20 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[January^ 



never been covered in winter, and has been ex- 

 posed to a temperature of more than twenty de- 

 grees below zero, without injury, and it has 

 been entirely exempt from mildew or disease. 

 Its earliness makes it desirable for an early 

 crop, and more particularly adapts it to New 

 England and the northern portion of the United 

 States. 



Idesia polyc akp a as a Fruit. — The Garden- 

 ers'' Chronicle, says : Idesia polycarpa fruited 

 abundantly in several parts of France last season, 

 as we learn from the Revue Uorticole. When 

 tills tree was first introduced it was stated that 

 it bore an edible fruit, l)ut it has now been prov- 

 ed that its clusters of deep brown berries, al- 

 though very ornamental, are of a bitter, disa^ 

 agreeable taste, and cannot compete with the 

 most inferior of our cultivated fruits. Never- 

 theless, this may prove a valuable ornamental 

 shrub or tree for the milder parts of the United 

 Kingdom ; but it should be borne in mind that 

 it is dioecious. 



Prince of Wales Plum. — Fruit about me- 

 dium size ; skin bright reddish purple, with yel- 

 low dots, covered with beautiful bloom ; flesh 

 somewhat coarse, yellow in color, sweet and 

 sprightly in flavor. It is one of the best culin- 

 ary plums, and one of the most profitable for 

 market. The tree is very hardy and a prolific 

 bearer, and the fruit being so beautiful, it sells 

 readily at a high price. September. — Elhoanger. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Yellows in the Peach Tree. — A Michigan 

 correspondent says : " At the Annual Meeting of 

 our Society to be held in Paw Paw, ' The Yel- 

 lows on the Peach,' will be a leading topic of 

 discussion. It is a very important matter with 

 us. We have watched for information from the 

 East for years, while it has been encroaching 

 upon oiu* Peach belt, and have failed to get 

 much. Onlj' last week I read in the N. T. Tri- 

 bune^ a short article speaking of it as a 'fungoid 

 disease.' This seems very strange to us at this 

 late date ; it looks as if the editor had found an 

 old article in a scrap-])ook a decade ago, and re- 

 hashed it for 1878. Our people have been trying 

 everything with no satisfaction in receiving a 

 cure. Digging out by the roots has been the 

 only effectual method. What we want are more 

 scientific facts concerning the disease. Will you 



give the latest information at your command on 

 the subject? " 



[We do not remember the article in the New 

 York Tribune, referred to, but there is nothing 

 more certain than that the yellows in the Peach 

 is a root fungus. This is so easily ascertained 

 by anybody who will take the trouble to look 

 and see for himself with an ordinary pocket 

 lens, or to inquire with his nose, if he has no 

 lens, and no " cold in his head," that we look on 

 all discussion as to the cause of the yellows as 

 time thrown away. — Ed. G. M.] 



Prickly Comfrey. — A Boston subscriber, 

 says : " January, 1877, 1 bought a Prickly Com- 

 frey root, from which I have propagated quite a 

 lot of plants, which will, if reports prove as 

 represented, give me a good opportunity to test 

 it next spring, by seeing it grow, and feeding it 

 to my cows, and find out if there is reall}' any 

 good in it. As I know of no party that has 

 used it yet, I should like to know if you have 

 any reports of it, from parties that are using 

 Prickly Comfrey for their milch cows. By so 

 doing, you will oblige me very much, as I intend 

 to propagate as many more plants this Winter 

 to plant out next Spring, as I shall have roots 

 and cuttings, as I intend to give it a fair trial 

 next Spring and Summer. I have had more or 

 less of it, and fed it to my cows, which have 

 always eaten it, but had never yet enough to 

 feed a whole week or longer to see the effect of 

 it. I sent 3^ou a leaf, some time ago, of a kind 

 another man offers for sale, which you pro- 

 nounced a humbug. If all kinds are are hum- 

 bugs, I want to stop propagating; if otherwise, 

 I want to go ahead with them. If you answer 

 through the Gardener's Monthly, please, 

 do not use my name." 



[We did not say the Comfrey sent us was " a 

 humbug," but that it was not a Prickly Com- 

 frey, but the common Comfrey, and that any 

 one who sold it for the Prickly Comfrey, was 

 guilty of fraud. As for the merits of the 

 Prickly Comfrey as a forage plant, we know 

 nothing at all about it. We do not know 

 that it is a "humbug," or that it is not. All 

 that we claim credit for in this and similar in- 

 stances is, that we do not fall in and smother a 

 thing with kisses because some one has a few 

 million roots to sell. We have preferred to 

 wait till the facts should give us something re- 

 liable for our readers. We do not want the man 

 who carefully weighed his solitary plant, and 



