189 



the average given to other kinds, is essential to 

 success. — Gardeners Weekly. 



The Double Cocoa Nut of the Seychelles 

 Island. — Found only in two small Islands lying in 

 4° 5° S Lat. 55° 56° E. L. 300 miles northeast of 

 Madagascar. The old French found the large nuts 

 floating on the sea. They called it "Coco demer," 

 as not knowing any tree which bore them, they sup- 

 posed it to be a product of the Ocean. 



In Islands where Polygamy prevailed, the nuts, 

 for their supposed restorative properties brought 

 most fabulous prices. 



In 1742 these Islands were discovered. Large 

 forests of these trees were then found. One hun- 

 dred years it requires for its full growth, — no one 

 knows how long they last. The common cocoa nut 

 bends to every gale, but this stands erect under all 

 the most terrible hurricanes of the tropics. 



At thirty years of age the female blossoms appear. 

 It is merely the germ of the nut, and very minute. 

 The female tree never grows by 20 feet, so large as the 

 male. The male flowers is an enormous catkin 3 

 feet long, by 3 feet wide. A single catakui produ- 

 cing a succession of stamens for eight or ten years. 



The weight of the fruit is enormous. Eleven nuts 

 have been counted on one stalk, each nut 40 lbs. 

 Four or five is the average number on a stalk. 



It is ten years after the flowers open, before the 

 fruit matures ; four years before the embryro fruit 

 reaches its fml size. The nut is about 18 inches 

 long, heart shaped, with two separate compartments 

 enveloped like the cocoa-nut in fibre. 



The base of the trunk is of a bulbous form. This 

 bulb fits into a natural bowl, about 2 J feet in dia- 

 meter, and 18 inches deep, narrowing towards the 

 bottom. The bowl is perforated with hundreds of 

 small holes, through which the roots penetrate to 

 the earth. The bowl is of the same substance as 

 the nut, and is believed never rots or wears out. 



Fire, and the enormous price of the nuts, which 

 for their sake, causes many a fine tree to e cut 

 down, will soon cause this remarkable palm to be 

 entirely extinct. 



History of Improved Pansies. — It is impos- 

 sible to say at what precise period the parent of our 

 garden varieties of Heartsease, or Pansy, first at- 

 tracted the attention of some zealous and far-seeing 

 florist, who either spared it while destroying the 

 other weeds in his garden, or transplanted it thither 

 from the corn field or waste where he found it grow- 

 ing, for the plant (Viola tricolor), is a native one. 

 At whatever date it was first introduced into gar- 



dens, the beginning of the century found it an occu- 

 pant of our mixed flower-borders, and in a state 

 very considerable improved as compared with the 

 parent ; and its convenient mode of reproducing 

 itself from seed, served the twofold purpose of ori- 

 ginating new varieties and new plants to supply the 

 place of the old ones, which seldom survived the 

 hardships of a half a dozen years. 



The Pansy, however, was never honored with 

 much attention until about the year 1825, when its 

 great adaptability to improvement, and the almost 

 incalculable manner in which it could be propaga- 

 ted, as compared with the Auricula, Ranunculus, 

 Tulip, &c., by which it had been preceded, led some 

 enthusiastic person to bring it into notice ; and so 

 rapid was the improvement in its form and colors, 

 that the botanist seemed almost at a loss whether 

 to set down the fashionable occupants of a pan of 

 Heartsease at a flower show as belonging to the ge- 

 nus Viola or not. 



That all the improvements where effected at one 

 time and by one individual it is scarcely necessary 

 to say was not the case. A long category of names, 

 includi g most of the celebrities of the day, lent 

 able and skillful hands to the work. Amateurs and 

 professionals alike entered into the spirit of the 

 time, while censors settled the points by which the 

 merits of each flower were to be judged. This work 

 of course, occupied some time; but I believe there 

 was no previous example of a plant so quickly be- 

 coming fashionable, and at the same time so rapid- 

 ly approaching perfection. The Dahlia was in the 

 field some few years prior to it, but was several years 

 in making much progress out of the single condition 

 in which it first reached us. The Pansy, however, 

 being a second-class border flower, was quickly ele- 

 vated into the condition of an occupant of the same 

 beds that the Tulip, Ranuncuhis, &c., had held years 

 before. Like them, the opening of fresh flowers 

 was watched with interest. I believe the best varie- 

 ties then in cultivation were first dignified with dis- 

 tinct names about 1829 ; and from 1832 to 1842 may 

 be regarded as the most fashionable period of this 

 flower. — Cottage Gardener. 



JorfiriifiuFal Jlo!ir?8* 



WORCESTER CO. (MASS.) HORTICVL- 

 TURAL SOCIETY. 



We have before us the annual report of Secre- 

 tary Lincoln, for 1866, by which it appears that on 

 the 13th day of April, 1842, the Worcester County 

 Horticultural Society was incorporated. 



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