THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



259 



perfectly ensures a good cross in each 

 generation, and so greatly improves the 

 quality of the strain. Add that every 

 stems produces some thirty or forty 

 heads, each containing more than a 

 hundred florets, with winged seeds that 

 fly about everywhere, and can you won- 

 der that thistles are so plentiful 1 Even 

 the less developed types, like the mel- 

 ancholy thistle of the Highlands, so 

 called fj-om its gracefully nodding or 

 drooi)ing head, get on well enough, 

 though that particular species difl'ei's 

 from all others in not being prickly, and 

 depends for its defence entirely on its 

 stringy nature. Centaury and corn- 

 bluebottle, too, are othei's of the same 

 tribe, which have differentiated them- 

 selves in less unpleasant ways than the 

 true thistles ; while the common bur- 

 dock has turned the prickles on its head 

 into small clinging hooks, which help 

 io disperse the seeds in a somewhat 

 different manner by clinging to the 

 legs of animals ; and it is a significant 

 tact that the burdocks are most essen- 

 tially wayside weeds of the waste places 

 In cultivated lands. But its own par- 

 ticular group— that is to say, among 

 the purple central composites — the 

 creeping thistle in the home-close is 

 certainly the highest existing product 

 of vegetable evolution ; and that is 

 what makes me bestow upon it after 

 all, a certain extorted merit of grudg- 

 ing admiration. It lays itself out to be 

 troublesome ; it succeeds to perfection. 

 Sarawak. 



RUSSIAN APPLES. 



Dr. Hoskins writes to the Home 

 Farm in defence of some of the Russian 

 apples which he has tested at his place 

 in Northeastern Vei-mont, and gives 

 his opinion of a few of them as follows : 



For the earliest fruit, the Yellow 

 Transparent and its close relatives, 

 Orand Sultan and Charlottenthaler are 



among the very best I know of. They 

 ripen through August. My first, this 

 cool year, were marketed August 2. 

 There are a few on the trees yet, Sept. 

 6. Kor such early apples they are long 

 lived, keeping two weeks easily. They 

 are shaped some like Porter, but 

 rounder, and with a lighter yellow, be- 

 coiiiing perfectly ivory white if left on 

 the trees until dead ripe. I think no 

 one can distinguish the trees or the 

 fruit of these three varieties, when 

 mixed, with any certainty, at least. 

 All are iron-clad against cold, but Grand 

 Sultan shows distinctness in dying 

 sometimes, when young, of " bark 

 bliglit," which I have not seen in the 

 other two. It is thought that the 

 Charlottenthaler runs rather the largest 

 in fruit, but I have not had that variety 

 long enough to be sure about it. All 

 these ai-e very productive, full medium 

 in size, and on young trees often large. 

 In quality for dessert, when dead ri]>e, 

 they are hardly inferior to the Early 

 Harvest, and they ai-e always as smooth 

 and fair as turned ivory 



Next let me name St. Peter's apple, 

 as it is next in season, being now (Sept. 

 6) full in eating. It is well striped 

 with red, small to medium in size, the 

 tree of rather slender but free growth, 

 and quite healthy. Those who have 

 made up their minds from the Duchess 

 that there are no good eating apples 

 among the Russians will wabble badly 

 on Yellow Transparent, and give it up 

 entirely on St. Peter. "As good as 

 Fameuse," was the verdict, only yester- 

 day, of an orchardist from the central 

 part of the state, — and Fameuse is our 

 standard of excellence for a dessert 

 apple. This tree does not bear as young 

 as the Yellow transparent class, but is 

 a full bearer at eight or ten yeai's from 

 planting, yielding quarter and half crops 

 several years sooner. Nothing I have 

 sells better. It is always fair, indeed 

 it is not necessary to repeat this of 



