Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-30

curious travellers tree of Madagascar.
whose broad leaves have a gutter in the
stalk and a cistern holding as much as a
pint of water the root.
Nearly all the lilies are night boomers.
They open at at night. and when 1t is a
hot day they close about in the morning
The little hollow where the pond is located
is warm enough to make them all feel at
home during the American summer even
though they come from the warmest quar-
ter of the Amazon. The pond is one of the
favorite retreats of the birds from all the
surrounding country, and under the lily
pads and through the shadows Of the dark
water can be seen the floating forms of
fan-tailed gold fish from Japan.
One of the curious water growths is the
floating water hyacinth which cost the gov
errment such a sum of money to clear out
when it got into the St Johns river in
Florida. 1t has no fixed place of abode and
floats on the water without roofing in the
soil, supported by the enlarged bases of its
leaves. The gold fish love the fern-like
roots to spawn on, and with the severe
northern winter in this region it is no trou-
BILE to keep the plant under control.
Up on the other side of the house are the
green houses. the grape arbor and the rose
garden. 1t is useless to attempt any de-
tailed description of the roses. There Is
simply every variety known. One walk
from the house to the lily pond is down a
flight of steps covered with a series OF
al ches and over each different variety of
run ming rose. There are rustic summer
houses scattered about the grounds with
various climbing roses over each. One big
rose bed where the large blooming roses
are reared out of doors is arranged so that
1t can be covered with a cheesecioth avn
ing on hot days. as the flowers mature bet
ter out of the direct sunlight Rose graft
ing and hybridiZing has been done extern
sively. Exotic blooms are produced on
n n Is and arfn In
ers are given new tints by cross fertilizing
ain ost every season. There has lately
been imported a new Irish rose and expert
ments are now in progress TO produce
satisfactory winter forcing variety.
There is also some interesting work going
on with tobacco in which the Department
of Agriculture is keenly interested. The
Sumatra wrapper tobacco has been crossed
a giant reed of tobacco that is now
raised principally as foliage plant. Good
results have been obtained already and
there seems reason why form of
Sumatra wrapper should not be produced
with leaf almost a yard long and stu
retaining the desirable flavor of the East
Indian plant. Mr.. Bissett VIII select the
most promising plants for further expert
nents, and when his new hybrid is far
enough along turn seed of 1t over TO the
department At present the outlook Is very
good.
One point about the domain that ought
to be of considerable interest to every flow
er lover is that chicken raising on quite an
extensive scale Is combined with the gar
dcning. The little chicks are incubator and
brooder reared and they are allowed to run
loose till they are big enough to scratch
and interfere with the flowers. Meantime
they are about the best bug and worm ex-~-
terminators known and they keep TIN
plants remarkably free from insect pests
so that there is very little trouble with thi
feature among any OF the lower beds.