584 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
December  25,  1902. 
CARDENG  MEANINGS 
Chrysanthemum,  Mrs.  D.  V.  West. 
This  snow  white  Japanese  variety,  illustrated  on  the  fore¬ 
going  page,  was  raised  in  Australia,  and  was  seen  in  splendid 
condition  at  Mr.  Godfrey’s  nursery  in  November.  It  is  said  to 
retain  its  foliage  better,  and  come  easier  than  Madame  Carnot, 
which  it  somewhat  resembles.  It  is  in  all  respects  a  good  Chrys¬ 
anthemum. 
Two  Good  Oaks  for  Planting. 
There  is  no  question  of  the  beauty  and  utility  of  the  Pin  Oak, 
Quercus  palustris,  for  ornamental  planting  and  for  shade. 
Wherever  planted,  whether  as  a  specimen  tree  on  lawns  or  lining 
avenues,  it  does  well.  There  are  in  its  bright  green  summer 
foliage  and  its  broad  cone-shaped  growth  characters  very  pleas¬ 
ing.  It  is  not  alone  these  merits  which  make  this  Oak  so  popular. 
There  is  another  and  very  important  one  which  has  had  very 
much  to  do  with  its  popularity,  and  this  is  that  it  is  an  easy  tree 
to  transplant,  as  nurserymen  term  it.  As  much  of  its  popu¬ 
larity  is  due  to  this  fact  as  to  the  value  of  its  appearance.  It 
would  be  supposed  that  all  trees  of  a  genus  would  be  alike  in 
respect  to  transplanting,  but  it  is  not  so  with  the  Oak.  Set  out 
a  red,  black,  scarlet,  or  Chestnut  Oak  at  the  same  time  a  Pin 
is  planted.  The  latter  will  do  by  far  the  best.  The  others  must 
be  closely  pruned  to  have  them  succeed.  The  Pin  Oak  appre¬ 
ciates  a  pruning,  but  does  not  demand  it.  It  is  because  a  cus¬ 
tomer  finds  his  Pin  Oaks  live  while  the  others  have  a  struggle 
for  life,  that  he  orders  this  Oak  again  and  recommends  it  to  his 
friends.  But  there  is  another  Oak  which  transplants  as  freely 
as  the  one  named,  yet  it  seems  unknown  to  general  planters.  I 
refer  (says  Mr.  Jos.  Meehan)  to  the  Q.  bicolor,  one  of  our  massive 
native  Oaks.  Its  foliage  is  very  large,  the  opposite  of  that  of  the 
Pin  Oak,  and  the  tree  has  rough  bark  when  young,  somewhat  in 
the  way  the  red  Birch  has.  Where  a  very  large  growing  Oak,  of 
a  character  of  growth  the  opposite  of  the  Pin,  is  desired,  try  the 
bicolor,  and  remember  that  it  and  the  Pin  are  two  Oaks  that 
rarely  fail  to  grow,  having  lots  of  small  roots. 
Fever  in  Plants. 
Although  animals  and  plants  seem  at  first  sight  to  be  two 
absolutely  distinct  groups,  and  to  have  little  in  common,  closer 
investigation  poinst  unmistakeably  to  the  fact  that  they  are  very 
similar  and  very  closely  related  to  one  another.  Further,  many 
organisms  are  known  which  it  is  impossible  to  class  with  cer¬ 
tainty  as  plants  or  animals.  Let  us  confine  our  attention  for  a 
moment  to  one  of  the  ordinary  recognised  signs  of  life,  namely, 
breathing  or  respiration.  Both  animals  and  plants  breathe.  In 
both  oxygen  is  taken  in  from  the  air,  and  after  certain  changes 
carbon  dioxide  is  given  out.  This  process,  it  is  true,  is  masked 
in  green  plants  during  exposure  to  sunlight  by  another  process,  in 
which  carbon  dioxide  is  taken  in  and  oxygen  given  out.  It  goes 
on,  however,  in  a  plant  as  steadily  as  in  an  animal,  and  there 
is  no  essential  difference  between  the  respiration  of  man  and  that 
of  the  humblest  vegetable  he  cultivates.  In  man  it  is  not  un¬ 
common  to  find  that  when  the  health  is  affected  his  temperature 
rises;  in  other  words,  he  becomes  feverish.  At  the  same  time 
the  rate  of  breathing  is  often  increased.  Is  this  true  of  plants 
also?  Can  we  throw  a  Potato  or  an  Onion  into  a  fever?  The 
idea  seems  absurd.  Yet  it  is  an  ascertained  fact.  It  was  shown 
by  Mr.  H.  M.  Richards  (“Annals  of  Botany,”  vol.  xi.,  page  30) 
that  if  Potatoes  or  Onions  were  sliced — that  is  to  say,  wounded — 
their  temperature  rose,  and  their  breathing  became  more 
vigorous.  They  exhibited,  in  fact,  two  of  the  characteristic 
symptoms  of  a  feverish  person.  The  rise  of  temperature  was 
carefully  measured;  in  some  cases  it  was  as  much  as  3deg  C. 
The  course  of  the  fever  was  followed,  and  was  found  to  reach  its 
height  usually  about  twenty-four  hours  after  the  injury ;  the  tem¬ 
perature  then  began  to  fall,  and  reached  the  normal  again  on  the 
fourth  or  fifth  day.  Experiments  such  as  these  help  to  bring 
home  to  one  in  a  striking  manner  the  fundamental  relationship 
between  animals  and  plants. — (“  Agricultural  News,”  Barbados.) 
The  Flora  of  Egypt. 
