1882.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
63 
for planting,” have as yet done nothing with 
them, and that they are still dry. Such 
should at once be mixed with sand, or sandy 
earth, in a box, and placed where they 
will be exposed to all the changes of the 
weather. This will place them in a condition 
similar to those that have been spaded in, 
but having been dried for some months it is 
likely that a share of them will remain un¬ 
altered, and that in spring the halves will 
flattened short branches, similar in nature to 
what pass for leaves in the popular so-called 
Smilax ( Myrsiphillum) and in the Asparagus; 
the true leaves are mere scales, so small as 
not to be noticed. When we know that they 
are really branches, and not leaves, the fact 
that flowers are produced from them is not 
so strange. The little flowers are 6-parted 
and greenish white, and are succeeded by a 
berry about half an inch in diameter; this 
The Chili Pine,—Araucaria. 
There are some trees of which the northern 
limit is exceedingly difficult to fix. It is easy 
to say that a given tree will grow in Virginia, 
and that it will not be hardy in Massachusetts; 
but there is a wide belt between the two, in 
parts of which the tree may succeed, while 
in others it will fail, and the northern limit, 
instead of beinj; a straight line drawn east 
remain firmly together. Such stones must 
be carefully cracked, holding them between 
the thumb and finger upon a block and strik¬ 
ing the edge with a hammer; the kernels 
being thus removed, are to be mixed with 
earth or damp moss, and kept in a warm 
place until they germinate. The stones that 
have been bedded or otherwise exposed to 
the action of frost, and are still unchanged, 
are not planted with the others, but are sepa¬ 
rated from those that have begun to germi¬ 
nate, and cracked before they are planted. 
The Butcher’s Broom. 
Every now and then there is sent to us for 
a name a shrub so unlike other shrubs in its 
manner of flowering, that it is not strange 
that it should excite curiosity. In this shrub 
the small flowers apparently grow from the 
middle of the leaves. The shrub is Ruscus 
aculeatus ; it is a native of Europe and Asia, 
occurs sparingly in England. It is a much 
branched evergreen, growing about two feet 
high, with very tough stems; what appear 
to be leaves are not truly such, but are really 
being bright red, the bush, when in fruit, is 
very showy. In this country it is cultivated 
as a house plant; in England it is valued as 
being one of the few plants that will flourish 
beneath the shade and drip of trees. It is 
readily multiplied by division, as it produces 
a number of suckers. The origin of the name 
Ruscus is not known; it gets its coijimon 
name from the fact that its twiggy stems 
answer as a material for making coarse 
brooms. The plant belongs to that section 
of the Lily Family which includes asparagus, 
and like that plant its young stems are used 
as food. It has some medicinal reputation. 
Fertilizers lor ISonse 3‘latils.— 
When plants are in a growing state they may 
be stimulated by the use of guano water. A 
small teacupful of Peruvian guano dissolved 
in a pailful of rain water is strong enough ; 
water the soil with this once, or at most twice 
a week. The Water of Ammonia (Hartshorn) 
of the shops is about as good, and can be had 
everywhere. If of ordinary strength add a I 
fourth of an ounce (two teaspoonfuls), to a 
gallon of water, and use as above stated. 
and west, will, from local causes, be a very 
irregular one. Among the trees of which it 
is difficult to fix the exact northern limit is 
the Chili Pine (Araucaria imbricata), a tree so 
desirable to have, where it can be grown, that 
this uncertainty is all the more to be regret¬ 
ted. There are seven described species of 
Araucaria, so-called because the first dis¬ 
covered, the one under notice, was found in 
the province of Arauco, in Chili, where it 
forms extensive forests and grows from 100 
to 130 feet high. The tree is remarkably 
formal, having the shape of a regular cone; 
its branches are placed in distinct whorls, the 
lower declining to the ground, those above 
I extending horizontally, while the upper 
branches often curve upwards in a cande¬ 
labra-like manner. The leaves, from an inch 
to an inch and a half long and an inch wide in 
the broadest part, terminate in a sharp point; 
they are placed closely upon the branches 
and overlap one another in such a manner as 
to suggest the specific name, imbricata, aterm 
! which means “ overlapping like the shingles 
' on a roof.” The leaves are thick and rigid, 
and as they last for fifteen year’s or more, the 
