THE LADIES’' FLORAL CABINET. 
351 
Gillyflower—apparently regardless of the facts that 
wall flowers and July flowers are frequently mentioned 
together in old works on gardening as distinct. Another 
feature of the year’s flower-fashion, is the great popu¬ 
larity of pure yellow. Recently there was an eruption, 
at several points “ very far west indeed,” of the Sun¬ 
flower, cut with stalks three feet long—no doubt for the 
appropriate holding thereof in the old Engish manner. 
But the Gillyflower is quite as old English, though 
scarcely, perhaps, so severely “ precious.” 
* 
* * 
An enormous quantity of water passes through the 
roots of plants. An English experimenter has ascer¬ 
tained that for every pound of mineral matter assimi¬ 
lated by a plant, an .average of 2,000 pounds of water 
is absorbed. At the French Agricultural Observatory 
of Montsouris it was found that in rich soil, 727 pounds 
of water passed through the roots of wheat-plants for 
every pound of grain produced; while in very poor 
soil, 2,693 pounds passed through the wheat-roots for 
each pound of grain. 
* 
* * 
Attention is now attracted, says an Atlanta, Ga., 
despatch, to a new sort of cotton plant, which bids fair 
to prove immensely valuable. For mauy years A. A. 
Subers, of Macon, has been carefully experimenting to 
hybridize tiro cotton plant that grows wild in Florida 
with the common okra. The cotton plant used is of 
that species which is found in the lowlands of the 
Caloosahatcliie River. The new plant retains the okra 
stalk and the foliage of the cotton. Its flower and 
fruit, however, are strikingly unlike either cotton or okra. 
The plant has an average height of two feet, and each 
plant has only one bloom. This is a magnificent 
flower, very much like the great Magnolia in fragrance 
and equally as large. Like the cotton bloom, the flower 
is white for several days after it opens, after which it 
is first pale pink, and gradually assumes darker shades 
of this color until it becomes red, when it drops, dis¬ 
closing a wonderful boll. For about ten days this boll 
resembles the cotton boll, and then its growth suddenly 
increases, as if by magic, until it reaches the size of a 
big cocoanut. Not until it reaches this size does the 
lint appear. Then its snowy thread begins to burst 
from the boll, but are securely held in place by the 
okra-like thorns or points that line the boll. One inex¬ 
perienced picker can easily gather eight hundred pounds 
a day, and fast hands much more. Were the only sav¬ 
ing that of labor in gathering the lint, the result of Mr. 
Suber's experiment would entitle him to the everlasting 
gratitude of the Southern farmer. But this is not all 
—there are no seeds in the lint. Each boll produces 
about two pounds of very long staple cotton; superior 
to the Sea Island, and at the bottom of the boll there 
are from four to six seeds, resembling Persimmon seed. 
This new cotton, therefore, needs no ginning. 
« 
*■ « . 
The Cocoanut contains many valuable qualities for 
sustaining nutrition, and has often proved of great use 
when other food could not be obtained. The following 
instance is given in the case of a vessel that once left 
San Francisco with four hundred passengers for Sidney, 
and which, in consequence of running short of stores, 
had to put in at Samsa, where a large quantity of Cocoa- 
nuts were obtained. During the remainder of the pas¬ 
sage very heavy weather was encountered, in which the 
vessel became water-logged, and only reached Sidney 
after a perilous journey of eighty days, during which 
time all the provisions ran short, and men, women and 
children were fed only upon Cocoanuts, being at last 
reduced to one per day for each adult. Notwithstanding 
the diet not a life was lost, and not a single case of sick¬ 
ness occurred, all the passengers landing in a healthy 
and well-nourished condition. 
* 
* # 
The planting of trees along the public roads of France 
is considered worthy of statistical mention. At present 
the total length of public roads in France is 18,750 miles, 
of which 7,250 are bordered with trees, while 4,500 miles 
are at present being planted, or will shortly be planted. 
On the remaining seven thousand miles the nature of 
the soil does not permit of plantations. The [number of 
trees already planted amounts to 2,678,603, consisting 
principally of Elm, Poplar, Acacia, Plane Ash, Syca¬ 
more and lime trees. Strangers traveling in France 
could almost find out what department of the country 
they are, by noticing the different kinds of trees planted 
along the highroad. Thus, the Nut tree is most in vogue 
in Ain, Allier, the Hautes, Alpes, Aube, Ober, Doubs, 
Gers, Gironde and Herault; the Chestnut tree in the 
Hautes, Alpes, Aude, Charente, Correze and Corse; the 
Apple tree in Cote d’Or and Marne; the Mulberry in the 
Eastern Pyrenees, Haute Marne and Puy-de-Dome; the 
Cherry tree in Doubs, Indre, Jura, Landes, Loire and 
the Lower Pyrenees. 
* 
* •* 
The leaf is the builder of the tree. It hangs out its 
inch or two of oval green in the air for breath and sun¬ 
shine, and drinks in the dew and rain, conveying the 
result of its vegetable chemistry to a permanent place 
in the substance of the old tree. From the heart of each 
leaf a cord goes into the fibre of the wood, which is only 
a binding and knitting together of many leaf cords, and 
when the leaves shrivel and fall, these cords remain as 
their monuments. As Ruskin has said, “ Behold how 
fair, how far prolonged in arch and aisle, the avenues 
of the valleys, the fringes of the hills, the joy of the 
man, the comfort of all living creatures, the glory of 
the earth, they are but the monuments of those poor 
leaves that flit by us to die.” 
* 
* * 
About fifteen thousand varieties of color are em¬ 
ployed by the workers of mosaic in Rome, and there are 
fifty shades of each of these varieties, from the deepest 
to the palest; thus affording seven hundred and fifty 
thousand tints, which the artist can distinguish with 
the greatest facility. So much for stone pictures; but 
who shall tell us of the myriad colors and shades and hues 
which lie ready at. the hand of the gardener ? Nature 
and art have given to him a palette and a canvas of the 
best, and it is his own fault if his work be not noble and 
enduring. It is his duty to make the earth “bring forth 
her increase ” of blossom and nobler fruitage. He may 
paint the earth with liveliest color, and drape rock, or 
wall, or tree-trunk with the magic living tapestry of 
Nature herself. To no other artist has she given so 
much; none have been honored as she hath delighted to 
honor him; all others may but copy or imitate her. At- 
the best, a “ true likeness ” is their reward. 
