1220 



FERONIELLA 



FERTILITY 



nounced orange odor and are used as a condiment in 

 sauces. Young plants of this species are growing in the 

 greenhouses of the Dept. of Agric. at Washington, D. C. 

 l&cida, Swingle (Ferbnia lucida, Scheff.). Kavista 

 Batu. Small spiny tree, native to Java: Ivs. odd- 

 pinnate, 3-6-paircd; Ifts. oval or obovate, coriaceous, 

 shiny above, margins entire or slightly crenulate, 

 obtuse or emarginate at the apex; petioles pubescent, 

 the terminal 1ft. .sessile; rachis pubescent, articulated: 

 fls. perfect or by abortion male, fragrant, white, rather 

 large; sepals small, linear, pubescent; petals pointed- 

 oval; stamens 4 times as many as the petals: fr. globo.se 

 2J^-2J| in. diam.; seeds small, with a thin hard testa, 

 immersed in the glutinous pulp. 111. Icones Bogor. 2 : 149. 

 — The pulp is sometimes eaten in Java, like that of the 

 wood-apple (Feronia Limonia). It grows wild in the 

 drier parts of Java and has been intro. into the U. S. 

 where it is being tested by the Dept. of Agric. as a stock 

 for citrous fruits. Walter T. Swingle. 



FERRARIA (Giovanni Battista Ferrari, 1584-1653, 

 Italian Jesuit, botanical wTiter and collaborator with 

 the celebrated artist Guido Reni). Iridacese. Half- 

 hardy bulbous plants from the Cape of Good Hope 

 (and recent species from other parts of Africa), rarely 

 growing more than 6 inches high. 



Corm large and irregular: foliage glaucous; lowest 

 Ivs. long and linear, the others ovate, clasping, succes- 

 sively smaller, and topped by inflated sheaths from 

 which emerge the fugitive fls. ; these have 6 triangular, 

 spreading, crisped, petal-like lobes, marked %vith many 

 ■dull colors, as yellow, green, purple and brown; each 

 fipathe contains several fls., and the fls. are united at 

 the very base, connivent and cup-shaped below the 

 spreading lobes; the fls. last onl}' from morning to 

 afternoon of a single day, but there is a fair succession; 

 some are visited by carrion flies: fr. an elhpsoid mem- 

 branous caps. — Only one species, F. undulata, is much 

 known in cult., but the other 5 or 6 species of the Cape 

 are doubtless of equal interest. This was known to pre- 

 Linnsean authors as Flos indicus and Gladiolus indicus. 

 The bulbs should be stored hke gladiolus in a dry, 

 warm place, away from mice. 



A. Fls. dull brownish purple. 

 undulata, Linn. St. stout, erect, sometimes exceed- 

 ing 1 ft: basal Ivs. sword-shaped, 1 ft. and more long, 

 flat, clasping and dilated at base; upper Ivs. and 

 spathes 1^2-2 in. long: fls. 2 in. across, largely duU pur- 

 ple; anthers oblong, with parallel cells. B.M. 144. 



AA. Fls. greenish. 



uncinata, Sweet. St. short, little branched: Ivs. 2-3, 

 hnear: fls. 2, the perianth greenish and with narrow 

 very acuminate segms. 1 in. long; anthers small, the 

 cells nearly parallel. 



AAA. Fls. dark purple. 



atrata, Lodd. St. about 6 in.: Ivs. about 4, sword- 

 shaped, firm, strongly ribbed, twice longer than st.: 

 fls. 3-4, bright dark purple, lJ^-2 in. diam. when 

 expanded; anthers oblong, with cells parallel. 



Other names .are advertised by Dutch bulb-growers, as F. 

 canariensis, F. ctrhstis, F. conchiflora, F. grandiflora, F. immac- 

 ulala, F. liliacea, F. rosea, F. Pavonia: these are to be sought under 

 Tigridia. WiLHELM MiLLER. 



FERTILITY of soils: that condition of soils which 

 makes them productive. The elements of productivity 

 are, a full suiiply of available plant-food, a suitable and 

 continuous supply of moisture, good physical conditions 

 of the soil, coupled with suitable seed and climate. 



