3879 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
103 
that Prof. Sargent is safe in saying : “ For the treads 
of stairs, the floors of offices, mills, and other build¬ 
ings, where constant use requires a hard, strong 
wood, it is probably superior to any of the woods 
commonly employed in such situations.” There is 
one use for which its freedom from tendency to 
shrink will especially commend— i. e. interior finish¬ 
ings. Its warm color will make it very effective 
when used with both lighter and darker woods. It 
is a fashion—aad fashion this time has sound sense 
at the bottom — to use wainscotings in houses 
much more than formerly. The ease with which 
Ailanthus timber may be produced, will allow those 
who live where other woods are not obtainable, to 
adopt this style of interior finish. The 
Ailanthus grows very rapidly when young, 
but later its increase in diameter is slow. 
One of the Oldest, if not the oldest in the 
country, now 60 years old, has a girth of 
nine feet and four inches. The paper 
gives a few statistics of other trees ; some 
that are 12 years old, measure three feet 
six inches in girth ; these grew upon the 
slope of an old gravel pit, but made quite 
as good a growth as trees in richer soil, 
and the inference appears to be warranted 
that the Ailanthus grows about as rapidly 
in a poor soil as in a rich one—a matter 
of no little importance to tree planters. 
This paper makes out an excellent ease 
for the Ailanthus ; it grows rapidly, and 
on the poorest soils; it will grow in blow¬ 
ing sands and on the sea-coast, localities 
where few trees can live; its woocf has a 
higher value as fuel than most of those in 
general use for burning; it has great 
strength ; it is valuable where there is 
constant wear, and as a material for 
cabinet-work and interior finish it is in 
beauty and freedom from warping equal 
if not superior to more costly woods. 
The Propagation of the Ailanthus. 
In cultivated grounds, where for the 
most part the tree is out of place, it pro¬ 
pagates too easily ; seeds, having a broad 
wing, are earned to a distance by the wind, 
and young plants come up in all sorts of 
unwelcome places. This is of no conse¬ 
quence to the tree planter, any more than 
the trivial objection alluded to last month 
—the odor of its flowers. Seeds are to be 
had of the dealers in tree seeds, and will 
grow in almost any soil, giving the first 
year a stout little tree a foot qr two high, 
and as large as one’s finger. Whether it 
will be better to scatter the seeds broad¬ 
cast, or to raise the young trees and trans¬ 
plant them, circumstances will determine. 
Where there are old trees, root cuttings 
may be made ; every piece of root an inch 
long if put in the ground will soon make a 
tree. The northern limit at which the 
Ailanthus will be hardy is not settled, but Prof. 
S. thinks that a line from Boston to St. Louis will 
about indicate its northern boundary. He no 
doubt intended to say the isothermal line, as we 
know it to be hardy as far north as Michigan. 
The Scarlet Clematis.— {Clematis coccinea). 
When the “Revue Horticole" appeared with a 
colored plate of a Clematis with bright scarlet flow¬ 
ers, and called it Clematis Pitcheri, we were not a lit¬ 
tle astonished. We had long cultivated Pitcher’s 
Clematis (Clematis Pitcheri,) not only for its intrinsic 
beauty—for as a climber, with its large dark purple 
solitary flowers, it is a really handsome plant—but 
because it bore the name of one of the most cour¬ 
teous, genial gentlemen of the “ Old School,” (Doct. 
Zinas Pitcher, until his death the leading physician 
of Detroit), that it was ever our good fortune to meet. 
To have a plant thus endeared to us set aside by a 
new comer bearing the name, however brilliant it 
might be, was far from pleasant. The correctness 
of the “ Revue Horlicole's” plate was called in ques¬ 
tion by the “Gardener’s Chronicle,” whereupon came 
“ The Garden,” the editor of which is regarded as 
an authority on .such plants, with a statement to 
the effect that Clematis Pitcheri was scarlet, for he 
6aw the flowers of the first plant imported into Eng¬ 
land. Here was a nice muddle, and all about an 
American plant .—Clematis Pitcheri was originally 
described by Torrey and Gray in the “Flora of 
North America,” with “ purple” flowers. We col¬ 
lected in Texas a purple flowered Clematis which we 
labeled C. Ptcheri, and which passed under the 
eyes of both Torrey and Gray, without any hint 
that it was not correctly named. Then our speci¬ 
men in the garden, with its large purple flowers, 
if it is not C. Pitcheri, what is it ? Either we were 
wrong and our European friends right, or vice versa, 
and we looked up the matter. It seems that a scar¬ 
the sc ablet clematis. —{Clematis coccinea.) 
let flowered Clematis was first collected by Doct. 
