JUKE 9 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Horticultural, 
NEW YORK HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Thebe is a period in the history of New York 
City, to which the memory of few men now 
living runneth even dimly, when a half dozen 
or more good citizens organized themselves into 
what they chose to designate the New York Hor¬ 
ticultural Society. Hopefully did they anticipate 
the time, not far in the future, when they 
would see a rival of the famous Kew Gar¬ 
dens of England, or of the Jardin des 
Plantes of Paris, sending forth its delight¬ 
ful fragrance upon Manhattan Island. But 
alas for the frequent futility of the noblest 
efforts of noble men ! for while public 
shrines almost innumerable have been raised 
to the memory of other gods and goddeses, 
good and bad, Flora, tho purest of all, has 
no temple in which to receive the homage 
of her worshippers. 
Time and again have the florists of New v' 
York attempted to revive the old organiza¬ 
tion and endeavored to excite, among the 
residents of this city, a love of flowers suf- > 
fioiently intense to bring them to see what 
they wero producing in tho way of beanti- ^3 
ful plants, but all to no purpose, for, after 
a brief struggle, floral exhibitions were 
abandoned for want of patronage. 
The latest attempt was made last year, 32 
and thus far, by the aid of Gilmore, the 
renowned musician, and his side-show of Mj. 
lager-beer, the exhibition of the New York 'ft 
Horticultural Society may be considered a 
success. Of courts;, we do not speak of 
these doings from a financial point of view, 
for of this we know nothing, but we refer 
to tho choice plants exhibited, and their £ 
gsoat number and variety. ^5 
The late exhibition of the Society, held <at 
at Gilmore’s Garden, May showed W 
that our gardeners and nurserymen were W 
determined to keep np their exhibits to as 
high a standard this season as last, and we 
congratulate them upon tho continued in¬ 
terest with which tho members take hold 
of tho work. Q 
In a hasty visit, we noted that the inter- ' 
ost attached to plants graced with fine fo- 
liago, had not fallen off, but was rather on 
the increase. This was especially notable 3 ^ 
in Lracanaa and Galftdiums. Of the former, 'M 
several fine and rare specimens were shown! W 
The Orchid a, from Mr. Geo. Such of South 
Amboy, N. J., were very fine and well grown. 
Tbo .Japanese Maples from 8 . B. Parsons 
A Sons were, as usual, an attractive feature 
of tlie exhibition, and their show of hardy 
Rhododendrons was really superb ; nor were 
they excelled, except in the number of va¬ 
rieties, by the famous exhibit of Mr. Waterer 
at the Centennial, last summer. 
The Messrs. Parsons also made a fine display 
of hardy Azaleas and rare Conifers, thus afford¬ 
ing our city people an opportunity of making a 
choice of those fine plants, without even taking 
the trouble of visiting their famous nurseries a°t 
Flushing. 
Among tho exhibits there wero a few speci¬ 
mens of the AuHcarUxs, but we missed the beau¬ 
tiful A uricaria Goldimna, shown in the accom¬ 
panying illustration, as it appears when growing 
m a pot. Mr. B. 8 . Williams, the well-known 
nurseryman of London, Eng., to whom we are 
indebted for our illustration of this variety, says 
that it forma a beautiful object, both for the 
decoration of the conservatory and dinner table. 
\\ m Charlton of Staten Island, exhibited a 
fine collection of Sedums aud other small succu¬ 
lent plants. But the cream of his exhibit was a 
new Golden Chinese or Tartarian Arbor-Vitte 
uhich he has named Biota a.urea variegala. The 
leaves are of a brilliant golden color, scarcely a 
single green one to be found on the plant. If 
tins new variety proves to be hardy, it will be a 
valuable addition to our variegated couifers. 
Wm. C. Wilson showed some fine Petunias 
but the Geraniums in his collection were poor • 
in fact, we saw very few of these flowers on ex¬ 
hibition that could be called first-rate, although 
there were plenty of new ones, but all seemed to 
be poorly grown, trusses and flowers being few 
and scattering. 
Peter Henderson's box of Diontza muscipula, 
or fly-catching plants, was quite a curious feature, 
and attracted considerable attention from those 
who read Darwin's writings on “ Insectivorous 
Plants. 
The noted Tiios. Hogg Hydrangea was shown 
in great numbers and in great perfection, by 
John Cadness of Flushing, N. Y. It is a coarse, 
showy plant, looking better at a distance than 
near-by, like all of this family of hardy and half- 
hardy shrubs. 
Two new ferns were shown by Mr. Roenbeokek 
an Adianlum and a Polypodium. The first we 
understand has boon named A. Boenbecki, and a 
vor y P^tty plant it is; it is said to be a hybrid. 
