GRAPE CROP.-There is great complaint from almost every quarter concerning the grape crop, the wet weather having affected the grapes very unfavorably. A gentleman from Maryland informed us last week, that in his vineyard of eight acres, devoted principally to Catawbas, the rot had destroyed nearly all. In Massachusetts, many small vineyards of Concord and other varieties have been nearly destroyed from mildew and rot. Our own crop will be nearly a failure: no variety has suffered so much as the Concord, - rot of the fruit more than mildew of foliage. We understand that along the lakes, and in some other portions of the country, the crop is uninjured, and will prove as good as usual. It is very seldom that we have as much wet weather as during the past month or two. Many crops have been injured by the excessive rains.

THE KING OF STRIPED HOLLIES. - The French journals mention a tree, growing in the garden of the Deaf and Dumb School of Nantes, which is probably one of the largest which exist. It belongs to the finest variety, with large, plain leaves, edged with gold. It is twenty-six feet high, and pyramidal or conical in shape; and its branches, which touch the ground, are so close, that it is impossible to see through it. The proprietor of this fine plant asks a thousand francs for it.

VINELAND, N.J., which was a wilderness less than ten years ago, but now numbers over ten thousand inhabitants, has produced, the past season, nearly three hundred thousand boxes of strawberries.

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SANCHEZIA NOBILIS VARIEGATA. - Sanchezia nobilis is one of the finest amongst the brilliant-flowered acanthads that are so abundant in our plant-stoves, being remarkable for its numerous fascicles of erect blossoms, collected into a dense paniculate inflorescence, and consisting of long, bright-yellow tubular flowers, emerging from broad crimson bracts, as brilliant in every way as the gayest of aphelandras, but much less formal in aspect.

Of this most beautiful and interesting plant, the Messrs. Veitch and Sons of Chelsea, who were its introducers, are fortunate enough to have also secured a striped-leaved variety, which is the subject of these remarks. The bold character of the leaves of this plant, and the conspicuous markings or bands of yellow by which they are decorated, - recalling to mind those of the handsome Aphelandra Leopoldii, though much more beautiful, — render it an ornamental object in every stage of growth, and justify us in asserting that it is one of the most valuable plants of modern introduction. The leaves are, when fully grown, from twelve to fifteen inches in length. This Sanchezia is a native of Bolivia, and has been introduced by the Messrs. Veitch through their most fortunate collector, Mr. Pearce. Its free growth and fine habit, together with its bold leafage and elegant markings, indicate a valuable exhibition-plant; and, altogether, we do not hesitate to pronounce it to be the finest novelty of the present season.

LARGE PEAR-TREE. - At the Abbey of Lindores, on the estate of Mugdrum, are some unusually large pear-trees, mentioned a hundred and fifty years ago by Sibbald in his "History of Fife." The trunk of the largest measures seventeen feet ten inches in circumference at a foot from the ground; at nine feet higher up, where it branches off, it is seventeen feet in circumference; and it is fortyfour feet in height. The spread of the branches is fifty-three feet in diameter. The circumference of one of the branches is ten feet eight inches; and that of another, eight feet ten inches. It grows in deep alluvial soil, and bears abundant

crops.

LIQUID MANURE FOR CALADIUMS AND ACHIMENES.-The best liquid manure that we have tried for these plants, and, indeed, for all plants in pots, is that formed by pouring thirty gallons of rain-water over one peck of sheep's dung fresh from the pens, and one peck of soot. Stir the whole well up twice a day for two or three days; allow the liquid to stand a day or two longer; then stir again, and use it for watering with once or twice a week. A pound of guano in twenty gallons of water, along with half a peck of soot, will form one of the best liquid manures known.

The wheat-midge is doing considerable injury in some localities.

Accounts from all sections of the country confirm the opinion, that the harvest this season is very abundant: where it is light in some localities, it is unusually heavy in others.

Sugar from beets is made in large quantities in Illinois.

SELAGINELLAS.

- These are excellent plants for clothing the shady walls of a plant-stove. No better illustration of this fact can be found than is now to be seen in the Sheffield Botanic Garden, where the north wall of the Victoria House is draped with them, several species being mixed up together. We have never seen so pretty an effect produced by these refreshing-looking plants in any other situation. The wall is faced with a six-inch layer of coarse peat and rubble, with a little moss outside, the whole being held in position by strong galvanized wire-netting, with rather wide diamond-shaped meshes; and the only attention required by the plants is a damping with the syringe daily. - Florist.

A gardener of Ghent has, after many trials, succeeded, writes Galignani, in giving any kind of fruit the flavor he pleases while it is still on the tree. Let us take an apple for instance: he pricks it rather deeply in four or five places with a large needle, and then lets it dip for a while in a bowl containing a liquid possessing the flavor he wishes to communicate. After a few seconds, this liquid will have penetrated into the pulp; and, this operation being repeated two or three times at intervals of eight or ten days, the apple is left to ripen on the tree, and will subsequently be found to have acquired the taste either of strawberry, raspberry, or cloves, according to the liquid employed.

