editor's table. 



Great Yield. — An example of an enormous yield in a pear-tree in Devonshire, is thus 

 mentioned in the Cottage Gardener — the kind was the Windsor : " The branches of the tree 

 commenced cat seven feet from the ground, where the tree is about a foot in diameter. It 

 has been planted thirty years, and in the summer referred to it produced 5,500 pears. So 

 great was the weight, that, notwithstanding it was supported by numerous strong props, the 

 tree was split in two in the bole, beginning where the branches spring off, and extending 

 for two feet down the stem, leaving a yawning chasm in which a man's head could be 

 placed. The split portions of the tree were afterwards drawn together by strong iron bolts." 



A Two-pound Strawberry ! — We take the following as we find it from the London Illus- 

 trated News, where it appears as if in good faith : — 



" Neio Plants and Fruits of Messrs. Martin. — Whatever jealousy we may have had of the 

 extension of French dominion on the Mediterranean some years ago, there can be no doubt 

 that the conquest of Algeria, and the gradual occupation of the districts behind, have been 

 productive of great accessions of knowledge of the vegetable kingdom of Africa ; and a visit 

 to the establishment of Messrs. Martin, of Paris, at their temporary depot in New Bond Street, 

 has acquainted us with several specimens of fruit which created astonishment ; while the 

 new plants from the Atlas region, as well as some from California, show the singular rich- 

 ness of the vegetable kingdom in those remote and hitherto little-explored mountain regions. 



" Louis Martin, born at Venose, in the department of the Isere, was gardener to Prince 

 Torlonia, the eminent banker of Rome ; and, desiring to know more of the highland regions 

 to which access had been procured by the activity and valor of his fellow-countrymen in 

 Algeria, proceeded to Africa with other amateurs ; and we have here some of the plants sent 

 to Paris, as well as some others from California, and fruits from the South of France, which 

 have created much admiration on the other side of the Channel, and which are here only 

 beginning to be known to the general amateurs of this delightful pursuit. 



"Of the fruits in the catalogue we are most struck with the Belle Inezagore, from the 

 nursery of M. Audibert, of Tarascon — a pear of extraordinary delicacy of flavor, weighing 

 between two and three pounds ; also the Bergamotte d^Oisan and Beurr6 Martin, of the same 

 weight. The peach of Oran is of great size, and small soft heart. The plums of Oran are 

 also very fine ; but it is admitted that in size and flavor they are beaten by the English 

 plum of our best horticulturists. The cherries of Tlemecen, perfected in France (^Cerise 

 Creole), have bunches weighing two pounds. The Avocatier, from California, has the taste 

 of fresh butter, the large green fruit attaining the weight of no less than six pounds. The 

 Carambolier is of great beauty (^Averrhoa), tasting like honey, and the fruit of a bright 

 yellow. To which we may add the Pomme d'Acajou (Anacardium), or " heartless Mahogany 

 Apple," the kernel being altogether outside, tasting like a delicate almond, and the fruit 

 itself luscious. Perhaps none is more remarkable than the Strawberry of Morocco, from the 

 spurs of the Atlas, a tree with a trunk, which produces a monster specimen of the usual 

 strawberry, two pounds weight and five inches in diameter. It resembles the Anauas Mu- 

 ricata of California, but has a much more delicate taste. [Where is Peabody's Seedling ?] 



" From the same vast region of unexplored forests, defended by the feline beast of prey 

 and the foi-midable serpent, we have the finest specimen of the gentian family we have seen. 

 The Calypso Africana, of the most beautiful pyramidal construction, the cups of the most 

 exquisite velvet-like tissue, and of a deep palpitating cerulean blue color. We have also 

 from the Atlas the Lilium Lancifolium Aurantheum, a lily that looks exactly like the skin of 

 one of those panthers that guard this mainland Garden of the Ilesperides. We have far 

 from exhausted the catalogue of these novelties ; but enough has been said to indicate the 

 of the plants which can be procured at this establishment." 



