Indian Clover

A plant from Japan, Lespe-deza striata, has been welcomed to naturalization in the South, where it goes as Japan Clover. Another relative, equally welcome, has made its appearance. The Farmer and Fruit Grower says it is Desmodium triflorum. It will be called Indian Clover. How it came or how it spread is unknown. It seems to be a native of the East and West Indies.

Travels Of The Japan Clover

This tufty little plant, after having taken possession of many Southern States, is getting a foot hold in Florida. Unlike many introduced weeds, it is welcomed everywhere. It will grow on dry or sandy soils where nothing else will, and cattle eat it with avidity. The seeds are so small and so few on each stem, that it has not yet got into the seed stores. Hence it seems to have a way of its own of getting along. Its botanical name is Lespedeza striata.

Nemastylis Coelestina

"B. K. W.," Rayne, La., says: "I mail you to-day a pretty flower which looks like a purple Tigridia. I believe it is an orchid. Please name it".

[Right in your first guess as being near Tigridia - the Iris, and not the orchid family. Why has not this beautiful plant become common in cultivation? It would probably prove hardy a good way north. It has a blue flower as large as a quarter dollar. - Ed. G. M].

The Lover Of Flowers

He can behold

Things manifold

That have not yet been wholly told -

Have not been wholly sung nor said.

- Longfellow's "Ram in Summery.

Passion Flower, Constance Elliott

There has been some dispute as to the origin of this comparatively hardy and pure white passion flower. It seems to have been a chance seedling from a lot of Passiflora coerulea, raised by a gentleman named Napper, who gave a plant to Luc-combe, Price & Co., of Exeter, England, who sent it out in 1885.

A Giant Asparagus

The London Standard has been regaling its readers with an asparagus growing on the steppes of Akhal Tekiz, 5 to 6 feet high and as thick as a man's arm. There is no such species of asparagus in Northern Asia. If anything more than the production of the report-orial thought factory, which often turns.out remarkable specimens of newspaper work, it may have been the stout shoots of an Aralia. The big, thick shoots of Aralia Japonica are used as we use asparagus, in Japan.

Engelman's Flora Of Missouri

The manuscripts for a complete Flora of Missouri, were among the papers left by the late Dr. Engelman. These are being edited, and it is hoped the work will be ready for the press early in the coming spring.