James on Long’s expedition, and was recorded as 
C. Vioma, variety coccinea, and has since been re¬ 
garded as a scarlet variety of the well known C. 
Vioma, until the remarkable Mr. Buckley came 
across it and gave it the name of C. Texensis , though 
Doct. Englemann, regarding it as a species, had 
called it C. coccinea. Without going any further 
into the nomenclature, it appears this scarlet Texan 
Clematis has somehow reached Europe, and is 
known in both France and England, as C. Ptcheri, 
while it is here known only in botanical specimens. 
Whatever it may be, it is not Clematis Pitcheri. 
We here give an engraving showing the size and 
form of the flowers, from the large plate in “ Revue 
Horticole,^ which represents them as bright scarlet. 
We are glad to say that we have got upon the track 
of the plant, through an intelligent correspondent 
in Texas, and expect to have it in cultivation 
the coming summer. Whatever the botanists 
may do with it, it promises to be a desirable 
plant for our gardens.... Since the above was in 
type, we have been informed by Messrs. Woolson 
& Co., Passaic, N. J., that they have received from 
a Texan collector the roots of a scarlet Clematis, 
which is no doubt the plant under discussion. 
the Mumm©. 
rsr For other Household Items see “ Basket ” pages. 
Home Topics. 
BT FAITH ROCHESTER. 
Let the Children Learn to Chew. 
Tobacco ? Oh no, nor gum either, but bread and 
beef, and other wholesome food. In some families 
mastication almost seems one of the “ lost arts.” 
Parents and children and hired helpers sit down to 
the table, and there is a clatter of dishes and a noise 
of smacking and sipping, and all seem intent upon 
swallowing their food in the shortest pos¬ 
sible time. Nearly every mouthful is 
washed down with some warm drink be¬ 
fore it is half masticated. Those who eat 
in this manner, often find that almost 
everything disagrees with them which can 
not be soaked in the mouth or stomach 
with tea or coffee. I have often wondered 
why some persons can not eat raw ripe 
fruit without indigestion, when it has al¬ 
ways been most wholesome for my own 
young children. But I have always taught 
them how to eat such things, carefully 
scraping out the soft pulp for the babies, 
and often cautioning them as they grew 
older to “ chew it fine before swallowing.” 
Unless skins of fruit are finely masticated, 
they ought never to be eaten at all; but 
persons who are not in the habit of chew¬ 
ing can not stop for that, and so they find 
that raw apples do not agree with them. 
Is not this the chief reason for the diffi¬ 
culty ? No food should go into the stomach 
“in chunks,” but light porous bread and 
cake, or food easily soaked into particles 
can be managed somehow by the stomach, 
when neglected by the teeth, though great¬ 
ly to the detriment of digestion, as this 
neglect of mastication throws an unneces¬ 
sary and improper amount of labor upon 
the stomach, and is apt to bring about 
some trouble with the digestive organs. 
Perhaps the chief difficulty which the 
stomach has in digesting food of this kind, 
arises from the lack of saliva mixed with 
the food, which takes place in thorough 
chewing. The saliva has constituents 
which prod uee important chemical changes 
upon starch, whether eaten in bread, po¬ 
tatoes, or other starchy food. One can dis¬ 
cover this by chewing raw wheat for a few 
minutes; it will change from a sticky, 
starchy taste to a sweetness caused by 
the conversion of starch into 6ugar. 
It is a pity for children to grow up 
without the habit of properly chewing 
their food; not only because it is in¬ 
jurious to health, but because they 
lose the best and finest pleasure of the sense of 
taste. Accustomed to “ bolt ” their food, nothing 
tastes good to them which is not highly flavored or 
spiced. Everything must be peppered or sugared 
unless already highly seasoned, in order to make 
some impression upon the nerves of taste, located 
in the mouth, as the food hurries through. While 
to persons accustomed to chew their food deliber¬ 
ately, the plainest forms of well-cooked,wholesome 
food afford great pleasure to the palate. Children 
should be encouraged to eat without drinking, in 
order that they may be fed to moisten their food 
with saliva, thus preparing it for good digestion. 
Drinking at Meals. 
The habit of washing down the food interferes 
with the habit of thorough chewing. It also del¬ 
uges the stomach with an unnecessary amount of 
fluid, at least in most cases, since those who drink 
at all while eating usually indulge the habit im¬ 
moderately. The animal system requires water in 
order to carry on its various functions. This must 
be supplied by drinks, or by eating juicy or semi¬ 
fluid food. But only a moderate quantity of liquid 
should be taken with the food, and for those 
with good teeth no drinking at all is necessary. 
The stomach can not work upon the mass in- 
