— 
Carolina, and without supports, wires* 
strings or manure; and these, are to produce 
more than any native sort. Finally, as he 
desires to introduce the use of wine on the 
tables of the mechanic and the laborer, as 
well as on that of the wealthy, he offers to 
demonstrate to any one desirous of learning, 
how wines must be raised; and assorts that 
in following his example they cannot fail to 
gain property. 
The writer is evidently animated with tho 
best motives in his endeavors to develop the 
productive, resources of the South, and for 
this he is entitled to Credit; but he has evi¬ 
dently undertaken a work that wll! result, 
like all similar attempts in the same Held, in 
a lamentable failure. His asser¬ 
tion that he has been unable to 
discover one who has experiment¬ 
ed with foreign grapes, evident¬ 
ly shows how feeble his efforts 
must have been in that direction; 
but a few years' experience will 
show him how utterly futilo will 
i'SV be his attempts to cultivate tho 
foreign grapes profitably in the 
open air, even in North Caro¬ 
lina. He will then have an op 
portunity of taking a retrospect¬ 
ive view of what he now asserts, 
and discover that he has been 
jay endeavoring to add only another 
jafex nanio to the already long list of 
SSopSfgk disappointed experimenters, and 
1 that before placing himself in tho 
Position of a teacher it would 
v'V ItHsHi have * ,eCn far better for him to 
mmm ,UIV '' heeded the advice of prae- 
tical vineynriliats of his own 
State before attempting an im- 
and layers, in any ordinaiy soil. It will 
flourish in any situation not too much ex¬ 
posed to the sun, but appears to prefer shady 
places; and as it grows rapidly when well 
established, its merits aB a substitute for the 
Ivy will, doubtless, soon be universally 
recognized. 
In Peru, where it occurs as well as in Chili, 
it i3 called by the Indians Aguilboguil and 
Guilbogui ; in Chili, its native designation is 
Coquil-vochi. Two other species are de¬ 
scribed by botanists, T,. tri-temata and L. 
tri-foliata, which appear to differ from the 
L. biternata in not producing an edible fruit. 
The plants of the. order Lardizabalace.ee, 
although few in number, are all of interest; 
FRENCH VITICULTURE IN NORTH 
CAROLINA. 
DIFFENBACHIA NOBILIS 
lx the Rural Messenger of July 26 there 
appeared a communication from Mr. J. L. 
Lahiaux, under the above title, which con¬ 
tains some of the most extraordinary' state¬ 
ments, in regard to the cultivation of the 
grape, that we have seen for many a day. 
We had thought the last German and French¬ 
man had finished his fizzle in trying to culti¬ 
vate the foreign varieties of grapes in the 
one ox tne mosi, oomp»o-Kio«ui6 cnuu*- 
ive species in tho whole group of Diffenbach- 
ias. and one which makes a handsome plant 
when grown in a close, humid stove. Its 
thick and fleshy leaf stalks are about afoot 
long, pale .green in color, transversely barred 
with darker green. The blades of the leaves 
are ovate or oblorg, and somewhat cordate 
at the base. They vary from 1 to 2 foet in 
length, are about 0 to 9 inches 
broad, and of a deep green color, 
prettily blotched all over the 
central portiou with white, ir¬ 
regularly confluent blotches, that 
contrast" forcibly with tho dark 
green margins, This plant is as 
easily grown as its congeners, ^ 
and, in addition to a warm, hu- 
mid atmosphere, it prefers an 
open compost of fibrous loam, 
leaf-mold and fresh peat, with " 
the addition of a little coarse, 
well-washed river sand. When 
growing vigorously, it requires 
a liberal supply of moisture at 
the root. It was introduced from 
South America by Mr. William 
Bull, and promises to hold a {f, 
high place among Dieffen- 
bachias. Like its congener, it is 
readily propagated by means of 
cuttings made of the fleshy stem, 
and, when liberally treated, is a 
robust grower. 
possibility. 
VINEYARD NOTES 
A Beverage from Roasted 
i Grape Seeds .— Mods. T. Schmidt. 
calculates that thirty to forty 
pounds of seeds per acre of vine¬ 
yard are ordinarily produced, 
and, with tho exception of the 
tannin which they contain, and 
which is used in the. clearing and 
manufacturing of wine, tho whole 
is looked upon as a waste pro¬ 
duct. When, however, these 
seeds aro properly roasted and 
ground, they possess an aroma 
very much like that of East In¬ 
dia coffee, and the beverage ob¬ 
tained therefrom is about the 
same in taste, although not in strength, as 
coffee. The author recommends tho fol¬ 
lowing rnodo of procedure :—Take on© and 
a half ounces of the ground preparation, 
and boil it for five minutes in a quart of milk, 
adding a little cinnamon and cloves. When 
filtered and sweetened to taste, a beverage is 
obtained resembling chocolate, with tho 
same reddish tint. It also becomes thick like 
cocoa on being allowed to stand for awhile. 
—English Mechanic. 
Wasps on Grapes .—The other day we 
were looking through Mr. Ukaton’u vine¬ 
yard, north of Schenectady, when Mrs. HEa¬ 
ton called our attention to the work of the 
wasps on the Concords. She did not suggest 
that the bees did it. We are reminded of it 
by just reading how an Englishman man¬ 
aged the wasps which had commenced de¬ 
stroying his wall peaches. He says“Not 
having an extra large crop, I was, of course, 
most cnxious to save them, which I have 
dona by ‘ taking ’ live hives of bees and put¬ 
ting the empty hives by the side of our peach 
walls. In a few minutes they were, literally 
speaking, full, when I treated each hive to a 
little boiling water, killing the wasps by 
thousands,” 
Grapes in France .—“The grape harvest in 
France,” says the Globe, “promises to bo 
unusually fine this year. How large a share 
have named the ivy we nave 
exhausted the list. To this valu¬ 
able climber, which, although ® 
possessing few claims to beauty, « 
is deservedly eacecmed for its 
utility in covering walla and 
concealing other objects offensive 
to the eye of taste, the Lardiza- 
bala biternata will prove a for¬ 
midable rival; for it appears to 
be equally hardy, produces its 
beautiful durk gTecn, glossy fo'iage in great 
abundance, and has, moreover, the additional 
recommendation of bearing flowers of a sin¬ 
gularly interesting character, which, in the 
caso of tho fertile blossoms, are succeeded 
by an edible fruit. 
