. Not until the second generation, that de- 

 veloped from the spores of the hybrid, can the pre- 

 paratory structure assume the hybrid nature. From 

 the occurrence of numerous archegonia on the same 

 moss plant, we might except to find when the hy- 

 brid impregnation only afi'ected particular of them, 

 while others were fertilized by the proper species, 

 two kinds of fruit perfected on the same stock, nor- 

 , mal and hybrid fruits." 



Soil of Henry Co., Ills.— J. Correspondent 

 writes: " Those folks who write for the Monthly, 

 about preparing for grapes with one or two hundred 

 loads of manure to the acre, should come here. I 

 have, for 6 or 8 years, raised and sold three or four 

 hundred dollars worth of bushes from my acre It 

 has not been manured, — 200 loads stirred in would 

 ruin it. Most things grow too rank to flower or fruit 

 well, or winter well. Farmers begin to haul ma- 

 nure out of town, but some is piled on the commons 

 and burnt. 



The same proportion of wood ashes that I used 

 in Ohio will destroy corn or cabbage here on my lot. 

 This soil has potash enough, and is loose enough. 

 I have one good underdrain ; parts of my lot I have 

 trenched 3 feet deep : ploughed 7 inches, is as good 

 as any. 



A single rose. Wild Moss, grows here 12 or 18 

 inches high. I have traced their roots seven feet 

 deep : there is a stopping place, but it is a place full 

 of roots in abundance, — of grapes, roses, currants, 

 onions, lilies, tulips, dafi'odils. If any doubt, I'll 

 find the spade and a place to dig. ' ' 



The " London Gtardener's Monthly. "—The 

 Ohio Farmer credits an article to the above source. 

 There is no such magazine. "We make the cor- 

 rection, lest we should be supposed by some to have 

 copied our title from some foreign work, whilst 

 there is nothing we hate so much as the bare sus- 

 picion that we wish to sail into popular appreciation 

 under any other flag but our own. W e found wants 



V — ■"'^sj ' 



Shr- ^ ^^^■^ ^ — — 



unsupplied which no foreign journal could fill, and 

 we decided on an original work, with an original 

 name, for an original want. We know it is popular 

 with publishers to "American" a foreign title. 



The writer of this, many years ago, wrote a little 

 book, which it was insisted should be called "an 

 American " handbook ; and we have "American" 

 journals of Sciences, "American" journals of Hor- 

 ticulture, and "American" names of foreign works 

 innumerable, just as if foreigners had absorbed every 

 idea, and (here was nothing left for Americans but 

 a meek following of the thoughts of others. 



But it is a mistake. There is knowledge and ta- 

 lent in America sufficient to satisfy American wants, 

 without being told at every turn that it is "Amer- 

 ican." To us it seems like the boy who sketched 

 an animal on a slate, and then had to write under- 

 neath "this is the picture of a horse." 



We at any rate thought we had originality enough 

 to at least find a distinctive title to our work ; and 

 we really do not feel at all complimented that our 

 Ohio friend should, even by an unintentional error, 

 as no doubt it was, identify us with any such 

 "operation." 



The American Fruit Culturist.— By J. J, 

 Thomas, New York : William Wood & Co. 



To one whose combativeness is largely developed, 

 and who loves to criticize and "pull to pieces,"new 

 garden books, the past few years have afforded a 

 a rich treat. Men who scarcely know a care wheel 

 from a plow handle, honor us with their views on 

 agriculture ; and others after a hasty glance at 

 Prince's Pomological Manual, the proceedings of 

 the American Pomological Society, or a few leaves 

 torn from Shirley Hibberd's works, get up a "new 

 book," and expect to be classed as amongst the 

 "Authors of the day." It is always painful to us 

 to criticize, — our disposition is to seek rather that 

 which we can praise than something to condemn. 

 We would rather have the honor of being the dis- 

 cover of one new idea that would add to human 

 happiness, than earn the credit of having exposed 

 a thousand faults or failings in other folks. Yet, 

 painful as it has been to us, we have not shrunk 

 from our plain duty of exposing the counterfeits 

 that have so freely been placed in circulation, and 

 we are pleased to see a healthy public sentiment 

 arising which will we are sure produce the much 

 needed reform. 



But as we have scarcely got over our horror of ' 'new 



