they are the Bank Martin, Hirundo riparia. In connection with their disappearing in the willows, brings to mind what people used to say about the swallows. They said that they went down into the mud on the appearance of cold weather and remained there all winter,deep down into the mud; when the sun's heat reached them, they came up out of the mud again. I would like to know how far north these birds go for nesting purposes. Our bank swallow is a different looking bird, with long and narrow wings. F. K. STEEle.

Festus, Jefferson County, Missouri, October 24, 1898.

October 29, the Chimney Swift, Cypsilus pelasgius, is still here at this writing. It seems to be able to stand a quite low degree of temperature, as we have had ice twice over in the past three weeks. F. K. S.

XANTHIUM CANADENSE.—I have been examining one of the spiney fruits of Xanthium Canadense, found along the city street. It is a little less than an inch long, light green, elliptical in out-line and densely covered with quite long spines hard and incurved at the tip, the hooks all directed toward the apex of the fruit except the topmost row, where directions vary. The seed and lower third of all the spines are beset with translucent hairs, and the whole, when crushed, yields a peculiar aroma. I carried the seed in my pocket a few days and while there it become entangled with a long, fine hair, which, try as I would, I could not remove from the ensnaring hooks without breaking it. At the tip of the seed are two beaks like the mandibles of a "pinching bug," somewhat divergent and also hooked, the hooks being turned toward each other.

The oval husk is tough and offers much resistance to being torn open; but, when it does yield, reveals a pale, shining lining and contains two spindle-shaped black seeds, flatflatter on one side than the other,—which, on cross section, reveal two straight cotyledons.

About the middle of last May, I found these queer seeds sprouting and growing, found them in all stages from a softened pod to plants several inches high. The tough husk is softened and blackened by the exposure to the snows and wet of winter; and, in late spring, a blunt, stout caulicle puts out. Only one of the two seeds seem ever to mature-reaches earth, sends down a few rootlets and then with

this anchorage, withdraws the fleshy seedleaves from the rotten husk and expands them to the sun.

The fact of hairs catching so inextricably in the hooked spines suggests the possibility of the dissemination of seed on the hair or wool of animals or on the clothing of men, in the same general manner as do the seeds of Avens, Tick Trefoil, Beggar Ticks, Hound's-tongue and certain knot-grasses; the secret is all the same,- -a hook or a barbed point which catches in the wool or hair and is dragged from the ripe receptacle or calyx. NEWLIN WILLIAMS.

HOSACKIA PURSHIANA.-Apropos of your mention of Dakota Vetch, on page 176, of the current volume, I would say that the scientific name of Lotus Americana there mentioned is the one now adopted by those in favor of the "New Nomenclature" for the plant formerly known as Hosackia Americana. As I understand it, the change was made by Prof. E. L. Greene, after studying the Old World species of Lotus, from which he concluded that the genus Hosackia was not distinct from the other. New nomenclature or not, it is much to be regretted that the genus which commemorates Dr. Hosack can not stand, as it is fitting that one who did so much for botany should be remembered in this way. Dr. Hosack was the originator of one of the first botanical gardens in New York, its site being on the grounds so long occupied by Columbia College in New York City.

WILLARD N. CLUTE. Referring to Britton & Brown's Illustrated Flora, it appears to be Bischoff and not Greene that is credited with the new name Lotus Americanus. It does not appear to have ever been called Hosackia Americana, but Hosackia Purshiana. The facts show the impolicy of a change of name,—not on a question of priority, but on the value of a character. There is certainly something in this plant different from all others, or it would not be a separate species. Nuttall, Bentham, and other expert botanists, closely familiar with what a true Lotus should be, regard this "something" as distinct from Lotus. Their decision has been accepted for many years, and the name Hosackia has become part of universal literature. Another expert now has a different view from his fellow experts, and

changes the name. What guarantee have we that some other expert will not again present his opinion that Hosackia should still prevail? At any rate, the point we made is still unassailed, that, on account of the use of an unexplained name for an old one in general use, the costly government publication was in a great measure valueless.

