The Fort Worth gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-189?, 1891-04-09
POPULAR SCIENCE.
a TEXAS BOTANY is THE LONG
FELT WANT.
a Peculiar and Comparatively strange
Fiora-ProfcsSor =. Il. BuCkiey's La
bors-The Mustang Grape-A
New Use for Ignite.

One Of our great needs al present is a
complete work on the botany Of Texas. A.
yet we have nothing in that line AT al
worthy of mention. and me fora of Texas
differs SO widely from that OF the states
represented BY the works Of Gray Woo
and Chapman that these works are really
of little practical use TO Us. Some years
ago work was thrown together By ! Texas
lady M. T. Young, and published by A
5. Barnes < Co. New York, under title OF
Familiar Lessons in Botany. with Flora
OF Texas" 1t is still on sale in our book
stores, but being q literal makeup from
Wood, il is fcarfully n fault 50 far Is re
lates 10 Texas plants. y goodly number Of
the plants described do not GROW in Texas
at all, while but few of the plants specially
peculiar to this region are accorded L repre-.
sentatiou. This few seem to have been
worked in through the efforts Of the late
Professor s. B. Buckley Of Austin There
is certainly L fine opening here for some
capable botanst in the existing need OF L
complete work on the fora OF Texas. /:
thought necessary, the work might be-
made TO cover all the regions OF the great
Southwest this side OF the Mississippi.
river, something on the plan of Chap
man 5 Flora of the Southern United States,
based mainly on Florida The title of this
work would seem to represent it as Of use
to us. but it does not extend 10 the fora OF
Texas. -
Doubtless there are large numbers OF
plants in Texas never as vet described and
named by botanist This would make the
work suggested an extremely interesting
one for the worker Such as have been
described have their descriptions scat
tered among the works OF numerous au-
thors. hence 10 get at them one would have
TO search over i large library of botanical.
books. And this IS not the worst OF it,
very large per cent of those books are en-
tirelv out of print, and therefore scarcely
accessible-they are to be found only among
the rare collections OF very old libraries.
Professor Buckley who was. perhaps, the
ablest botaniSt ever resident of Texas, per
formed an immense amount of work in his
line with view to bringing out such book
Us we have suggested. He would have com
pleted the task no doubt had he not have
been appointed state geologist. This APP
pointnent threw him into another field, anu
brought his botanical laborS to a close.
We know nothing of what he left at his
death, but think it highly probable that hs
left extensive notes that the coming TeXa~
botanist might get access to. In private
letter to us written in January of 1872, he
referred to his large accumulation OF facts
relative to the fora Of Texas. He was ever
regarded as high authority in that partiru-
lar branch of natural science. hence such
notes, if they now exist, would be OF in
calculable value to the writer Of 4 complete
work on the fora of Texas.
Our reference to Professor Buckley's
letter to US, as above, leads US to think Of
what he said in that same letter relative 10
the Mustang grape OF Texas, as follows:
The Mustang grape, like other native
American grapes. varies greatly in charac-
ter OF fruit Generally the inner part next
the outer skin has n pungent acid taste,
rather unpleasant, causing it in many cases
to remain on the vines, untouched by men
animals or birds. Some varieties Of i
ripen the first and second weeks in JULY
others not before the 1st of August; and
have seen the ripe fruit hanging On the
vines during most of the month OF October.
But have occasionally met with varieties
pleasant to the taste and entirely good for
table use. Selections should be made and
this vine brought into general culture by
Texans. Already very large form which,
when ripe, is yellowish white with reddish
brown tinge on the sides, is sparingly cult
waited One of my neighbors has fifteen
vines of it, now three years old, and from
those vines last year he made about one
barrel of wine. He thinks it makes an ex-
cellent champagne wine, and he values
those fifteen white Mustangs, as he calls
them, more than all his other vines,
although he has more than two hundred of
other kinds. I saw those white Mustangs
in ripe fruitage last year, and l must say
that had never before seen grape vines SO
heavily laden" The Mustang grape is Z
native of Texas and grows wild all over the
state.
Texas is rich in lignites, which are an
imperfect coal-evidently embryo coal
beds, as it were Some of the lignites burn
reasonably well, though they DO not seem 10
have ever given much satisfaction as L
fuel They are soft and light, and usually
shoulder in combustion without throwing
off much heat. Attempts At comprising
them into more compact and hence better
condition for fuel have been made, but this
does not seem to have amounted to much.
But of late a new and important use has
been found for lignites. The sugar manu-
facturer uses large quantities of charcoal
in his operations, and the charcoal in
wolves considerable expense, of course.
1t has been discovered that a good quality
of Ignite make a perfect substitute for
charcoal in the sugar works; indeed it is
thought to be better than charcoal. This
discovery must soon bring our best Ignite
beds into no small degree OF Importance, as
Ignite convenient to railroads can be placed
where wanted at for less cost than char
coal