ladies’ department.—boys’ department. 
Cables’ department. 
WHAT IS A PARAPETTICOAT ? 
We are astonished at the numerous inquiries 
that have reached us about this article. Its name 
reveals its nature. It is a hybrid between a para¬ 
sol and a petticoat. This is not banter, but fact. 
And why should there not be such a thing? 
What is there in rerum natura to prevent an inge¬ 
nious person from applying those two needful arti¬ 
cles of shelter and dress to gardening purposes? 
They will fade, and wear thin, in the custody of the 
most economical gentlewoman, and to find a use 
for them afterwards is an adaptation of means to 
end which cannot be too highly commended. 
Let us give a receipt for making a parapetticoat. 
First find a good-sized parasol, or small umbrella, 
covered with cotton, and not rubbed into holes. 
Then select a cast-off petticoat, not a crinoline, 
which Mrs. Malaprop calls a Kremlin, nor yet a 
flannel, but some other form of the vestment; it 
need not be very full; indeed, it will be the better 
for being scanty; sow up the opening, and it is 
ready for attachment to the parasol. For this pur¬ 
pose the latter instrument must be opened, and 
kept so; then the upper end of the petticoat is to 
be sowed to the edge of the parasol, and a staff six 
feet or more long is to be secured to its handle. 
Thus the parapetticoat is constructed. 
But what a word! cries Sir Erasmus Verbal. 
What a barbarous compound of Greek and Saxon ! 
The thing may be well enough, but its name is un¬ 
endurable. Pray call it a parachiton, or a para- 
chitonisk. We can have no objection to the 
change, if the world prefers it; and we agree with 
Sir Erasmus, that it will be as well to adopt it when 
parasol, is called parahelion, and parapluie a para- 
ombrion—but not till then. 
And what is the parapetticoat for ? For, 
Madam ! for a most important purpose. It is an 
instrument of execution ; it is the shirt of Nessus; 
it is the robe of Atropos. It is to enable the gar¬ 
dener to dispatch his mortal enemies. It is to re¬ 
lieve his rose bushes from that foe which he assails 
in vain with snuff, gas water, and smelling salts. 
It is to kill green flies. 
The instrument is used thus. In the first place, 
the petticoat is drawn up till it rests upon the out¬ 
side of the parasol. The staff of the latter is then 
introduced perpendicularly into the centre of a 
rose bush, and secured in its place by being 
pushed into the ground. The petticoat being then 
drawn down, the bush is completely covered in by 
the garment. The gardener then blows his tobacco 
smoke beneath it; in a few minutes the rose bush 
is enveloped in a cloud which has no outlet; the 
green-fiy seeks in vain to escape from the fatal at¬ 
mosphere which enters every fold and lurking- 
lacc ; he clings in vain to his beloved rose-buds ; 
is grasp relaxes ; he falls ; he dies, and with him 
Unnumber’d corses strew the fatal plain. 
Five minutes suffice for the execution. The 
veil may then be raised; the instrument removed, 
and the operation repeated upon a new horde of 
delinquents.— Gardener's Chronicle, 
JSojis’ Apartment. 
A CHAPTER ON GRASSES.—No. 2. 
The following definition of a true grass is copied 
from a lecture delivered before the class of the 
Chester County Cabinet of Natural Sciences, by 
Dr. Darlington, of West Chester, Pennsylvania, an 
excellent botanist and practical farmer; brief and 
simple as it is, it will be found to contain the most 
striking characteristics of the tribe :—“ Whenever 
we meet with a plant having a cylindrical, jointed 
stem; with the joints solid, and the intervening 
portions hollow—or, in a few instances, filled with 
a pith-like substance—the leaves alternate, one 
originating at each joint, embracing the stem with 
its base, and forming a sheath, which is slit on one 
side, down to its origin—and the flowers protected 
by those peculiar envelopes known by the name of 
chaff, we may take it for granted we have before us 
a genuine grass.” To the same lecture I am in¬ 
debted for many of the facts here stated, but as I 
quote from memory, I dare not make another 
answerable for my inadvertencies. 
Botanists enumerate upwards of three hundred 
species of grasses indigenous to the United States— 
yet all the cultivated kinds, and their almost innu 
merable varieties , are believed to be introduced. 
The uses of this interesting tribe are almost too 
well known and too various, to require enumera¬ 
tion—some few I will point out, and the boys may 
do the rest. Those considered of most value to the 
agriculturist in the Middle and Western States, as 
affording the best hay and pasture—though if I do 
not place them in their proper order of excellence, 
the same young observers must set me right—are, 
“ Meadow grass ” (Poa pratensis); “ blue grass' 1 
(Poa compressa); “ Timothy ” (Phleum pratense); 
“ red top ” (Agrostis vulgaris); “ fescue grass ” 
(Festuca pratensis); “ orchard grass ” (Dactylis 
glomerata); “ray grass ” (Lolium perenne); and 
“ sweet-scented vernal grass ,” (Anthoxanthum odo- 
ratum), which gives a delightful perfume to the 
hay. Some others are occasionally cultivated; 
but, I believe, not to any great extent or advantage. 
The sugar-cane ( Saccharum ojjicinarum) is a true 
grass , which, in its structure and habit, bears a strik¬ 
ing resemblance to Indian corn; but unlike it, the 
chief value consists in the rich juice with which the 
stems abound—and if any boy should be so ignorant 
as not to know that it furnishes sugar and molasses, 
he should be made to learn the lesson before he is 
again allowed anything better than sour apple pie, 
or dry bread for his luncheon. 
A species of seed, which in Brazil forms impe¬ 
netrable thickets, grows to the height of thirty or 
forty feet, with hollow stems six inches in diame¬ 
ter, which are filled with a cool, pure liquid, 
capable of quenching th£ most burning thirst. Of 
this the hunters are so well aware, that, when in 
need of refreshment, they, with their machitis, or 
large two-edged chopping knife, cut off the young 
shoots just below a joint, and drink the delicious 
beverage so bountifully supplied by nature. 
A very coarse paper is manufactured in this 
country, from oat straw, which is found to resist the 
effects of damp better than other kinds of cheap 
