cdjlttri^ultuijal. 
TROPiEOLUMS. 
The English paper* have a good deal to 
say of the Tropicolum Speciosum and Minnie 
Warren. The latter is described as exceeding¬ 
ly dwarf, blotched and broadly margined with 
pale cream, which “bleaches to pure white 
as the leaves reach maturity. It is perfectly 
Tropajolum Speciosum. 
constant in its variegation and very seldom 
produces blossoms—a great merit in a foliage 
bedding plant.” It was raised in 18Ctl by a 
Mr. CATTELbof Westerham. and when shown 
the following year was awarded a llrst-class 
certificate by the ltoyal Horticultural So¬ 
ciety. W. E. H„ writing to the “Garden,” 
says that although its seeds germinate freely 
the seedlings cannot live, being destitute of 
chlorophyl, or altogether creamy-white. It 
is reproduced, therefore, by cuttings alone, 
which root with facility. 
The former (Speciosum) is deemed by the 
Agricultural Gazette the finest of all the 
tuberous-rooted Tropieoluins. Though intro¬ 
duced from New Granada in 184<5, it is still 
comparatively scarce mid not half so much 
grown as a plant of such great beauty de¬ 
serves. “ It has well divided leaves and rich 
scarlet flowers, the form of which is well 
portrayed in the accompanying illustration.” 
It is “impatient of dryness, either in the at¬ 
mosphere or at the roots, and a deep, rich, 
moist soil and a partially shaded position” 
are essential. 
-- r 
MANAGEMENT OF POT PLANTS. 
Amateurs are apt, in repotting plants, to 
make the soil too rich, under the impression 
that, because the roots are confined within 
a small compass, necessarily tlic soil must 
be very fat. Such is not the fact. Flower¬ 
ing plants should not have the soil over rich. 
They do better in pure soil, free from an 
excessive quantity or manure. What is used 
should be the most thoroughly digested com¬ 
post. The successful florist understands that 
the soil requires only to be in that normal 
state to insure perfect and continuous 
growth ; and, therefore, instead of making 
the soil in the pots over rich, depends upon 
stimulating, when wanted, by means of 
liquid manure. 
A mistake generally made in shifting 
from one pot to another, is the use of too 
large pots as the plants increase in size. In 
changing, use pots ouly one size larger than 
the plant was in before. To do this in the 
best manner put some drainage in the 
bottom of the pots, say half an inch of 
broken flower pots for four inch size, being 
careful to close the hole in the bottom by 
laying a piece thereon ; on this plaee a 
little rich compost mixed with one-half its 
bulk of sharp sand. Then place a pot one 
size less than the one containing the plant to 
be moved. Fill In around this with the same 
material pretty finely packed. Lift out the 
pot and Jill with soil, just so that the bull of 
earth in which the plant is contained will 
reach to about hall' au inch of the rim of the 
new pot. Now set the plant In and cave the 
earth about it from the sides, and fill up 
level with more soil .—Western Rural. 
--- —- 
HYACINTH OFFSETS. 
Several of our old customers inquire if 
the flowers of a hyacinth are injured by 
allowing young bulbs to grow at the sides, 
or whether they had better be taken off. As 
the little >mlb* are almost independent of 
the main one, we do not think their growth 
injures the flower of the main bulb, and 
sometimes, after the Bpike is gone, these 
bulbets will give little trusses of flowers that 
look very pretty, especially if the original 
spike is removed as soon as the flowers fade. 
As to the value of these young bulbs for the 
purpose of propagating new ones, we cannot 
speak very encouragingly. After one year’s 
growth they can be removed and planted in 
rows in the garden, but it will take several 
years to make a good flowering bulb. As a 
matter of curiosity and experiment, we 
would like to have our friends try the 
growing of hyacinth bulbs from the young 
off sets, but as a matter of prolit or economy, 
the undertaking would no doubt be a failure. 
Our friends in Holland have a monopoly of 
bulb growing, which they seem likely to 
keep for a long time. The ease with which 
Hyacinths are grown in the deep, rich, 
mucky soil about Haarlem, is indeed a 
wonder to us and a joy to the good Dutch 
burghers.— Vick's Floral Guide. 
CROSS-FERTILIZATION OF LILIES. 
Mr. Hovky of Boston writes for the Gar¬ 
den a very interesting article upon Lilies, 
from which we extract the following : 
“ In 1802 Lilium auralum was introduced 
to this country. (Simultaneously with its in¬ 
troduction to Britain it flowered with Mr. 
