1884.] 
ameeioa:^^ ageioultueist. 
113 
Horseradish from Seed. 
A correspondent inquires of us whether Horse¬ 
radish can not be raised from seed, and where the 
seed may be procured. It grows very readily from 
cuttings of the root, the least fragment produc¬ 
ing a plant, and has been multiplied in this manner 
for many • generations. There being no use for 
seeds, the plant has ceased to produce them. 
None, so far as we are aware, have ever been found 
on the plant in this "country. It is probably sterile 
In Europe also, as a botanist in France states that 
climbers, the query is one that calls for a general 
answer. The injury done by the Ivy and most other 
climbers is entirely mechanical. Vines are pro¬ 
vided with different appliances to assist them in 
holding fast to trees. The Ivy, the Poison Ivy, 
Trumpet Creeper and others, have little roots along 
their stems ; these roots do not, as some suppose, 
penetrate through the bark and live upon the sap 
of the tree. They only enter the crevices of the 
bark, and soon lose their root-like character, be¬ 
coming hard and wiry, and serving merely as hold 
fasts. Other vines have tendrils, either a modified 
preciable injury, we should prefer to transplant the 
climbing vines to some other less valuable trees. 
THe Carrion Flowers—Stapelias. 
Among the many plants sent us for a name, no 
others, within the past year or two, has come 
more frequently than the Carrion-fiowers, as the 
Stapelias are often called. As seen by tlie engrav¬ 
ing (one-third of the real size), the plants have a 
very striking appearance, which is sure to excite a 
curiosity to know the proper name. The plants 
HOESEBADISH IN FLOWER. 
he had watched the plant for some forty years 
without finding a single ripe seed. According to 
him, the flowers produce no good pollen. Neg¬ 
lected clumps of horseradish produce flowers 
very freely. These are white, and of the shape 
shown in the engraving, which is much reduced. 
In the absence of an abundance of other flowers, 
we have known these to do good service in a bou¬ 
quet.—There are a number of other plants which 
are multiplied extensively by means of runners, 
cuttings, and other methods that produce seeds 
very rarely, if at all. The sweet potato is one of 
these, the Chinese yam another, and there are nu¬ 
merous instances among plants cultivated for their 
flowers. The absence of seed in Bermuda-grass in 
this country, is probably due to the fact that it 
spreads so widely by its stems that seeds are 
not formed, though it bears them in some countries. 
Ivy and Other Climbers.—Do They In¬ 
jure Trees? 
Miss L. Griffln, De Soto Co., Miss., writes us 
that there are on their place two line Magnolia 
trees nearly fifty years old. Some young Euro¬ 
pean Ivies have been planted at the base of these 
trees, and are now growing upon them. She asks 
if the ivy will in any way injure the trees ? As sev¬ 
eral have as}5;e4 the same questions about other 
branch or portion of a leaf, which cling to the tree. 
Our Virginia Creeper has branched tendrils, and 
each branch bears at the tip a little disk, which 
acts somewhat like a boy’s sucker, and forms a 
hold-fast. Still other plants hold to the tree by 
twining around its branches. This last class, the 
twiners, are the most generally injurious, especially 
to young trees, as they soon become woody and 
prevent the expansion of the tree, literally chok¬ 
ing it to death. One of the most beautiful of our 
native vines, and one often cuitivated, is Koxbui-y 
Wax-work, or climbing Bitter-sweet {Celastrus 
scandens) ; this is especially injurious, and it is not 
rare to find wild trees with the slender trunk or the 
branches embraced by this vine, which so constricts 
them as to cause death. Ivy upon trees is espec¬ 
ially frequent in England, and while some of the 
horticulturists of that country have claimed that it 
does no harm, others assert that it is a positive in- 
jhry. Both are probably right. On old trees the 
bark of the trunk and older branches is rough, 
scaly, and its exterior really dead, and vines can do 
no harm. On young trees, on the other hand, the 
bark of which is smooth, and still taking a more 
or less active part in the growth, the covering of 
Ivy or other vines, will arrest development and be 
injurious to the tree. As to our correspondent’s 
Magnolias, neither Ivy nor other vines can add to 
their beauty, and even if they would cause no ap- 
are popularly thought to be cactuses, as like most 
plants of that family these have no proper leaves, 
the green bark of the fleshy stems doing the work 
of leaves. The stems of the stapelias are four- 
angled, while in all the cacti with similar stems, 
there are five or more angles. The flowers are pro¬ 
duced along the stems, and as the engraving shows, 
are strikingly curious in form, while their oddity 
is increased by the colors; the ground is of a 
creamy-white or pale-yellow, and spotted and 
blotched with very dark purple, or maroon color, 
and present a most lurid appearance. In the 
bud, the divisions of the flower cohere by their 
edges, and open by suddenly bursting, espec¬ 
ially when the sun shines on them. The flowers 
can not be said to have fragrance, though they 
have a great deal of odor, which is so like that of 
decaying meat as to make the common name de¬ 
scriptive and appropriate. So closely does the 
odor resemble that of carrion, that flies have been 
known to deposit their eggs upon the flower. 
The stapelias are extremely easy to cultivate, as 
they need only poor soil, and very little water. They 
are propagated from cuttings of the stem, which 
should be allowed to dry for several days before 
setting them out in very sandy earth. The stapelias, 
of which th'ere are about six species, are natives 
of the Cape of Good Hope, where, during the dry 
season, no rain falls for several months at a time. 
