THE ROSE.

The Rose is preeminently the flower of the millions. History, romance and poetry would not be complete without the rose. Many flowers are more distinguished for particular features of interest, but none possess so many elements of attraction and interest as the rose. Beauty and fragrance are here conspicuously wedded together. Not only has Nature made the rose the type of one of the largest Orders of the Vegetable Kingdom; but, in some form, she has diffused it over almost every portion of the globe. Over two hundred distinct species are enumerated by botanists, and the varieties that have been produced by cultivation and horticultural skill are almost numberless.

Although the rose is in all nations a public favorite, it is not so because it has ever been made to serve the primary wants of man for food or clothing. But as an agent in the elegancies and refinements of life, where has it an equal? Attar of roses, conserve of roses, vinegar of roses, honey of roses, and rose water, are various preparations known to commerce as so many embodiments of the delicious perfume of this universal favorite.

The North American species of this genus are few, perhaps not exceeding a dozen, and not more than half of these east of the Mississippi river. The Prairie Rose (Rosa setigera, Michx.), which grows wild in nearly all the Western and Southern States, is a vigorous grower and prolific bloomer, and by cultivation has given rise to several double-flowered and highly prized varieties. It is our only representative of the section with united and protruding styles. The Swamp Rose (Rosa carolina, L.) is a large shrub growing in swampy ground, or on low, wet margins of streams. It produces an abundance of large and showy flowers. Two other common indigenous species of wild rose, the Rosa blanda, Ait., and Rosa lucida, Erhr., are small shrubs of similar habit, and in some of their forms approach so near each other as to make it doubtful if they should not be reduced to a single species.

But the wild, or natural, state of the rose is not that condition which is most commonly admired. The double condition of the rose is what gives it value with the horticulturist, although, in the eye of the botanist, that is regarded as an abnormal condition. If we examine a wild rose, we shall see that it has but five petals, while its stamens are very numerous, often fifty or more. These stamens arise from the same part of the flower as the petals, i. e., from the calyx. Now,

if we examine a double rose, we shall find that its petals have multiplied wonderfully, while the number of stamens has been greatly reduced, indeed in some instances there are hardly any discernible. How, then, has this change been effected? In answering this question we must refer to the fact that all the parts of a flower are but modifications of the leaves. The beautiful petals are but delicate colored leaves, and the stamens are but contracted leaves, altered to adapt them to a particular purpose. If we compare a fully expanded petal with a stamen, we notice a great difference, both in shape and size, but by examining a double rose we shall find some stamens just a little enlarged, others a little more expanded, so as to present some resemblance to a leaf or petal, and so on through all the stages of transition to perfect petals. Hence we find that, under the stimulus of cultivation, the stamens take on the leafy development, instead of contracting to their normal form. Occasionally we find roses which unfold to us still more clearly the structure of the floral organs, by a reversion of the pistils to the leafy state, so that the appearance is presented of one rose growing up through another.

The subject of vegetable transformations is one possessing intense interest, and one which we shall have occasion to refer to again.

DEFINITE AND INDEFINITE VEGETABLE DEVELOPMENT.

Plants inhabiting temperate and northern latitudes in which the seasons do not admit of indefinite growth, complete their growth and mature their seeds in longer or shorter periods of time as their situation in respect to length of period of growth may require. This is especially true of those species that perform their functions in a single process, as Maize in cultivated plants, and the Oaks of the indigenous. This definite or indefinite character of species in development and growth enables the cultivator to determine approximately the latitudes of their natural habitats, and to give them that special treatment they require to obtain the best results. Species with a definite growth, as Maize, suffer from loss of time by neglect of the cultivator, or by the unfavorable conditions of season or situation, but species of indefinite growth, as Cotton, the Castor-bean, and plants of the Squash family (Cucurbitace), can be subjected to loss of time with comparatively little detriment, except from loss for want of time at the end of the season. Cultivators having these facts in view can more satisfactorily determine

the several treatments required for each species. Premature planting of the definite class, or the neglect of suitable conditions, or of proper early cultivation, or any treatment that gives them age without corresponding growth, invariably diminishes the product. The definite class of tropical species requiring a high temperature for their development soon acquire the habit of suiting themselves to their new conditions, and complete their vegetative processes throughout in a much shorter time than when in their natural habitats, as if not to be defeated, by those unfavorable conditions, of the object of their existence, viz., the production of seed-the functions of growth are suspended in due time to allow for this to be accomplished, while the indefinite class go through the whole season maturing and producing vegetable growth as well as seed, and as the best results with this class are obtained by the longest time, the earliest planting is most successful-age with this class is in nowise detrimental, rather profitable. The Squash family (Cucurbitacea), Potato family (Solanacea), Mallow family (Malvacea), the Pea family, in part, and many other orders to some extent belong to this indefinite class. All the cereals, the Compositæ, and also the great majority of other orders belong to the definite class. E. HALL.

