1877.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



305 



Gregg Raspberry. — This is a new Black Cap, 

 "which excited attention at the Centennial exhi- 

 bition last year. Mr. N. Ohnier, of Dayton, 

 excellent authority, believes it will supersede the 

 Mammoth Cluster, which so far has been the 

 leading Black Cap. 



Lee's Black Currant. — A Toronto paper 

 says : — " Messrs. Leslie & Son have sent us a fruit- 

 ing branch of this new and from all appearan- 

 ces valuable variety of fruit. The branch 

 throughout its entire length is thickly hung with 

 currants that will average half an inch in di- 

 ameter, Man}' of the finest of them are three- 

 quarters of an inch through. The flavor is 

 excellent and the skin of the fruit remarkably 

 thin." The Black Currant has not been popular 

 in the United States ; if it were, the fine black 

 Utah varieties would be in demand. They are 

 larger and yet quite as good in flavor as the 

 European Black Currants. They are varieties 

 of the "Missouri" Currant. 



The Pioneer Strawberry is a new variety, 

 and said to be peculiarly an early oie. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



A Good Early Pear. — A Penn, correspondent 

 writes that for three years past he has had the 



Julienne and the Manning's Elizabeth growing 

 side by side, and that the former proves slightly 

 astringent. It is not so good a Pear as the latter, 

 but a few days earlier. 



Early Peaches in Texas. — A correspondent, 

 from Austin, writes: — This year the Early 

 Beatrice first ripened on the 26th of May, and 

 the Early Louise and Rivers a few days later ; 

 some of both being mature before the last to ripen 

 of the Early Beatrice. Here the Early Rivers 

 is a very fine peach, large and delicious. We 

 had a wet spell about the time of the ripening 

 of Hale's Early, and they rotted mostly, so much 

 so that if I did not think the trees would do 

 better next year I would cut them all down. In 

 my orchard I have a succession of ripe peaches 

 from the last of May to the middle and last of 

 November. I generally eat freely of peaches, 

 cream and sugar, twice a day and find them re- 

 markably healthy. Our Apricots and Nectarines 

 are also very fine, the curculio not having found 

 my orchard. 



What is a Fruit?~A correspondent inquires 

 whether in an agricultural exhibition a Tomato 

 would be classed among fruits or vegetables? 

 Botanically of course a Tomato is a fruit, but 

 in horticulture we class those things as "fruits" 

 only, which secrete sugar when ripe. The To- 

 mato must go with vegetables. 



Natural J[istory and Science. 



COMMUNICA 7 IONS. 



TUMBLE WEED. 



BY MR. E. hall, prof. BEAL AND REV. L. J. 

 TEMPLIN. 



Mr. Hall says :— " Seeing by the July Monthly 

 that the botanists are getting involved in the 

 Tumble Weed controversy (as per S. Watson), 

 you may say to your readers that Mr. Weir's 

 Tumble Weed is the Cycloloma platyphyllum, 

 Moq., and behaves just as he so graphically de- 

 scribes in the June number, in the Sandy River 



counties of this State, growing abundantly in the 

 farmers' fields in those sections. 



" Amaranthus albus is also a splendid tumbler 

 and is known to all prairie men, but seldom 

 growing so abundantly in any one locality as to 

 fill all the fence corners, and then go on tum- 

 bling over them as the Cycloloma does. 



" Artemisia dracunculoides, D. C, is also 

 a good Tumble Weed in Southern Missouri and 

 Kansas, as per a shop-keeper in Humboldt, 

 Kan., to whom I applied for information aa to 

 the plant when it was new to me,— 'Tumble 

 Weed ! ! curious anybody don't know Tumble 

 Weed.' And there are others." 



