284 



Fertility without Fertilization. — Grreat 

 surprise was occasioned some years ago by Mr. 

 Smith, of Kew, announcing that Coeleboygne illici- 

 folia, an Euphorbiaceous plant, produced seeds 

 rom the only plant in England, and that plant a 

 female. The following from the Gardener s Chron- 

 icle explains it : 



" Dr. Miiller adopts Karsten's observations in re- 

 gard to Coelebogyne (an unfortunate hybrid word, 

 not improved byBraun's alteration into Caelebogyne, 

 here adopted by the author, who has not noticed 

 that John Smith wrote it differently) which were 

 too generally ridiculed by botanists in this country. 

 They give the only satisfactory explanation of the 

 seeds in a dioecious plant, without contact with the 

 staminal flowers. Mr. Smith succeeded in rais- 

 ing plants from the seeds of his female plants, 

 and he could not discover any pollen -bearing organs 

 connected with them. In the discussion that arose 

 out of this curious fact it was maintained by Naudin 

 and Decaisne that the female plants could produce 

 perfectly ripe seed ; Klotsch held that the seed was 

 without an embryo , but had instead a bud ; iiraun 

 determined that the seed contained a true embrj^o, 

 but he discovered a pollen grain on the stigma, 

 although he could not trace its origin ; Karsten 

 noticed that some female flowers occasionally bore 

 a somewhat deformed stamen the anther of which 

 contained perfect pollen ; and Muller, although he 

 has not seen a female plant that was starainferous, 

 sees no reason for doubting this observation, as a 

 similar phenomenon has been frequently observed 

 in the Euphorbiaceous genera. 



floods each deserted bend or lake with the main river 

 through which large floating logs may pass. These 

 often form rafts and become covered with soil sup- 

 porting shrubs and trees. At first such green 

 islands are blown from one part of the lake to an- 

 other by the winds ; but the deciduous Cypress, if 

 it springs up in such a soil, sends down strong roots, 

 many feet or yards long, so as to cast anchor in the 

 muddy bottom, rendering the island stationary." 



A Floating Island.— One not unfrequent inci- 

 dent in the Hfe of the Swamp Cypress is its grow- 

 ing on floating islands in the creeks connected with 

 the Mississippi, and by its long roots anchoring them 

 and converting them into stationery land. " One 

 of my fellow passengers," says Sir C. Lyell (Second 

 Visit, ii., p. 186), "urged me to visit Lake Solitude, 

 'because,' said he, 'there is a floating island in it, 

 well wooded, on which a friend of mine once landed 

 from a canoe, when to his surprise it began to sink 

 with his weight. In great alarm he climbed aCypress 

 tree, which also began immediately to go down 

 with him as fast as he ascended. He mounted 

 higher and higher into its boughs, until at length 

 it ceased to subside, and looking round he saw in 

 every direction, for a distance of 50 yards, the whole 

 wood in motion. ' ' On inquiry Sir Charles learned the 

 explanation of this marvellous tale. It appears that 

 there is always a bayou or channel connecting during 



Hybridizing Fruits.— T'/ie Journal of the Ro- 

 yal Horticultural Society contained some time since 

 an account of experiments made by John Sandish, 

 florist, in hybridization, which were confined to 

 greenhouse grapes and fruits. He raised 500 grape 

 seedlings and fruited 400 sorts. One of their most 

 successful experiments was with the Muscat of 

 Alexandria, bearing an oval grape, very difficult to 

 cultivate ; and the Troveren, bearing a round 

 grape and a remarkable free grower. The 

 former was made the female parent. The best re- 

 sult of many experiments was a large, early black 

 grape, oval in shape, and having the slightest pos- 

 sible taste of the Muscat. The most remarkable 

 case was a perfect miniature of the Mtiscat of Alex- 

 andria, perfectly oval, with the strongest Muscat 

 flavor, but in size not larger than a red currant ! 



He succeeded in obtaining peaches with Necta- 

 rine flavor. The Nectarines, made the female 

 plants, were the Violette Hative, Pitmaston Orange 

 and the Stanwick, crossed with the Noblesse and 

 Barrington peaches. Although the Yiolette Hative 

 Nectarine had a small flower, still when crossed 

 with the large flowering peaches, eight out of twelve 

 were large large-flowered ; and out of fifteen kinds, 

 fruited in one summer, only one was a nectarine, 

 the others were all peaches, most of them with the 

 nectarine flavor. 



GrRAET Hybrid. — Anderson Henry, in a paper 

 read before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, 

 March 14th, says : "Since writing the account, I have 

 just read of the Cytisus purpurascens, or Cytisus 

 Adami, and stating, as I have done, on the author- 

 ity of a notice given of it in Lindiey and Moore's 

 "Treasury of Botany," of its being a hybrid, I have 

 this morning, read another account of its origin in 

 The Farmer of yesterday, where, reporting the 

 proceedings of the last meeting of the Boyal Horti- 

 cultural Society, it is stated — 'Mr. Lee, Clivedenj 

 Bristol, sent most remarkably dissimilar examples 

 of Apples from the same branch of a tree of Orange 

 Pearmain, which was a fertile subject of comment 

 at the meeting. The tree was the true variety, and 



