I02 
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
In the early times of towns in the old states every goodman 
/Surrounded his g-abelled domicile with an apple orchard and in 
the cool of evening he strolled through the dark lanes of trees. 
But the increase of the town in after years, cut his orchard, like 
Wolfert Webber's cabbage patch, into snug building lots, and 
though many trees were felled to make way for streets and houses 
numbers remained, and to this day the goodman's orchard may be 
seen in the tottering, age-blasted trees in the yards of old houses 
in the ancient parts of the city, some bearing fruit, of varieties 
that long since disappeared, though without doubt we might find 
some of their venerable brothers in sleepy, mouldering English 
hamlets. 
The old age of the wild apple is pathetic. Often we see their 
'dried, lichen-covered skeletons in the meadow^s and on the hills, 
and in the forest clearing is a poor-looking, stagheaded tree that 
vainly strives to cover its blasted limbs. For these many years 
they have responded to vernal warmth with coats of white and 
pink ; the glory of June days and the breath of brown October con- 
tributed to the many yields of unmarked fruit, unmarked, but by 
the squirrel or browsing cow, or such as myself, who tramp the 
hills. The robin and blue-bird nested in the crooked limbs, and 
while the warm spring sun shone above, they taught their cal- 
low young. But wintry storms of rain and biting wind have 
corrupted and torn the aged limbs and a few seasons will lay 
them on the sward. 
Hariford, Conn. 
FRINGED GENTIAN. 
By Wm. a. Terry. 
I was pleased to see the account of experiments with the fring- 
ed gentian by Mr. Chas. C. Plitt in the October Botanist. I 
think there is no doubt that the plant is a biennial in this section. 
My edition of Gray says : "Annual or biennial," and all my ob- 
servations and experiments have convinced me that here it is bi- 
ennial. It is growing more rare every year, and I fear that all 
efforts to prevent its extermination will fail. It is difficult to pro- 
pagate. Some twenty or more years ago a well known Scotch 
gardener of Hartford offered a prize for plants artificially grown 
from seed. 
