54 
BOTANICAL INDEX 
not be realized, and that you will have a fine Spring and line Summer, and conse- 
quently good fruit crops, and continue to be in that respect a favored nation. 
A question which must interest you is the sample post. You know that by the 
International Convention, of June, 1878, the size of a parcel, sent per post, was fixed 
at 20 centimeters in length, 10 centimeters in width, and 5 centimeters in depth, but 
by a new Convention between France and England, it is from the first of this 
month augmented to 30, 20 and 10 centimeters, which is a great improvement for 
Horticulturists, although it is not yet sufficient. Do you not think it advisable to 
claim from your government the same augmentation? As a very free country you 
ought not to be behind hand. 
Do not neglect to write to me when you find anything interesting to relate, and 
do not fear to trouble me. On the contrary, I am happy to receive your communi- 
cations. At your service. Yours Truly, 
JEAN SISLEY. 
Haarlkm, Holland, January 9th, 1880. 
Mr. L. B. Case, Richmond, hid. — Dear Sir: 1 begin by ottering you my very best 
wishes for the year 1880, and hope it will be a very prosperous one to you. * * * 
I am sorry to state that I have no Collector, neither do I think that any Florist in 
the neighborhood has any, for we generally make a specialty of growing Hyacinths 
which pays us the best. There is, perhaps, room for one or two firms to deal in all 
those sort's of Cape Bulbs, etc. But, certainly, it would not do for these hundreds of 
growers we have around here to go in for it. * * * From about November 15th 
until Christmas we have had such severe cold weather that only a few men remember 
such cold weather; we have had 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and certainly a lot of things 
will have suffered badly by it. * * * 1 shall always be pleased, if I am able, to 
give you any information you desire, and if there be something, you are quite wel- 
come. Hoping you are quite well. I remain, dear sir. with best regards, 
Yours Truly, 
C. E. VAN GOOR. 
[We are not quite sure of the propriety of publishing extracts from private cor- 
respondence, but there are several points in the two preceding letters we wish to 
bring prominently to notice, and the temptation is too strong to miss the opportuni- 
ty for using such high authority as M. Jean Sisley. Every person ought lo know 
there is actually very little money value in small plants, or even cuttings from them, 
even if they are new varieties, when required to be sent over two hundred miles for 
a market; for it is only by the greatest care and skill they can be vitalised, so to 
speak, after such a long journey. Of course very few could afford to pay express 
charges on a package of such things, so, therefore, they must be intrusted to the 
mails, and as the mails are supposed to be instituted for tiie benefit of all, we see no 
reason why plants should not be passed duty free, and allowed in packages of such 
size to be of benefit to all. 
We in the central portion of the United States have been favored with unusual 
mild weather during the past Winter, and it will sound strange to read of such un- 
usually cold and severe weather from any portion of the world, of our latitude. We 
have been kept informed, however, of the severity of the Winter, not only in Europe, 
hut also on the Pacific coast of North America, by the meterological reports in our 
daily, weekly and monthly journals, so that these letters are really no great surprise 
to us. Perhaps we may add that from indirect information from California, Oregon 
and Washington Territory, very much injury is likely to be sustained by the first 
crop of 1880, as well as a great loss to the stock raisers and their Hocks and herds, 
from such unexpected cold weather. But while severe cold weather has prevailed 
north of the frost line on the Pacific coast, a superabundance of rains has prevailed 
in the southern portion of California, so that the inhabitants of that portion of the 
world are correspondingly happy over the prospects of good crops during the corn- 
ing summer, which can only be had after a liberal supply of winter rains.] 
Mr. J.W. Wunderlich, in Frankfort-on-the-Main, (Germany,) states that he has vis- 
ited districts producing the Roman Hyacinths, and that by information received while 
there, as well as by later reports in his possession, the facts are established, that in 
consequence of the drouth in the districts referred to, the bulbs this year will not be 
quite as large as in former years, and their price will be higher. 
