1885.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



147 



Natural History and Science. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



NIGELLA DAMASCENA. 



BY T. S. G. 



Under this title a correspondent in April 

 G.4RDENERS' Monthly says the seeds of Nigella 

 are used in flavoring bread and refers to the 

 "ragged lady" as the common name. The N. 

 sativa was in somewhat common culture in this 

 part of New England fifty or sixty years ago under 

 the name of "garden spice " or " nutmeg flower." 

 The seeds were of a brownish color, abundant, 

 and used for flavoring apple pies and cakes. The 

 flowers are less conspicuous than those of the 

 Damascena, yet it still is more worthy of a place 

 in a collection than many of the new-comers. 

 Don's Gardeners' Dictionary says ; "Formerly the 

 seeds of N. sativa were much in use as a car- 

 minative stimulant and errhine, but this medicine 

 is becoming deservedly obsolete. They are still 

 used in some parts of Germany and Asia, in 

 cookery, instead of spice, being a pleasant aromatic. 

 They are said to be extensively used in the 

 adulteration of pepper, as well as those of N. 

 arvensis. The leaves are also sometimes used." 

 He calls it the "Cultivated Fennel Flower," and 

 gives the year 1 548 as first record of its cultivation. 



I well remember this plant as cultivated in the 

 garden of my mother and grandmother, and it 

 always formed a part of the stock of garden seeds 

 which were always home-grown. 



IVest Cornwall, Conn. 



PEACH DISEASES. 



BY LORIN BLODGET. 



I cut away to-day the last of the peach trees I 

 held to be of priceless value, the seedling October 

 Clings, that have borne crops of ample proportions 

 from 1868 to 1883, failing last year completely. 

 This one tree has a cross section of 1 1 inches, 2 

 feet from the surface, and its largest branch a 

 diameter of 7 inches, 10 feet from the ground. Its 

 spread was 14 to 18 feet east and south, and about 

 28 feet in height. There were five of these great 

 fruited October Clings, almost equal in size, 

 and for twelve years bearing three to six bushels 

 each — this one, more on several occasions. All 



were seedlings of a fine basket of late peaches 

 planted in 1865. This tree never showed the 

 cluster growth of feeble side shoots, nor ever bore 

 a sickly peach. It died slowly, a grim, but use- 

 less resistance to this deadly yellows. 



I see Prof. Penhallow's paper in the State report 

 for 1883, full, but not quite satisfactory as an ex- 

 planation, but better as a description of the pro- 

 gress of the peach-killing disease called the yel- 

 lows. I believe that an ample supply of wood 

 ashes would have done good in the early stages, 

 but muriate of potash does not assimilate until 

 chemically disintegrated. I have tried in vain to 

 get wood ashes, and have not therefore given that 

 method a trial. I kept peach trees in vigor on my 

 farm for fifty years after their planting in i8i6, by 

 ample dressing of wood ashes twice a year; but 

 they were not the giant trees that grow in this cli- 

 mate, nor even their crops more than a bushel to 

 a tree. I never expect to see such trees or crops 

 again as mine here gave me from 1869 to 1881. 

 They were in abundant bearing at three years 

 from the seed, and they yielded thirty to fifty 

 bushels at the lowest, yearly, for twenty-five to 

 thirty trees. I was confident that fertilization by 

 ordinary methods would save them, but it did not, 

 and I have cut up their saw-log trunks at intervals 

 for the past year. Philadelphia, March 2jth. 



[A very interesting communication as showing 

 that the peach tree at any age, or under any cir- 

 cumstances, is liable to "Yellows." As Mr. B. re- 

 marks. Professor Penhallow's excellent paper is 

 not wholly satisfactory. The " yellows " is be- 

 lieved to arise from a want of potash in the soil, as 

 we understand, because the wood of such trees 

 shows a deficiency in the quantity found in a 

 healthy tree. That Prof. P. is correct in his diag- 

 noses no one who knows the care and patient in- 

 vestigation he gives to any topic he takes up for 

 investigation will for a moment doubt; but those 

 of us who have had a wide experience know that 

 the yellows often appears in soils that abound in 

 potash ; either the mineral potash that abounds in 

 feldspathic soils, or that derived from former vegeta- 

 ble organisms. Indeed, the surest road to the yellows 

 is to plant a peach tree near an old wood pile or 

 in a piece of recently cleared forest ground. It 

 seems to us that the deficiency noted by Prof. Pen- 