some days ago I wrote a note tending to demonstrate that this membrane does not exist in fact. But being careful I discovered it in the hair which grows on the stem of Geranium. This hair has the shape of a pharos or lighthouse. It is composed of four cells, the inferior in connection with the epithilial cells is conical, having a large base, and diminishing until the half of the length of the hair where it is attached to the two other quadratic cells, also both conical in shape. On the top of the third we find a larger spherical body which presents also the side wall of the cellulose membrane (Fig. 161, a1) and lay shrunken on one side. During this time the cytoblast was distinctly to be seen.

I was not satisfied with that result because I could not distinguish the membrane isolated, and the retiring of the contents could be explained as a folding of any nitrogenous substance without any genuine coat. That doubt left me considering the following experiment with the spherical head-cell of the hair.

The successive action of the sulphuric ether upon it gave place to a hole in the cellulose membrane, which here also grew successively larger by the retiring of the contents. (Fig. 161, b1 b2). I remarked in this case also the cytoblast more distinctly. I also observed a double contour on the retiring membrane, but the conviction that it was really a membrane was enforced by the partial isolation of the utriculus primordialis, which I performed by a rubbing pressure of the covering-glass. The design presented itself as a leak or crevice (Fig. 161, g) in the cellular membrane, permitting the primitive utricle to escape in part, prolapse-like, showing its cytoblast clearly. Was that a membrane?

The ether evaporated rapidly and formed a concave meniscus between the two glass-plates, like every fluid wetting the glass. The power of this retiring meniscus can be calculated by stated physical laws, into which I will not here enter. I will only state that this power of the retiring concave meniscus of the evaporating ether was strong enough to bend the prolapsed primitive utricle over the inferior edge of the leak in the cellular membrane. (Fig. 161, h). By adding a drop of ether, the elasticity of the membrane equalized the bending again, and the prolapse took its prior shape. Was it a membrane?

Acetic acid reäbsorbed most of the contents. (Fig. 161, i). This part of my study was troubled by losing the object out of sight a moment, and when I found it again, the primitive utricle

had shrunken at the inside corner of the cellulose membrane. The prolapse was gone, and the edges of the leak could be observed very fairly. It was a membrane, and this membrane was composed of nitrogenous substances, corroded by acetic acid!

PART III.

The third part to consider is the contents of the vegetable cell. This content conducts us into a labyrinth, because every thing we win out of the plants can be searched in the contents of the cell. Proceeding with order we may find Ariadne's thread.

We may divide the contents into starch, fat, crystals, chlorophyll, granular substances, gases; or we may have nothing but the cytoblast or nucleus.

1. Starch is so well known that I need not remind that it is colored by an aqueous solution of iodine, deeply blue, that it often has an amorphous form, as in the root of Valerian, or a form of granules, or that of roundish bodies (as in the Potato) in most of the grains, and that of compound granules in Sarsaparilla. (Fig. 141.)

2. Fat is found in many cells. It looks under the microscope like a white or colored round spot. The microscope alone gives not the conviction of the fatty constitution of these globules. It is by dissolving the fat in ether that we see it disappear, and after the evaporation of the ether we see the fat spots disseminated around the object-glass, often very distant from its primitive situation in the cell: a good object for this observation is the rind of an orange (Citrus Aurantium, L.) A fine slice displays large cells filled with yellow round spots. Before adding the ether, I added acetic acid to resolve the nitrogenous matters which might surround the fat-drops. The ether is known to coagulate these matters, and so its access to the fat might be obstructed. By the addition of ether the fat-drops disappear quickly under the development of gas, whose globules show a rapid movement in any direction.

THE Natural Order Leguminosa furnishes many of the most valuable vegetable products: peas, beans and lentils for food; the Tonka bean and sweet clover for fragrance; the Brazil wood logwood and indigo for coloring matter; the rosewood, locust, and other trees for valuable timber; and a long list of medicinal substances, as liquorice, tamarinds, gum-kino, gum-catechu, gum-Arabic, gum-tragacanth, balsam of Peru, balsam of Tolu, senna, &c.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Poisonous Plants.-We notice with pleasure that Botany has been wedded to Entomology in your publication, and beg your attention to the enclosed plants, which were received from the western borders of our State, with statement that a family had used them as greens, and almost immediately sickened with symptoms of poison, two of them having died already. GEO. T. ANTHONY.

