Chrysanthemum, Mrs. L. Thom.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 19, 12 May 1909, Page 40

Chrysanthemum, Mrs. L. Thom.

This is a Japanese variety of the first water, measuring about Sin. in diameter, possibly sometimes more. The florets are very broad and light yellow, with a silvery eream on the reverse. They are of great length, and though they curl up at the tips and turn to different directions, it is still classed as a true Japanese variety. It is of easy growth and may be had rather early in the season. It is not only of easy growth, but keeps well owing to the great substance of the florets, even in a damp autumn like the past has been. A HUNDRED YEARS IN HALF-AN-HOUR.

If you want to find out how big a fool a man is. give him a oharp axe and turn him loose. What he does with that blade will show what’s in him better than an X-ray machine, with a moving picture attachment. This is good chopping weather, and consequently the axefools are out in flocks doing what they can to reduce the spots upon which the Creator has set the seal of his vernal smile to the scenic nudity of a gravel pit. Here's what happened in one of the

little suburban residence towns within a half-hour’s ride from Chicago: — A man who has given something of his mental marrow to the public good of his community suddenly arose from his breakfast table and went hurriedly to the kitehen window. The members of his family circle stopped chattering, and Fletcherised in silence as he peered out. What he said sounded much like: — "Well: I’ll be d d! Somebody’s chopping down the Old Wine-glass Elm on the Glaser place.” Grabbing his hat. he darted out of the door and made a centre-rush on the man with the axe—who happened to be a new neighbour. "Just wait a minute, neighbour,” he -aid. in tones smoother than soaped Babbitt metal. "What do you figure you’re doing? —and why?” "Cutting down this tree—can’t you "And why?” "Because it shades my garden. In fact, it just about spoils three gardens, and yours is one of 'em.” •Bought the old Glaser place, have vou?" "No.” "Rented it?” "No.”

"Got a written permission from the widow Glaser to cut down that tree?” “No.” "Ever stop to think that that’s the most beautiful tree in all this part of town?” "Don’t know as I have.” •‘Haven't considered that you're hacking down in half an hour what it has taken a hundred years to grow? That this tree was big enough to shade a rabbit when Paddock's cabin down at the ford sheltered the whole population of this town?” "What’s that got to do with it?” blurted the man with the axe, as his fingers tightened on the axe helve. "I tell you that it shades my garden, and I can't raise a crop of potatoes so long as it’s standing.” “About how many potatoes do you figure you could grow on the ground that this old elm shades? Wouldn't five bushels be about the limit?” "I suppose so—but they’re worth something to me. - ’ “Yes—three dollars —at the outside. And that tree alone is worth two hundred dollars to the property about here.” "Huh!” grunted the man with the axe. "It won't cut more'n a cord of wood.” Then he started to swing the axe. But there was a whole Fourth of July smouldering in the tale of his neighbour’s eve. and he paused to hear this:—

"No, you don’t, neighbour! Not yet! Before you set that blade into the’Old Elm again you will have to show some colour of authority for doing so. But even if the tree were your own. and growing in your own door yard, the fact would still remain that the cutting of this splendid old elm would be an act of wanton spoliation, a crime against nature, an affront to your neighbours and to your townpeople, and something of which a white man ought to be ashamed.” That held the man with the axe until his neighbour could get busy, over the telephone, with the legal representatives of the widow Glaser, and rent the unoccupied place until her return. Then the good Samaritan to the trees proceeded to bind up the wounds of the old wineglass elm. after filling the axegash with protecting salve. If the grand old landmark pulls through the ordeal, and throws an undiminished shade over his garden when her leaves put forth in the spring, he will consider the cost of two months' rent of the Glaser place as a cheap price for what he has saved to his townspeople, his neighbours, and himself. The axes and the tree-killers are busyall over the country. Anv able-bodied

*1 mnan animal w * , ° has a loose collection of primal instincts doing substitute Bervice for a mind can destroy more loveliness of leaf and limb in half an houi than all human science can replace in it century. They are the enemies of society, and ought to be handcuffed, Spanked with an axe, and compelled to read Thoreau, John Burroughs, and John Muir for the rest of their natural lives.— (By ■Forrest Crissey, in ‘’Chicago Tribune.’*) JI Jt lEEK OR DAFFODIL. An attempt is being made by some wicked Welshman to rob St. David of his Leek, and to substitute the daffodil —•“ St. Peter’s Leek ” in Welsh—which, says the “’Daily News,” they claim to be the proper emblem of the Principality. But the Daffodil seldom blooms so early as St. David’s Buy outside the Stilly Isles, while the leek can be found growing wild at several spots on the sea coast of South Wales. No doubt the leek, bereft of surplus leaves in a greengrocer's shop, presents a prosaic appearance; but St. David’s plant looks quite pretty in a garden, and is by no means so malodorous as Pistol libellousU’ asserted, to his sorrow. It is incorrectly stated that the leek has received no recognition at Court since the time ot George If. Our present Queen, when Princess of Wales, always wore the leek at Court functions that fell on St. David’s Dav.