July 3, 1905. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
Asparagus is said to be the oldest plant 
ted tor food. 
The Thirsty Oak. —It has boon estimated 
uit an Oak of average size during the five 
Lonths it is in leaf every year sucks up from 
lie earth about 123 tons of water. 
London's OrEx Spaces.—T he open spaces 
F London measure twenty-one and a half 
dies. The aggregate cost each year of the 
Laintenance of the parks is less than a 
uarter of a million sterling. 
Phf.nomf.xal Strawberries. —Strawberries 
jne foot in circumference have been quite 
ommon this year in Florida. So says an 
unerican exchange. Farewell, a long fare- 
[ell, to the big Gooseberry. 
A Wonderful Walnut Tree. —The most 
•rodactive Walnut tree in the world grows* in 
he Haidar Valley, near Balaclava. This tree 
as an annual yield of from 80,000 to 100,000 
walnuts, and is over one thousand years old. 
Barren Orange Trees Made Fruitful.— 
barren Orange trees, have been made fruitful 
y a grower in California by boring a half-inch 
ole through the trunk to the heart, and then 
lling the cavity with calomel, afterwards 
lugging the hole. 
Vegetation Aided by Electricity.—A 
frenchman declares that vegetation can be 
ided by electricity. Potatos planted in the 
iath of the electric current grow enormously, 
nd electrified Tomatos become ripe eight 
ays before the others. 
Goes to Bed at Noon. —Trapopogon pra- 
ensis is said to open its flowers at four in the 
norning and close ju.st before twelve, whence 
Is English name, “.John go to bed at noon.” 
farmers’ boys in some parts are said to legu¬ 
me their dinner-time by if. 
The Most Famous Ancient Garden. —Of 
ancient gardens the most famous was the 
fahan-Muna (“Epitome of the World”); it 
vas the most beautiful of the celebrated Rose 
gardens of Shiraz, which have been known for 
•.enturies; as the source of the extract of attar 
■ f Roses. 
The Marigold Barometer. —A certain 
liariety of Marigold forms a kind of barometer. 
If the day is going to be fine the flowers open 
about seven o’clock in the morning and close 
between three and four in the afternoon, but 
if the weather is going to be wet they do 
lot open at all. 
Potatos Condemned. —It was not till well 
m in the eighteenth century that Potato cul- 
ure was engaged in on any extended scale in 
his country. Indeed, it is recorded in his- 
ory that the Puritans condemned the use of 
lie Potato on the ground that the plant was 
got mentioned in the Bible ! 
A New Carnation. —A remarkable speci¬ 
men of Carnation has been cultivated at Los 
Angeles by a gentleman whose experiments, 
extend over six years. The petals of the 
flower are white upon a background nearly 
covered by wide stripes of vivid green, which 
radiate from the centre to the edge of each 
lower’. 
An Apple Eating League. —One of the 
most curious institutions in the United States 
is the Apple Consumers’ League. Every 
member agrees to eat daily during the Apple 
season two Apples, raw or cooked ; to have 
the fruit on his table daily ; to ask for it in 
some form whenever he eats a meal at a 
public hotel or restaurant. 
The Legend 
. . OF THE . . 
• ■ Rose. • • 
Sailors of Southern seas have told 
Strange stories of some city old 
Within the depths of ocean seen, 
Mute monument to what had been. 
Still stand the streets, tall tower, high hall, 
With seaweed waving over all ; 
And some have heard from steeple toll 
A mournful dirge when billows roll. 
What people perished 1 What sad fate 
Had sunk that city desolate 1 
Vain questions ! Time has dropped a veil, 
And none survive to tell the tale. 
Such tales must surely touch the heart 
And cause a trembling tear to start, 
Or draw the tribute of a sigh 
For others’ pain ere we pass by. 
Like buried kings ’neath pyramid 
The greatest sorrows deep are hid, 
And only those who search may find 
What otherwise was kept confined. 
Here to the world we first disclose 
The tragic history of the rose, 
Of which the ruddy hues proclaim 
How sorrow to the world came. 
Who can the lark’s sweet song repeat ? 
What with the rainbow arch compete ? 
Pourtray the beauties of the rose— 
The vivid verse of praise reads prose. 
Describe its fragrance, pen or brush— 
Lean for support upon a rush ! 
Deck it with diamonds—every word 
And every effort seems absurd. 
Let me who your attention ask 
Abandon, then, such hopeless t«sk. 
If ancient authors all are right, 
Once on a time the rose was white ; 
Pure as the snow its blossom then, 
True type of innocence for men. 
How came it, then, to change its hue 1 
If this strange ancient story’s true, 
When Eve from Eden forth vvas driven, 
P.y pitying angels leave was given 
To pluck one flower before she went 
In sorrow to so long lament. 