LEAVENWORTH, KANS.

The specimens as they reached us were so wilted and dried up as to be in a bad state for recognition. They represented two herbaceous plants-one of them consisting of young and small specimens of Troximon cuspidutum, Pursh, a plant of the Natural Order Compositæ, having relationship in botanical characters to the Dandelion, and sometimes called the Prairie Dandelion. It occurs sparingly in Northern Illinois, becoming more common in Iowa and westward. It has a long thick root with a milky juice, much like that of the Dandelion. We can hardly suppose that this plant is poisonous. We do not know that any American plants of this family are strictly poisonous, though some of them are acrid, and would be too disagreeable to be eaten in any quantity. The other plant we are not yet able to determine. It has the appearance of some species of Artemesia, but there is not sufficient material for identification. It has just started its growth, and consists of a small tuft, about three inches high, of rather wedge-shaped leaves, gashed near the top, and whitish wooly below. Let it be watched until it comes into flower, then it can be determined. If these are the plants which caused the poisoning, the public welfare requires that they should be known so as to be avoided.

Plants to Name-Mr. S. A. Forbes, Benton Ills.The plants you send are from one of the most interesting botanical regions of this country, i. e., Southern Illinois. A large number of plants are found there whose native home seems to be much farther South. These are mostly well dried and easily determined. No. 1 is the large flowered Synandra (Synandra grandiflora, Nutt), a handsome plant of the Mint family. No. 2 is the Lyre-leaved Sage (Salvia lyrata, L.), also a member of the Mint family. No. 3 is a Wild Cat-briar (Smilar tamnoides, L.) No. 4 is a species of Ground Phlox (Phlox bifida, Beck.) No. 5 is Obolaria Virginica, L., without a common name, a small and delicate flower of the Gentian family. No. 6, is one of the Winter-berries (Пex decidua, Walt.), belonging to the same genus as the Holly. It is a shrub growing six or eight feet high, and in places where it is abundant the appearance of the bushes in the winter is very beautiful from the abundance of the bright red berries. No. 7 is the low Blue-berry (Vaccinium vacillans, Sol.) No. 8 is the Farkle-berry of the South (Vaccinium arboreum, Marshall), which is an evergreen bush growing on rocky hill sides. No. 9 is the Small-flowered Valerian (Valeriana pauciflora, Michx.) No. 10 is the Narrow-leaved Fever-wort (Triosteum angustifolium, L.) considerably smaller than the common species, T. perfoliatum, L. No. 11 is the Buffalo-clover (Trifolium reflerum, L.; No. 12 is the Butterfly Pea (Clitoria Mariana, L.), a handsome large-flowered plant of the Pea family, worthy of cultivation. No. 13 is the Water-locust (Gleditschia monosperma, Walt.) No. 14 is the Cucumber-tree (Magnolia acuminata, L.), a large and beautiful tree, which is hardy much farther north, and ought to be cultivated for shade and ornament.

Entomological Department.

CHARLES V. RILEY, EDITOR,
221 N. Main st., St. Louis, Mo.

THE WHITE-LINED MORNING SPHINX. (Deilephila lineata, Fabr.)

[Fig. 162 ]

Colors-White, olive and rose.

The very great diversity of form and habits to be found amongst the larvæ of our butterflies and moths, has much to do with the interest which attaches to the study of these masked forms. We are moved to admiration and wonder as thoroughly to-day as in early boyhood, every time we contemplate that within each of these varied and fantastic caterpillars-these creeping and groveling "worms"-is locked up the future butterfly, or moth, which is destined, fairy-like, to flit through the air on its gauzy wings, so totally unlike its former self. Verily the metamorphoses of the lower

animals must prove a never-failing source of

NO. 9.

But, beyond the general satisfaction experienced in studying these transient forms, there will be found ample food for the philosophic mind in the larval variations to be met with in the same species. In other parts of this present number we have instanced several curious variations in larvæ, caused by the character of their food-plant, and have also shown how some species (e. g. the common Yellow Bear) vary

very much without regard to foodplant. Our Sphinx larvæ, more particularly, are subject to these variations, and it is for this reason that larval characters alone, unaccompanied by those of the perfect insect, are of so little value in classification.