From  the  fertility  of  the  Egyptian  soil  we  might  expect  a 
specially  rich  flora,  but,  notwithstanding  the  luxuriant  vegeta¬ 
tion,  no  country  in  the  same  latitude  has  so  poor  a  variety  of 
plants,  and  wild  flowers  are  scarcely  to  be  found.  There  are  no- 
plants  common  to  ruins,  bogs,  or  lake,  for  want  of  water  and 
shade.  The  grasses,  of  which  there  are  a  goodly  number,  never 
form  a  green  sward  ;  there  are  no  meadows  such  as  charm  the 
eye  in  other  countries,  though  the  clover  fields,  which  serve  for 
pasture,  and  the  corn  fields,  as  long  as  they  are  green,  compensate 
to  some  extent  for  the  deficiency.  Even  the  streams,  the 
numerous  water-courses  and  canals,  plantations,  with  various 
trees  bearing  fruit,  and  the  Tamarisk  is  to  be  seen  everywhere. 
One  of  the  finest  avenues  in  the  world  extends  from  Cairo  to  the 
Pyramids,  seven  miles  long,  lined  with  Sycamore  and  Acacia 
trees.  It  wTas  constructed  in  three  months’  time  by  the  Khedive 
in  honour  of  the  Empress  of  the  French  at  the  opening  of  the 
Suez  Canal. 
Fruit  Pulping. 
An  account  is  given  in  the  annual  report  on  the  Saharanpur 
and  Mussoorie  Botanical  Gardens  of  some  experiments  made  in 
the  new’  Californian  industry  known  as  fruit-pulping.  The  idea 
is  to  boil  down  the  fruit  until  it  has  assumed  a  semi-solid  con¬ 
dition  and  then  evaporate  the  remaining  moisture,  so  that  the 
pulp  can  be  wrapped  in  oiled  tissue  and  packed  in  an  ordinary 
deal  box.  Experiments  were  made  with  Peaches  and  Mangoes, 
but  the  result  wTas  not  encouraging.  One  hundred  and  fifty 
Peaches,  weighing  19jlb,  produced  21b  of  dry  pulp,  costing 
12  annas  per  lb,  without  counting  the  cost  of  stoning  the  fruit, 
boiling,  straining,  evaporating,  putting  up  the  bricks  in  an 
attractive  form  for  sale,  Ac.  Thus  the  cost  of  producing  Peach- 
pulp  bricks  is  at  least  1  rupee  per  lb  ;  and  as  the  better  class  of 
Peaches  sell  readily  at  2  rupees  to  3  rupees  per  100,  and  second- 
rate  fruit  at  1  rupee  per  100,  it  would  not  be  worth  the  time  and 
trouble  of  growlers  toadopt  the  pulping  system.  Moreover  (says 
the  “Madras  Mail  ”),  it  was  found  that  the  pulp-bricks  would  not 
remain  hard  and  solid  for  more  than  a  few  days  in  the  moist 
climate  of  the  rains. 
Mistletoe. 
As  Christmas  comes  round  one’s  thoughts  naturally  turn  to 
Holly  and  Mistletoe,  and  it  is  with  the  latter  that  we  propose 
dealing  in  the  following  lines.  Known  a  Viscum  album,  a  name 
which  fully  describes  its  white,  viscous  berries,  it  is  a  native  of 
this  island,  though  not  confined  thereto,  as  much  of  that  vended 
at  Noel  tides  is  grown  in  the  Apple  orchards  of  Normandy.  It 
is,  however,  very  plentiful  in  many  parts  of  the  south  of  England, 
where  it  is  to  be  found  on  Apples,  Pears,  Hawthorns,  Limes, 
Sycamores,  and  Poplars  indiscriminately,  and,  much  as  it  may 
surprise  some  of  our  readers,  very  rarely  on  Oaks.  In  Sherwood 
Forest  there  is  a  clump  of  ancients  covering  many  acres,  nearly 
every  tree  of  which  bears  its  Mistletoe  boughs.  Old  Culpepper 
tells  us  that  the  Mistletoe  “  flowereth  in  the  spring-time,  but  the 
berries  are  not  ripe  till  October,  and  abideth  on  the  branches 
all  winter.”  The  plant  is  a  parasite,  and  the  berries  are  a 
favourite  food  for  thrushes,  who  propagate  the  plant  by  wiping 
their  beaks,  against  which  the  glutinous  seeds  have  adhered, 
against  the  bark  of  the  tree  on  which  the  bird  has  alighted. 
The  growth  of  the  plant  is  very  slow,  and  hence  it  is  very  difficult 
to  eradicate  when  once  it  has  become  firmly  fixed,  as  the  smallest 
particle  of  roots  will  continue  to'  send  out  shoots. 
Almost  needless  to  say,  legends  galore  have  clustered  around 
the  plant,  and  the  majority  of  them  can  boast  of  a  very  respect¬ 
able  antiquity.  Our  ancestors  attributed  to  it  miraculous 
virtues.  Albertus  Magnus  believed  it  would  open  all  locks, 
Aubrey  tells  us  how  some  persons  who  cut  down  Mistletoe  at 
Norwood  and  sold  it  to  apothecaries  for  drugs  were  stricken 
with  broken  legs  and  blindness  in  consequence  ;  while  the  Druids 
considered  it  capable  of  healing  all  diseases  and  acting  as  an 
antidote  to  every  poison  ;  while  the  old  herbalists  prescribed  it 
as  a  panacea  for  apoplexy,  epilepsy,  palsy,  and  falling  sickness — 
truly  a  wonderful  plant  if  we  could  only  believe  it  all.  Really 
it  seems  quite  a  demoralising  use  to  put  such  a  grand  old  humbug 
up  at  Christmas  parties  for  the  young  folk  to  kis-  under. — 
W.  U.  B. 
