566 Notes and Glcauins:s. 



t5' 



large as the Hamburg, and fully five weeks earlier than that kind. This, of 

 course, i^ a great gain, and what has been much wanted, as the sweetwater 

 grapes are very bad setters, and the Muscadine is too small for table use. 

 The next crosses were between Blanc de Saumur and Chasselas Musque, and 

 Chasselas Musque and the Citronelle. From these two crosses I have obtained 

 the most delicious kinds that ever came under my notice, — more so even than 

 the old Frontignan and Chasselas Musque. Two of them are sweet-scented ; 

 smelling, when the sun shines on them, like orange-blossoms. Nothing I have 

 ever seen can compare with them in flavor and productiveness : their size, too, 

 is very large, some of them being as large again as the Frontignan. 



" Two other most remarkable crosses are Chasselas Musque, fertilized by the 

 Long Noir Durant, a large oval* black grape, on a very large bunch, but of an 

 inferior flavor. This cross produced grapes of various colors, black, pink, and 

 grizzly, but all quite round. The next time, I made Long Noir Durant the female 

 parent ; and, curiously enough, the result was almost identical with the former, 

 there not being an oval berry obtained. A very slight Muscat taste is observa- 

 ble in a few ; but, in the greater number, it is not observable at all. 



" These are the results from about five hundred seedlings that I have raised, 

 and four hundred sorts that I have fruited. I have some more yet to fruit, such 

 as the Canon Hall crossed by the Japanese one. 



" As the result of my experience, I am convinced that no one can tell, in rais- 

 ing a lot of seedling grapes, what they will be likely to get, they vary so much. 



" I next directed my attention to peaches. 



" My object was to obtain peaches with Nectarine flavor ; and I am glad to 

 say I have succeeded. The Nectarines I made the female plants were the Vio- 

 lette Hative, Pitmaston Orange, and the Stanwick, crossed with the Noblesse 

 and Harrington peaches. Although the Violette Hative Nectarine had a small 

 flower, still, when crossed with the large-flowering peaches, eight out of twelve 

 were large-flowered ; and, out of fifteen kinds fruited this summer, only one was 

 a Nectarine : the others were all peaches, most of them with the Nectarine flavor. 

 Two of them were especially delicious, having a beautiful Nectarine flavor, melt- 

 ing like a peach, but full-colored like the former fruit. The stones that pro- 

 duced the seedlings were sown in the beginning of February, 1863 : the greater 

 part of them flowered in February, 1864 ; but the fruit fell off. I now have one 

 planted out in my peach-house that will have next June ten or twelve dozen 

 peaches on it. It is ten feet high, about the same width, and covered with fine 

 blooming; wood." 



*& 



Pampas Grass {Gyneriuni argcnteiiDi). — The tall-growing male plant is less 

 suitable than the smaller-growing female plant for gardens. The former has a 

 coarse, rigid look : the latter is less liable to injury from high winds, and is far 

 more graceful in its habit. The flowers are ditTerent ; but the female is the pret- 

 tier of the two. 



Mushroom Culture. — As mushrooms are a delicacy most people are fond 

 of, although not so universally grown, I think, as they would be were their cul- 



