274. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, August 9, 1859. 
fresh earth on the pot. You may conceive that I waited for the 
Viext spring impatiently to see the result of this experiment. 
When it bloomed, the Roses were, as at first, pale and discoloured; 
but by applying the charcoal as before, they soon resumed them 
rosy-red colour. I tried the powdered charcoal likewise in large 
quantities upon my Petunias, and found that both the white and 
the violet flowers were equally sensible to its action. It always 
gave great vigour to the red or violet colours of the flowers, and 
the white Petunias became veined with red or violet tints. The 
violets (colours ?) became covered with irregular spots of a 
blueish or almost black tint. Many persons who admired them 
thought that they were new varieties from seed. Yellow flowers 
are, as I have proved, insensible to the influence of the char¬ 
coal.” 
[Such experiments are easily tried by any cultivator, and we 
recommend any of our readers who have time and opportunities 
to try tho above experiment, not only on Roses or Petunias, but 
also on Dahlias, Verbenas, &c. Possibly by such means the 
ardently-longed-for blue Dahlia may be attained. The result 
of such experiments and any details will be welcome for these 
pages.— -Eds.] 
HOT WATER FOR GREEN ELY. 
We have made some experiments in order to ascertain how 
high the temperature of water may be, without injury to very 
young shoots of Roses that may bo covered with green fly or 
aphis, when applied as a remedy. We find the insect readily 
killed at 120°. One plant of Paul Perras, which was plunged 
three times, for a second each time, into water at 135°, has a very 
few black spots on the tenderest of the leaves. The insects were 
instantly killed. Water at this temperature is, therefore, perfectly 
safe for any thing. As a remedy against all soft-skinned insects, 
We regard this as the most simple end effectual discovery ever 
made.—( American Gardeners Monthly.) 
THE ROSE OE JERICHO. 
Anastatica, from Ana - stasis , resurection; plant recovering its 
Original form, however dry it may be, by immersion in water. 
A. Hieroclm ntica. Native of arid wastes in Egypt, neat 
Cairo; Palestine and Barbary; on roofs of houses and among 
rubbish in Syria; of Arabia in sandy deserts On the coasts of 
tho Red Sea, Stem much branched, somewhat dichotomous, 
dwarf. Leaves oblong or ovate, Harrowed at base. Pods some¬ 
what pubescent. The leaves fall off after flowering, and branches 
become dry, hard, and ligneous, and rise upwards and bend in¬ 
wards, and contract into a globular form. In this state the 
plant is easily withdrawn from the sand and blown by the wind 
from the desert, into the sea, and as soon as it comes in contact 
rig. 1. 
with the water {fig. 1), it gradually expands, the pods open and 
relieve the seeds, which are thrown again upon the shore by the 
tide, and scattered with the sand through the desert by the wind. 
A description of (his plant by M. Pomet, chief druggist to 
Louis XIY. of France, agrees essentially with the above by 
Don. 
A plniit related to thel'erns (fly. 2), the Lycopodium lepidophyl- 
him, is frequently called the Rose of Jericho from its habit of cx* 
panding whenever it is placed in water. It is so named even in 
the collections of some of our most learned societies. Mr. J. E, 
Mitchell, of Philadelphia, has a very handsome specimen. 
Fig. 2. 
In connection with the above, the following account, taken 
from a charming little volume entitled “ Stray Leaves from the 
Book of Nature,” may interest your readers. I hope that this 
remarkable plant may be instrumental in drawing the attention 
of some of them to the study of botany, as it did the dccom a 
plished author of that book, which I would recommend to tH6 
perusal of all lovers of Nature. 
“ Long years ago I was in the Iloly Land. It was the last 
day I was to spend near Jerusalem; and as the sun sank to¬ 
wards the blue waters of the Mediterranean, I found myself once 
more sitting on the banks of the Jordan. The air was perfectly 
calm ; the tolling of a convent bell came faintly over the plain from 
Bethlehem, and mingled its well-beat cadences with the gentle 
playful murmuring of the sacred stream at my feet. By my 
side sat an Arab, tranquilly following with his feye the light 
clouds of his pipe,' as they gracefully rose up in the cleat*, bind 
ether, but apparently buried in deep thought. I had known liini 
in his desert home, I had eaten his salt. He was a Sheikh, and 
revered as a saint among his brethren. He had now come with 
me from the far South : first, my guide, but. now my friend and 
companion. 
“ Abu Abdallah was his name; so I said, ‘ Abu Abdallah, do 
you believe in God ? ' 
“ 1 Thou sayest it, O brother! ’ was his quiet answer. 
“ ‘ But, Abu Abdallah, I fear you do not believe that your 
soul is immortal; ’ for the old Arab, though my friend for the 
while, was a sad thief, and when he swiftly rode through the 
desert, there were voices heard, it was said,—mournful voices of 
men,—who called for the sweet life he had taken from them. 
“ He gazed at me for an instant from the depth of that un¬ 
fathomable eye,—the precious heirloom of a son of the Orient,— 
| but vouchsafed not a word. 
“ I was struck by his silence, asked again. 
“ ‘ Oh, brother! oh, brother! thou wrongest me! ’ he said, 
and quietly rising, he seized upon a little shapeless mass that, lay 
half hid in the fragrant herbs at our feet, and gently pushing it 
into the purling stream, he added, 1 Has not the Ood of our 
! fathers, whose prophet is Mahomet, given us the Rose of Jericho ? 
| And does not my brother, who reads the books of the wise men 
of the Franks, know that the burning sands of the desert are its 
home; that it delights in the fiery winds of the West, which 
scatter the caravan, and strew the sands of the Sahara with the 
bones of the traveller ? There it grows and blossoms, and our 
children love it. But the season comes again, and it withers 
and dies. And the dread simoon rises and seizes the dry, 
shrivelled roots that my brother beholds there; and on the wings 
of the tempest the Rose of Jericho rides far, far East, until it 
falls upon holy soil. Now, let my brother wait, and he shall see!’ 
“ And we chd wait: waited until the shadows grew long, and 
dreamy dusk covered mountain and plain. And the little shape¬ 
less mass became a miracle indeed, and right before our eyes! 
The roots had expanded, the leaves had unfolded, life and breath 
hgd returned to the dead child of the Sahara, and the very 