It is a native of Chili, growing as far south 
as Concepcion, whence it was sent by 
George Thomas Davey, Esq., of Valparaiso, 
to Messrs. Veitch of Exeter. 
The specific term, biternata, does not ap¬ 
pear to be very happily chosen; for although 
some of the leaves are biternate, they are 
more generally simply ternate, especially in 
the flowering brunches, and occasionally 
they are tri-temnto. The leaflets are often 
quite entire at the edge, but sometimes 
spinosely - toothed, of a dark green color 
above, but oftlor and veined on tlxe under 
DIFFENBACHIA 
they were formerly included with the Menis- 
permaettz or Coceulm tribe, to which the 
narcotic berry known as Cocculus Indians 
belongs, but are now classed apart, their 
many-seeded berries distinguishing them 
from the plants just referred to. 
NOBILIS. 
open air east of the Rocky Mountains ; but 
it seems that there is ono more left. 
Perhaps the most extraordinary feature 
of all the hundred attempts made in this 
country to cultivate the foreign grape on a 
large scale in the open air, is that the con¬ 
ductors of tho experiments always begin 
with a good flourish, on paper, and by tell¬ 
ing us Americans and the rest of mankind 
that we know nothing of grape culture, 
hence tho failure of foreign varieties in our 
climate. Alfhonze LouBaT told us tills in 
1827, when he made u most desperate at¬ 
tempt to establish a vineyard on Long Island, 
which ended in a most lamentable failure. 
Mr. Lahiaux, as usual, starts out with 
this extraordinary statement, to wit: — 
“That wine growing is, in all respects, the 
most. Important branch of agriculture, there 
” This shows how much 
FLORICULTURAL NOTES 
Destroying Slugs .— J. Hine says, in Cot¬ 
tage Gardener ;—The gardener managing 
Lord Somers’ grounds fMr. Coleman) adopts 
the following method, which may be known 
to some of your readers, but it wa3 new to 
me :—A lad is sent along all the walks of t he 
garden each evening with a bag or bucketful 
of bran, and he places a handful of it on the 
borders, at every 8 or 11) feet or so, hi a. heap. 
Early next morning he traverses t he same 
ground with an empty bucket, dustpan and 
small broom. Bran is an article slugs are 
very fond of, und It seems to attract them 
from all around : the heaps are, therefore, 
found covered with them, often a complete 
mass. The lad then sweeps the whole into 
his dustpan, empties it into the bucket, and 
by the time he has finished his walk, many 
hundreds, if not thousands, are thus cap¬ 
tured. A week or two of such work, or even 
a day or two now and then, must be the 
means of saving a great deal of our garden 
produce. I would recommend that when 
collecting the slugs a little salt .ind water be 
in the bucket, which will effectually prevent 
the escape of a single member when cap¬ 
tured, as the salt causes them to sicken and 
die at onee. 
Herbaceous Krythrinu .—Will you please 
give me, through tho Rural New-Yorker, 
tiie name of the ineloeed jvea f and greatly 
oblige—T. Ferguson, Hollis Center, Me. 
Ertfthrina herbacea, a very pretty her¬ 
baceous plant, with scarlet flowers succeed- 
[ ed by pods containing bright scarlet seed. 
It is a native of the s jo them States, growing 
in light, sandy soils, iroru Florida to North 
Carolina and westward to the Mississippi. 
Call for Aunt Lou's List of Ruses .—Will 
“Aunt Lou” tell just what kind were the 45 
roses she got for $5.50 from a Pennsylvania 
firm t Cheap enough, if they were not com¬ 
mon scrub kinds. If so, we’ll send her a mail 
bag full for nothing. If “ Aunt Lou” will 
tell us what kinds, if rare, she got so cheap, 
we’ll promise to exhaust that nursery of its 
stock.— Uxouc Bud, Indianapolis, Indiana. 
can be no question, 
the gentleman knows of the products of this 
country or the wants of the people. We 
will venture the assertion that if nut another 
gallon of wine was ever made in America 
wo would never feel the loss as a nation; in 
fact there is scarcely room for doubt that we 
have lost more in attempting to make wine 
than has ever been made from its produc¬ 
tion. But we are perfectly willing, and in 
fact anxious, to have grape culture in aJl its 
branches become a success, only desire to 
warn the masses against being misled by 
such statements as those made by the gentle¬ 
man named above. 
Again, Mr, Lahiaux makes a blunder by 
asserting that grape culture is little, if at all, 
understood in the United States; in other 
words, everybody is deficient in knowledge, 
both practical and theoretical, but himself, 
and then ho proceeds to tell what he knows 
of it, thereby exposing his own ignorance of 
what has been done, in the same field and 
long before his advent in America. He also 
further shows his ignorance of our best 
varieties by saying that “the very best na¬ 
tive American grapes aro so poor for the 
table and for wine that in the markets of 
France they would not fetch one-half of one 
cent per pound.” 
Having had some experience in growing 
grapes in the South of France, he proposes 
to cultivate the same varieties in North 
