492 Garden Notes. 



the middle, and very broad and obtuse at the stem : Skin^ fair, 

 smooth, yellowish green, becoming pale yellow when mature, 

 and regularly covered with large, conspicuous, pale russet 

 specks : Stem, rather long, about one and a quarter inches, 

 stout, curved, much swollen at the base, and obliquely in- 

 serted in a rather shallow open cavity : Eye, small, open, and 

 slightly sunk in a small shallow basin ; segments of the calyx 

 short, round : Flesh, white, fine, melting, and very juicy : 

 Flavor, rich, sprightly, vinous, and little perfumed : Core. 

 large : Seeds, medium size, long and pointed. Ripe in Sep- 

 tember. 



Art. II. Garden Notes. By Dr. M. A. Ward, Athens, Ga. 



May 1. — I have often heard it asserted that, although the 

 common English ivy would grow in common soil, and flour- 

 ish indifierently well on trees and wooden walls, yet it would 

 only flower when supported on old stone work. Last autumn, 

 a stem of it, running up the north side of my house on a 

 wooden wall, and near the tin water spout, not only flowered 

 profusely, but set and ripened all its fruit. It proved quite 

 ornamental. Its dense clusters of large, curiously acorn-shaped 

 berries of a jet black wherever the thick ash-colored bloom 

 happened to be rubbed ofl*, remained all winter quite undis- 

 turbed by birds or insects, though looking very temptingly. 

 It was not till one morning in the first part of April that I 

 saw a pair of mocking-birds exploring the vine, and, after 

 some time, they began to peck at and taste the berries — very 

 slowly and cautiously — as if aAvare that they were experi- 

 menting upon unknown aliment. The rascals seemed per- 

 fectly conscious that they were not Black Tartarian cherries. 

 The next morning 1 looked, and not a berry was left. 



May 12. — Echinocactus Ononis has a very fine flower fully 

 expanded. The plant is about six years old, and five inches 

 in diameter. Last year, it showed two buds, but they fell off 

 when half grown. They come out on the ridges at some dis- 

 tance from the central crown, where I expected to see them, 

 as 1 believe is the manner of most melo-cacti. The flower 