FICUS STIPULATA. -It is scarcely possible to overestimate the merits of this plant for a certain purpose; viz., that of covering the back wall of a stove or orchid-house. It will succeed in positions where scarcely any other creeper would exist. A damp wall suits it admirably; but it must have plenty of room, especially root-room. A plant permanently planted out forms a dense carpet of green foliage all through the season, clinging ivy-like to the wall, but, if possible, with more tenacity. The only attention bestowed upon the plant is frequent syringing during the summer season, and an occasional pinching-in of the shoots when they advance too far from the wall. It strikes freely in a little heat from half-ripened wood. It is often called Ficus repens.

THE COLEUS. — These plants are of comparatively recent introduction, though several species have been well known as stove-plants for half a century. Of these the most common is C. Blumei, known also by the euphonious name of Plectranthus concolor pictus, which has been for seventy-five years an inmate of every stove, and which, when well grown, is really a very pretty plant. The great trouble with it is, that no one with only a moderate amount of glass at his disposal can afford space to grow it. When C. Verschaffeltii was introduced, it was a great advance, and the old species soon fell into disfavor; but that, for a time, was grown as a stove-plant. It is only within a few summers that the growing taste for bedding foliaged-plants has developed the fact that many of our soft-wooded semi-herbaceous stove-plants do admirably as summerbedders; and of this class none are better examples than the different species of Coleus.

The old species (C. Blumei) is not, however, of much value as a bedder, as the variegation is not sufficiently marked, and the colors are apt to run; but

when we come to the newer species, such as C. Verschaffeltii and C. Gibsoni, we have bedding-plants of the highest merit.

The brilliancy of foliage which they present is unrivalled; and the sunnier the situation, the better do they develop their foliage.

The last season gave us as one of the best new introductions "Coleus Veitchii, which is a free-growing plant, having more of the stout vigorous habit of C. Gibsoni than that of C. Verschaffeltii. Its leaves are flat, ovately heart-shaped, of a velvety brown-purple on the disk, with a narrow edge of bright green. In its class, it must be regarded as an effective plant. From its appearance, it is likely to be useful both in doors and out. We owe to Mr. J. G. Veitch the introduction of this novelty, as also that of C. Gibsoni."

Our figure of this species is taken from "The Florist." The culture of these plants is extremely simple. The soil should be sandy loam, with a slight admixture of peat. Plenty of water while in growth, and constant repotting when the roots touch the sides of the pot, will give a specimen in a few months. Propagation is very easy from cuttings of the half-ripened wood, which root freely in sand, with or without bottom heat.

These plants are well adapted for summer-decoration of the conservatory, where their dark foliage is very conspicuous. The flowers are small, yet, on a large plant, rather add to the effect. Seed is also produced, from which plants may be raised. E. S. R., Jun.

THE WARATAH, OR NATIVE TULIP-TREE OF NEW SOUTH WALES. - The flower called by the aborigines "Waratah," and "Native Tulip" by the colonists of New South Wales, is considered the most beautiful vegetable production indigenous to the colony, and is produced from a stiff, erect, and rigid shrub, having the leaves of a hard woody texture, marking the proteads, to which order the waratah (Telopea speciosissima, R. Br.) belongs. The leaves are oblong, more or less unequally toothed, and from four to six or eight inches in length; dark-green, but, when just expanding, of a dark-red color. The fruit is a pod containing many winged seeds. The waratah is indigenous to, and grows luxuriantly and in abundance in, the vicinity of Sydney, and other parts of New South Wales; and, when first described by botanists, was classed with a genus now known as Grevillea, named Embothrium speciosissimum, and figured under that name in Smith's "New Holland Plants," and in Curtis's "Botanical Magazine" (edited by Dr. Sims). It afterwards formed a new genus, called Telopea, derived from telepas (seen at a distance), from its bright-crimson blossoms being discernible far off; and those who have had an opportunity of seeing this plant in flower, either wild or cultivated, will readily admit the correctness of this name.

There are some peculiarities of its natural habits and reproduction worthy of notice. The first year the waratah blossoms, it throws out from two to four shoots from each flower-head; in the second year, only two; and in subsequent years, only one, or more rarely two. To ascertain the way these shoots are produced, it is necessary to procure a flower-head, full-blown or just fading: and, on looking closely among the flowers, from one to two or four young shoots will be observed just developing themselves; and these will form the branches of the following year, from each of which a flower-head will most likely be produced. A knowledge of this fact will explain why the plucking of the flowers destroys the new branch, injuring its natural development, keeping the shrub stunted in growth, and preventing its flowering in the ensuing year. waratah produces seeds every second year. A tree growing in a garden at Hunter's Hill, in the vicinity of Sydney, five years old, and ten feet high, produced, in 1864, as many as twenty fine heads of flowers at one time, forming a gorgeous sight; and, in a tree growing in the Botanic Gardens at Sydney, I observed in the spring of 1865, from one flowering-branch produced in the previous year, three stems, each of which was crowned by a magnificent full-blown flower-head.

The

When a waratah-tree grows in a dense thicket of shrubs, or among creepers by the side of a wall, in the shade, it runs up to a great elevation, a tall, slender shrub, seeking the sun's rays; and to obtain light and air previous to developing its blossoms, in several instances, when so situated, the plants have been seen to attain the height of from ten to twelve feet, or even fifteen feet, and then flowering for the first time. In suitable situations, in their wild state, they usually flower when about four to six feet high; and, when at that time stripped of their blossoms, they become stunted, devoid of beauty, and so remain until suckers are thrown up from the roots, by which flowering-branches are reproduced. I have also observed that the rice-paper plant (Tetrapanax papyri