By PROF. J. H. MONTGOMERY.
ON THE TERMS ANNUAL AND BIENNIAL.—There is certainly much ambiguity
between the terms annual and biennial. Those plants which germinate in
the spring and die in the autumn are not very different from those which
vegetate in the summer or autumn and flower and die in the succeeding
spring or summer; nor indeed can I see much between them and plants
like _Agave_, which live in a barren state for many years, and then
flower once and die. It seems to be only a question of time required
to concentrate the requisite energy to produce flowers and fruit. True
annual plants may be divided into winter annuals and summer annuals. The
former usually store up nutritive matter in the autumn to supply the
flowering state in the spring; differing in this from summer annuals.
But this is not constantly the case. The _Agave_ is many years doing
this. Although this plant flowers only once, we of course ought to have a
term to distinguish it from the annuals. There are also the plants which
produce stoles rooting at the end, such as the sympodes of _Fragaria_;
in that case the plants are truly perennial. But see such plants as
_Epilobium_, where the buds at the end of stoles alone remain alive
during the winter, and produce the plants of the succeeding year; what
are we to call these? We usually denominate them perennial. Then how
separate them from those which are not aërial, but go through the same
course? Then come such plants as _Orchis_, where a new tuber is formed
by the side of the old one each year, usually at a very short distance
from it, but sometimes at some considerable distance, as in _Herminium_;
and the tuber which has flowered dies. The tuber is therefore a winter
annual. Of course all these ought not to be confounded with the true
perennials, where the same root lives and flowers at least several years
in succession. DeCandolle’s terms, _mono-_ and _poly-carpic_ will not do;
for they convey another idea. _Mono-_ and _poly-tocus_, as suggested by
A. Gray, are better, but here we do not distinguish between _Agave_ and
_Brassica_. And he has not attempted to distinguish these from _Orchis_
(except by calling them perennial, as we all do), or _Orchis_ from
_Fragaria_. Here is a subject of much interest for those to study who pay
attention to such matters.—_Journal of Botany._
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There is a strange plant with a curious flower growing in the damp
valleys of New Granada, called _Masdevallia chimaera_. It is one of the
unique productions of the vegetable kingdom. This plant has a dense
cluster of thick leaves; the slender flower stems creep along and flower
under the moss or leaves. The flower cup is divided into three lobes, and
is whitish in color, with irregular spots of pink. So fantastic is this
flower that a writer in _La Nature_ says: “In looking at this strange
flower one sees the colors of a nocturnal bird, the form of a large
spider in the middle, with two small, piercing black eyes.”
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TREES OF LAKE CHAD.—Dr. Nachtigal, in his “African Journeys,”
describes some curious trees that grow in the region of Lake Chad. The
butter-tree, called in that country _toso-kan_, bears a green, round
fruit, ripening into yellow, about as large as a small citron. This
fruit consists of a nut resembling a horse-chestnut in color and in
size, and a palatable, fleshy, smooth-skinned covering like a plum.
The nut affords an oil, which solidifies under a slight decrease of
temperature, and is used throughout North Africa as a substitute for
butter. The _Parpia biglobosa_, of the same region, a leguminous plant,
furnishes an excellent food in its seeds, which are eatable while
still unripe. The ripe seeds contain a thick, saffron-colored marrow,
inclosing black, shining grains. The meal made from them forms, when
mixed with water or milk, a pap, which has a sweet and pleasant taste
at first, but soon cloys. Relieved with sour milk or tamarind-juice, it
forms a dish healthful and enjoyable to all. The wool-tree is the third
characteristic tree of the country. It rises straight up, with thick,
horizontal branches arranged in whorls, one above the other, and derives
its name from its fruit, which bursts like pods of cotton, and discloses
a similar mass of fibers, lustrous and soft as eider-down. This “wool”
is used in stuffing cushions and mattresses and for the wadding-armor of
heavy cavalry. It has the valuable property of never becoming so compact
but that it can be restored to its original volume by a short exposure
to the sun. The tree is a favorite place of refuge for the negroes in
time of danger. Taking their children and goods up with them they secure
an excellent natural fortress among the whorls of its limbs.—_Popular
Science Monthly._
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Peach leaves curl and wither because of a fungus growth upon their
surfaces. This vegetable parasite often ruins the first crop of leaves
and unless they are replaced by a new growth early in the summer the tree
is injured, often permanently.