lilC) 



/•///', (;.ia'De,v/':a's monthly 



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ju'fuliurilits. The Dix Wax will lie Aw in 

 friiitinsj, however treiiled, vmlil (lie ciid of lime. 

 Bu( a seedlini; from it may rival the lJu(Vum in 

 proiUietiveness I now reeall yonr incpiiry nnuh' 

 several yearn airo, Mr. Editor, where 1 obtained 

 Tuy P} rn.>< Jaiionita seed. My rejily is. that I 

 have :i seediini: Pyrns whiih frnit.s abundantly, 

 jrivinj; two or three bushels of fruit annually. 

 Doubt le.s.s you and yttur readers have observed 

 that some varieties of Tyru.<< \. arc moderately 

 fruitful, but 1 think this instanee of re;j;ular 

 futility is marked, and not dependent upon 

 position or motle of training;. ]Jut we shall ap:ree. 

 of eourse. that position and trainiufx may izreatly 

 alVect the vijior and ])roduetiveness of all fruits. 

 My point is to recognize individual peculiarities, 

 so far as they may be traced.'" 



Kndiijam E t)F Skeds oe Tendeij Things. 

 — ^Nothing IS more interesting in botanical gar- 

 dening than the fact that some plants, which 

 will be destroyed by the lirst white Irost, will 

 resist extreme degrees of cold. T. D. 11., Phila- 

 delphia, contributes the following in relation to 

 this : This Spring the following plants came 

 up from self-sown seed exposed all winter. I 

 do not know whether this is unusual, but you 

 cannot expect to get wheat without chaff: 

 Castor Oil, Walloon Vine, Four O'clock." 



Abnormal Growth of a Potato. ^II. C. 

 Y., 3502 Spring Garden street, Philadelphia, 

 sends us an old Potato with a new one growing 

 in the middle of it from "a number of similar 

 instances in his cellar." Though rare.it is occa- 

 sionally seen. The "sprout" of the potato has 

 simply taken a turn in towards the center, 

 instead of out and away as is usual. On cutting 

 this open the thread connecting the young tuber 

 ■with the outside was very well shown. 



Japan wrapping, around Lily Bulbs.— 

 T. S., Brooklyn, writes: "There was lately in 

 New York a sale of imported Jajjan Lilies, such 

 as Auratum, Krameri, &c. These bulbs on 

 opening the cases were packed, not in sawdust 

 as usual, but in a coating of what I took to be 

 clay, cow-dung and a something which kept 

 them as sound as if they had just been packed. 

 In order to ascertain what that stuff really is, 

 I send you with this some of it in a little tin box, 

 and would be pleased if you could have it 

 analyzed and tell your readers the parts of com- 

 position, and if you consider it good for shipping 

 Lilies and such like bulbs. One of my Califor- 



nia trit'iids asks me how I llnm^bl be ccuUf 

 pat k iiest bis Lilium pardalimim, and yoiir iiii- 

 >\\ir to llir above will not only oblii:e liini. but 

 many of yonr ii adc is wlio ship or send bulbs for 

 long distances. About Trillinms, he thinks ii 

 would be best to have them matured, and then 

 ship them dry; while my ther)ry is, to take th(^ 

 bulbs up when and where found, transplant 

 them in the garden and ship them in Fall,, 

 when they show .signs of fresh starting, say end 

 of September. About Rhododendron occidcn- 

 tilis, he says : 'I now believe that every piece of 

 the crow'n with a shoot or stem will grow, if 

 shipped perfectly dry, in a dormant state, from 

 November to February. A number of the 

 shoots I ])ut in the ground when I set out the 

 R.'s here started leaf buds, but I find no roots 

 on those I have examined as yet.' If you con- 

 sider the answering of these questions of general 

 interest, I would like you to mention them in 

 your paper." 



[We have taken pains to examine the coating 

 carefully, and find it is nothing but manure of 

 some herbivorous animals and clay, very finely 

 worked up together ; just the sort of stuff, in 

 essence, as our forefathers used for grafting 

 before wax compositions came into general use. 

 —Ed. G. M.] 



Remedy fok the Colorado Potato 

 Beetle. — A Philadelphia correspondent writes : 

 '"The Potato bug has again begun its ravages. 

 Cannot the Academy of Natural Sciences inves- 

 tigate its habits and devise some cheap and sure 

 remedy? A soapy compound of crude petro- 

 leum might answer. A strong decoction of 

 Tobacco stems has no effect — I have tried it. It 

 i is a very important matter, and well worthy of 

 your notice." 



[There is really nothing needed beyond Paris 

 green. In the writer's own experience, it is 

 mixed with very fine ashes, in the proportion of 

 twenty to one. A Tomato-can with holes in the 

 bottom like a grater, Avith the cover on the top 

 and a long i)ole to keep it from the operator, is 

 all the machine. An acre can be dusted in a 

 few hours at a trifling expense. The writer's 

 crop swarmed with the vermin as soon as the 

 plants were above ground. The dose has been 

 twice applied'. At this writing (June 15th) it is 

 impossible to see a more promising looking lot of 

 plants. It is a poison, of course, but in careful 

 hands there need be no more trouble with it than 

 with guii-powder or lucifer matches.— Ed. G. M.J 



