304 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
first week in April to the first week in May, but 
this season the weather was unusually hot and 
dry during May, so that our crop of celery 
plants sown April 15th was found, on exami¬ 
nation the first week in June, to be a partial 
failure. I had never sown as late as this before, 
but plants must be had, and the experiment was 
worth trying. So we again sowed on well-pre¬ 
pared ground, rolled care¬ 
fully, and covered the 
seed-bed an inch deep 
with salt-meadow hay. Of 
course, any similar cover¬ 
ing will do, if salt-hay is 
not procurable. The seeds 
germinated in 6 or 8 days 
from time of sowing. As 
soon as this was apparent, 
the covering was partially 
removed, and in two or 
three days more further re¬ 
moved, except just enough 
to cover the soil, so that 
the bed got the full rays 
of the sun, yet modified 
by the sprinkling of hay 
over its surface. The ad¬ 
vantage of the liay-cover- 
ing is twofold; it prevents 
heavy rains from battering 
the soil, and it also pre¬ 
vents the escape of moist¬ 
ure. Our experiment has 
been a complete success, 
as we have more plants 
from one pound of seed 
sown in June than from 
four pounds sown in April, 
though under the ordinary 
conditions the opposite 
result might have been 
the case. Now, plants 
of celery, cabbage, or 
cauliflower can no doubt 
be successfully raised by 
this plan in the Southern 
States, when the ordinary 
method of sowing without 
covering with hay would 
be almost certain to fail. 
Where hay is not procur¬ 
able for covering, an ex¬ 
cellent substitute would be 
the pendulous moss (Til- 
landsia) which grows so 
abundantly in the woods 
of most of the South¬ 
ern States. It it difficult 
to say at what time the 
sowing should be made, 
as much would depend 
on locality and the con¬ 
dition of the attnosphere 
after sowing. So the safest way would be to 
sow at different times, say from June loth to 
August loth. The result, if successful, would 
well justify the trouble and expense, as all these 
vegetables, from the hitherto difficulty of getting 
plants to set out, have brought enormous prices, 
celery often selling in the markets of New Or¬ 
leans and Charleston for 25 cents per head, 
Avhile the average in New York is hardly 3 cents. 
There is no reason, either, why caulifiowei'3 
could not be grown finely in the mild, temperate 
atmosphere of November and December in 
Charleston or Savannah, and shipped to New 
York. The transportation at that cool season 
would be safe, and during the month of Decem¬ 
ber it is safe to say that average heads of cauli¬ 
flower would sell for $30 or $40 per 100 in the 
markets of New York. I saw some in the 
grounds of Mr. Van Sicklen, of Jamaica, L. I., 
in November of 1870 (which he had protected 
from the frost), for which he was receiving $10 
per dozen, or nearly $1 each ! There is a wide 
field in the South for enterprises of this kind, if 
energetically undertaken. All cultivation so 
The Water-Violet or I’eatherfoil. 
THE water-violet.— {Hottonia inflata.) 
far has been with a view to get vegetables early, 
but in my opinion they might be raised in 
many instances to better advantage, if grown to 
fill up the blank in vegetation that our frost- 
bound earth at the North makes during the 
winter months. 
For example, spinach sold here the past March 
for a few weeks at $20, horseradish at $30, and 
lettuce at $10 per barrel, simply for the reason 
that everything was frozen up solid. Now there 
is no reason why these—particularly spinach 
and lettuce—could not have been grown in as 
good condition in the neighborhood of Charles¬ 
ton or Savannah in March as they could be 
raised here in June, when we are abundantly 
glad to get from $1 to $2 per barrel for them. 
In illustrating as we frequently do our native 
plants, we sometimes select those subjects that 
it is desirable to introduce into cultivation, and 
at others plants that are interesting for their 
rarity or curious in their structure. The Water- 
Violet or Featherfoil, Hottonia inflata , is rather 
rare, and has a structure 
sufficiently peculiar to 
commend it to notice. 
The name Water-Violet 
is likely to mislead, as 
its relationship to the 
Violet is exceedingly re¬ 
mote, it really belonging 
to the Primrose Family. 
The plant, as will be seen 
by the engraving, is purely 
an aquatic, with its leaves 
all submerged, and very 
handsomely divided. It 
is no doubt rooted when 
young in the mud at the 
bottom of the pond or 
pool in which it grows, 
but at flowering time it 
appears to be floating. 
The flower-stalks form a 
symmetrical cluster; each 
is marked with joints, 
from which arise whorls 
of small white or slightly 
bluish flowers. The flow¬ 
er-stems are hollow and 
inflated, enabling the plant 
to float; they sometimes 
are as large as one’s finger, 
and give the plant a strik¬ 
ing appearance. It makes 
an interesting plant for 
a fresh-water aquarium. 
The genus Hottonia was 
named in honor of a 
Leyden botanist of the 
seventeenth century. The 
specific name of our 
species, inflata , has re¬ 
ference to the peculiar 
character of the flower- 
stems. In Europe another 
species, H. palustris , has 
much more showy flowers 
than ours, but is without 
the peculiar bladdery 
flower-stems. Our speci¬ 
mens came from a pool 
near Hackensack, N. J. 
Although the plant has 
been so long known to 
botanists, we believe that 
no engraving of it was 
ever published before the 
one which we give accompanying this article. 
Roses ox Apple-Trees. —“G. H. C.,” Ben¬ 
son, Ky.—The case to which you refer is of 
frequent occurrence. Certain papers seem to 
have a set of items that they bring out every 
year. The old negro woman who was nurse to 
Washington, the toad found in the center of the 
oak-tree, and the wonderful apple-tree that 
bears double roses—all belong to the same set. 
It is not at all a rare thing for apple-trees, espe¬ 
cially the Early Harvest, to bear a few late 
flowers which are more or less double The 
apple belongs to the same family with the 
rose, and when its flower becomes double it 
very strongly resembles a small rose. 