Francis .Parkman, now President of the 
Mass. H. S., and was described iu my inaga 
zinc, where the name of L. Dexleri was sug¬ 
gested, as Mr. Dexter brought the bulbs 
from Japan. It at once occurred to me what 
a mine of beauty it was and how much 
might be worked out of it by crossing it 
with the Speciosum; therefore, begging a 
single author of it from my friend Mr. 
Parkman, 1 took it home for experiment. I 
happened to have L. Melpomene iu bloom, 
and the flowers of that were properly fertil¬ 
ized with auralum, but only one perfected 
seed (probably from the insuilicieuey of pol¬ 
len), and only six or eight perfect seeds were 
secured. These were duly planted, and in 
time some six or eight plants were the re¬ 
sult. These all bloomed just like the female 
parent—all, till the last one began to uufold 
the petal of au immense bud, when a flower 
was revealed with which L. auralum at its 
best could not compare. It was 12 inches in 
diameter, of just the form of Speciosum, 
though not half so much reflexed, pure 
white, with a deep crimson band and deeper 
colored papillae. Like all good things, it was 
allowed next year to perfect a large number 
of flowers, when it was exhibited, and the 
following is the report which was given of 
it:— 1 The plant, which was six feet high, 
with a stem nearly au inch tnrough at the 
base, bore eleven flowers, forming a pyra¬ 
midal spike nearly two feet broad, each 
flower being 12 inches in diameter. * * It 
is, in fact, a gigantic form of the Japan Lily, 
and for stateliness, magnificence and beau¬ 
ty stands uuequaled among all the known 
lilies.’ ” 
-*-*■♦--- 
FLORICULTURAL NOTES. 
Oupressus Lawsoniana aryentea varieyata 
is as handsome as the plain sort in habit, and 
ground, we have slender hopes as to extra 
hardiness in C. L. a. v. during a period of 
like severity. 
New Varieties of Pelargoniums .—We see 
advertised in the London papers four new 
varieties of Pelargonium of the double-flow¬ 
ering sort, viz.—Aglain, deep pink ; Joeobete, 
bluish-purple (!); Reynold’s Hole, coppery 
red. and Speculum, color of Geant des Ba- 
tailleB rose. We should choose Jtt.'obese for 
its “bluish-purple”—a new color indeed. 
Victoria Regina Violet .—Another year’s 
experience of this fine Violet enables us to 
recommend it with confidence as one of the 
largest, hardiest, sweetest Violets in cultiva¬ 
tion : almost as long stalked as the Czar and 
decidedly sweeter .—The Farmer. 
^Industrial Jinplfmcjits. 
HEEBNER’S LEVEL TREAD RAILWAY 
HORSE-POWER. 
Bei.ow we give a representation of 
Heebner’s Patent Level Tread Railway 
Horse-power, which will be of interest to 
readers who intend purchasing some power 
of this kind. It entirely does away with a 
common objection to tread - powers, viz.: 
the strained and laborious position of the 
horse in working it. With this power the 
horse walks on a level, gains more power 
with less strain, can work without being 
shod with heavily-Bpiked shoes, and hence 
both horses and treud will continue in work¬ 
ing order longer than by any other power iu 
use. The power is strongly made, of differ¬ 
ent sizes adapted to either one or two horses, 
Heebner’s Patent Governor. 
and can be worked by »xen or horses with¬ 
out shoes, as the level floor prevents all lia¬ 
bility of slipping. Messrs. Hbkuner & Sons 
al&o manufacture improved machines for 
threshing and cleaning grain, and their 
power may be used in running any kind of 
stationary farm machinery, sawing wood, 
grinding apples, cutting fodder, &c. 
Their Patent Govern or or Speed Regulator, 
flgured above, is an entirely new and speci¬ 
ally valuable invention which is attached to 
their tread-powers, and is certainly a very 
important arrangement. By its use the 
speed can be regulated perfectly, and in case 
of accident the power can be stopped im¬ 
mediately, thus insuriug perfect safety 
both to man and horse. This is a very im 
portant point, as thousands who have been 
injured iu accidents to horse-powers will 
Hir-TGBNTKR’S LEVEL-TREAD HORSE POWER. 
is distinctly margined with silver. Were- readily testify, to say nothing of many others 
eeived this Conifer from the Lawson Com- who mourn fathers, sons or brothers killed 
pany of Edinburgh and London as hardy for in such accidents. Those wishing further in- 
tlns climate. But as the unvariegated Law- 
, ,, , , , . . patent governors, can procure it by address- 
son s cypress has been cut down during the mj- the manufacturers, Messrs. Hkeuneu & 
past winter in nursery rows nearly to the Sons, Lausdale, Montgomery Co., Pa. 
tSradcn. 
