1870.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
459 
The Closed Gentian. 
Among the many plants sent us for a name, 
there is no one we more commonly receive 
in autumn than the Closed Gentian. It is fre¬ 
quently met with late in the season, and attracts 
THE CLOSED GENTIAN. 
notice on account of its conspicuous, dark-blue 
flowers, and their persistent way of never open¬ 
ing. The engraving we give will show this pe¬ 
culiar appearance, which has caused some to 
call it the Bottle-Gentian. The most common 
species with this general aspect is Gentiana 
Andrewsii, and it sometimes occurs with perfect¬ 
ly white flowers. There are two or three other 
species similar in appearance, found in the 
Southern and Western States, and only to be 
distinguished upon close inspection. We are not 
aware of any attempts to cultivate either this or 
any other of our species of Gentian. Some of 
the Alpine forms of Europe have been intro¬ 
duced into cultivation, but they are difficult 
to grow with us. Probably our native ones, 
some of them very beautiful, if their require¬ 
ments were properly studied and experiment¬ 
ed upon, might be brought into cultivation. 
A Double-flowered Datura. 
When one wishes to popularize a flower that 
is little known, how he is troubled to find a tak¬ 
ing name. Datura clilorantha flore plena, as 
they have it in the seedsmen’s catalogues, is 
certainly formidable enough to repel any one; 
it might be called “ Double-flowered Datura,” 
but as there are other Daturas that have double 
flowers, this seems to be hardly specific enough. 
The Daturas we are sufficiently familiar with in 
our common Datura Stramonium , popularly 
known as Stink-weed, Apple of Peru, Devil’s 
Apple, Jamestown and Jimson Weed, which is 
a common enough weed in all waste places. 
Even this is not without beauty, and did it re¬ 
quire care to de¬ 
velop its fragrant 
funnel - shaped 
white flowers,we 
should probably 
prize it as an or¬ 
namental plant, 
despite the sick¬ 
ening odor of its 
leaves. There 
are several spe¬ 
cies of Datura 
cultivated for or¬ 
nament ; while 
their flowers are 
very showy,their 
leaves have all a 
most unpleasant 
odor. Oneshould 
enjoy them with¬ 
out coming into 
too close con¬ 
tact. Datura me- 
teloides, oftener 
incorrectly call¬ 
ed D. Wrightii , 
is a very showy, 
single - flowered 
species, and a 
well grown plant 
of it makes a 
great display of 
enormous flow¬ 
ers. A friend of 
ours who makes 
the greatest pos¬ 
sible show in a 
small garden, 
produced a fine 
effect last sum¬ 
mer with a few 
plants of Datura 
cldorantlia flore pleno —which we may translate 
as the “ Double greenish-flowered Stink-weed.” 
It grows four or five feet high, and makes a 
spreading, bushy plant, which is covered with 
a profusion of bloom. The individual flowers 
are six or eight inches long, and each curiously 
double. Each corolla has another within it, to 
the number of three or four, as shown in the 
engraving. The flowers are of a delicate, green¬ 
ish-yellow color, and are fragrant, while the fo¬ 
liage, when bruised, is as offensive as that of 
our common species. For making a show, this 
is a desirable plant, and as it is one of those 
things which flourish well in hot weather, the 
best way is to start the seeds early in a hot-bed 
and grow the plants as rapidly as possible. 
-- — ♦ wm&am --- 
Soils for Gardening and Farming. 
BY PETER HENDERSON. 
On many occasions I have referred to the great 
importance of selecting a proper quality of soil 
for all gardening and farming operations. But 
as year by year you are increasing the number 
of inexperienced readers, the fact cannot be too 
often nor too forcibly impressed that success 
hinges upon this alone more than on any thing 
else. Thousands are every year ruined by a 
bad selection of soil. I have scores come to 
me in the course of every season for advice in 
this matter of soils, but in most instances the 
advice is asked too late; the majority of the ap¬ 
plicants having been unfortunate enough to buy 
or rent land that they had been led to believe 
was excellent, but only “ run down.” In my 
opinion this wide-spread notion of “exhausted 
lands” is, to a great extent, a fallacy, and that 
DOUBLE-FLOWERED DATURA. 
most of the lands said to be so exhausted never 
were good, and no power on earth short of 
spreading a good soil over them a foot thick, 
would ever make them good. In a visit to the 
suburbs of Richmond, Virginia, a few weeks 
ago, I encountered a man from the Eastern 
States that had gone down there four years ago. 
He had bought an “ exhausted farm ” of 80 
acres, and with northern energy and northern 
capital, hoped to resuscitate it to what it had 
been (as the former owner had told him), a fer¬ 
tile farm. An expenditure of nearly $3,000, and 
the hard work of four years, had as yet failed to 
give him a crop of corn that paid for the labor. 
Not a stalk could I see that had been more than 
five feet high, and many of them not two feet. 
No wonder! his poor yellow soil in no place 
exceeded four inches in depth, and was under¬ 
lain by a hard pan of clay. Ruin in all such 
cases is inevitable, the labor put upon such a 
soil can never pay, so long as there is any thing 
better within twenty miles of it. Our country 
contains millions of acres of lands, that are 
bought and sold annually, which are of but little 
more use for farming purposes than if the title 
deeds were given for the same area in mid-ocean. 
“ But,” asks the reader, “ flow are we to select 
soils ?” First, never buy a farm without personal 
examination—never take the seller’s word about 
it; he may honestly believe that what he asserts 
is true, or he may know it to be false; but in 
