iSpi. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



175 



How to Baise Good Seed. Doa't make tbe 

 common mistake of waitiug until the end of 

 summer and then letting the exhausted plants go 

 to seed at will. Select vigorous plants just 

 coming into bloom that have yet borne but very 

 few blossoms. Choose one to three flowers, of 

 dne shape, color and marking, on each plant, 

 varying the number according to the size and 

 vigor of the plant; but don't exceed three unless 

 the plant is very large indeed, the fewer the bet- 

 ter. Mark the flowers chosen with a bit of 

 colored woi'sted and allow them to go to seed, 

 noting if they form strong, perfectly shaped 

 seed pods, if not try again. As soon as you can 

 see that the seed pod is all right, cut all other 

 buds and blossoms from the plants and 

 keep them cut off until the seeds are 

 gathered. Keep the seed pods on the 

 plants until the seeds are fully ripe. 

 If the pod shows signs of scattering, tie 

 a small bag of fine gauze around it. 

 When the seeds appear to be fully ripe, 

 gather pod and all and place in a glass 

 dish in a sunny window for a week, then 

 remove from the pod such as may re- 

 main, and put all away in a dry place, 

 or sow at once. When sown they will 

 astonish you with their quickness of 

 sprouting, vigor of growth and free- 

 dom from insects and disease.— D. M. 

 Farnsioorth. 



The National Flower. According to 

 the daily newspapers, what this country 

 needs most of all just now is a national 

 flower. There seems to be a wild yearn- 

 ing for the adoption, as distinctively 

 American, of some member of the flower 

 family; but the ditTex-ence of opinion as 

 to the flower to be selected for that 

 honor is remarkably wide. The follow- 

 ing list of blossoms, favored by different 

 people, shows that anything like un- 

 animity of selection is impossible. The 

 young man looking for a rich wife pre- 

 fers the Marigold. Bill collectors favor 

 the Forget-me-not. Temperance people 

 select the Water Lily. The telephone 

 girls think the " Aloe " most appropri- 

 ate. Informers and spies like the 

 "Peach" Blossom. Anglomaniacsthink 

 Pennyroyal most suitable. Men who 

 want to emphasize America as the 

 country of railroads wish to adopt the 

 Carnation. Pipe manufacturers are 

 fond of the Tube Rose. Milkmen fancy 

 the Cowslip ; prudes, the Primrose. 

 Aged people naturally select the Elder 

 blossom. Sage is preferred by wise men. 

 Golden Kod seems to suit millionaires 

 best. The penman, whose Christian 

 nameis John, will vote tor the Jonquil. Virginia- 

 creeper is the piccaninnies' selection. Builders 

 take to the Wallflower. Lovers are understood 

 to prefer Tulips.— Wm. H. Siviter in Smith, Gray 

 <i Co's Monthly. 



Do Yoar Boses Faill Roses fail with amateurs 

 from the following causes: Planting in holes 

 dug in wholly unjjrepared soil, with a shovelful 

 of raw manure at the bottom; planting in front 

 of shrubs, where their roots are robbed by the 

 shrubs; neglecting to tread the ground flrmly 

 after planting is completed; ordering and plant- 

 ing tree or standard Koses where only bush 

 Roses can thrive fairly; planting such on dry. 

 gravelly, or sandy subsoils; planting singly in 

 small beds on the lawn, or, worse still, closing 

 their roots in with turf; planting within a few 

 feet of a hot brick wall, facing south, where 

 they are burned. Roses do best in new gardens, 

 other things being equal. If they have to be 

 planted in old garden soil, every opportunity 

 should be seized of adding fresh loam, or, failing 

 that, well broken up clay. One of the best 

 manures for Roses is the emptyings of a cess- 

 pool; open holes about two spades deep between 

 the plants, about 12 feet B inches or so away from 

 them. Pour a pailful of the manure into each 

 hole, and after it has been soaked in a little re- 

 place the soil.— J. K. L. Middescr Co., Mass. 



Trees in Summer. My e.xperience is that it is 

 best to b>iy trees in the fall and then heel them 

 in carefully, and then set out early in the spring. 