Land may contain vast quantities of potential nitro- 

 gen, potash, phosphoric acid and other plant-food, 

 and yet be unfruitful,— infertile. Most of the potential 

 plant-food in the soil is lazy, or not available in sufficient 

 quantities in a single season to produce maximum crops. 

 Average arable land which contains from 3,000 to 4,000 



pounds of nitrogen, an equal amount of phosphoric 

 acid and four times as much potash in the first 8 inches 

 of an acre, may produce only fifteen bushels of wheat 

 to the acre, which requires, with the straw, but twenty- 

 four, thirteen and twenty pounds of these three ele- 

 ments respectively. Therefore, land may contain a 

 great abundance of potential plant-food, and yet not 

 contain enough of that which is available for a full crop. 

 To make land more fertile, one or more of the follow- 

 ing means may be employed. Usually deeper and more 

 thorough tillage should first be resorted to, since most 

 lands, by reason of careless farming, contain much inert 

 plant-food. Superior tillage is almost certain to produce 

 fruitfulness, and therefore should be resorted to before 

 more expensive methods are tried. Tillage not only 

 makes plant-food more available, but it improves the 

 physical conditions of the soil, thereby making it more 

 adaptable to the plant; it may also assist in relieving 

 the land of surplus water, and give to the soil the 

 power of retaining stores of moisture by capillary 

 action. 



Moisture plays such an important part in productive- 

 ness that it may be said to constitute its prime factor. 

 Clay soils are usually composed of such fine particles 

 that water percolates through them slowly, hence the 

 larger part of the rainfall must either run off over the 

 surface, or remain to be evaporated. The aim should 

 be .so to prepare the land by subdrainage, plowing and 

 surface tillage, and by introducing at least one crop of 

 tap-rooted plants in the rotation, that the surplus 

 water will filter through the soil in a reasonable time. 

 Percolation of rainwater through soils makes them more 

 frialjle and warmer in spring, aerates the land, pro- 

 motes beneficial biological and chemical changes, and 

 brings to the soil the nitrogenous compounds contained 

 in the rainwater. Soils that are reasonably porous have 

 the power of retaining more moisture, and of giving it 

 up to plants, when needed, to a greater extent, than 

 either open sandy or close clay soils. Fertility, which 

 results in fruitfulness, is governed very largely by the 

 water and moisture conditions of the soil, and these, 

 in turn, are to a considerable extent governed by the 

 texture of the land and the amount of humus that it 

 contains. 



Legumes, used either as a harvest or cover-crop, pro- 

 mote fertility. A cover-crop of clovers planted August 

 1, and analyzed sixty-four days after planting, con- 

 tained nitrogen, in roots and tops, to the acre as 

 follows : 



Tops Roots Total 



Pounds Pounds Pounds 



Crim.son clover 125 30 155 



Red clover 63 40 103 



Mammoth clover 67 78 145 



Clovers and other legumes may be used to fix and 

 store up the uncombined nitrogen of the air and to 

 digest and make available the mineral constituents of 

 the land, thereby greatly increasing the fertility of 

 the soil. ^ .^^ . , 



In most of the semi-arid districts of the United 

 States, except where irrigation can be successfully 

 undertaken in the rich valleys, the problem of perma- 

 nently maintaining and increasing the productivity of 

 the soil is as yet unsolved. Better tillage may serve 

 in many cases to prolong the time of profitable culti- 

 vation, "but unless something is done toward restora- 

 tion it onlv postpones for a short period the day when 

 the land must be left to the tooth of time and to the 

 growth of such hardy plants as can maintain them- 

 selves on a depleted soil. All such pasture lands maj- 

 be greatly benefited by sowing, even in small quan- 

 tities, in "early spring with red and alsike clover in 

 humid distric"ts, and bur clover in the rainless-sum- 

 mer regions. Lands adapted to orcharding that have 

 become depleted and that have a tenacious subsoil 

 mav be benefited by exploding a charge of dynamite 



