It is one of the loving tributes which Art pays to flowers 
that she finds in them the most perfect and pleasing 
types of beauty and delicacy of coloration. There 
was but a few years since little that was of high art 
in Christmas cards ; as a rule, in fact, they were of a 
vulgar type as far as art and elegance were concerned— 
mere reproductions of the ancient valentine order, 
either sentimentally silly or burlesquely vulgar and 
coarse. The public taste has made a great stride 
within the past few years ; and if in the impulse 
nevertheless very different in appearance and pro- 
perties— charcoal and the diamond are cases in point. 
Dr. Emerson Reynolds has been lately experi- 
menting on plants with the view of showing how 
differently substances of the same chemical composi- 
tion may act upon plants. He took two bodies, 
“ ammonium sulpho-cyanate M and “thiocarbamide,” 
or “ sulphurea,” which have exactly the same chemical 
composition, each containing two proportionate parts 
of nitrogen^ four of hydrogen^ one of carbon, and one 
ance, and are sold cheaper. 
Vrjesia psittacina (Lindh, var. Mor- 
RENIANA x ) (, Belgique Horticole , 1882, t. x. — xii.) is 
a cross between V. psittacina and V. carinata. Its 
leaves are in vase-like tufts, from the centre of which 
emerges a long, erect, scarlet flower-spike ; flowers 
distant, scarlet at the base, yellow at the tips. In 
V. psittacina the flowers are densely crowded, in 
short, flat, fan-shaped racemes ; in V. carinata they 
Fig. 145. — A PLANT STOVE AT CHISWICK. (SEE P. 8l6.) 
that taste has developed towards better things the 
aesthetic school of art professors and disciples has 
played any part let them by all means have the credit. 
In the modern Christmas card of floral design, how* 
ever, the sweetest charms and most pleasing pictures 
are found where not quaint aesthetic ideas but those 
of Nature pure and simple have been most closely 
followed. We have seen reproductions of such dis- 
tinctive Roses as La France, General Jacqueminot, 
and Marechal Niel, that are perfect; they show at 
once that even romantic or sentimental artists can be 
truthful, and in the humble field of floriculture 
Violets, Pansies, Snowdrops, and myriads of other 
popular but unpretentious flowers have been depicted 
with skill that professional artists might well envy. 
We accept with pleasure this evidence of the popular 
love for beautiful flowers, and not least do we rejoice 
that in depicting them for popular admiration taste 
of sulphur. The elements are the ssime, and the pro- 
portions are the same, but the molecules of which the 
two are composed are arranged or grouped differently. 
Without going into details, for the full comprehension 
of which an acquaintance with chemistry is needed, 
it may be said that while the ammonium sulpho- 
cyanate acts on plants as a powerful poison, its 
“ metamer,” thiocarbamide, or sulphurea, stimulates 
the growth of the same kinds of plants otherwise 
grown under like conditions, and induces healthy 
development of ail their parts, thus acting as a dis- 
tinct plant food. 
Pith Hats in Australia.— As an illus- 
tration of the superiority of Chinese manipulation 
over that of the native Indians, the following extract 
from a report on the Indian products at the Melbourne 
International Exhibition of 1880 81 may be quoted. 
are in long racemes, with the flowers moderately dis- 
tant one from the other, while in the cross they are 
much more widely separated. 
Plum Pudding.— Whilst antiquarian in- 
quirers perchance are digging deep into Christmas 
lore in the hope of discovering the origin of that 
popular association which exists between the wondrous 
combination that is universally known as Plum- 
pudding, but which is not Plum at all, the readers 
of the Gardeners' Chronicle may well, and doubt- 
less wonderingly, ask what possible connection can 
exist between the said pudding and gardening. 
Our reply to this query is that, after all, the chief 
component parts of our great festive dish are plant 
products, and of such kinds as are in their respec- 
tive countries and commercial departments held in 
the highest esteem. It is true that the great staple 
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