1865.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
49 
Fig. 1. — BCTTEKFLT FLOWEU, 
Some Curious Vegetable Forms. 
All plants are engaged in performing the same 
general work — that of converting the crude ele- 
ments of the earth and air into oi'ganized pro- 
ducts fit for the food of animals. This might 
have been done equally well had the plants 
been made all of the same form, instead of with 
that great variety which now surrounds us. 
The study of plants shows us the wonderfully 
varied means employed to attain the same end. 
Though all the parfTof plants show great diver- 
sity in form, this is most 
strikingly seen in the flower, 
in whicli every conceivable 
modification of shape as well 
as of color, is wrought. 
Among the most interesting 
flowers are those whicli re- 
semble more or less closely 
some kinds of animals. The 
Calceolarias, looking very like large fat spiders, 
and the common Canary-bird flower (Tropceolum 
peregrinum), which by the aid of a little imagi- 
nation looks like a bu'd, are 
among the more common of 
these curious forms. To see 
the most striking ones we must 
go to the rare collections of the 
hot-houses, where among the 
members of the Orchis Family 
will be found flowers of strange 
=■ • shapes and brilliant colors. 
The Dove-flower of Central America, which has 
what appears like a beautiful little white dove 
nestling witbia it, was figured in these columns 
Fig. a. 
a few years ago, and 
we now give a draw- 
ing of the equally re- 
markable Butterflj'- 
flowcr, Oncidium pa- 
pilio. This plant is a 
native of Trinidad, 
and like many others 
of the same family it 
is an Epiphyte, i.e., it 
grows upon other 
plants, to which it at- 
taches itself by closely 
clinging roots, and 
draws its nourish- 
ment from, the air. 
The engraving shows 
a cluster of the bulbs 
of the plant upon a 
piece of a limb, one of 
them bearing leaves. 
On account of the 
great length of its 
stem, the flower can 
not be shown in its 
proper position, but 
is cut olf and shown 
lower. The whole is 
drawn about half the 
natural size. There are 
some insects which 
veiy closely resemble 
leaves, and it would 
seem that to balance 
the account. Nature 
had made this flower 
as much like an in- 
sect as possible. It 
resembles a butterfly 
not only in shape, but 
in its brilliant colors, 
and the illusion is the greater from its being 
perched upon a very slender stem, so that when 
moved by the wind, it has the ap- 
pearance of a butterfly hovering 
in the air. This plant thrives only 
in a warm and moist atmosphere, 
and can not be grown except in a 
hot-house. It is not flowers alone 
that simulate animal forms, but 
fruits sometimes put on grotesque 
shapes. The Snake cucumber {Tri- 
chosanthes cohihrina), with fruit sev- 
eral feet in length, and shaped like 
a serpent, is frequently grown in 
green-houses. A nut from Dcma- 
rara, called the Snake-nut, has a 
most curiously twisted kernel, 
which when removed fiom the 
shell, looks very much like a small 
serpent. Figures 2 and 3 give two 
views of this kernel, and show its 
snake-like form. The tree which 
produces it is related to the Horse- 
chestnut, and bears the rather form- 
idable but descriptive botanical 
name of Ophiocaryon paradoxum. 
o 
The Difference between a 
Fkuit akd a Vegetable. — A Lady 
asks us how she shall reply to the 
question: "What is the diS'ereuce 
between a fruit and a vegetable ?" 
This is a rather diflioult question to 
answer with precision. In one 
sense, all fruits are vegetables, and all the 
vegetables used as food by men and animals 
are fruits. Horticulturally, those products in- 
tended for the table which first go through a 
preparatory operation in the kitchen, are called 
vegetables, although many of them, such as to- 
matoes, squashes, etc., may really be fruits, 
while melons, grapes, etc., eaten without prepa- 
ration are fruits. Some, like the tomato, may 
be eaten either as a fruit or as a vegetable. Bo- 
tauically the word fruit means the ripened ovary 
and its contents, together with whatever may 
be connected with it, as receptacle, calyx, etc. 
The Trumpet Honeysuckle. 
{Lonicera scmpervirens.') 
Among the woody climbers, the difi'erent spe- 
cies of Lonicera or Honeysuckle occupy a prom- 
inent place. The Woodbine, so woven into 
English poetry, is a well known species valued 
for its fragrance ; and there are several others, 
the flowers of which are both beautiful and 
highly perlumed. As a covering for trellises, 
walls and fiat screens, the honeysuckle does not 
answer as good a purpose as several other vines. 
Its nature is to wind or twine about some sup- 
port like a pole, pillar, or trunk of a tree. As 
an ornament for pillars or poles, no vine is more 
suitable. The posts of a veranda or summer- 
house can be speedi^- covered by them. Sup- 
ports of au ornamental sort are often made 
of cedar or pine, the shaft being about ten feet 
high, three inches in diameter at the base and 
tapering to two at the top. Short, transvere 
rods are run through them at about eighteen 
inches apart, and the honeysuckle allowed to 
twine about them. If one has a heap of bould- 
>=*. 
ers, or a rocky ledge in his grounds, that he 
wishes to hide or embellish, let him set a scarlet 
