AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
65 
1882.] 
the scales of the bulbs being the part em¬ 
ployed. Those who are curious in such mat¬ 
ters will find it very interesting to make the 
experiment. A half a dozen or more of the 
outer scales of a bulb may be carefully broken 
off without any injury to the plant. Dry 
some peat-moss (Sphagn um), and rub it fine 
between the hands, and then having made it 
moist, not wet, place the scales in it, in a 
flower-pot or other vessel, and keep in a warm 
place where the temperature is about 60°; 
light is not required. Keep 
the moss properly damp, 
and in two or three 
months a little bulb, some¬ 
times more than one, will 
appear at £he base of each 
scale, as shown in figure 2. 
When roots appear, these 
scales may be placed in a 
pot of good soil, which may 
be plunged in some con¬ 
venient part of the gar¬ 
den ; if started this month, 
the bulblets will grow to 
the size of a hickory nut 
* '&'• •• by fall, and in one or two 
years be large enough to bloom. Besides the 
several varieties of L. speciosum , the Long¬ 
leaved ( L. longifolium), the Golden-banded 
(L. auratum), the Slender-leaved (L. tenifoli- 
um), and many other Lilies are to be found 
in the catalogues of the various dealers. 
Notes from the Pines. 
It was one autumn during the grape fever 
of some 15 years ago or more ; some point of 
grape culture was under discussion, and I 
remarked that I would make a note of it and 
write of it at planting time. An experienced 
editor said : ‘ 1 The time to talk about grapes, 
and to say anything about their cultivation, 
is when grapes are ripe and every one is eat¬ 
ing them. ” I think he was right, and I might 
add, the time to write upon any subject is 
when it presents itself to the mind. If the 
hint given is of value, it will be remembered ; 
if not, it makes but little difference when it 
is given. These days before Christmas, the 
“Everlasting: Flowers” 
are brought to mind. As I go to the city, I 
see them on every hand. I may say here, 
that any one within easy reach of New York, 
and fails to visit the city in the fortnight 
preceding Christmas, misses a great sight. 
I do not refer to the show made by the stores, 
which is of itself worth seeing, but the pro¬ 
vision made for Christmas in the way of 
evergreens and decorations for the great 
holiday. The dealers in these wares have 
heretofore taken up so much of the side¬ 
walks, that in the holiday season just past, a 
long line of booths was erected in the middle 
of the widest street near Washington Market, 
for dealers in such wares. Christmas trees 
form the bulk of the stock, and these range 
from the little 10-cent tree two or three feet 
high for the small family, up to those of 20 
feet for Sunday Schools and Churches. These 
trees are largely the native spruces, hemlock 
and cedar, but the finest are the Norway 
spruce. Of this tree the ovei'grown stock of 
the nurseries is sold at a far better price than 
if provided with roots. But to return to our 
everlasting flowers. Besides the Christmas 
trees and wreaths there are quantities of 
Decorutive Designs. 
Crosses, stars, squares, and triangles, and, of 
all strange shapes, enormous hearts, are 
offered. These decorations come by the sloop¬ 
load from New Jersey and elsewhere, and are 
in wonderful variety. The straight and angu¬ 
lar kinds are made upon shapes of lath, while 
those with curved outline have a frame of 
willow or other flexible stems. These forms 
are covered by green foliage of various kinds, 
and often enlivened by clusters of red berries. 
Some of the commoner kinds have flowers of 
bright colored tissue paper, and we occa¬ 
sionally meet with a lot of higher character, 
where the green is made lively by the use 
of some kinds of “everlasting flowers.” If 
one goes up town, among the city florists, 
he will see, at holiday time, tasteful wreaths 
and other forms made of these “everlasting 
flowers,” with perhaps just a little green. 
Even mottoes are offered, in which letters of 
white flowers upon a groundwork of colored 
ones wish “A Merry Christmas.” I have no 
doubt that others besides myself, in seeing 
the effective use made of these flowers, have 
regretted that they did not raise a quantity of 
The Easily Grown Annuals, 
for all those in common use are annuals. 
