1188 



PACKING 



P^ONIA 



1612. A bushel box. 



Useful for fruits and vegetables^ 



smoothly overlapping tips of the clusters with no stems 

 showing. 



Pears at the East are packed in barrels, half barrels 

 or kegs, or in some of the various peach packages. In 

 California they are all wrapped in paper and are care- 

 fully packed in 40-pound 

 boxes. 



Until within the last 

 few years the barrel was 

 the almost universal ap- 

 ple package, and it is 

 still used for handling 

 the great bulk of the 

 crop. Early, perishable 

 kinds have, however, 

 long been shipped in the 

 various peach packages. 

 Recently, the growers of 

 the Pacific coast have led 

 the way in packing win- 

 ter apples in boxes. 

 They are wrapped after the manner of California pears. 

 Some eastern growers are finding it to their advantage 

 to follow this western fashion for their fancy fruits, and 

 it seems probable that the better grades of apples at 

 least will come more and more to be marketed in smaller 

 packages. In Boston, a bushel box is now popular for 

 apples and other products. Fig. 1612. In packing apples 

 in barrels it is customary to place the first one or two lay- 

 ers by hand, turning the stem ends all down. This is 

 called facing. The barrel is now filled, a basketful at a 

 time, by lowering the basket into the barrel and carefully 

 turning out the fruit. The barrel is shaken occasionally 

 so as to settle down the fruit, and when the top is reached 

 it is rounded up enough so that the head has to be pressed 

 into place with considerable force, a long lever or a spe- 

 cial barrel press being used for the purpose. The barrel 

 is now turned over, and what was the bottom is marked 

 as the top, so that the hand-laid "face" may be exposed 

 on opening. For vegetables, various open-work or venti- 

 lated barrels are in use. Fig. 1613. 



The requisites for the proper packing of any fruit or 

 vegetable are: (1) that the package selected be inex- 

 pensive, attractive, favorably known in the market, and 

 suited to carrying the given product in good condition ; 

 (2) that great care be taken in assorting, so that only 

 goods of one even quality go in each package; (3) that 

 skill be used in so placing the goods that the package is 

 evenly and solidly filled, thus preventing the shifting and 

 chafing of the contents in transit 

 and yet avoiding crushing by 

 undue pressure; (4) that while 

 an attractive display of the con- 

 tents is not only allowable but 

 highly desirable, no attempt at 

 misleading as to the nature of 

 the contents is permissible. 

 Nothing in the past has done 

 more to break down prices and 

 curtail the sales of horticultural 

 products than the pernicious 

 habit of dishonest packing. 

 This fact is now fully recog- 

 nized by all progressive grow- 

 ers. F. S. EARLE. 

 Flowers. While flowers should not be 

 shipment, it is more 



1613. Ventilated barrel. 



Packing 



crushed by being crowded 



often that damage is done by their being too loosely 

 packed and being able to move and shake against one 

 another. In this way the petals are often damaged. The 

 Harrisii and Longiflorum lilies, in fact all the true 

 lilies, are the most difficult of all flowers to pack. They 

 should be so packed that no part of the flower will touch 

 either bottom, top or sides of the box. Several dozen 

 spikes can be tied together and if the flowers are closely 

 interwoven they will do no harm to each other as they 

 will all move together. If this plan is not followed then 

 they must be entirely enveloped in cotton batting. 



Orchids, particularly of the Cattleya type, are difficult 

 to pack but travel finely if each spray is fastened to 

 the bottom of the box. Wrap a piece of soft paper around 

 the stem and fasten to the bottom of the box with a 

 small staple 



The highest grade of roses, especially of the light- 

 colored varieties, should be wrapped, each flower being 

 in a piece of soft tissue paper. It arrests development 

 of the flower and prevents injury to the outer petals. 



The finest blooms of carnations, commanding a high 

 price, should not be tied in bunches of 25, as we have 

 been accustomed to do with cheap flowers. The petals 

 are easily crushed and the flowers have to be kept several 

 hours in water before they assume their perfect form. 

 These fine flowers should be laid in layers with a roll of 

 paper between each layer. Good and perfect packing 

 will always be rewarded with the highest price for the 

 product. WILLIAM SCOTT. 



(Latin, pcedor, bad smell; referring to 

 P. foetida). Hubidcece. Fourteen species of tropical 

 shrubby twiners, mostly natives of India, Burma and 

 the Malay Archipelago, but one from Madagascar and 

 one from Brazil. P. foetida is cultivated by G. W. 

 Oliver at thelj. S. Botanic Gardens, Washington, D. C. 

 Oliver writes ("Plant Culture," p. 76) that it is "usu- 

 ally grown as a stove and greenhouse climber, but it 

 is hardier than is generally supposed. It is rather 

 an attractive-looking but not free-blooming vine. The 

 leaves, or any part of the plant, when bruised emit a 

 most offensive odor. Cuttings should be put in any time 

 after the growths are matured." 



Psederias are slender plants: Ivs. opposite, rarely in 

 whorls of 3, petioled: fls. in axillary and terminal di- 

 chotomous or trichotomously branching panicled cymes, 

 bracteolate or not; corolla tubular or funnel-shaped; 

 throat glabrous or villous; lobes 4-5, valvate, with in- 

 flexed, crisped margins, tip often 3-lobed. Distinguished 

 from allied genera by the 2-locular ovary and 2 capillary, 

 twisted stigmas. 



foetida, Linn. Glabrous or nearly so: Ivs. opposite, 

 long-petioled, ovate or lanceolate, base acute, rounded 

 or cordate : cyme branches opposite : fr. broadly elliptic, 

 much compressed; pyrenes black, with a broad pale 

 wing, separating from a filiform carpophore. 



PJEONIA (after the mythical physician Paeon). Ranim- 

 culdcece. PEONY. PINEY. P^EONY. Peonies are among 

 the dozen commonest and best hardy herbaceous per- 

 ennials. There is also one shrubby species, P. Moutan, 

 called the Tree Peony. Natives of Europe and Asia, 

 only a single species, P. Brownli, being found in North 

 America, on the Pacific coast. Boots thickened to form 

 upright rootstocks: Ivs. large, alternate, pinnately com- 

 pound or dissected: sepals 5, persistent; petals con- 

 spicuous, broad, 5-10, but doubling may take place in 

 any species by the numerous stamens becoming petals: 

 carpels 2-5 on a fleshy disk; follicles dehiscent; seeds 

 large, fleshy. Common garden forms are shown in Figs. 

 1614, 1615. Extended accounts of the genus are by J. G. 

 Baker in Gard. Chron. II., 21:732; 22:9 (1884), and R. 



1614. A good clump of Peony. 



I. Lynch, in Journ. Royal Hort. Soc. 12:428 (1890). A 

 botanical monograph by E. Huth, occurs in Engler's 

 Jahrbiicher,Vol. 14(1891). According to Peter Barr, every 

 species mentioned in Index Kewensis has been intro- 

 duced to cultivation in Europe, except P. obovata, a 

 native of Manchuria, which Mr. Barr hopes to obtain by a 

 personal visit to China. K. C. DAVIS. 



