16 MISCELLANEOUS PAPEKS. 



VITIS KUPESTRIS LE ROUX. 



The Muscat varieties of table grapes, which are among the best, do 

 not generally thrive well when grafted on American phylloxera-resist- 

 ant stocks, and vineyardists in California are, according to Mr. Bioletti, 

 looking for a better variety of stock than those already in use. 



In Cape Colony, two of the best table grapes, the White and Red 

 Hanepoot sorts, are of the Muscat type, and in replanting the vine- 

 yards with resistant stocks, the ordinary Riparia and Rupestris 

 varieties have proven uncongenial to these Muscat kinds. 



In March, 1899, the Cape department of agriculture appointed a 

 commission to investigate the causes of this failure of the Hanepoot 

 grafts on American vines. 



In their printed report members of this commission call attention 

 to the Le Roux, a seedling variety of American parentage which 

 originated in the Cape and which has proved a successful stock for the 

 Hanepoot variety of Muscat grape, of which there are six-year-old 

 plants growing in the colony. 



This Le Roux grape is named after Mr. Le Roux, of Drakenstein, 

 upon whose place the seedling was raised and first propagated. Such 

 a stock which, although not yet thoroughly tested, promises to be well 

 suited for Muscat varieties, deserves the attention of our vine growers. 



FRUIT-BEARING HEDGE PLANTS. 



The finest hedges in Natal are the evergreen amatungulas, which are 

 made from the white-flowered, red-fruited Garissa grandiflora, a native 

 of the colony. It is rare to find a fruit-bearing hedge, and of all those 

 which the writer has seen the amatungulas are the most desirable. 

 The genus Carissa contains a number of thorny, evergreen shrubs 

 which bear prett} T white flowers and edible red fruit. 



On the markets in Durban the long, brilliant red fruit of the ama- 

 tuno-ulas is commonlv sold; in fact, during January and February it is 

 one of the commonest fruits to be seen in the stalls. Though variable 

 in size and shape, it has generally an elongated form, with a distinct 

 point, and the diameter of a good-sized Damson plum. The thin, red 

 skin covers a pink flesh with a milky juice, which in flavor is sweet 

 but lacks character, although much praised by European residents for 

 use in making fruit salads. 



To make an amatungula hedge, Mr. I. Medley AYood, the curator 

 of the Durban botanic gardens, informs me, is a very simple matter. 

 The seeds are sown in a seed bed, and when the young plants are 6 

 inches high they are transplanted to the place chosen for the hedge 

 and set a foot apart, alternately in parallel rows, distant from one 

 another a foot or more. As the plants grow they are trimmed into 

 the desired hedge form, and the oftener they are trimmed the thicker 



