1881 . ] 
GARDEN GOSSIP, 
31 
the frame or pit—one near the back, the other near 
the front, tying the ends to eyes screwed into the 
woodwork. Eyes are much better than nails (unless 
it is desirable to make work for the tailor), and they 
are very cheap. The obvious advantages of this 
plan are that it is much quicker, more secure, in¬ 
finitely more tidy, and breaks no glass. When the 
mats are to be removed, the twine is untied at one 
end and neatly coiled up at the other. 
— 29r. Lawson Tait lias recently investi¬ 
gated afresh tlie question of Digestion in 
Plants, and lias obtained complete proof of a 
digestive process in Cephalotus, Nepenthes, Dioncea, 
and the Droseracece, but entirely failed with Sarra- 
cenia and Darlingtonia. The fluid separated from 
Drosera hinata he found to contain two substances, 
to which he gives the names “ droserin ” and 
“ azerin.” The fluid removed from the living 
pitcher of Nepenthes into a glass vessel does not 
digest. A series of experiments led him to the 
conclusion that the acid must resemble lactic acid, 
at least in some of its properties. The glands in 
the pitchers of Nepenthes he states to be quite 
analogous to the peptic follicles of the human 
stomach, and when the process of digestion is con¬ 
ducted with albumen, the products are exactly the 
same as when pepsine is engaged. The results give 
the same reactions with reagents, especially the 
characteristic violet with oxide of copper and 
potash, so that there can be no doubt that they are 
peptones. 
— Amongst the Pyramidal Pear Trees 
at Chiswick there are some which year after 
year demonstrate, in the most forcible manner, 
their great value as certain croppers in our climate, 
yet which are almost unknown to our gardeners. 
One of these is the Belle Julie, a variety which 
naturally forms a handsome pyramidal tree, and 
always carries a crop of fruit. The fruit is some¬ 
what below medium size, the flesh yellowish white, 
of the Winter Nelis character, and delicious in 
flavour. It is in use duriug November. 
— ®he white-flowered Weigel a Candida, 
a hardy deciduous shrub of Continental origin, 
and at present rather scarce, is a most useful 
acquisition as a decorative plant, whether grown 
outdoors, or in pots for forcing. The flowers- are 
pure white, and produced as freely as in the case of 
W. amabilis. Like the other varieties, however, it is 
of free growth and easily propagated, so that it will 
soon become plentiful. 
— 2Me notice that Mr. W. Bull is advertis¬ 
ing the new Double White Bouvardia, 
which has been raised in America, and is 
noticed in the American publications. It is named 
Alfred Neuner, and has been obtained by Messrs. 
Nanz and Neuner, of Louisville, Ivy. If a vigoi'ous- 
growing variety and a profuse flowerer, as it is said 
to be, it will be most welcome, as it bears a large, 
compact cluster of perfectly double white flowers. 
Mr. Meehan, who has seen the flowers, writes of it, 
—“ We have not had anything at hand for a long 
time so beautiful, and we fancy it will have a run of 
popularity unexampled in floriculture.” 
— 2The pretty Indian Rue called 
Bcenninghausenia albiflora, formerly knqjvn 
as Bata albiflora , is remarkable for its light 
green fern-like foliage, and its elegant leafy 
panicles of flowers, having oblong, entire petals, in 
which respect it differs from the true Rues. It is a 
perennial-rooted herb, one to two feet high, with 
bipinnate or tripinnate leaves, having obovate or 
obcordate leaflets, glacous beneath, and compound 
terminal leafy cymes of drooping or nodding white 
flowers, i to ^ in. in diameter. The Japanese Buta 
japonica is considered to be the same plant. In 
sheltered places in the open air it succeeds fairly 
well, but it is also sufficiently attractive to be grown 
in pots for the decoration of the cool conservatory. 
When well grown and nicely flowered, it is really a 
very pretty subject. 
— JThe merits of the Poinsettia pulciier- 
rima plenissima begin to be appreciated. 
In a well-developed specimen grown by Mr. 
Latter, of Ipswich, the head of floral bracts was 
nineteen inches across, and the coloured bracts, 
large and small, fifty-five in number. The mag¬ 
nificent display which a few plants with inflor¬ 
escence like this, must produce, may easily be im¬ 
agined. This superb variety appears brighter than 
the normal form, and therefore, when better known, 
is likely to supersede it altogether. 
— S3r. Harlby, of St. Thomas’s Hospital, 
has determined that Fools’ Parsley is Not 
Poisonous. Experimenting some years ago 
with this plant, which is reputedly a virulent poison, 
though he failed in his immediate objeot, he dis¬ 
covered that the plant is perfectly harmless. This 
fact he has since established by experiment on him¬ 
self and other persons. The carefully prepared 
juices of the young plant in its most succulent con¬ 
dition, and of the same generation of plants in their 
fully matured condition, were administered in doses 
of from 1 to 8 fluid ounces, and the effects carefully 
looked for, but there were absolutely none. He adds, 
in conclusion, that the HSthusa Cynapium of Sussex, 
Kent, Surrey, Essex, and Hertfordshire, is absolutely 
free from the noxious properties attributed to it. 
— JTrom an interesting paper on the 
Colours of Flowers, read before the Vaudois 
Society of Natural Sciences, by Professor 
Schnetzler, as abstracted in the Times, we learn that 
the generally received opinion that the various 
colours observed in plants are each due to a 
different chemical combination, without relation to 
the others, is erroneous, and that by isolating the 
colour of a flower in spirits of wine, one may, by 
adding an acid or alkaline substance, obtain all the 
colours which plants present. Thus, flowers of 
Paeony give, when placed in alcohol, a red-violet 
liquid; if salt of sorrel bo added, the liquid becomes 
pure red; while soda changes it, according to the 
quantity, into violet, blue, or green. In this latter 
case the green liquid appears red by transmitted 
light, just as does chlorophyll. Without wishing to 
affirm it absolutely, he therefore concludes, that there 
is in plants but one colouring matter—chlorophyll, 
which, being modified by certain agents, furnishes 
all the tints which flowers and leaves present. It 
has been found that the coloration of white flowers is 
due to air contained in the cells of the petals, for on 
placing them under the receiver of an air-pump, they 
are seen to lose their colour and become transparent 
as the air escapes. 
— SIt Iycw several specimens of tlie Golden 
Scotch Fir, a form of tlie Scotch Fir with 
golden-yellow leaves (Pi/ms sylvestris aarea ), 
are conspicuous at this season. This variety 
seems quite a free grower, and does not pos¬ 
sess the unhappy look which many golden-leaved 
