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THE LADIES ’ FLORAL vaEIFET 
cott. Esq., of Flatbush, N. Y., were the competitors; both 
displays were creditable, and included many varieties 
of seasonable flowers. Messrs. Hallock & Thorpe, con¬ 
tinue to show new Geraniums and Carnations, mostlv 
their own seedlings, which we trust they will continue 
to do until the limit of perfection is reached, and if such 
a thing is possible, the efforts put forth by them should 
accomplish it. 
The Pansy season, owing to the cold and backward 
spring, has not yet come, although there were several very 
good exhibits. The best was from the establishment of 
A. Bentz, Esq., of Great Neck, L. I., who is a specialist in 
that line. W. C. Wilson showed some very good Roses 
and Lily of the Valley, In the Amateur division was 
as good a display of cut flowers as ever has been shown 
at any of the Society’s meetings, the leading contri¬ 
butor being J. Smith, gardener to J. B. Colgate, Esq., 
Yonkers, N. Y. Mr. Smith’s roses, including Catharine 
Mermet, Perlo des Jardins, Nephitos, Cornelia Cooks, 
and many others, were absolutely perfect in all that 
constitutes the perfect flower, form, size and color. 
The same exhibitor showed a very large variety of cut 
flowers, equally good. We congratulate Mr. Smith on 
the dozen or more premiums justly earned. C. E. Par¬ 
nell, Esq., of Queens, N. Y., made a very good display, 
with a collection of cut flowers of such sorts as are only 
found in some of our oldest gardens. Many of the 
flowers exhibited were so old as to now bo considered 
novelties. Mr. Havermeyer exhibited a large collec¬ 
tion of Cinerarias, plants of fair size, and remarkable 
for the variety and intensity of the color of their 
flowers. 
THE WONDERS OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 
vm. 
Remarkable Trees. 
“Ye have no history. I ask in vain 
tVho planted on the slope this lofty group 
Of ancient pear trees, that with spring-time burst 
Into such breadth of blcom. One bears a scar 
Where the quick lightning scored its trunk, yet still 
It feels the breath of spring, and every May 
Is white with blossoms. Who it was that laid their 
Infant roots in earth, and tenderly 
Cherished the delicate sprays. I ask in vain. 
Yet bless the unknown hand to which I owe 
This annual festival of bees, these songs 
Of birds within their leafy screens, these shouts 
Of joy from children gathering up the fruit 
Shaken in August from the willing boughs.” —Bryant. 
Coultas says : “ A tree is indisputably the most highly 
developed form which vegetable life assumes. In the 
appearance of one that has stood for centuries, there is 
something noble and majestic. When we look at its 
now massive stem and far-extended branches, and then 
call to mind its smallness and feebleness at the com¬ 
mencement of its life; when we remember that this 
great tree was once so small as to be enclosed within a 
little seed, and that the tons of solid timber which it 
contains have been all drawn by that seed from the 
earth and atmosphere, we cannot but feel that we have 
before us a most impressive proof of the operations of 
the attractive forces. What an immense amount of 
vitally organized material has been gathered together! 
It is God’s own architecture ! This mass of vegetable 
matter is only earth and air which has undergone trans¬ 
mutation ! The material alike of wandering zephyrs 
and rushing storms, of gently descending night-dew B 
and angry thunder-showers, has been hire, on this 
spot, metamorphosed.” 
So famili ar are we with vegetation in its myriad 
forms, from the tiny mosses, the pioneers of this great 
kingdom, to the giant Sequoia, that has made our Pa¬ 
cific Coast famous for its vegetable wonders, that we 
pass them all by unnoticed, excepting, perhaps, when 
they minister to our wants or necessities by their flowers j 
fruits or substance. We shall briefly notice some of the 
trees that are strange to most of our readers, and re¬ 
markable, not only for the properties they possess, use¬ 
ful in the mechanic and other arts, but for their length 
of days, their historic interest, and their seemingly 
striking peculiarities. Conspicuous in this class is the 
Baobab Tree (Adansonia digitcita) a native of tropical 
Africa, and cultivated to a considerable extent in the 
tropics of Asia and America. This tree may be classed 
with the marvels of nature. Previous to the discovery 
of the gigantic Sequoia’s in California, it was considered 
the largest tree in the world, some specimens being 
found thirty feet in diameter. Its trunk does not ex¬ 
ceed fifteen or eighteen feet in height, and separates at 
the summit into branches fifty to sixty feet long, with 
a diameter equal to that of immense trees, their extreme 
ends in many instances reaching the ground. The trunk 
being short, and the branches thus curving towards the 
earth, it follows that the Baobab presents at a distance the 
appearance of a dome, or rather a ball of verdure, over 
a circuit of one hundred and sixty feet. This colossal 
vegetable was first discovered by Adanson on the Sene¬ 
gal, and. after him, the genus was named Adansonia. 
The Baobabs have since been discovered in the Soudan 
at Darfour, and in Abyssinia. Adanson concluded from 
the observations he made, and upon his calculations 
upon their growth, that some of the specimens which 
he studied could not have been less than 6,000 years old. 
But it is the. general opinion of botanists that this esti¬ 
mate was considerably overrated. It is commonly 
called the tree of a thousand years, and Humboldt 
speaks of it as “the oldest organic monument of our 
planet.” It is accredited with the most wonderful 
powers of endurance. When cut down with an axe it 
continues to grow, and a fire that would completely de¬ 
stroy almost any other tree, has but little effect upon 
this. Livingston says of this tree: “I would back a 
true Mowana (the name given to it in the neighborhood 
of Lake Ngami) against a dozen floods, provided you do 
not boil it in salt water; but I do not believe that any 
of those now alive had a chance of being subjected to 
the experiment of even the Noachian deluge.” 
The bark and leaves of this tree possess considerable 
emollient properties, of which the natives of Senegal 