The White-lined Morning Sphinx (Fig. 162) presents one of the most striking cases of larval variation, as may be seen by comparing the dark form of Figure 164 with the light form of Figure 163. In the summer of 1863 we took both these forms on the same plant, and have repeatedly met with them since; but the moths bred from them show no differences whatever.

This beautiful moth is called by Harris the White-lined Morning Sphinx, though its generic name means "Evening Friend." It is distinguished principally by its roseate under-wings, and by a broad, pale band running from the apex to the base of the dark-olive front wings. [Fig. 163.]

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joy and felicity to those who have learned to open the pages of the great Book of Nature!

It is a tolerably common insect, and may quite frequently be seen at twilight, and even during

the day, hovering, humming-bird-fashion, over verbenas and other flowers. The larva feeds upon purslane, turnip, buckwheat, watermelon, and even apple leaves, upon any of which it may be found in the month of July. It descends into the ground and, within a smooth cavity, changes to a light brown chrysalis, from which the moth emerges during the month of September.

The most common form of this larva is that given at Figure 163; its color is yellowish-green, with a prominent subdorsal row of elliptical spots, each spot consisting of two curved black lines, enclosing superiorly a bright crimson space, and inferiorly a pale yellow line-the whole row of spots connected by a pale yellow stripe, edged above with black. In some specimens these eye-like spots are disconnected, and the space between the black crescents is of a uniform cream-yellow. The breathing-holes are either surrounded with black, or with black edged with yellow. The other form is black, and character[Fig. 161]

Colors-Black, orange and yellow.

ized chiefly by a yellow line along the back, and a series of pale yellow spots and darker yellow dots, as represented in our illustration (Fig. 164). Even this dark form is subject to great variation, some specimens entirely lacking the line along. the back, and having the spots of different shape.

This insect has a wide range, as it occurs in the West Indies, Mexico and Canada, as well as throughout the United States. Feeding as it does principally on plants of but little value, and being very commonly attacked by the larva of a Tachina-fly, this insect has never become sufficiently common to be classed as injurious.

DESCRIPTIVE ENTOMOLOGY.

In a paper on the larval history of certain moths, from the pen of that earnest entomologist, J. A. Lintner, of Albany, N. Y., the following passage occurs:

Every faithful student will welcome each contribution, however trivial, which shall hasten the day when of each insect the egg, the larva, the pupa, and the imago, or perfect form, shall all be known, described and figured, and the discovery of a new species, however microscopically minute it may be, shall be a triumph.*

Proc. Ent Soc. Phil., 1II, p. 645.

This is a noble burst of entomological enthusiasm; but let us pause here for a moment and make a few calculations as to the probability of a consummation so devoutly to be wished ever being achieved. It is usually estimated that in the whole extent of this terrestrial globe, there exist about half a million distinct species of insects. We strongly incline to believe that, even if we double this number, we shall still be rather under than above the correct estimate. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side-for we always dislike to overstate a case-we will consider the customary estimate as a tolerably near approximation to the truth. Let us suppose now that Mr. Lintner's idea is about to be carried into practical effect, and let us ask ourselves the following three questions:

1st. How much space upon our bookshelves will a work occupy, which describes and figures every insect in the world in each of its four stages?

2nd. How much time will it take to write such a work, and how much to execute the requisite drawings?

3rd. What will be the cost, in dollars and cents, of printing, say 10,000 copies of such a work, and of executing the requisite colored drawings and colored engravings to illustrate half a million insects in their four distinct stages?

Suppose we consider these three questions in the order in which they stand, numbering the answer to each, so as to correspond with the question itself.

1st. It will be allowed by every one, who has had much experience in such matters, that the four stages of an average insect cannot be accurately and satisfactorily described in less than one octavo page of ordinary brevier or bourgeois type. We should be inclined to double this estimate, but we are determined not to overstate the case. The illustrations of an insect in its four stages-considering that there are many insects so large in the perfect or winged state as to cover the whole surface of an octavo page, and considering further, that even such as are exceedingly small must be considerably magnified by the artist, in order that the drawing may be worth anything at all-will certainly occupy one-fourth of an octavo page. Thus, as an average insect will occupy 14 octavo pages, it results that, to describe and illustrate 500 insects will require 625 octavo pages, which is about the number of pages contained in one stout octavo volume. Moreover, it further follows, that to