But not the least of all Eve’s woes 
Was to forsake the lovely rose ; 
From Paradise though she must part 
With weeping eyes and aching heart, 
The rose’s fragrance might recall 
The happy days before the Fall! 
With hasty hand and heedless how, 
Seizing the bush, she plucked a bough ; 
Her wounded fingers freely bled, 
The roses white were thus turned red ; 
And so indelible the stain 
That most of roses red remain. 
Long ages passed and then there came 
The Carpenter, with kingly claim. 
For him, meek sufferer, Man of W oes, 
The briers were gathered fr :>m the rose ; 
In mockery his brow adorns 
Eden’s red rose in crown of thorns.. 
For he who would Eve’s fault repair 
Must all Eve’s sorrow also share- 
Surely those memories, then, so sad, 
Fresh fragrance to the ros p may add- 
w. F. DE Bois Maclaren. 
A New Walnut Tree. —According to a San 
Francisco correspondent, Mr. Luther^ Bur¬ 
bank, by crossing different varieties of A\ alnut 
trees, including the common English one, has 
produced a tree which grows more quickly 
than any known kind. 
West Cornwall Flora. 
Rare Plan's which Grow Nowhere Else in 
England. 
The flora of the western district of Cornwall 
possesses an interest of a far higher order than 
that of any corresponding area of the three 
kingdoms. It is essentially distinct and char¬ 
acteristic. The mainland in the vicinity of 
Penzance, and the adjacent Scillonian archi¬ 
pelago, enjoy special climatic privileges, due 
largely to flu- prevailing warm westerly winds. 
They combine “ the summer of St. Peters- 
burvh with the winter of Constantinople, 
Milan, and Florence.” Thus Penzance 
belongs to the isothermic line in winter of the 
Olive" and the Vine, and even some of the 
Palms. 
For a considerable period it has been a 
scientific problem that the West of Cornwall 
and Ireland were joined to the Continent, and 
numerous natural phenomena point to this 
conclusion. Of these, its flora strengthens the 
theory greatly. 
There are about, a score of plants indigenous 
to Cornwall which are practically foreign to 
other parts of England and Scotland, hut 
which are found either in Ireland, the Chan¬ 
nel Islands, or Southern Europe. I may in¬ 
stance two species of St. John’s Wort, HyPeri- 
cum boeticum and H. linariifolium. which 
occur both in West Cornwall and the Channel 
Islands. Three Trifoliums, T. Molinerii, T. 
Bocconi, and T. strictnm, are found in Eng¬ 
land only at the Lizard, and all three are 
South European plants. Omithopus ebrac- 
t.eatus is found at Tresco, St. Agnes, and 
Bryber in the Srilly Islands, but nowhere else 
in England, although it is also a native of 
the Channel Islands. Two very insignificant, 
but nevertheless interesting, little plants, 
Ccrrigiola listoratis and Illeoebrum verticil- 
latum, are Cornish plants, with a few habitats 
in Devonshire. The same remarks apply to 
Physospermum cornubiense, but this Um- 
bellifer is a rare plant. 
Erica ciliaris and E. vagans are two very 
handsome Heaths indigenous to this county. 
The, former is readily known by its raceme of 
highly-coloured rosy flowers, and by the fact 
that the anthers of the stamens are without 
the appendages possessed by those of the 
Scotch and cross-leaved Heaths. This is a 
strictlv western species, extending from Spain 
and Portugal to the West of Ireland, but not 
penetrating far inland. A hybrid between 
this species and the common E. Tetralix has 
been obtained near Truro. Erica vagans is 
the well-known Cornish Heath, and covers 
many acres of land in the Lizard district. It 
flowers early in summer, and is distinguished 
from all other British Heaths by the anthers 
protruding from the corolla, as well as being 
destitute of any appendages. Formerly it was 
suuDosel to be confined to the Serpentine dis¬ 
trict, but Nature has apparently a distinct 
objection to hard and fast lines, and this 
“rule” no longer obtains, for it is met with 
all round the Mediterranean, from Spain to 
Greece, Turkey and Egypt, and ascending 
along the Atlantic to, Cornwall and the south 
coast of Ireland. Like E. ciliaris, the 
Cornish Heath never penetrates far inland. 
Cicendia filiformis, Scrophularia Scoro- 
donia. Rumex rupestris, Juncus capitatus, 
and J. pygmaeus are all found in Cornwall, 
and each occurs in the Channel Islands. 
Echium plantagineum, a very handsome wild 
flower, is an obnoxious cornfield weed in a 
limited district near the Land’s End, to which 
place and Jersev it is confined. A grass, 
Cynodon Dactylon, was, until within recent 
years, found near the shore at Penzance, but 