Now, while the matter is in mind, is the time 
to prepare for an abundant supply of these 
flowers to use next Christmas. The great 
majority of everlasting flowers belong to the 
Sun-flower Family (the Compositce), and have 
stiff, papery florets, which in drying retain 
their form and color. The French call such 
flowers Immortelles. The little globular 
heads, so much used by the French to make 
wreaths to place upon graves, are from a 
plant closely related to our “Life Everlast¬ 
ing ” ; it is a perennial, and not hardy with us. 
The Seedsmen’s Civtnlogues 
are generally so full that I need only enu¬ 
merate the most desirable kinds, referring to 
the catalogues for descriptions. Acroclinium 
roseum; this is from Australia; it has rays 
of a most delicate pink, and in its variety, 
A. album, they are pure white. This and the 
Rhodanthe are the most delicate of all flow¬ 
ers of tliis class. Ammobium alatum, has 
small, white globular heads. Of Helichrysum, 
from Australia, there are a dozen or more 
species and varieties, including white, yel¬ 
lows, various reds, and very dark crimson. 
These are among the most showy and gen¬ 
erally useful of all the Everlastings, as the 
flowers are the largest, and they give a wide 
range of bright colors. 
For the Best Success 
with these Everlastings, they should be sown 
eaply, as they are slow at first, and are usually 
caught by the frost when they are just in 
their prime. Sow the seeds in a frame or in 1 
window boxes in order to give them a long 
season, and put the plants in the open ground 
when the weather is settled. Another point 
is very important to observe. If intended 
for winter decoration, the flowers should be 
gathered just as they are about to open ; cut 
with stems as long as possible, tie in small 
bunches, and hang, heads downwards, in a 
dark room to dry. The annual known as 
the Globe Amaranth, belonging to a differ¬ 
ent family, has flowers in small spherical 
heads which are white, yellow, and various 
shades of purple. If cut early it keeps well. 
It is a trick of dealers in “everlastings,” to 
change or highten their colors by dipping 
them in dilute Nitric Acid (one part of the 
acid to 10 or 12 of water) in a glass vessel; 
I the dried flowers are immersed in this dilute 
acid for about a minute, shaken to remove 
any excess of the liquid, and hung up to dry. 
What is an Apple? 
Probably the briefest answer to the above 
question would be: “The fruit of the apple 
tree.” This would perhaps suggest another : 
“What is a fruit?” to which a brief and 
direct answer would be more difficult, as 
fruits present themselves in a great variety 
of forms. In many cases the fruit may be 
described as the ripened pistil, but that 
would not include all those products that are 
commonly regarded as fruits. “ The part of 
Fig. 1. —THE CORE. Fig. 2. —CORE CUT OPEN. 
the plant which contains the seeds ” is per¬ 
haps as concise and accurate a definition a3 
can be given. This does not state the exact 
nature of the part; in the apple and pear the 
part which we value and eat as the fruit is in 
reality the enlarged and fleshy end of the 
stem, while the true fruit, the ripened pistils, 
form but a small part of the whole, and which, 
in eating the apple or pear, we reject as the 
core. Very few ever notice the proper fruit 
of the apple, and fewer still ever see it. By 
carefully removing the pulp from a thorough¬ 
ly baked apple we may separate the core, or 
the real fruit, a five-lobed body, as in figure 
1 (from Gardener's Chronicle), which is com¬ 
posed of a very tough cartilaginous substance, 
within which are the seeds, as in figure 2. 
The five-lobed character of this may be seen 
when the apple is cut directly across, as in 
figure 3. All this pulpy mass that surrounds 
the star-shaped center is the end of the stem 
of the apple, which becomes lai-ge and fleshy 
and in time becomes edible. In the pear, the 
fleshy portion is more readily seen to be the 
swollen end of the stem, as. that has not the 
deep depression where the stem joins the 
fruit that is found in the apple. Those who 
are not aecumtomed to trace the curious 
changes to which the different parts of plants 
Fig. 3.— CROSS-SECTION OF APPLE. 
are subject, may find it difficult to see in the 
rich edible apple or pear the enlarged end of 
a stalk. If such could see the Cashew Nut of 
the West Indies, they would be readily con¬ 
vinced. In that the end of the stem is en¬ 
larged, to form a pulpy pear-shaped fruit, 
within which there is no core or seeds, the 
real fruit, which is an edible nut, being 
borne at the end and quite outside of it. 
