Q80 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[September, 
INTRODUCTION OF THE RETS. 
Engraved for llic American Agriculturist. 
Young; Animals—Curious Traits. 
“This is Miss Daisy* Master Nero, and you must be 
very kind to her,” is what the lad in the picture appears 
to be saying, by way of introducing his pets to each oth¬ 
er. Tlie animals are both evidently pleased with their 
owner, and under his training will doubtless be very good 
friends to each other. This managing of pets is one of 
the pleasantest and most interesting things for young 
people in the country. It will surprise you to discover 
how much such creatures may be taught, and to notice 
the traits of character they will show. By a little care, 
while young, animals of the most opposite natural qual¬ 
ities may be brought to live together on the best of terms. 
The writer lias seen a dog, a lainb, and a kitten, frolick¬ 
ing together by the hour. Recently he was much inter¬ 
ested by the conduct of a dog which was apparently at¬ 
tacking a chicken. He seemed to be biting it with tlie 
intention of making a meal of it; but on closer examina¬ 
tion it proved that tlie chicken had been hurt in some way, 
and tlie dog was carefully trying to set it upon its feet. 
Failing in this, lie lay down beside it, and commenced 
licking its wounded leg. A correspondent of the Agri¬ 
culturist, “ Lex,” relates the following incident. About 
a month since, two cats had each a “ family ” within a 
few days of each other. All the kittens were drowned 
except two of each set, which, with their respective 
mamas, were snugly settled in a couple of boxes in the 
same room. On the following day, both families entire— 
or rather what remained of them— were found coiled up 
together in tlie same box. They u'ere not disturbed, and 
thenceforward the two mothers ceased to recognize any 
distinction between the two pairs of kittens. They would 
alternately nurse tlie whole lot, or both affectionately en¬ 
twined together, divide the “labor of love,” just as the 
kittens, lying snugly between them, would happen to turn 
to tlie one or the other. But this is not all. Eddie 
brought a couple of young squirrels from tlie woods, 
which soon became very gentle. In less than two days, 
both were found in the box among tlie cats and kittens, 
drawing from either or botli the maternal fonts, upon a 
like footing of equality and community witii that previ¬ 
ously enjoyed by tlie kittens ! The old cats seemed to 
acquiesce fully in the arrangement, and so it proceeded 
■ for a couple of weeks, until one of the squirrels was ac¬ 
cidentally killed. The other, having the freedom of the 
house, is now a romping playmate of both cats and kit¬ 
tens, who continue uniformly to treat him as “ one of the 
family.” Many such incidents have come to our knowl¬ 
edge, showing that this department of natural historj is 
not one of the least interesting that can be studied. Our 
young readers, especially in the country, can find almost 
endless amusement in experimenting upon it, and at the 
same time, the patience and kindness they will be re¬ 
quired to exercise in order to be successful, will have a 
happy influence on their own dispositions and characters, 
and teacli them forbearance toward,'their own fellows. 
Ail EcccMtric Physician.—Anecdote. 
A friend relates for the Agriculturist, the following an¬ 
ecdote of a skillful physician, Dr. M-, who is still 
practising in Rhode Island. He had a way of doing tilings 
all his own, and no one could tell beforehand, “where 
lie would come out.” On one occasion lie was called to 
perform a very important surgical operation on a young 
man living in the country. Arriving there he found col¬ 
lected a large number of neighboring farmers and others, 
who had come from curiosity to witness the operation. 
He observed that the house was scantily furnished, and 
other evidences of the poverty of tlie family were appa¬ 
rent, and he inquired whether the mother, a widow, was 
ready to pay tlie $50 which lie should charge. She re¬ 
plied that she could not at present, but would do so as 
soon as possible. The doctor immediately informed the 
bystanders, that he would do nothing until the money 
was paid, and asked them if they could not make up the 
amount. This was soon done, but not without many 
condemnations of the hard-hearted doctor, who, however, 
paid no attention to the remarks, but immediately went 
on with his work, which he performed successfully. As 
soon as it was over, he stepped up to the mother, and re¬ 
marking “ tlie boy will need some things before he gets 
well,” slipped the $50 into her hand, and was off before 
he could hear her thanks, or the loud praises of those 
who had just been denouncing him as a grasping miser. 
Hoys’ and Girls’ Garden — >o. fi. 
Perhaps it will be best for our young friends, before 
they read this garden talk, to look over again tlie les¬ 
sons for July and August. We wish you to be perfectly 
familiar with what is said in July, about the Flax flower. 
