28 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[January, 
ripe, is not round, but bas 3 to 5 ridges, or scollops on 
the sides, and is of a fine crimson color; soon it breaks 
open through these ridges, and shows a seed in each, and 
these seeds have a bright scarlet coating; so the scarlet 
and crimson together make the fruit very showy. The 
climbing vine called Wax- 
work, or Climbing Bitter¬ 
sweet, is a near relative of 
this, and has round pods, 
which show two colors 
when they break open. 
So Waahoo and Burning- 
bush are the best known 
common names, and if 
you would like to know 
what botanists call it—it 
is Evonymus atropuroure- 
ns. Generally a good rea¬ 
son can be given for these 
botanical names, but Euo- 
nymus is not easy to 
explain; atropurpureus, 
means blackish purple, 
and if you look next 
spring when the shrub is 
in flower, you will see 
why that name was given, 
for the little flowers are 
very dark colored. Let 
me tell Minnie something 
else about the Waahoo. 
If there is room in the 
front yard for any more 
shrubs, have a young 
plant or more of this dug 
up and set out; it will 
make a handsomely 
shaped shrub, and when 
it gets a good size, and 
the leaves drop in the fall, 
leaving a great quantity 
of fruit, you will under¬ 
stand why some one call¬ 
ed it “Burning Bush.”_Here are two boys who are 
NOT TO BE HUMBUGGED, 
if they do live in an out of the way part of Florida, 
where the mail at best comes but once a week, and some¬ 
times forgets to come altogether. These two boys, Er¬ 
nest and Porter, write me just the neatest letter 1 have 
seen in many a day; they enclose a circular of the “ Bra¬ 
zilian Perfume Stone,” with a picture of the wonderful 
.“Perfumed Cave.” They have never before heard of a 
“ Perfumed Cave,” and ask if it has any existence, and 
then very shrewdly guess at the whole matter, by asking 
if any boy or girl could not saturate a piece of pumice- 
stone with some perfume, and make as good a “Perfume 
Stone ” as any that comes from Brazil.—Boys, you have 
hit it exactly. Were there such a cave as this is describ¬ 
ed to be, it would be generally known as one of the won¬ 
derful natural curiosities, and we should not first hear of 
it from a peddling concern in an obscure New England 
town. There are stones which have odors, especially 
when rubbed, or struck with a hammer, but I never knew 
of one that could be called “ perfumed,” though 
there is one which deserves its name of “ stink- 
stone.” You may be very sure that this “ Per¬ 
fume Stone ” is a piece of sand-stone, pumice- 
stone, or other porous kind to which the perfume 
has been added. Set that down as a humbug. 
Ernest and Porter not only ask questions, but 
they tell something of interest about 
PARROQUETS AND COCKLE-BUBS. 
The Carolina Parrot, or Parroquet, is a very 
handsome bird with green, yellow, red, and 
blue, in its plumage: many years ago it was 
found as far north as New York, but has be¬ 
come less and less abundant in the southern 
states, until Florida is the only one in which they are 
found in large numbers. These boys now and then catch 
and tame the parroquets, and at first have a lively time 
with them, but they soon become gentle : the favorite 
food of these birds is the cockle-bur, or clot-bur, which 
probably every farmer's boy in the country knows, if he 
does not have any name for it; its fruit or seed-pod is 
from one-half to an inch long, and covered all over the 
outside with hooked prickles; it is that troublesome 
thing so apt to get into the wool of sheep, and the tails 
of horses and cows, and so difficult to get out. These 
burs contain two large seeds, and the boys think the way 
in which the parroquets get them out is something won¬ 
derful to see, and say that until they saw the birds come 
in great flocks to feed upon them, they bad no idea what 
cockle-burs were good for_From these Florida boys, 
we turn to the next letter, which is from Long Island, in 
which Jessie F. C. asks why New York is called 
THE EMPIRE STATE. 
It is difficult to know how or why the nick-names of 
the different states were given, as some have not the 
least appropriateness: thus Michigan is called the 
Wolverine state, but I have been told by persons who 
have lived long in the wild parts of the state, that they 
never saw a wolverine, and that the animal is an exceed¬ 
ingly rare one. As to the Empire state, that may have 
been assumed boastingly by persons who thought that 
New York possessed great political control, on account 
of its large vote in the election for President; or it may 
have been so called because it formerly was the only 
state bordering on the Atlantic, which, by its canals, 
railroads, and lakes, could control the trade of the great 
west. If any of you can give our friend Jessie a better 
reason, I hope you will do so....Charles R. H., near 
Bangor, Me., wishes the Doctor to tell him 
HOW TO MAKE GLUE, 
to “ mend things,” and to put together the fancy articles 
he makes. If you have much glueing to do, it may pay 
to get a little glue pot, which is an outer iron pot hold¬ 
ing water, into which sets an inner pot of tin or copper 
to hold the glue; this arrangement is to keep the glue 
from being over-heated and burned, as it can get no hot¬ 
ter than the water in the outer pot. You can imitate 
this with two tin cups, or by having any convenient dish 
to hold the glue, and placing this in a sauce-pan holding 
some water, with some nails or pebbles in it to prevent 
the thing which contains the glue from resting directly 
“POOR PUSS.”—PATIENTLY WAITING. 