FARM GARDENING IN MAINE. 
It will show to what extent farm garden¬ 
ing, or market gardening, at long distance 
from markets is beiug engaged in by our 
farmers, if we mention an instance which 
is but one of many that may be found in our 
State. Mr. 8. D. Green leaf of Starks, of 
whose operations In this line we have before 
spoken, has this season put in the following 
crops :—One acre of beets, one acre of cab¬ 
bages, two acres of onions and four acres of 
cucumbers for pickles. Mr. Greeuloaf has 
in addition about three acres in cranberries, 
upon which he has expended much time and 
labor and which is now beginning to be a 
source of profit to him. He has succeeded 
well in the above line of farming iu past 
years, bis success being the result of an ex¬ 
perience with the management of the several 
crops, gabled from Ills own practice. He 
labors under some disadvantage from being 
situated at some distance from the railroad, 
but notwithstanding this sends his products 
to quite distant points, having last year mar¬ 
keted several hundred busheis of onions and 
a large number of cabbages in Bangor. Mr. 
Greenleaf grows the La no Improved Sugar 
Beet to a large extent, and finds them the 
best and cheapest food ou which to raise or 
fatten hogs he has ever used for that pur¬ 
pose. He has fattened swine on them entire¬ 
ly, with no sour milk, slops, or feed of auy 
kind ; and keeps store pigs through the win¬ 
ter ou them alone, last winter keeping eight. 
On a piece of rich land intended for onions, 
but not planted on accouut of not getting 
good seed, he last year raised eleven toils 
from one-fourth of an acre. He esteems 
them highly as a winter feed for all kinds of 
stock.— Maine Farmer. 
-- 
ABOUT BANANAS. 
Few people who see bananas hanging in 
fruit stores think of them as more than a 
tropical luxury. In fact they are a staple 
article of food in some purls of the world, 
and, according to Humboldt, an acre in ba¬ 
nanas will produce us much food for man as 
twenty-live acres of wheat. It is the ease 
with which bananas are grown which is the 
great obstacle to civilization in some tropical 
countries. It is so easy to get a living with¬ 
out work that no effort will ever be made, 
and the men become lazy and intolerably 
shiftless. All that is needed is to stick a cut¬ 
ting in the ground. It will ripen its fruit in 
twelve to thirteen months, without further 
care, each plant having 75 to 126 bananas 
and when that dies down after fruiting, new 
shoots spriug up to take its place. In regions 
where no frost ever reaches, bananas are 
found in all stages of growth, ripening their 
fruit every nfonth and every day in the year. 
Col. WnrrNBU near Silver Lake, Florida, lias 
probably the largest banana plantation in 
the United States, containing fully ten thou¬ 
sand plants iu bearing. Some of these are 
large trees, which do not die after bearing 
their fruit, but the majority a re of the dwarf 
species, which are renewed every year. Slips 
are planted about eight feet apart and rapid¬ 
ly pushup leaves disclosing six or eight small 
bauauas behind this protection. Some plants 
will have sixteen or twenty leaves and 
branches of fruit, bending over as it ripens, 
forming a most beautiful sight. The culture 
of bananas is very protitable, aud with the 
unlimited capacity of Florida aud the West 
India islands for producing it, there should 
always be a supply equal to any possible de¬ 
mand. 
.---- 
GARDENERS’ NOTES. 
Remedy for Mildew. — Molasses mixed 
with half water and spriukled over goose¬ 
berry bushes covered with mildew, is said 
by Dr. Seeduokf to be an effect ual remedy. 
The theory is that the molasses excludes the 
air from the leaves and smothers the mil¬ 
dew. The first rain washes oil the covering 
and it does no injury to the bushes. The 
common pulverized &ulphur, or, better still, 
the flour of sulphur, is also recommended as 
a remedy for the same difficulty. It is sup¬ 
posed that the sulphurous acid it contains 
kills the mildew. 
Tomato Plants vs. Buys.—Mother says, 
“ Tell the readers of the Rural New-Yorker 
if they will set a tomato plant into each hill 
of cucumbers, melons and squashes, they 
will have no trouble Horn the striped bugs 
that are so destructive to the young vines. 
The plants can be tied to stakes, and if well 
pruned when large, both vines and plants can 
proceed with their fruiting without detri¬ 
ment to one another.” m. e. a. 
JULY 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