We have taken the Flax as our starting point, our model 
flower, and you can not have its structure or the “way 
it is got up,” as people sometimes say, too thoroughly by 
heart. We there showed you the floral envelopes—tlie 
calyx and corolla, and the essential organs—the stamens 
and pistils—in their relations to one another. In August 
we endeavored to show you how this plan of the flower 
is varied to produce other shapes, and illustrated this in 
various ways. We showed you, by means of the Toma¬ 
to and Morning Glory, that a variety of forms could be 
produced by the union or growing together of the parts of 
the corolla, and that in the Pea we had a very different 
looking flower, by the unequal size of the petals, and the 
partial union of two of them. In this lesson we wish to 
continue to show the variations from the Flax, our pat- 
| tern flower, and to have you see that other parts, besides 
I those of the corolla, can unite more or less into one piece. 
I If you examine the calyx of the Pea, you will see that 
Fig. 27— STAMENS OF PEA. 
23. — pisTii, 
F FLAX. 
the parts or sepals are joined together. So you see that 
by merely uniting the parts of the calyx and of the corol¬ 
la in different degrees, we get a great variety of fashions. 
But this kind of union is not confined to these parts, it 
extends to the stamens and pistils. The flower of the 
Tomato will show you one kind of union of the corolla, 
if you gently separate the stamens, tlie anthers will be 
found to be joined together by a thin film or skin. The 
Pea shows the union of 
the stamens in a much 
more striking manner. 
Carefully pull off the pe¬ 
tals of a Pea, and you 
will find that the stamens 
are joined together, not 
this time by their anthers, but by their filaments. So 
you see that there are two different ways by which sta¬ 
mens can be united. The united stamens of the Pea 
form a sort of tube which encloses the pistil, but the tube 
is not a perfect one. There are ten stamens, but one of 
these is not joined to the rest, and with a little care you 
can separate it, leaving nine stuck together and one free. 
(Fig. 27.) These will answer for illustrations of the sev¬ 
eral different ways in which the stamens are united. 
Union between the pistils is very common. We have 
not said a great deal about the pistil thus far, but'this is 
a most important part of tlie flower, 
and we shall say more of it by and 
by. The pistils vary greatly in num¬ 
ber ; in the Pea we have but one, and 
in the Flax we have five, but they are 
united into a solid body by their ova¬ 
ries, though their styles are distinct. 
(Fig. 28.) The pistil of the Morning 
Glory consists really of three single 
pistils joined together not only by their 
ovaries, but by their styles also. There 
are generally as many cells or divi¬ 
sions in the ovary as there are pistils 
joined together, and when we cut the 
ovary of the Morning Glory across, 
and find three partitions (fig. 29), we 
may be safe in concluding that it is 
not a simple pistil, but one formed by 
the joining together of three so com¬ 
pletely as to appear like one. In 
these different illustrations we have 
shown the union of parts of the same kind witii one an¬ 
other, as of petals with petals, stamens with stamens, etc. 
Now we wish to call your attention to a different 
kind of union, one in which the parts of one set are joined 
(g) to those of another. This brings us to an- 
A other set of forms of the flower, and those 
which often make its structure difficult 
to understand. Beginning with the floral 
I envelopes, we often find the calyx and co¬ 
rolla cohering together, as will be seen if 
you examine the blossom of the Melon 
or Cucumber. A union may take place 
between the stamens and the corolla. If 
you split open the flower of the Morning 
Glory you will see (fig. 30) that the lower 
parts of the filaments are attached to the 
corolla. Now this kind of union may go 
on still further, and tlie stamens, corolla 
and calyx, all be united to the ovary. Tlie 
Melon and Cucumber give us an illustra¬ 
tion of this ; here (Fig. 31) the corolla ap¬ 
pears to come out of tlie top of the ovary, 
but really the other parts are joined to the 
ovary and are free at file top. It is just as 
if the oilier parts of the Flax flower stuck 
F. 29. ovary, to its ovary and only appeared above it. 
Still other changes are produced in flowers by the absence 
of one set of parts. You will recollect that it lias been 
stated that the stamens and pistils were the essential 
parts ; if these are present, the flower is 
and will perfect its seeds 
no matter if tlie corolla or 
calyx or both are absent. 
There are many flowers 
which have a calyx and no 
corolla, and many others 
which have neither. Among 
our plants chosen for il¬ 
lustration, the Oat has 
neither calyx nor corolla. 
It is rather iate for you to 
examine the flower of the Fig. 30.— corolla of the 
Oat, but you may, per- morning glory—opened. 
haps find some among the stubble of the oat field. Here 
we have neither calyx or corolla, but green scaly, or 
chaffy parts called glumes. Fig. 32, will help you to un¬ 
derstand the flower of the Oat. Beginning below you 
have a pair of empty scales, and within these two pairs 
of scales, and inside of these pairs you will find the pis- 
a perfect one, 