B. K. Bliss & Sons, showed some excellent po¬ 
tatoes of this season’s crop and, as usual, wero 
ahead of all would-be competitors. Fruits and 
vegetables were few and scattering, but Mr. 
John Finn, showed some fine foreign grapes 
well ripened and altogether doing him credit- 
James Riddle exhibited peaches in pots, well 
grown and the fruit in an advanced state. 
Chas. Atkins showed what he could do in the 
way of raising mammoth lettuce, and we will say 
he did well, for the heads were Bimply prodig- 
/ous. 
and the body is navrow: the head is short, the 
mouth small and protractile; the scales arc largo 
and round. The fish is properly herbivorous, 
but vill eat insects ami earthworms ; and it is so 
voracious that, Bays M. Darby de Thiersant, the 
creoles of the Mauritius call it the hog of the 
river. 
The gourami, like most other anabatida, is 
fouud throughout the East Indies, and is a valu¬ 
able food fish, of delicious flavor, resembling 
that of the European carp. 
Many attempts have been made by the French 
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Last, but not least, among the really handsome 
plants which we noticed in our hasty visits were 
some line Ericas from Edwin Symks. These 
called to mind tho fact that the Heaths and 
Ericas are seldom seen in our greenhouses or 
gardens although bo popular in Great Britain. 
But when Dame Fashion turns her head then 
we may see: 
“ The moorcock sprint: on whlrrinpr wings, 
Among the blooming heather.” 
Haturalist. 
NEST - BUILDING FISHES. 
The anabalidce form one of the most remark¬ 
able of all species of fishes, owing to then capa¬ 
bility of liviug for a long time out of water—a 
power which has formed in them some curious 
habits. The anabas scandens, or climbing perch 
of India, has been known to live for six days out 
of its appropriate element, and some will some¬ 
times quit the water and wander over the land, 
so far from any stream or pond, that they were 
formerly supposed to have dropped from the 
clouds. The German naturalist Daldorff states 
that he once saw oue of this Bpecdes which had 
climbed a tree to a bight of five feet; but this is 
stated by other observers to be an impossibility. 
This power is due to the peculiar structure of 
the pharyngeal bones, whioh, in & cavity in the 
base of the skull, are dilated into voluminous 
lamina, forming cells in which a supply of water 
may be carried for the purpose of keeping the 
gills moist. 
But the gonrami s instinct is more peculiar 
than that of any other member of the tribe. By 
their united labors, the male and female con¬ 
struct a well-built neat, in which the ova are de¬ 
posited, and which protects the young fry from 
the thousand enemies by whom infantile fish are 
pursued and tormented. 
The body of the gourami is of a brownish 
color, varied with some golden tints on its sides ; 
the belly is of a silvery brown. The conforma¬ 
tion of the fish is high from its belly to its back, 
GOLDIEANA. 
to acclimatize it on the European Continent, and 
also in Cayenne, but little success has been 
met with. In Algiers other attempts have been 
made, and greater encouragement followed. At 
the Capo of Good Hope and in Australia the ex¬ 
periments were entirely successful. 
--- 
TORTOISES AS WEATHER INDICATORS. 
According to M. Bouohard, tortoises take ex¬ 
traordinary precautions against cold weather. 
Their instinct tells them in tho milder seasons 
when the thermometer is likely to fall to freez- 
ing point; and, toward the end of Autumn, 
warns them, also, of tho approach of Winter. In 
both cases they take precaution to soreen them¬ 
selves from cold, and by carefully observing 
them, M. Bouohard has for years been enabled 
to regulate bis hot-house. 
$ithstrtal fojjirs. 
A HALF-HOLIDAY. 
BY MRS. ANNIE L. JACK. 
“ Good-by to rain and care ! I tak<- 
Mine ease to-day. 
Here, where these sunny water* break 
a u v A "i rlRPles this keen breeze, I shake 
All burdens from the heart, ail weary thoughts away." 
‘■I oo a-lishing," whispered the “ gudemon” 
to me one evening, and by dim of bis persuasion 
I agreed to take my first lesson in tbo art of 
catching the black bass that, late in Juno, are 
very plentiful in our beautiful river. I do not 
know that I should have accepted Lis invitation, 
even then: but for the added expression, left 
significantly unfinished, “ All work and no play, 
makes Jack -■” and I thought that for oue 
half day I might surely forget the weeds and 
plants for a pleasant jaunt in our trim, little 
row-boat “Faith.” 
The morning dawned fair and calm, as wo 
quietly slipped away from the babies and tlm 
garden, leaving no one iu charge hut the milk¬ 
maid, and giving, for once in our lives, no orders 
for breakfast, expecting of com-to, that the 
housohold, like ourselves, were to fish, for them 
selves. With swift, steady strokes tho oars kept 
time, and I sat in the stern of tho boat under 
pretence of steering, hut, doing or feeling noth¬ 
ing, save the charm of the hour. As wo reached 
the long gray bridge, where the water is so shal¬ 
low that the boat gave slight thuds upon con¬ 
cealed rocks, tho church boll in ponderous tones, 
raug five o’clock and the sunshine came aslant, 
there aud then, over the water with tinges of 
mellow light. 
