GRANDAEVUS.

[Terms are frequently used with much looseness, particularly in their popular application The Persimmon and Medlar are certainly different, and yet the former has been called the American Medlar since the days of the redoubtable Captain Smith. A reason for this may be found in the astringent qualities common to both. Another name for the Persimmon, and a more appropriate one, is the Date Plum. The Medlar belongs to Pomaceae, the Persimmon to Ebenaceae. Their botanical characters may be summed up thus: Mespilus (Medlar) - Icosandria, Digynia. Calyx 5 cleft, superior; divisions generally foliaceous, serrate; corolla 5 petalled; styles 2 to 5; drupe or berry with from 2 to 5 bony seeds. Diospyros (Persimmon) - Dicecia, Octandria. Staminate Flower: calyx 4 to 6 cleft, dilated; corolla pitcher form, 4 to 6 cleft; stamens 8, 16, or 24; often 2 anthers on a filament. Pistillate flower: calyx and corolla like the staminate; stigmas 4 or 5; berry 8 to 12-eeeded. Varieties are sometimes met with which are seedless.

Your peaches, of course, are not identical, and no such case as you mention has ever been known. - Ed].

Mr. Editor: - I have been looking over the back vols, of the Horticulturist, of which I am the fortunate possessor of a complete set,'where I find almost everything I want information upon except the cultivation of Sage. Will not some of your correspondents, having experience with the plant, give your readers the best mode of culture, also the after-care and preparing for market, as I think it would be a remunerative crop in Ohio. Mr. Chorlton, in some of the back vols., gave us some excellent articles upon the cultivation of several kinds of vegetables; perhaps he might equally as well interest your readers with an article upon the cultivation of sage. By-the-by, all who have not already obtained, should avail themselves of your proposal to furnish bound vols, from 1855 to 1859, inclusive, at the low price of ten dollars; they are cheap, worth double the money. Wm. Herdman.

Eaton. 0.. May 4, 1860.

[We hope Mr. Chorlton, or some other correspondent, will respond to the above in a more elaborate manner than we can indulge in at this moment. Sage is propagated by seeds and cuttings. The seeds should be sown in spring, in drills, about a quarter of an inch deep, in a carefully prepared border, and the plants, after having taken on a few leaves, transplanted into beds. The soil should be warm, well pulverized, and enriched pretty liberally with old manure. Set the plants two feet apart in rows, and the rows three feet apart; but if not hoed by hand, four feet will be necessary. The beds must be kept free from weeds by an occasional hoeing. Cuttings may be prepared in March, or before the plants have begun to grow; they may be from four to six inches long, and should be cut square off close beneath an eye or bud. Put them in a shady border, about three inches deep, and water occasionally when dry. After they have become well rooted, they may be transplanted as directed for seedlings; but it would be better not to transplant until fall. Cuttings may also be made in the fall, but not so well. Sage may likewise be propagated by dividing the old plants, and by suckers. In the fall or early in spring all the plants should be nicely trimmed or cut in.

The best time to gather the leaves is just before the flowers have expanded, and this should be done when the weather is clear. The leaves should be spread out on a floor or on sheets to dry, and may afterwards be pulverized or not. The sage is a perennial, and the beds may be kept in good condition for cutting for several years. - Ed].

"Is there any plan by which a small greenhouse can be heated from the chimney of a dwelling, by means of pipes running back of the grate?" - [We know of no means by which a small greenhouse can be heated in a satisfactory manner in the way you propose. It might be done by means of a water back, but this you would find more expensive and troublesome than an independent heating arrangement. If the house is a permanent one, we would advise you to put in a small boiler and pipes, as being the best, and in the end the cheapest - Ed].

Mr. Editor: - I notice in your May number an article giving the writer's opinion of the requirements and efficiency of Boilers, with your promise of several other articles on the same subject. Please suggest to those correspondents who are willing to favor us with their experience in the matter, the importance of giving facta and figures, to enable us to compere their doings with oar own. Let them give the size and height of the house warmed, number of feet and size of pipe, diameter or area of the fire-grate, the quantity of coal consumed in a given time, with the average temperature within and without the building during the same time. Such information (with your knowledge of the writer as an assurance of its reliability) would be of great benefit to your readers, and to practical men, worth a booh filled with opinions. Dutchess County, May 16,1860. Yours truly, A Reader.

["A Reader's " suggestion is to the point; by all means let us have the "facts and figures." We find a couple of articles on hand deficient in these particulars, and shall return them for amendment. - Ed. ]

Mr. Editor: - Dear Sir, I give to you my experience in raising grapes in the way Mr. Biz-zell, of Clinton, N. C, recommends. Eight years ago this summer I tried the experiment of pruning the Isabella, shortening in after three or four bunches had formed; the result was a new crop, as stated by Mr. B.; the first rotted, the second did not rot, but ripened, but of a lighter color than the first crop has been since (as before that I had not had any to get ripe). I gathered the second crop on the day of the Presidential election eight years since this coming fall; the grapes were too sour for any use, at least to eat, and I am satisfied nothing can be gained by the discovery. I see another article that I would refer to, recommending the persimmon as stocks for peach-trees. I have tried that; it will not do, and your readers can save time by not trying it; no good would result from it if it would answer, for the reason that the root of the persimmon goes too straight down in the ground, making it hard to get up, and not likely to live after being removed.

Yours, Hugh McLean.

Beries Creek, Harriet Co., N. C.

I did not understand the pruning of the Scuppernong as Mr. B. did, but simply that the vines would bear pruning, (which up to that time had not been agreed to by cultivators of that fine grape,) and without pruning it could not be got on an arbor. It requires but little pruning, but will bear it as well as other vines after the leaves have grown to lull size; earlier it will bleed or run, and after the leaf falls will do the same. H. McL.

[The above contains additional testimony in regard to Mr. Bizzell's mode of pruning vines, and it would seem to be little in favor of its out-door application, even at the South. We should like, however, to hear from others who have tried it. Of course the persimmon will not do for stock for the peach; we so stated quite distinctly, though in a playful manner. - Ed].

Mr. Editor: - I was rather astonished to see Belle de Choisy set down as a poor bearer in your last number. With me it bears prodigious crops, beating, in this respect, the May Duke, which is notorious as a bearer. I am convinced that locality has a great deal to do with the success or failure of varieties. For instance, the Seckel is set down as a poor grower on the quince in many places; with me it grows remarkably well both on quince and pear, making on the former stock a growth of 2 to 4 feet a season, and a most unexceptionable form. We have lost our peach crop in this vicinity entirely this year, the buds being winter-killed; but the apple and pear promise very large crops, and are now just setting. A pear orchard planted in 1853, has a number of fruit set on Bartlett, Lawrence, Dearborn's Seedling, D'Angouleme, Easter Beurre Seckel, (few,) Bloodgood, Washington, Belle Lucrative, Flemish Beauty, and Vicar of Winkfield. " He that plants pears plants for his heirs," but if I live till fall I shall reap specimens of the above varieties from standards, in addition to a peck of luscious Bartlette from eight trees, gathered last year.

Yours truly, Pikesville, Baltimore Co., Md., May 9,1860. J. T. Councilman.

[The Belle de Choisy is undoubtedly, in general, a poor bearer; but it is gratifying to know that in some localities it yields a generous crop, for it is really a fine fruit Our readers would be doing the pomological world a good service by sending us information like the above, since it would go far to settle many mooted points. Let each make a record of the particular kinds of fruits which uniformly succeed well, being careful to admit none to this distinction that do not clearly come within its terms. - Ed].