1879. 



AISTD HORTICULTURIST. 



181 



A "Wonderful Head of Lettuce.— C. B. 

 Fairchild, Raleigh, North Carolina, sends us a 

 head of lettuce weighing three lbs. It was hard, 

 crisp, and excellent eating. Mr. F., thinks it a 

 distinct variety, and we are inclined to think he 

 is right, though it requires several allied sorts 

 to be grown side by side before we can decide 

 this. The most remarkable thing about this 

 lettuce is that its roots only weighed two ounces, 

 and, as we note by the ends of the fibres, there 

 could not have been many more left in the 

 ground. But we do not put this fact forward as 

 any argument that because of this wonderful ; 

 disproportion between roots and leaves, it is an 

 argument that the plant must be carnivorous. 



The Water Apple. — A correspondent says : 

 in a private letter, referring to a note in the | 

 Gardener's Monthly some months ago : " 1 1 

 am glad you are pleased with the Water Apple. 

 Some ten or twelve years ago I sent grafts all i 

 oyer the country. Your report is the first I ; 

 have heard from. No apple tree could be j 

 planted in a small place that would be more | 

 ornamental, on account of its handsome shape 

 and the large quantities of apples it bears. For 

 ■extensive orchard culture they are too tender, 

 but I have hundreds of trees bearing, they pay 

 very well especially in seasons when apples are 

 scarce." 



Disease in Grape Vines.— Geo. C, Whit- 

 insville, Mass., writes: "I send to your address 

 by this mail, a few grape vine roots, packed in 

 damp moss, taken from a vine border I made 

 six years ago when the vines were planted. 

 The vines all made a strong but not an extra 

 growth. The vine started well and made some 

 growth and everything seemed to be going on well 

 till about two weeks ago, when they began to 

 die, beginning at the top of the cane. Knowing 

 that it was not caused by the management in- 

 side I begun to look in the border outside and 

 found the roots in the same condition as those I 

 send you. Would like to know the cause and a 



remedy. The border is well drained, two and 

 a-half feet deep and sixteen feet wide, and is 

 well filled with roots. The border in the Fall 

 was covered with about four inches of stable 

 manure •, on top of that about one foot of meadow 

 hay and all covered with shutters. The covering 

 was not put on till it got rain enough to 

 prevent drying before Spring. I propose to 

 cut down the vines and see if I can get them to 

 start from the bottom ; but if I fail in that I will 

 dig them out, turn over the border so as to get out 

 all the old roots I can and plant young vines. 

 Instead of cutting down the old vines on ac- 

 count of the condition of the roots, would you 

 advise taking out the old vines at once." 



[On reading this we suspected it might be a 

 case of Phylloxera, but on examining the roots 

 sent, by a microscope, it was found that all 

 the younger rootlets were attacked by a minute 

 fungus spawn, apparently of an Agaricus, and 

 seemingly precisely the same as that which at- 

 tacks peach roots resulting in the disease known 

 as "yellows," and which we found destroying 

 the roots of Rhododendrons, as detailed in our 

 magazine last Summer. In the case of a Nor- 

 way Spruce and White Pine to which the disease 

 was communicated from the spawn about the 

 roots of a "yellowed" peach tree, and which 

 evergreens had the "yellows" in consequence 

 for two years, there was an absolute recovery 

 when the trees were taken up and removed into 

 new fresh soil. It is possible that if these grape 

 vine roots are carefully lifted, cleaned, and new 

 soil replaced around them, and then the canes 

 severely pruned, the plants would recover. This 

 plan of lifting hot house grape vine roots is now 

 very common in England. When there two 

 years ago the writer saw a grapehouse in excel- 

 lent condition, full of superb fruit, on the 

 grounds of Mr.Clayton near Ryde, which had been 

 so treated, and which Mr. Smith, the gardener 

 said were "on their last legs " a few years ago 

 before the practice had been applied.— Ed.G.M.] 



Forestry. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



LARGE TREES ON LONG ISLAND. 



BY ISAAC HICKS, OLD WESTBT'RY, QUEENS, CO., 

 NEW YORK. 



I enclose some slips from a Long Island pa- 



per written by Elias Lewis, of Brooklyn, an 

 active member of the L. I. Historical So- 

 ciety, who has made many trips through Lonu 

 Island noting its geological aspects and collect- 

 ing descriptions of the large trees found liere. 

 He has made a list of the varieties of trees and 



