208 



THE QAIWENER'S MONTHLY 



[July, 



and then a batch of fresh, thnuf^h :xs yot palo- 

 colori'd, Tomatoes." 



The Oyster Plant. — Mr. Worthington G. 

 Smith is not .satisfied that our Salsify should rob 

 one of his dearly beloved funguses of the name 

 " Oyster Plant," and tliis is what he says to the 

 Gardener )i Matjminc nhowi it: — "In your article 

 on 'Tap-rooted Vegetables' (]). 155), you de- 

 scribe two ' vegetable oysters,' one the Salsify, 

 ' sometimes ' termed the oyster ; the other the 

 Scolymus, which you term the ' true vegetable 

 oyster.' You have therefore 'two Richards in 

 the field,' and allow me to say both counterfeit. 

 The only old, original, and true 'buttery bi- 

 valve,' or * vegetable oyster,' is the ancient and 

 time-honored mushroom, Agaricus ostreatus, a 

 melting and delicious edible fungus found on 

 rotten elm stumps in November. Whatever the 

 flavor of your two plants may be, the tap-root in 

 Salsify and Scolynius would suggest the more 

 appropriate names, at present unoccupied, of the 

 ' vegetable periwinkle ' and the ' vegetable 

 whelk.' The true ' vegetable oyster,' Agaricus 

 ostreatus, has no tap-root or stem ; it is all flat, 

 as it should be." After all, there are a good 

 many kinds of animal oysters, and why may 

 there not be of vegetable as well. Epicureans 

 say the English oyster is a coppery sort of thing, 

 and pronounce the American the oyster. So it 

 comes down to but one oyster after idl, and so 

 may our oj'ster plant follow the same verdict. 



Forcing Asparagu.s. — The poor stuff called 

 canned vegetables, will never compete with nice 

 fresh ones, just cut fresh from the plant, and 

 particularly is this so with Asparagus; and then 

 it forces so easily. A correspondent of the Gar- 

 den gives his experience, which we give on the 

 principle that what a man says he has done, is 

 worth a whole chapter of " how you may do it :" 

 — "Asparagus may be obtained a month before 

 it is ready out-of-doors as follows : — About the 

 middle of February place some movable wooden 

 frames over a permanent bed of it, and with a 

 few barrow-loads of warm manure and leaves, 

 make up a lining all round the bed, and cover 

 its surface with dr}' hay. Then put on thelight.s 

 and keep them closed for three weeks, when the 

 heads will begin to appear. The hay should 

 then be cleared off, and a little air given on 

 every favorable opportunity. Under this treat- 

 ment I cut my first Asparagus on March 20, and 

 since that date I have cut several hundreds of 

 beautiful heads, and still they promise to be suf- 



ficiently abundant to keep up a good supply 

 until the outdoor crop is ready. By this i)lan the 

 bod, which does not experience any disturbance, 

 will last a great number of years, provided its 

 produce is not cut too late. Cutting should cease 

 and the glass be removed directly the out-door 

 crop is readj'." 



FoRCKi) Fruits and Vec.etablks.— On the 20th 

 of May we received a pair of cucumbers twenty- 

 one inches long, and a few tomatoes eleven inches 

 round ; the -former so tender and crisp that we 

 were tempted to send one to the venerable 

 author of " Buist's Kitchen Garden Directory," 

 t(» test the sincerity of his receipt for cucumbers, 

 "Slice, pepper, salt and throw out of the win- 

 dow ! " but our appetite saved us from this great 

 sin. The tomatoes were so solid and delicious 

 that we do not wonder the London papers say, 

 " the skill of our best gardeners in forcing fruits 

 and vegetables has beaten the canned articles 

 which are falling into disrepute." 



Mr. Paget, the excellent gardener to Hon. J. 

 D. Cameron, of Harrisburg, who sends these, 

 also writes : — " I have not cut less than two per 

 day, since the 20th of November. I picked 

 twenty-five ripe peaches on the 17th inst. ; more 

 ready now. There is no peach like Hale's Early 

 in my estimation ; but I must include Old Mixon, 

 Mountain Rose and several others, for good 

 forcing habits. I have picked one basket of 

 strawberries every two or three days since March 

 18th. Downing's and Triomphe de Gand are the 

 kinds." 



sen APS AND QUERIES. 



Stock for the Cherry. — S. says : — " What is 

 the hardiest stock to work the cherry on ? Can 

 I work the cherry on stocks that will make them 

 dwarf, and still have them hardy ? " 



[The hardiest stock is believed to be the Mor- 

 ello, and it dwarfs somewhat. The Mahaleb is 

 also considered hardier than the Morello, but it 

 grows the grafted plant nearly as strong jia the 

 Mazzard for all practical purposes. When grown 

 in clover, we have seen the Mazzard stock pretty 

 successful, even in the cold Northwestern States. 

 It is quite likely some of our native cherries 

 would make good hardy dwarf stocks, but we 

 know of no reliable experiments. — Ed. G. M.] 



Gooseberry Worm. — J. W. M. Exeter, N. H., 

 writes : — " I have some nice plants of the Down- 



