The plant referred to as a "new species" by Omaha and other western papers, which is so rapidly taking the place of the sunflower and the weeds on the Missouri bottom lands, is the Bokhara clover (Melilotus alba). It was introduced into the west as a garden plant, but our climate and soil are so like those of its native home in Central Asia that it bids fair to become a first-class weed. Yet under culture it is easy to subdue, and when plowed under as a green manure it is nearly equal to clover as a fertilizer and soil renovator.

It is a matter of regret that the smaller growing species of the melilotus of the black soil sections of Russia had not been introduced in place of the rank growing Asiatic species. This was introduced into England in 1828 from Sarepta on the Volga, under the name of Melilotus Ruthenica, but coming from a dry interior region it failed to do well in that moist climate and I think it has been lost.

It is like the Bokhara clover, but it is much smaller in all its parts, grows much thicker, its white flowers and its leaves are quite as fragrant, and stock at Sarepta seemed to relish it quite as well as they did the eastern form of the alfalfa, which is also much grown at Sarepta. - J. L. Budd.

Unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans, as no mention is made of it in their writings. When Louis the Pious made a crusade to Tunis in 1270, he was delighted with the fragrance of this beautiful flower, which he took home and cultivated with the greatest care.

At first it was called Tunice, from the place where it was discovered, afterwards they called it Nelke (caryo-phyllus) on account of its clove-like odor. The climate of the southern part of Europe resembling that of Tunis, the pink has become wild in the South of France and Italy. •

It is said that the good King Rene, of Anjou (who died 1480) devoted a great part of his leisure to the cultivation of the pink. He considered it a medicinal plant, and poets sang its praises. In the x6th century it was extensively cultivated in the middle and south of Germany, and in 1597 splendid varieties were introduced into England from Poland. At the same time the Spaniards carried this beautiful flower to America.

About the year 1700 the Dutch turned their attention to the cultivation and propagation of the pink, and brought it to such a state of perfection that they soon counted 360 varieties. The prize of beauty was then, as now, awarded to a perfectly formed, well developed flower of fine color, with unbroken calyx. - E. A. Taylor. Conn.