1867.1 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
219 
FREMONTIA CALIFORNICA. 
our own publications, we are at a loss to under- 
stand. Boston people stand preeminent in hor- 
ticulture, but they have hard work with their 
botany. Hovey's Magazine will persist in call- 
ing things by wrong names, and gets properly 
called to account by the Gardener's Monthly, 
and now this "American" journal gives 
us an engraving which must be a puzzler to 
any one who wished to make out the struc- 
ture of the flowers. We will not assert that 
nature could not produce such a flower as they 
figure, but we can safely say that she never did. 
The engraving we present is from the original 
specimen, brought home by Gen. (then Col.) 
Fremont, and was not discovered in his expe- 
dition to the " Rocky Mountains," but in that 
made some years later lo California. It grows 
along the sides of the Sierra Nevada, and upon 
the Coast Range, being rather unequally distrib- 
uted. It may be properly claimed as a shrub, 
but it sometimes forms a small tree from 20 to 30 
feet high. Wc have a section of a trunk of Fre- 
monlia, 5'| 3 inches in diameter, with very hard 
and close grained wood. The form of the leaves 
is shown in the engraving; the older ones are 
often 3 inches in diameter, green above, and of a 
rusty color on the under side. The flowers, which 
are of a bright golden yellow, are succeeded by 
a downy capsule, that much resembles that 
borne by the common Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus 
Si/)~i(ic.iis). The shrub was first described by 
Doct. Torrey, in the Smithsonian Contributions 
in 1850 — and properly bears the name of one 
to whom we are so much indebted for a knowl- 
edge of the vegetation of the far West. Al- 
though this shrub has been so long known to 
botanists, as is usually the case with American 
plants, it first appears in cultivation in the gar- 
dens of Europe. We hope it may soon be 
found in those of this country, and prove hardy. 
» i " ♦"- ' ■ 
A Variegated Astilbe, 
In a notice of Astilbe Japonica, (Spiraa 
Japonica of some catalogues,) given in January 
last, (page 22,) allusion was made to a variegated 
leaved form. Mr. Peter Hendersonhas recently 
afforded us an opportunity to see this variety 
in great perfection. We were so pleased witli 
the plant that, notwithstanding the difficulty of 
adequately representing its beauty in black and 
white, we give an engraving of a single leaf. 
Imagine golden lines in place of the white, and 
a dark green instead of the black, and a tuft of 
such leaves a foot across, and some idea may 
be had of this most beautiful production. The 
plant will doubtless be hardy, and wc hope that 
it will soon be abundant enough to become ac- 
cessible to all, as it is one of the most beautiful 
of what the gardeners will persist in calling 
by the absurd name of " foliaged plants." 
The Horticultural Value of Cats. 
Puss has a bad nameamoug our fruit-growing 
friends, and a still worse name among the little 
birds that seek shelter in our gardens and or- 
chards, if they had a chance lo speak their sen- 
timents. If thej' could hold a convention and 
assert "bird's rights," puss would cither be 
banished, kept iu close quarters, or furnished 
VARIEGATED ASTILBE. 
with a bell necklace to warn all useful birds of 
her stealthj' approach. The ostensible use of 
cats is to keep rats, jand mice in check. When 
well trained, they do this. But a great many 
cats of low breeding, or spoiled in education, 
fail in this essential point. They will not attack 
even when the rat squeals, as Mr. Deanagon 
would say. They are dainty, aristocratic ani- 
mals, that have forgotten what they were made 
for, like certain bipeds of a higher order. They 
eschew rat sirloin and affect chicken, and 
feathered game in general. The sparrows, 
thrushes, wrens and martins that make constant 
warfare upon insects, arc kept in mortal fear 
by puss. She runs her long claws into the box- 
es where they build their nests, climbs into the 
trees and gobbles whole broods of young robins. 
Cats with kittens arc especially ravenous and 
destructive among the birds. They depopulate 
the garden, and wander off to distant meadows 
and woods after the tender, half grown game. 
One cat will readily destroy two hundred birds 
in a single season. It is easy to sec how much 
cats may do to destroy the balance of nature, 
aud leave insects to multiply without let or 
hindrance from our useful feathered friends. 
Wc cannot in all cases get along without cats, 
but wc may do much to keep their increase 
within proper limits, and much to protect the 
birds against their attacks. The birds that 
breed iu boxes, like the martins, wrens, English 
sparrows and blue-birds, may have their homes 
isolated on poles, or in other ways, so that eats 
can not get at them. A piece of sheet iron or 
old tin, a foot wide or more, around the body 
of a tree a few feet from the ground, will be 
