THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
233 
Small Salading, such as mustard and cress, can only be raised 
in the depth of the winter with the assistance of more warmth than 
that afforded by the greenhouse. With such assistance it is so 
easily raised that it is not necessary to enter into details. After 
February it may he raised in cool structures. The American cress 
sown on a warm sheltered border, about the middle of the month, 
and after the second week in October protected with one of the 
portable frames alluded to, will be most useful far into the winter. 
QUICK METHOD OF PEEPARING SKELETON LEAVES. 
EOCUEE perfect leaves. Let there be 'no flaw or sign 
of decay. Then get six ounces of washing-soda, and 
pour it into two quarts of boiling water. Slack three 
ounces of quick-lime, and theii pour this also into the 
boiling water. Let all boil together for fifteen minutes. 
Then remove it from the fire. Let it settle, and pour off" the clear 
fluid. Pour this into a second clean vessel, and set it on the fire 
again. When it boils, put in the leaves ; let them boil for one 
hour ; then take up one and throw it into a basin of cold water — 
rain water is best. If the epidermis comes off freely by rubbing the 
leaf between the finger and thumb, under the ivater, then aU the 
leaves may be removed from the solution. When they have all been 
carefully freed from the epidermis, put them in a mixture of chlo- 
ride of lime and water ; about a wineglass of chloride to a quart of 
water. Some leaves wdll take only ten minutes to bleach, others an 
hour, or more. Let them be watched, therefore, for they may burn 
into shreds if steeped too long. When pure white, throw them 
(carefully) into a basin of cold water, and from that fioat them out 
on slips of paper. When almost dry, put them in a book, to 
become q^uite dry and stiff. Then they are complete. The best for 
a beginner to try on at this season is the smooth holly, or the 
golden-edged holly, or large-leaved ivy, or common poplar, if they 
can be had perfect^ especially the aspen variety. Kate Seymour. 
Protection of the Pollen op Plants. — Dr. A. Kerner reprints from the 
“ Proceedings of the Scientific Society of Innsbriick,” an interesting Paper “ On 
the means of the Protection of the Pollen of Plants against premature Displace- 
ment or Damp.” As the vitality of pollen is immediately destroyed by exposure 
to the action of either rain or dew, he finds in nature a variety of contrivances to 
protect it against these injurious J influences during the interval between its escape 
from the anther and its being carried away by insects, these contrivances being 
generally absent in those plants where fertilization is affected by the pollen being 
conveyed at once to tbe stigma by the wind. In plants with coherent pollen, fer- 
tilized by English agency, where some of tbe anthers are so placed as to be neces- 
sarily exposed to the weather, these are generally found to be barren, or destitute 
of pollen, and where they would interfere with the entrance of insects into the 
flower, they are altogether abortive or rudimentary. Plants with coherent pollen, 
which require insect agency for their fertilization, Dr. Kerner believes to be of 
more recent geological occurrence than those with powdery pollen, which require 
only the wind to convey it to the stigma. 
August. 
