1867.] 
219 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
FUEMO>TI\ CALIFOnVICA. 
VAKIEGATED ASTILBE. 
our own publications, we are at a loss to iinder- 
Btand. Boston people stand preeminent in hor- 
ticnlture, but they have hard work with their 
botany. Ilovey’s Magazine will persist in call¬ 
ing things by wrong names, and gets properly 
called to account l>y the Gardeuei-’s Monthly, 
and now this “American” journal gives 
us an engraving which must be a puzzler to 
any one who wished to make out the struc¬ 
ture of the flowers. We will not assert that 
nature could not produce such a flower as they 
figure, but we can safely say that she never did. 
The engraving we present is from the original 
specimen, brought home by Gen. (then Col.) 
Fremont, and was not discovered in his expe¬ 
dition to the “ Rocky Mountains,” but in that 
made some years later to California. It grows 
along the sides of the Sierra Nevada, and upon 
the Coast Range, being rather unequally distrib¬ 
uted. It may be properly claimed as a shnib, 
but it sometimes forms a small tree from 20 to 30 
feet high. We have asection of a trunk of 1 re- 
monti^ 5*1, inches in diameter, with very hard 
and close grained wood. The form of the leaves 
is shown in the engraving; the older ones arc 
often 3 inches in diameter, green above, and of a 
rusty color on the under side. The flowers, which 
are of a bright golden yellow, are succeeded by 
a downy capsule, that much resembles that 
borne by the common Rose of Sharon {Hibiscus 
Syriucus). The shrub was first described by 
Doct. Torrey, in the Smithsonian Contributions 
in 1850—and properly bears the name of one 
to whom we arc so much indebted for a knowl¬ 
edge of the vegetation of the far West. Al¬ 
though this shrub has been so long known to 
botanists, as is usually the case with American 
plant-s, it first appeai-s in cultivation in the gar¬ 
dens of Europe. We hope it may soon be 
found in those of this country, and prove hardy. 
A Variegated Astilbe. 
Ill a notice of Astilbe Japonica, {Spii'cca 
Japonica of some catalogues,) given in .Tanuary 
last, (page 22,) allusion was made to a variegated 
leaved form. Z^Ir. Peter Ilendersonhas recently 
aflbrded us an opportunity to see this variety 
in great perfection. We were so pleased with 
the plant that, notwithstanding the difficulty of 
adequately representing its beauty in black and 
white, we give an engraving of a single leaf. 
Imagine golden lines in place of the white, and 
a dark green instead of the black, and a tuft of 
such leaves a foot across, and some idea may 
be had of this most beautiful production. The 
plant will doubtless be hardy, and we hope that 
it will soon be abundant enough to become ac¬ 
cessible to all, as it is one of the most beautiful 
of what the gardeners will persist in calling 
by the absurd name of “ foliaged plants,” 
The Horticultural Value of Cats. 
Puss has a bad name among our fruit-growing 
friends, and a still worse name among the little 
birds that seek shelter in our gardens and or¬ 
chards, if they had a chance to speak their sen¬ 
timents. If they could hold a convention and 
assert “bird’s rights,” puss would either be 
banished, kept in close quarters, or furnished 
with a bell necklace to warn all useful birds of 
her stealthy approach. The ostensible use of 
cats is to keep rats and mice in check. When 
well trained, they do this. But a great many 
cats of low breeding, or spoiled in education, 
fail in this essential point. They will not attack 
even when the rat squeals, as Mr. Deanagon 
would say. They arc dainty, aristocratic ani¬ 
mals, that have forgotten what they were made 
for, like certain bipeds of a higher order. They 
eschew rat sirloin and affect chicken, and 
feathered game in general. The sparrows. 
rushes, wrens and martins that make constant 
arfare upon insects, arc kept in mortal fear 
T puss. She runs her long claws into the box- 
where they build their nests, climbs into the 
ees and gobbles whole broods of young robins, 
ats with kittens are especially ravenous and 
jstructivc among the birds. Tiiey depopulate 
.e garden, and wander off to distant meadow s 
id woods after the tender, half grown game, 
ne cat will readily destroy trvo hundred birds 
. a single season. It is easy to see how much 
its may do to destroy the balance of nature, 
rd leave insects to multiply without let or 
indrance from our useful feathered friends. 
We cannot in all cases get along Avithout cats, 
it Avc may do much to keep their increase 
ithin proper limits, and much to protect the 
irds against their attacks. The birds that 
L-eed in boxes, like the martins, wrens, Engli^i 
rarrows and blue-birds, may have their homes 
olated on poles, or in other ways, so that cats 
m not get at them. A piece of sheet iron or 
id tin, a foot wdde or more, around the body 
r a tree a few feet from tire ground, wiU b« 
