54 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Feb. 
but the buds are just now beginning to push, and the 
tree will live. 
“ Of the three trees planted about my house, one 
died early, though watered daily. One still retains its 
leaves and partially its green color, but shows no other 
sign of vitality. The third is in much the same state 
with the ninth, above mentioned; but if anything, its 
condition is less favorable. I think the trees could not 
have been saved without the severe pruning which they 
received.” 
Horticultural Miscellanies. 
Tulip. —In Persia, where the tulip is abundant, it is 
considered as the emblem of perfect lovers. “When a 
young man,” says Chardin, “ presents one to his mis¬ 
tress, he gives her to understand, by the general color 
of the flower, that he is on fire with her beauty, and 
by the black base of it, that his heart is burned to a 
coal.” A burlesque on floral emblems. 
Prices of Tulips. —The tulip trade of the Nether¬ 
lands was at its height in 1634—5—6. One root call¬ 
ed the Viceroy, was sold for articles valued at 2,500 
florins, equal to 250 pounds sterling. The Semper Au¬ 
gustus sold for 2,000 florins; one person agreed to give 
4,600 florins, with a new carriage, two horses and har¬ 
ness; and another agreed to give 12 acres of land, for 
a single root. This may seem very wild to us; but 
multicaulis and other speculations have existed nearer 
home. 
Pruning. —It is said that the browsing of the goat 
gave the first idea of pruning the vine; and that the 
burning of a rose tree, causing it to sprout up afresh, 
led to the pruning of the rose. 
Breathing Pores of Plants. —Plants are covered 
with a thin skin or epidermis, which is pierced with nu¬ 
merous invisible pores, called stomates, through which 
the plant breathes and perspires. In some plants there 
are as many as 70,000 of these pores to a square inch 
of the leaves; and the pores themselves, which are ob¬ 
long or oval, are in some instances only the 2500th of 
an inch long. 
Early Fruit. —A Mayduke cherry, trained against 
a south wall, and another tree of the same variety, in 
the open ground of a sheltered garden, were found, by 
J. Kyle, near Edinburgh, to differ a fortnight in the ri¬ 
pening of their fruit, the wall fruit being the earlier. 
A Thundering Fountain. —The largest artificial 
fountain in the world is at Chatsworth, the seat of the 
Duke of Devonshire, England. It shoots up, almost 
like lightning, a column of water, 267 feet high, more 
than one hundred feet higher than Niagara Falls, and 
about 50 feet higher than the Bunker Hill monument. 
Influence of the Moon. —-Some of the ancient 
Romans, governed their gardening operations rigidly by 
the age of the moon. One author, quoted by Yarro, 
says, “ I observe these things, not only in shearing my 
sheep, but in cutting my hair, for I might become bald 
if I did not do this in the wane of the moon.” 
Pleasing Deceptions. —In Cardinal Richelieu’s 
Villa at Ruell, according to Evelyn, at the end of a 
long walk, was “ the arch of Constantine, painted on 
a wall in oil, as large as the real one in Rome, so well 
done, that even a man skilled in painting may mistake 
it for stone and sculpture. The sky and hills, which 
seem to be between the arches, are so natural, that 
swallows and other birds, thinking to fly through, have 
dashed themselves against the wall.” Speaking of the 
residence of Count de Liancourt, the same writer says, 
“ towards his study joins a little garden, which, though 
very narrow, by the addition of a well painted perspec¬ 
tive, is to appearance greatly enlarged; to this there is 
another part, supported by arches, in which runs a 
stream of water, rising in the aviary, and seeming to 
flow some miles, by being artificially continued in the 
painting, where it sinks down at the wall.” 
Disagreeable Deceptions. —Contrivances for play¬ 
ing tricks upon visitors were common in princely gar¬ 
dens in the last century, by squirting water suddenly 
upon them from unexpected sources. In one case, a 
huge copper serpent, started up and moving round 
swiftly, shot from its mouth a shower on the spectators. 
In another, two musketeers [artificial] shot streams of 
water upon them from their musket barrels. In one of 
the finest gardens in England, visitors are suddenly 
treated with a ducking from the numerons branches of 
an artificial tree. Such low trickery is only fit for ill- 
bred school boys. More justifiable was the punishment 
inflicted on lawless curiosity, where a forbidden door 
was labelled, “ Don’t open this,”—and as soon as it 
was moved upon its hinges, a dashing shower bath 
came down from above. 
Cucumbers. —The village of Sandy, Bedfordshire, 
has been known to furnish 10,000 bushels of pickling 
cucumbers in one week. Loudon says, “ In March, 
cucumbers fetch in the London market a guinea a doz¬ 
en ; in August and September, one penny a dozen.” 
Use of Leaves. 
We noticed, last autumn, the case of a plum tree, 
which lost all its leaves by leaf-blight, before the plums 
were fully grown, which continued stationary till a se¬ 
cond crop of leaves came out, when their growth re¬ 
commenced, and they subsequently acquired a fine, rich, 
honied flavor. 
A quite different case, but illustrating the same prin¬ 
ciple, was reported by the late President Knight. “A 
peach tree in my garden, of which I was very anxious 
to see the fruit, had lost, by the severity of the weather, 
all its blossoms except two, which grew upon leafless 
branches. I therefore endeavored to derive the neces¬ 
sary returning sap [ to mature the fruit ] from 
another source. To attain this object, the points of 
the branches, which bore fruit, were brought into con¬ 
tact with other branches of the same age, which bore 
leaves; and a part of the bark, extending in length 
about four times their diameters, was pared off imme¬ 
diately above the fruit. Similar wounds were then 
made upon the other branches, with which these were 
brought into contact; the wounded surfaces were close¬ 
ly fitted and tightly bound together. A union soon 
took place; and the fruit, in consequence, acquired the 
highest state of maturity and perfection.” 
Varieties of Strawberries. 
Eds. Cultivator —The correspondent of The Hor¬ 
ticulturist at Poughkeepsie, does not do justice to the 
seedling strawberry of Mr. Hovey, but does more than 
justice to the Early Scarlet. He enumerates four va¬ 
rieties. The Early Scarlet is what we term staminate, 
or hermaphrodite. The other three pistillate, and not 
one of them, by themselves, would produce a perfect 
fruit. As the writer says nothing of the sexual cha¬ 
racter of the plants, I take it for granted that the poor 
Hovey was in a bed by itself, and so far from the Ear¬ 
ly Scarlet, as to admit of no intercourse, unless from a 
chance insect passing from the blossom of the one to the 
other. The Bishop and Hudson, as they bore better, 
were, I presume, in closer proximity. I would here 
remark, that I presume that the writer’s Hudson, is not 
the true Hudson of Philadelphia, but the imported, 
necked fruit of Mr. Downing. The true character of 
the Hudson, will be discovered in a late publication of 
that veteran horticulturist, Mr. Landreth. 
In Massachusetts, and in this state, and Kentucky, 
and wherever I have seen the Hovey, all the blossoms 
bear perfect fruit, where staminate plants are near, un- 