ANCIENT CORN.-A correspondent sends the following from the Philadelphia Record:

"While studying geology from nature, I recently discovered a large deposit of corn, of the white flint gourd variety, embedded in conglomerate rocks composed of carbonate of lime and silica. The grains are beautiful crystals, but the cobs are not so transparent.

The corn was evidently grown by the antediluvians, and from all appearances was husked and gathered by them and is evidently over 4,000 years old.

A quantity of botanical material collected by an expert naturalist, in one of the caves near Norristown, was placed in the hands of the writer for identification some little time ago. Among these were supposed grains of corn. It was evident that this supposed corn was not botanical, but were the teeth of some animal. They were turned over to Professor Cope just before his death, who decided not

only that this was correct, but that the teeth belonged to the peccary, an animal now extinct in this part of the world. These resemblances are so frequent, as to render all similar finds liable to doubt.

FRUIT AND FLOWERS AT THE SAME TIME.Mrs. Kellerman, Columbus, Ohio, sends a branch of a pear tree, the fruit as large as small figs, with a spur on the same branch in full flower. The flowering cluster terminated

been sent in for the contest. All of them had some merit of more or less degree, and considering this is the first occasion that this has been set in motion, it was a grand success. Many visitors were surprised that we have so many native flowers, but you know the least and often most noxious weeds make the prettiest specimen for berbariums; while bright and showy flowers mostly show to disadvantage on account of having lost their colors."

THE DOUGLAS SPRUCE.-An Oregon paper says that the Douglas Spruce of the Sierra becomes 400 feet high, with a trunk of 12 to 15 feet in diameter. It is used wherever strength and durability are desired, such as in the manufacture of ship timber, wharves, and piles, as well as for general building purposes, as beams, girders, joists, flooring, etc., usually called by lumber dealers Oregon Pine, the slender, tallest

specimens being found in the Puget Sound

region, but not the largest nor best.

THE AMMONOOSUC RIVER. -The conductors are annoyed to find that due credit was not given to the gentlemen who permitted the use of the illustration of the Ammonoosuc in the December issue of the MONTHLY. They are indebted to Messrs. Anderson and Price, Mount Pleasant House, New Hampshire, for this and other beautiful illustrations which may hereafter appear.

SELECTING HOUSE-PLANTS.-Like "apples of gold in pictures of silver" is the good advice given in that recent article, and happy will they be who heed it.

Also by an amateur botanist, the same advice might well be heeded. A few plants, collected with care and given proper attention, with correct date, locality, etc., upon future examination will give much more satisfaction than many more specimens hurriedly put in press and neglected which will be looked upon later without pleasure and finally discarded as useless. MRS. E. E. ORCUTT.

San Diego, Cal.

BEGONIA Gloire de LORRAINE.-The beautiful, winter-flowering Begonia Gloire de Lorraine deserves every word of praise it has received, and any one who has a greenhouse where the temperature is kept at about 50 degrees in winter, should certainly have it. When not in bloom, the shining, dark green leaves are as beautiful as any "Rex." Good, turfy loam, plenty of leaf mould, well drained pots, the plants near the glass, and shaded from strong sunlight, no difficulty will be found in growing it to perfection. JNO. THATCHER.

Wynnewood, Pa.

DEATH IN PLANTS BY FREEZING.-In the MONTHLY for October, p. 148, we were told that the sap of trees does not freeze even at as low a temperature as 12° below zero, and hinted by Mr. T. Wheeler, on page 149, that some "noted men," (I presume scientific, was meant), discredit the belief that moisture is absorbed from the atmosphere by the trunks of trees. This led me to ask the question, if these things be so, upon what part of the tree does the frost work, to cause them to split open in cold weather-not zero?

Can you enlighten us on that point?

A. McL.

The living cells of a tree are those immediately below the bark; all the interior of a tree is dead cells. They are the skeletons in the closet. Moisture in these dead cells will freeze. It is the freezing in these dead cells that induces trunks to split in severe weather. The moisture in the active living cells beneath the bark can scarcely have the liquid in their cells freeze, or they also would split by expansion. The very fact that they can get through without splitting is evidence that they do not freeze.

