142 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[April, 
length showed flower-buds; as it was kept only 
to use later for cuttings, no pains were taken 
to remove them, and it soon came into full 
bloom, making a still finer show. The flowers 
of the common velvet or Verschaffclt’s Coleus 
are very small and dull colored, as are those of 
other varieties, and not desirable ; the flowers 
of “ The Shah ” are of a light bluish purple, and 
though small, are large enough and abundant 
enough upon the long, slender spike to make 
that quite attractive, and the flowering in this 
case, instead of disfiguring the plant, as with 
some other varieties, reallyadds to its beauty. 
Those who have no greenhouse, can grow 
specimen plants in summer in the open air with 
much satisfaction, and they may be made fine 
ornaments for a balcony or veranda. There is 
besides another use for which they may be 
grown—for exhibition at the autumn fairs. At 
most of the local fairs the “ Floral Hall ” is 
sadly lacking in attractiveness; the flower 
growers of the vicinity send in their contribu¬ 
tions of 'cut flowers, but there is rarely anything 
that will make an effective display. We know 
of nothing that will make a brilliant show that 
can be grown with so little trouble as a few 
specimen plants of Coleus. It will not do to 
grow them in the open ground and then pot 
them, but they must be grown in the pots or 
boxes in which they are to be exhibited. They 
should have a rich soil, and if it is disposed to 
become hard, enough sand must be added to 
keep it porous; cuttings root with the greatest 
ease, and the plant is very manageable in the 
hands of the cultivator. In forming a pyramid 
it may be necessary to tie out the lower branches 
to nearly a horizontal position, and the upper 
must not be allowed to overhang the lower 
ones; pinching out the ends of the branches 
where necessary, will control the growth as 
may be desired. Of course care must be given 
to watering, and partial shade will be needed 
in the hot months, especially for those with 
marked leaves. The varieties are numerous, 
and new ones are offered every year; the flor¬ 
ists divide them into golden and velvet sorts, 
the one containing more or less yellow in their 
foliage, and the other being dark crimson and 
purple; none that we have seen rival “ The 
Shah ” in brilliancy, while for rich blending of 
shades, “ Chameleon ” is the finest; “ Vietchii” 
has very dark maroon leaves with green edges, 
while the “ Verschaffeltii,” the oldest of all, has 
not been surpassed as a crimson. For others, 
see florists’ catalogues. 
A Handy Garden Marker. 
Markers for use in the garden, are among the im¬ 
plements that are home-made; in a rough way, 
pins are set in a piece of joist, and this, when fur¬ 
nished with a handle, answers a good purpose. 
Those who like to have their garden implements 
neatly made, will be glad of the following descrip¬ 
tion, sent us by Mr. D. S. Hibbard, of Carroll Co., 
N. IT., of a marker which is unlike any we have 
before figured, and which has the advantage of 
being readily adjustable to make drills at any re¬ 
quired distance apart. He says : “ Plane a piece 
of inch-board, 4 inches wide, and from 4 to 6 feet 
long, (mine is 6 feet), and fasten a handle 6 feet long 
to its middle, at right angles. The handle should 
be beveled, so that when in use, the board maybe 
in about a level position, as in figure, and should 
be very firmly screwed on, as it can not be braced. 
Upon the upper side make scratches square across 
the board, at every inch of length, aud mark the feet 
and halves and quarters of feet. Then make several 
pieces of board, each a foot long on top, and about 
3 inches wide, with each end shaped like a sled- 
runner, as shown in the upper part of the engrav¬ 
ing, and sharpen the bottom edge suitably for 
marking drills in the soil. In the middle of each 
piece, near the top, make a mortice 1 by 41 inches. 
Fit them so that they can be easily slipped on to 
the long board, or bead of the marker, and fas- 
A GARDEN MARKER. 
tened in any place by wedges. These bits of board 
can be fastened across the long one at any desired 
intervals, and the scratches for feet and inches will 
help to set them square, and to regulate the dis¬ 
tances. Such a tool, with good usage, will last a 
lifetime, and will, I think, mark drills more smooth¬ 
ly and regularly than any arrangement I have seen 
described.” 
How Flowers are Fertilized. 
ET PROF. ASA GRAY. 
THIRD ARTICLE.—CLERODENDRON AND FIRE-WEED. 
“Nature abhors close unions.” That is in short 
the proposition which these articles are intended 
to illustrate. There are those, we hear, who still 
doubt whether this is true of flowers generally. 
Fig. 1.— CLERODENDRON FRESHLY OPENED. 
