364 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[December, 



seem to convey much more information to the 

 reader than he is already possessed of. Personal 

 challenges seem more in place in the advertising 

 columns ; but we pass the letter for publication 

 here on an appeal for "justice," though we 

 really think it is not called for by anything Mr. 

 Henderson said. — Ed. G. M.] 



A New Decorative Plant.— A Philadelphia 

 correspondent says: "Do you know of Asperula 

 odorata (Mijsike, fifth order or class)? As a 

 running vine, growing fifteen to twenty feet high, 

 similar to smilax, having a rough stem edged 

 four or six square, narrow green cut foliage, of a 

 glossy appearance. When cut, and it begins to 

 wilt, it emits a delightful fragrance, sweeter than 

 new mown hay, which remains fragrant all 

 winter. A friend says it is bound to supersede 

 smilax; it grows wild in the forests of Sweden. 

 If you can give us any information in regard to 

 it, you will oblige." 



[Asperula odorata is the sweet-scented wood- 

 ruffe of the florists. It is a low herbaceous 

 plant, seldom getting more than six inches high. 

 It belongs to the natural order Rubiacese, and is 

 very near to Galium. 



A sample of the precious seeds was placed 

 before the editor, and was examined by him with 

 a lens, and he has no hesitation in saying they 



belonged to some Caryophyllaceous plants — the 

 order to which pinks and catchflys belong to, 

 and which, so far as he remembers, contains no 

 climbing plants. — Ed. G. M.] 



NBJV OR RARE PLANTS. 



A New Fern — Adiantum Aneitense (see illus- 

 tration). — This is the season when fern culture 

 has peculiar charms, and our readers Avill thank 

 us for introducing them to a pretty novelty re- 

 cently brought to notice in England. It is a very 

 elegant free-growing species of Maidenhair Fern, 

 introduced from the Island of Aneiteum. It has 

 a creeping rhizome, clothed with dark-colored 

 scales, and three or four times divided deltoid 

 fronds. The numerous segments of which the 

 fronds are made up are rhomboidal, nearly' ses- 

 sile, firm in texture, with a glabrous surface, sub- 

 glaucous beneath, and shallowly lobed along the 

 upper and outer edges, where the roundish- 

 reniform sort are borne in the centre of the lobes. 

 It is a distinct and ornamental evergreen stove 

 fern, and was one of the twelve new plants with 

 which Mr. W. Bull gained the first prize at the 

 great show of the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 held at Kensington in 1880. 



Fruit and Vegetable Gardening. 



COMMUNICA TIONS, 



SEEDLING PEAR. 



BY A. A. BBNSEL, NEWBURG, N. Y. 



It would seem, from the great number of 

 apples and pears in cultivation and named in 

 the catalogues, that additions to the list were 

 entirely useless, and yet, occasionally, a variety 

 appears to command attention. A seedling pear 

 tree in the nursery row on the grounds of Dr. 

 Wm. A. M. Culbert, Newburg, N. Y., produced 

 fruit this year which is verj'^ desirable in its vari- 

 ation from the old Seckel. It is in perfection 

 the last week of October, after the Seckel has 

 disappeared in the market; this young tree has 



fruit the size of Seckel; will probably average 

 larger when the tree attains age; skin smooth 

 and light russet, with bright red or crimson 

 cheek; stem medium, calyx open in a slight 

 basin ; flesh fine, buttery, yellowish white, sweet, 

 with abundance of sprightly, rich, refreshing 

 juice— not the honey sweet of the Seckel, from 

 the seed of which it was grown. I think that 

 another year will develop many good qualities 

 in this variety. 



FRUIT CROPS IN WESTERN PENN'A. 



BY A. HUIDEKOPER, MEADVILLE, PA. 



Owing to several severe frosts in the spring, 

 after vegetation had got well under v»'ay, the 



