378 Notes and Gleanings. 



the accompanying figure. Unlike many of the pears which are recommended 

 for their late keeping, it is one of unusual excellence, and is really worth growing 

 in every collection. Hitherto Beurre Ranee has been the variety on which the 

 maintenance of a late supply depended, but its coarse and frequently gritty flesh 

 contrasts unfavorably with that of Olivier de Serres. 



The fruit of Olivier de Serres is of good size, round, and bergamot-shaped, a 

 little uneven in its outline ; skin entirely covered with cinnamon- colored russet ; 

 eye rather deeply sunk, rather large, and half open ; stalk short and stout, in- 

 serted in a small cavity ; flesh half buttery, sweet, richly flavored, and with a 

 high perfume of musk or ambergris. 



This is a delicious pear, and unusually rich-flavored for a pear at this late season. 



It was raised at Rouen by M. Boisbunel, who has been so successful in adding to 



» the treasures of the fruit garden. The seedling tree first produced fruit in 1861.] 



English yournal of Horticulture. 



The Scarlet Larkspur. — Mr. Thompson, of Ipswich, sent me plants of 

 DelpJiinijun 7utdicaule some time in April last, for which I publicly thank him. 

 Having heard much of the plant, it was with exceeding pleasure I found it to be 

 peculiarly distinct and very beautiful, and well adapted for bedding in skilful 

 hands. It produces arching spikes of flowers, of a curious shade of orange-red, 

 and in form resembling those of the smaller kinds of tropasolums. The plant is 

 not quite hardy, and snails are partial to it ; therefore it is not adapted for " rough- 

 and-ready gardening." It is, indeed, a charming curiosity for the experienced 

 and discriminating amateur. S. H., in Gardener''s Magazine. 



Basket Plants. — The easiest and most effective basket plants are easily 

 discovered. All the trailing Tropceolums, and especially those of the Lobbianimt 

 race, are suitable. Ca7npanula garganica makes a beautiful blue fringe on the 

 edge of a basket. Pilogyne siiavis and Mikania scandens make elegant green 

 wreaths four or five feet long. Thunbergia alata is peculiar, as well as elegant. 

 There is nothing like it either in style or color. Then there are the ivy-leaved 

 geraniums, and the pretty variegated geranium, called Manglesii, with petunias, 

 verbenas, and Lobelia erinus, all suitable for baskets. Floral World. 



Worms in Flower Pots. — Has any of your readers tried mustard water 

 for the purpose of destroying worms in flower pots ? I have, and found it to 

 answer admirably. A teaspoonful to a gallon of water is sufficient. I have nev- 

 er known it to cause the slightest injury to the roots of the most delicate plant. 

 I advise any one troubled with those pests to give it a trial. Gardener'' s Record. 



Pyramidal Gooseberry Trees, etc. — The Gardener's Magazine contains 

 an account of an avenue of thirty pyramidal gooseberry trees, sixteen feet in 

 height, and an illustration of one of this height, and only eighteen inches in 

 diameter at the base, looking as tall and slender as a church spire. In the same 

 garden gooseberries are trained as standards, with stems five feet high. Small- 

 leaved myrtles are clipped into pyramids eleven feet high, and twenty-one inches 

 through the base — more like an obelisk than a pyramid, however. 