 This gives them a much better opportunity to 

 get a good start before hot, dry weather sets in, 

 and then if the soil is kept in a good tilth during 

 the early part of the growing season and then 

 mulched, they can often be kept growing all 

 summer. The soil should be stirred up fine just 

 before apjdying the mulch. While there are a 

 number of materials that can be used as a mulch, 

 all things considered when it can be secured, for 



a summer mulch at least, I prefer old bagasse 

 from a Sorghum mill. If left out over one sea- 

 son it makes one of the best if not the best 

 material that can be used. When this cannot be 

 secured I prefer old Wheat straw. If the trees 

 escape the bores, withstand the drought and keep 

 growing, a good start has been made towards 

 securing an orchard, but the work must be kept 

 up afterwards. But many fail the first season, 

 simply for the want of proper care. I find it 

 easier to rub or pinch off the unnecessary 

 gi'owth. rather than to allow it to grow and 

 harden, and then be obliged to use the knife or 

 saw; a little pruning each year if commenced 

 in good season will in nearly all cases avoid the 



Tlifi "JiPiNESE" 



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EVERY ONE GUARANTEED TO CROW. 



This wonderful curiosity is known as ilie Japaiic>e Water I'lant. II 

 is llie only plant in the known world tliat w ill i^row out of a common gKiss 

 or jar of water. 



Ilie curiosity of tltis plant is that every new branch will grow 

 up a little larger than the prcvioas one; the roots arc of a pure while milklikc 

 coUjr and spread to such extent that llic botde gets filled tip iit a short time 



Directions for Growingfi 



Place sepcrately in a gbss of waten change watct every day (of 8 

 days. Tliey will sink down for srver.-U days, raising gmdually to the 

 surface. . It takes 8 days before lliey will commence to grow. Keep it soma 

 tiilie at the sunsliine when it commences to grow; 



I. RA.V13D, 111 Hester St., IVew Yoik. 



Hand-hill of a '■ Japanese'' Plant from our Swamps. 



necessity for any extended pruning at any time. 

 —N J. Shepherd, Eldon, Mo. 



The Chocho Plant. This curious plant (Sechium 

 edule) is here popularly known as Vegetable or 

 Vine Pear. The fruit, specimens of which I for- 

 ward by mail, is a flat, pear-shaped vegetable 

 that grows on a vine. The largest ones from my 

 vine last season weighed over a pound and on the 

 tenth of October we gathered from one vine a 

 barrel of these " Pears," and have been using 

 Pears to cook and for pickles since May. The 

 vine dies off in winter, but if it is covered with 

 light litter so the roots will not freeze, will come 

 out in spring and bear for years. The whole 

 Pear is planted. The foliage resembles that of 

 the Squash; the flowers are small, green, and 

 insignificant. When the little Pears first show, 

 they are soft, nearly white with down, after- 

 wards changing to a darker green, and when 

 mature change again to light green. The fruit 

 when tender is very nice, fried like Egg plant, 

 baked with meats, stewed like Squash, or stuffed 

 like Tomatoes. They also make the nicest 

 pickles and chow-chow. There are some in the 

 house now that were gathered in November, and 

 are just as green and tender as the day they 

 were gathered. Some have long sprouts on them 

 Here we set them out in March, and they begin 

 bearing in June, and bear till killed by frost. 

 Last year's vines bear much earlier. I have 

 known these Vegetable Pears for over forty 

 years, and have never heard of them outside of 

 this part of Louisiana. I think they could be 

 raised here and sent north in the fall, as they 

 keep green and tender all winter, taste and look 

 just like spring Squash.— JVfa)-sare( Camphell, 

 Louisiana. 