At length the rapids were reached, the “ gude¬ 
mon,” selecting from his box two wriggling 
worms, prepared, aa he said, to bait my 
line as well as his own. But my stock of 
patienco could not ho compared to his, and 
while ho stood stoically intent on the busi¬ 
ness for which ho came, l sat upon a large, 
flat stone, hook in hand, not reading, but 
enjoying to the Dill tho early song of the 
birds, the life pictures to be seen upon the 
banks and tho gentle ripple of tho water, 
that was only relieved from monotony by 
the occasional “ flop” of a fish or tho whiz 
of the falling lino. Tho hours passed on, 
but my absorbed fisherman would brook no 
conversation and withstood all ray alluring 
calls to sandwiches and cold coffee, as the 
members of a shining, flapping string of 
fish nibbled at his treacherous bait and 
were one after another swirled through the 
aii- and captured. 
Suddenly my fisherman stooped hastily, 
kicked off shoes and stockings, and walked 
boldly into the water. Through a little gar¬ 
den that sloped down to the river's edge, 
came a sweet-voiced maiden cheerily tril¬ 
ling a matin hymn, her white jacket and 
scarlet petticoat, a flash of brightness among 
the green. Whither goes my Eeander ? 
Not. far out, for the line is cautiously 
thrown and, once more, patience on a jag¬ 
ged stone is lost in a fisher's reverie. I 
^ leave my rock aa the sun rises higher, and 
^ climb into the boat which is secured to a 
gnarled olm which casts a grateful shade. 
But I cannot fish, for as I see the beauti¬ 
ful shining creatures jumping and glanc¬ 
ing in the sunlight, it does not seem a legit- 
Er.* imato part of my holiday to lure them to 
t destruction with the false promise of a 
breakfast.. 
Meanwhile, where was my Leander? 
- . Tired at last, he splashes through tho water 
aud reaches me, holding something in his 
i; hand about, the size of a dime. A scale ? 
“ Yes, and I might as well have gone home 
an hour ago," he says, resignedly, “that 
was an enormous mnscalongo, and it was 
always biting, but my hook was not strong 
enough, although I secured this scale.” He 
had slipped off. 
I sympathised with the “ gudemon,” and 
mentally congratulated the muskaionge; 
but whenever we refer to that charming 
morning, even at this date, my fisherman speaks 
in a tone of regrot, mingled with pride, of tho 
fish he didn’t catch. Wlmt matter tho string of 
black, bass ? Does not Lowell say that “ cream 
riBea thickest on milk that was spilt ?" and we 
know well that the best fish iu the river was the 
one he didn’t catch. 
But the most glorious morning will merge into 
noon, and soon our boat was turned towards 
home, while the “ gudemon” took my line from 
the rod, attached to the end a shining, glittering 
spoon, and gently lowering it into the water, 
taught me a lesson in trolling. But I tired of 
tho attention it required, and while busily en¬ 
gaged watching two bull-frogs iu the midst of a 
fierce and croaking fight, I loosed my hold, and 
line and spoon were seen no more. I learned a 
lesson, however, from the bull-frogs, that such 
public battles are not becoming, and that, even 
among the lower orders of creation, there is the 
same antagonism and strife for power a* among 
the higher classes. As we passed, they did not 
cease their warfare, and wa left thorn looking as 
determined and grim as two prize-fighters, plung¬ 
ing and rising at the same moment, their hoarse 
gutteral croaks keeping time and measure to 
their bites. On and still onward wo go. the fish 
in the bottom of the boat flap their tails weakly 
as we glide along, and on tho green sloping banka 
we can see people busy with a hoe or scythe. 
Does there come a whisper that work is wait¬ 
ing for our idle hands ? We glance complacently 
at tho sweet lily of the valley that we gathered 
hastily before leaving home, and seeing its fairy 
bells of beauty, say, “Consider the lilies, how 
they grow,” and resign ourselves to think no more 
of to-morrow, while we murmur an improvised 
couplet— 
Come thistles, weeds; come rain or shine; 
To troll for bass is sport divine. 
“ I don’t wonder any more,” said I, as we 
reached the shore, “ at those poor neighbors of 
ours, who have so much of native romance that 
they are content to live in their little cabins, to 
ignore regular labor for the sake of a summer 
life on this enchanting riverand when once 
more I returned to my mullen and burdock, purs¬ 
lane and twitch grass, it was with a renewed 
vigor, the consequence of my half-holiday. 