The only way to arrive at a correct opinion about 
this, is to examine as many different kinds of flow¬ 
ers as possible, bearing in mind that those cases in 
which a flower may self-fertilize, or may not, count 
for little either way, while those which cannot self- 
fertilize, or have only a slight chance for it, count 
for very much. 
If I were asked to point out some single particu¬ 
lar instance, of a perfect flower which was clearly 
intended not to self-fertilize, I think I should 
choose the flower of Clerodendron Thompsonce, Mrs. 
Thompson’s Clerodendron , a shrubby conservatory 
climber, from the west coast of Africa. It bears 
handsome as well as peculiar flowers, and has be¬ 
come common. [An engraving, showing a flower¬ 
ing branch of the natural size, is for convenience 
placed upon page 140.—Ed.] It is remarkable 
for its pure white calyx and blood-red corolla. It 
has four very long and slender stamens, and an 
equally long and slender style. In the bud these 
are all rolled up together in a close coil. Then the 
anthers are neither open nor mature, and the two 
forks of the style, the inner faces of which are 
stigmas, are closed and immature. As the flowers 
open, one by one, the stamens and style straighten 
and extend themselves. To understand what now 
takes place, we must look to the flowers them¬ 
selves, not to the published figures—our own of 
course, always excepted. Professor Balfour’s origi¬ 
nal figure does not represent the case at all, nor 
does his description, except that he says the style 
becomes finally slightly curved backwards, which 
is not quite true. There is a charming figure in 
the Botanical Magazine, made from “a cut speci¬ 
men, which may account for its inaccuracy in this 
particular, namely, that in all the flowers repre¬ 
sented, the stamens and the style are nearly in the 
same straight or slightly curved line. Our larger 
figure, (on page 140), is nearer the actual truth, re¬ 
presenting, as it does, the style as curved strongly 
forwards and downward, while the stamens are 
Fig. 3.-—FIRE-WEED- 
EARLY. 
straight, or with a slight upward curvature. A 
blossom in this condition is figured oy Prof. 
Balfour in a second article, describing the fruit and 
germination of the seed. But there is no reference 
to it, nor to any counterpart condition. 
The actual state of the case, which attracted my 
attention several years ago, is here shown in figure 
1, representing a freshly expanded flower ; and fig¬ 
ure 2, the same flower a day or two later. 
When the corolla opens, the stamens and the 
style—which were coil¬ 
ed upward in the bud 
—straighten; the sta¬ 
mens remain so, at least 
for the first day, and 
open the slits of their 
anthers, so as to expose 
the pollen. But the 
style goes on beyond, 
curving downward and 
backward, and its forks 
remain closed, so that the stigmas are quite un¬ 
approachable. By the next day, or at least the 
day after, all this is reversed ; the stamens are now 
rolled np and carried backward, while the style has 
straightened, spread its forks, and so the stigma 
stands just where the anthers stood the day before. 
The stigmas are now fresh and in good condition ; 
the anthers have mainly discharged their pollen, and 
are drying up. There are two moments of time, and 
only two, in which the anthers and stigmas are at all 
contiguous. At the first, upon the opening of the 
blossom, the stigmas are immature and unapproach¬ 
able ; at the second, when the style rises and the 
stigmas arc opening, there is a bare possibility that 
an anther may come in contact with the stigma, aud 
still have some pollen to bestow upon it. But 
there is no doubting what this arrangement is for. 
A flying insect with 
tongue or probos¬ 
cis long enough to 
draw nectar from 
the bottom of the 
corolla, and ap¬ 
proaching the flow¬ 
er, as it would, - 
from above, would 
get some part of 
the under side of Tig. 4.— fire-weed—late. 
its body dusted with the pollen of the freshly 
open blossom ; then, on flying to any other blossom 
a day older, the very same part would be brought 
into contact with the stigma, and cross-fertilization 
be effected. 
We need not go to Africa, nor to our conserva¬ 
tories, for instances of this sort. There are plenty 
at home. Our common Fire-weed, (Epilobium an- 
gustifolium), so abundant and gay along the borders 
of woods and thickets—especially in ground re¬ 
cently burnt over—shows the same thing nearly as 
well. In figure 3 we have a freshly open flower, 
one of the many in the ample raceme; its 8 stamens 
are now discharging their pollen, freely dusting the 
heads aud thorax of bees that visit them. But the 
style is turned downwards and backwards, wholly 
out of the way, and its stigmas fast closed. Figure 
4 represents the same flower in its second stage ; 
the stamens as they were, but they have shed their 
pollen ; the style is now brought up into line with 
the stamens, but projecting much beyond them, and 
the four lobes at its tip, expanded into a cross, the 
whole upper face of which is stigma, and is pre- 