A geranium dies under frost because in these, and similar instances, the liquid does freeze in the living cells.

PROTECTING ORCHARDS FROM LIGHT FROSTS. —It was, we believe, William Saunders, the enlightened chief of the Government Experiment Gardens at Washington, who, some fifty years ago, insisted, in leading magazines, that the text books were wrong in teaching that heated air ascended,—that is, ascended in an active sense. It was, rather, pushed up by the heavier cold air pressing against it. It seems a slight distinction but it has immense practical importance. For instance, those who understand this, smile at the Florida orange grower who builds fires around his orchard to make smoke when he fears a frost is coming. He lightens the atmosphere at the same time among the trees, and makes it all the easier

for the heavy cold air to push in and take its place.

The modern thought to spray with water is more philosophical. Water is a good conductor of heat, and would add to the chances of resisting cold by the heat it would abstract from its surroundings. Horticulturists have long known that evergreens are quite hardy in a moist atmosphere, when they would easily succumb under the same temperature in a dry

one.

THE USE OF HARDY PLANTS.-That the increased use of hardy plants has already created a noticeable improvement in the gardens of Lake Forest, as well as in the parks of Chicago, and that, as they become better known, they will be more appreciated and more extensively planted every year, is certain. The progress made in the cultivation of hardy shrubs and plants in our vicinity, is remarkable when it is remembered that most of them have been neglected and almost forgotten. This, at least, we must say about the hardy flowers, that our grand-mothers cared for, with the utmost delight. Give us plenty of those good old flowers, walls clothed with vines and climbers; and if we can have a rustic seat under a bower of foliage, let us have it.

Hardy plants, indeed, are far superior to tender ones, as, when a garden is once planted, it is permanent and does not, as in the case of the tender plants, require the expense of annual renewal; yet we should not abandon the annuals, as there are some very lovely ones amongst them, and that should find a place in our gardens.

Remarkable are the expenditures that go towards permanent arrangement and planting of hardy shrubs, vines, flowers and evergreen trees on the newly broken grounds in our vicinity

The most interesting summer-home is that of Mr. Byron L. Smith, who has named it "Sweet-Briar Hall." There are few hardy trees, shrubs, vines, evergreens or flowers listed in any of the many catalogues in this country that Mr. Smith has not tried in his extensive grounds of about forty acres. It is Mr. Smith's effort to make his home as beautiful and attractive as possible, both in summer and winter. "A garden should tell the seasons by its flowers," is an old saying; but

how about winter, when all our beautiful flowers and plants have seemingly disappeared after a few October frosts, and when we awake in the morning and find our plants, like Sennacherib's army, all dead men? I am glad to say Mr. Smith's home grounds have at least an army of live men-hundreds of fine evergreens, Siberian Dogwood, native and bloodred dogwoods, Italian, Russian and Colorado Willows, Indian Currant and snow-berry, Mahonia Aquifolium, Daphne Cneorum, all kinds of Berberis, Rosa rugosa, wild roses, Sweet Briar Roses, Viburnum Oxycoccos, Euonymus red and white-fruited, we find making a beautiful winter prospectus. A few more have taken up the idea, in Lake Forest, and are carrying it out with enthusiasm.

One thing is wanting yet in the beautiful ravines and along the banks thereof, as well as on the shores of Lake Michigan, and that is Natural or Wild Gardening," as one may call it. We find wide and bare belts of grass that wind in and around the shrubberies in nearly every country place, which are merely places to be roughly mown now and then; but if planted here and there with the snowdrop, the Japanese Anemone, the crocus, scillas and narcissus, they would, in spring, surpass in attractiveness the finest of gardens, and would pay its cost in one season, as, when once carefully planted, they need very little care. Even along the banks in the lawn, they would cause no trouble whatever; their leaves die down so early that they would scarcely interfere with the moving of the grass, if that were desired. On borders where one need not run the lawn mower, the prettiest results could be achieved. In grass not mown at all, we may have the narcissus and even the lilies, besides a great number of hardy wild flowers, which should be planted in natural groups or prettily-fringed colonies, spreading as they like after planting. Once established, the plants soon begin to group themselves in a way that leaves nothing to desire.

