1865.] 
AMERICAN AGRICUETURIST. 
4:9 
Fig. 1.- 
-BUTTERFLY FLOWER. 
Some Curious Vegetable Forms. 
All plants are engaged in performing the same 
general work—that of converting tlie crude ele¬ 
ments of the earth and air into organized pro¬ 
ducts fit for the food of animals. This might 
have been done equally well had the plants 
been made all of the same form, instead of with 
that great variety which now surrounds ns. 
The study of plants shows us the wonderfully 
varied means employed to attain the same end. 
Though all the parts of plants show great diver¬ 
sity in form, this is most 
strikingly seen in the flower, 
in which every conceivable 
modification of shape as well 
as of color, is wrought. 
Among the most interesting 
flowers are those which re¬ 
semble more or less closely 
some kinds of animals. The 
Calceolarias, looking very like large fat spiders, 
and the common Canary-bird flower {Tropaxlum 
veregrinum), which by the aid of a little imagi¬ 
nation looks like a bird, are 
among the more common of 
these curious forms. To see 
the most striking ones we must 
go to the rare collections of the 
hot-houses, where among the 
members of the Orchis Family 
g will be found flowers of strange 
■ shapes and brilliant colors. 
The Dove-flower of Central America, which has 
■what appears like a beautiful little white dove 
nestling within it, was figured in these columns 
Fig. 3. 
a few years ago, and 
we now give a draw¬ 
ing of the equally re¬ 
markable Butterfly- 
flower, Oncidium pa- 
pilio. This plant is a 
nat'lve of Trinidad, 
and like many others 
of the same family it 
is an Epiphyte^ i.e., it 
grows upon other 
plants, to which it at¬ 
taches itself by closely 
clinging roots, and 
draAvs its nourish¬ 
ment from the air. 
The engraving shows 
a cluster of the bulbs 
of the plant upon a 
piece of a limb, one of 
them bearing leaves. 
On account of the 
great length of its 
stem, the flower can 
not be shown in its 
proper position, but 
is cut off and shown 
lower. The whole is 
drawn about half the 
natural size. There are 
some insects Avhich 
very closely resemble 
leaves, and it Avould 
seem that to balance 
the account. Nature 
had made this flower 
as much like an in¬ 
sect as possible. It 
resembles a butterfly 
not only in shape, but 
in its brilliant colors, 
and the illusion is the greater from its being 
perched upon a very slender stem, so that when 
moved by the wind, it has the ap¬ 
pearance of a butterfly hovering 
in the air. This plant thrives only 
in a warm and moist atmosphere, 
and can not be grown e.xcept in a 
hot-house. It is not flowers alone 
that simulate animal forms, but 
fruits sometimes put on grotesque 
shapes. The Snake cucumber {Tri- 
cliosantlies coluhrina), with fruit sev¬ 
eral feet iu length, and shaped like 
a serpent, is frequently groAvn in 
green-houses. A nut from Dema- 
rara, called the Snake-nut, has a 
most curiously twisted kernel, 
which -when removed I'rom the 
shell, looks very much like a small 
serpent. Figures 2 and 3 give two 
views of this kernel, and show its 
snake-like form. The tree which 
produces it is related to the Horse- 
chestnut, and bears the rather form¬ 
idable but descriptive botanical 
name of OpMocaryon paradoxum, 
-o- 
The Difference between a 
Fruit and a Vegetable. —A Lady 
asks us how she shall reply to the 
question : “ What is the difference 
between a fruit and a vegetable ?” 
This is a rather difficult question to 
answer with precision. In one 
sense, all fruits are vegetables, and all the 
vegetables used as food by men and animals 
are fruits. Horticulturall}’’, those products in¬ 
tended for the table which first go through a 
preparatory operation in the kitchen, are called 
vegetables, although many of them, such as to¬ 
matoes, squashes, etc., may really be fruits, 
while melons, grapes, etc., eaten without prepa¬ 
ration are fruits. Some, like the tomato, may 
be eaten either as a fruit or as a vegetable. Bo- 
tanically theivord fruit means the ripened ovary 
and its contents, together with whatever may 
be connected with it, as receptacle, cal 3 ^x, etc. 
---.-€«- 
The Trumpet Honeysuckle. 
{Lonicera sempervirens.) 
Among the woody climbers, the different spe¬ 
cies of Lonicera or Honeysuckle occupy a prom¬ 
inent place. The Woodbine, so woven into 
English poetrA:, is a Avell knoAvn species valued 
for its fragrance; and there are several others, 
the floAvers of Avhich are both beautiful and 
highlj^ perfumed. As a covering for trellises. 
Avails and flat screens, the honeysuckle does not 
ansAver as good a purpose as several other vines. 
Its nature is to Avind or twine about some sup¬ 
port like a pole, pillar, or trunk of a tree. As 
an ornament for pillars or poles, no vine is moi-e 
suitable. Tlie posts of a A'eranda or summer¬ 
house can be speedily covered by them. Sup¬ 
ports of an ornamental sort arc often made 
of cedar or pine, the shaft being about ten feet 
high, three inches in diameter at the base and 
tapering to tAVO at the top. Short, transvere 
rods are run through them at about eighteen 
inches apart, and the honeysuckle alloAved to 
tAvine about them. If one has a heap of bould¬ 
TRUMPET HONEYSUCKLE. 
ers, or a rocky ledge in his grounds, fnat ne 
wishes to hide or embellish, let him set a scarlet 
