1882. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



307 



when it is grown on a quince, plants propagated 

 from such trees will partake of the low vital 

 powers engendered and be more liable to disease. 

 Propagation should never be from trees grown 

 on quince in anj' case, and Mr. Parrj' deserves 

 the thanks of pomologists for calling attention 

 to this novel but very important point in pear 

 culture. 



The Willson Peach. — On the first of Septem- 

 ber Mr. Pierpont Willson, Vineland, N. J., sent 

 specimens of a seedling peach from a tree which 

 came up in the ruins of an old cellar. They 

 weighed, individually, about five and one-fourth 

 ounces, and were about eight inches round. The 

 form varies, from roundish to oblong; the color, 

 yellowish white, with slight rosy cheek, or deep 

 rose on almost pure white; the flesh is yellowish 

 white, very juicy, and of excellent flavor. It is 

 a free-stone, and dark red near the stone. 



The varieties of good peaches under culture 

 are now so numerous that it is impossible to say 

 in what respect this may be distinct from all 

 others, and we therefore name it with some 

 hesitation. But should it be found to resemble 

 some other already named and disseminated, it 

 is safe to say the other will certainly be no 

 better in size, beauty, or delicious "peachiness" 

 than this. In all these points it is first-class. 



Degenerate Albany Seedling Strawberries. 

 — " F. J. U ," Eufaula, Ala., writes : " I planted 

 a bed of Wilson's Albany strawberries, and took 

 the plants from an old bed — three years old ; 

 astonishing to me, these plants grew better and 

 more luxurious than I had ever seen, but they 

 did not bear. I sold runners from this bed last 

 fall, winter, and this spring, and all of my cus- 

 tomers are complaining that their plants do not 

 bear either. As I have never experienced the 

 like, I ask you kindly to give me some informa- 

 tion about this. Tell me, please, whether there 

 are male and female plants in strawberries. I 

 have never heard of it, but many a body says 

 there are. Or tell niR, please, whether you know 

 another cause of their not bearing?" 



[We have known exactly such a case with the 

 Albany Seedling strawberry. A bed which had 

 borne regularly for years, suddenly failed to bear 

 any, and plants from tliis bed were in like man- 

 ner barren, much to the annoyance of the nur- 

 seryman who sold the plants, and of the cus- 

 tomers who bought them. We know of one 

 nurseryman who gave up growing the Albany 

 solely on account of this tendency to give out. 



The normal condition of the strawberry, as in 

 other allied Rosaceous plants, is to be hermaph- 

 rodite ; but it is very liable. to have abortive 

 stamens, or abortive pistils, and hence to be 

 what pomologists call, "staminate" or "pistil- 

 late," and these characters once assumed, are, 

 to a certain extent, hereditar3\ At one time it 

 was supposed that the characters once assumed, 

 were as unchangeable as 'males" and "females" 

 among animals. Bat this was fully discussed a 

 quarter of a century ago, and the fact shown to be 

 that heredity had not an absolute control of this 

 feature. In other words the sexual characters 

 of strawberries sometimes change. — Ed. G. M.] 



White Blackberries. — Mr. E. L. Parrish, of 

 Nashville, Ohio, sent us a box of white black- 

 berries, but instead of sending as we always ask 

 friends to do, "articles and communications for 

 the editor to Germantown," they were addressed 

 to the publication office in Philadelphia, and 

 were a mass of rottenness by the time they were 

 re-shipped to Germantown. Although the odor 

 was horrible, we had a distant view of them, 

 and may say that they appeared to be larger 

 than light blackberries we have seen before, and 

 believe the kind may be desirable. 



The Boss Watermelon. — Messrs. Landreths 

 write : " We send, per express to-day, a sample 

 of our boss watermelon, to which we invite your 

 careful and critical attention. We trust that its 

 merits will justify you in agreeing with us that 

 it is ' The Boss.' " 



[Some humorist has said that there is some- 

 thing in the atmosphere about colleges, where 

 young men are preparing for the ministry, which 

 is inimical to the proper maturity of water- 

 melons. They at least get full opportunity to 

 mature in the "atmosphere" of the writer of 

 this— that is, as watermelons generally mature ; 

 but we should have to look somewhere for for- 

 giveness if such temptations as these were often 

 thrown in the Avay. It is the first watermelon 

 the writer ever felt he thoroughly enjoyed. It 

 was a very large specimen, four feet three inches 

 round one way. and two feet seven inches in 

 girth. Cutting it across the whole was a dense 

 mass of deep scarlet pulp, with the exception of 

 a half inch of green. With a large circle of ad- 

 mirers of this specimen, the writer v.-as com- 

 pelled to admit that "there is something in a 

 watermelon after all." — Ed. G. M.] 



Tomato Disease. — ''A. A.," Newburgh, N. Y., 

 writes : " I send to your address to day, by mail. 