Many of our finest herbaceous plants, such as irises, Canadense and Superbum Lilies, thrive in the moist soil found in or near the bottom of the ravines or springs; numbers of hardy flowers, also, that do not naturally prefer moist soil, would exist in perfect health and grow freely among grass on the banks, and for this purpose, we might use day-lilies,

phloxes, irises,-especially the Germanica type, many of the lilies, golden-rods, campanulas, tritomas, yuccas, hardy ferns, asters, and a host of other fine things. In Highland Park, on Mr. W. C. Egan's place, the most beautiful effects may be found half-hidden in the grass in just such locations as above described. Why should we not have it in Lake Forest? E. BOLLINGer.

EXCLUDING MICE AND RATS FROM FRAMES. -In a note in October number, you say that a correspondent asks how to keep rats and mice out of frames. When the frame is set, scrape away the earth from the outside four to six inches deep and lay a board flat all around the frame, bringing the edge close to the frame. The board should be ten to twelve inches wide. Bring the earth back over it and tread it down. The varmints always try to dig close to the frame, and when they strke the board they quit. Not one has ever become sharp enough to back up and dig under the flat board.

This is an original device and has worked perfectly for twenty-five years in my garden. -No patent.

Louisville, Ky.

one.

M. M. GREEN.

GARDEN FENCES.-The old idea that a garden is a place in which to retire from the world and enjoy our pleasures was rather a selfish To enjoy a garden in the olden time was to retire between high walls or dense hedges, through which no prying eye could penetrate. The modern idea is to have everything exposed to public view, and this is probably as great an extravagance in one direction as the old prison wall system was in the other. In many of the suburbs of our cities, the idea of no hedges, fences or other boundary marks to gardens has prevailed to a great extent. The lawns and gardens have no boundary marks between them and the public streets. The driveway is made to appear as a portion of some great public park. Certainly this gives some advantage to the general traveller; but it does seem that one cannot abolish the idea of the "mine" and "thine'' in human nature; and to give up one's garden to the public as if it belonged actually to them is a violation of a proper sentiment in human nature. A low hedge or ornamental fence of some kind, which

does not absolutely exclude our garden treasures from the public; but yet marks a distinction to that which is ours, and that which is everybodies, seems more in accord with the proper order of things. The total abolition of these line fences or garden boundaries does not seem to be natural, and therefore not to be recommended.

PAINTING TREe Wounds.-Many a valuable tree is lost by the neglect to paint the scar left where a branch has been sawn off or broken by the wind. Insects and fungi will also destroy patches of bark on the trunks of trees, and the wood will rapidly decay, and the trunk become hollow. To prevent this rotting, exposed wood should be painted, dead bark taken off and the wood beneath also painted.

The object is to prevent decay till the new wood grows over it.

Grafting the English WALNUT.—A correspondent from Dover, Delaware, desires to know whether any one has attempted to graft the English Walnut on the Black Walnut or Butternut? If successful, many a grove of Black Walnuts could be turned into great profit.

It is said that in the vicinity of Homosassa, Florida, large plantations are being made of the English Walnut. These plantations have not yet come into bearing, and the healthy, vigorous growth is all that can be desired.

NEW CARNATION DISEASE.-Mr. Douglas exhibited specimens of Carnation plants badly attacked by a species of bacterium (Bacterium dianthi), giving a silvery appearance to the leaves. It had previously proved to be very destructive in America, and it is probable that it will now be so here. If the leaves are cut away when first attacked the disease may be arrested; spraying with a weak solution of ammoniacal copper carbonate may be tried, but the only remedy if it be more severe is to burn the plants. The fungus attacks the middle of the leaf, and then spreads both ways.London Gardeners' Chronicle.

MOVING A HAWTHORN TREE.-Mr. W. C. Egan, Highland Park, Illinois, notes: "I moved a hawthorn from the woods five miles away, to day, taking four horses, six men and about