The English Sparrow, a correspondent com- 

 plains because recently in these columns, we re- 

 ferred to some of our nb.servations concerning 

 the sparrow and which were not as adverse 



to this bird, as he would have been pleased to 

 have heard. We merely mentioned facts as we 

 had found them. These facts in substance are 

 that none of the editors of Popular Gardening 

 (one of whom can look back upon more than 

 fi>rty years intimate acquaintance with the 

 birds), has ever noticed any appreciable injury 

 done to vegetables or fruits by sparrows, or 

 failed to see some good points in them. To be 

 just, we reiterate that in the three years of our 

 conducting a thirteen-acre experiment garden at 

 La Salle, we have observed bird life almost daily 

 and have found no cause to complain of the 

 English sparrows, of the robin and cedar bird 

 we certainly cannot speak so well. They, in 

 common with the many other birds 

 here, got every Cherry from our three 

 old Cherry trees, while we went with- 

 out. Still we believe there are compen- 

 sations, hence no robin or cedar bird is 

 ever killed on our possessions. In these 

 statements we are speaking of our own 

 locality. Whether the fact of our hav- 

 ing such prominent towns as Buffalo, 

 Lockport, Niagara Falls, Tonawanda 

 and others, all within a distance of 

 seventeen miles may have anything to 

 do with our favorable experience with 

 sparrows, we do not know, for it is 

 admitted that of all birds the English 

 sparrow enjoys town life. If their pres- 

 ence in large numbers at La Salle has 

 ever diminished the number of nests of 

 other desirable birds, we have never 

 been made conscious of it. When we 

 find something serious to condemn in 

 this bird, we shall have no hesitation 

 to speak out. Wherever people suffer 

 under the sparrows' depredations, they 

 have the remedy of killing them. 



A Fine Irish Park. A foreign writer 

 speaks of the famous Phoenix Park, 

 Dublin, as one of the loveliest of public 

 parks. It contains 1760 acres, boldly and 

 charmingly undulated and embellished 

 by two noble pieces of ornamental 

 water. There are 500 acres in the drill- 

 ground alone, and thirteen in what is 

 called the people's park, on the higher 

 ground of which is some rock garden 

 planted with Aubrietias, Iberises, AJys- 

 sums, and similar plants. The bound- 

 ary fence is said to be seven miles 

 round, and the park is bisected by a 

 straight road three miles in length. 

 Noble old Hawthorns, in many cases 

 gray with Lichens belonging to the 

 genera Ramalina and Evernea, are 

 spread over hundreds of acres; in short, 

 the park looks as if at one time it had 

 been a Hawthorn forest, and when in full bloom 

 they have a wonderfully fine effect. Many of 

 them are of large size, one being eight feet in 

 circumference. But there are other fine trees in 

 this park. Two Poplars measured ten feet eighth 

 inches in circumference, an Elm was eleven feet 

 seven inches, two Oaks fourteen feet six inches, 

 another thirteen feet, with a bole seventy feet 

 high without a branch, a fine clean bit of timber; 

 a Larch measured seven feet nine inches, a Cherry 

 tree eight feet, a Beech nine feet, a Sycamore 

 nine feet, and a Chestnut ten feet, measure- 

 ments all taken at four feet from the ground. 

 About the Vice-regal Lodge there are also some 

 fine trees, especially a purple Beech, very old 

 and of large dimensions, and in the ground at- 

 tached to the superintendent's residence there 

 are some large Wellingtonias and other Conifers, 

 especially a fine Cypressus Lambertiana, a species 

 which was killed in most places by the severe 

 winter of 1878. Irish Yews thrive, as they should 

 do, well here, most of them being unusually 

 large and spreading. Of Thujopsis delobrata 

 and Libocedrus decurrens there are also noble 

 examples. In short, all the best hardy Conifers 

 are well represented in this enclosure, in which 

 there are numbers of glass houses, and a nursery 

 tor supplying the park and public gardens with 

 young trees. Fruit trees on a wall here were 

 carrying gobd crops, especially one— an Apricot 

 —on a portion of wall which was heated. This, 

 Mr. Dick informed me, invariably bore good 

 fruit, even in seasons in which other trees on the 

 same wall were fruitless, a strong argument in 

 favor of heated wails. Dying off of the branches, 

 too, so common in Apricots, is likewise unknown 

 in the case of this tree. Altogether everyone 

 must be pleased with Phcenix Park with its broad 

 acres of grass, its miles of well-kept roads, its 

 ornamental water, its Thorns and other trees 

 and last, but not least, its hill and dale. 