on the bottom of the other. Two empty tin-cans, such 
as are used'for fruit, tomatoes, condensed milk, and the 
like, of unequal sizes, will make a handy glue-pot. You 
can buy glue at the hardware or drug stores ; do not 
get white glue; the brown which looks clear and 
bright and has no bad smell, is likely to be good. To 
prepare the glue wrap a cake or sheet in strong brown 
paper, and lay it on a hard surface, and strike it one or 
more sharp blows with a hammer ; the paper is to keep 
the pieces from flying; put as much as you think you 
will need into your cup, put on enough cold water to 
cover it, and let it stand in a cool place (not freezing) for 
several hours; it will swell up, and when the pieces can 
be readily bent, pour off and drain off every drop of wa¬ 
ter, and set the cup containing the soaked glue into the 
vessel containing cold water, and place on the stove to 
heat gradually; when thoroughly melted and hot, the 
glue is ready for use, and is to be applied with a brush. 
Recollect, the nicer and more closely fitting the joints, 
and the less the quantity of glue used, the stronger the 
work will be. It is well to warm the work before putting 
on the glue, then apply it and bring the parts together 
quickly ; the manner of holding the work until the glue 
hardens, must be thought of before-hand, for it must be 
kept in place for several hours ; the cabinet makers use 
clamps or hand-vises of various kinds, and if you have 
nothing like these, yon must contrive by wedges, straps, 
strings, or other substi¬ 
tutes, to bold the work 
firmly....The rest of the 
letters must remain for 
the present....I hope to 
hear from the boys and 
girls more frequently this 
year than ever before, not 
only those who have long 
been our readers, but the 
many new ones who will 
begin the year with us. 
To all, both old and new, 
A BIT OP ADVICE. 
Don’t apologize or make 
any excuse for writing— 
understand once for all, 
that I am glad to have 
you write ; it takes up a 
great deal of my time to 
read these excuses, and it 
costs you the time to 
write them. So recollect, 
you are always welcome, 
and no apologies needed. 
If you do not find that 
your letter is answered, 
never mind, and be sure 
there is some good reason 
for it; don’t take offence, 
but write again when you 
have need to do so ; I can 
not write to each one and 
explain the matter.—Al¬ 
ways send your name: you 
can sign what you please, 
but I must have the name 
also.—Several have forgot¬ 
ten this.—Don’t send puzzles for me to answer. Here is 
one about a man starting from New York on Monday, 
traveling west as fast as the sun, (!), and some one wants 
to know where he would be when it was Tuesday. I do not 
know, nor do I think it of the least interest; the knowl¬ 
edge of where that impossible traveler would be, will not 
make any one a bit wiser or better, and I have no time 
to spend on such things. Send puzzles to Aunt Sue. and 
she will, if she sees fit, give them in her “Puzzle Box.” 
But please do not send them to The Doctor. 
POOR PUSS. 
Here is a pict-ure sto-ry that all lit-tle 
boys and girls will like and laugh at. 
Puss was chas-ing a mouse, and she had 
al-most caught it; but there was an old 
boot on the floor, and the mouse ran in¬ 
to the leg of it. Puss went in af-ter the 
mouse, but she was big, and the leg of 
the boot w r as small, so she could not get 
far in-to the boot. What could puss do 
but sit down by the boot, and wait for 
the mouse to come out ? In the low-er 
pict-ure you see her sit-ting very cpii-et-ly, 
for she is sure that by-and-by the mouse 
must get tired of stay-ing in the boot, 
and will come out, when she can catch 
it. She does not look as if she were 
watch-ing very sharp, but you can see 
by her ears that she listens for the least 
sound, and is all ready to spring when 
the mouse comes. Poor Puss !- she 
waits in vain ; she will not soon see that 
mouse again ; she does not knoiv, as 
you do, that the boot was a w r orn-out 
one, and that there was a hole in the 
sole through which the mouse went out. 
May be the mouse is some where laugh¬ 
ing at the cat. At any rate, we will 
laugh at her, for is it notafun-ny story ? 
