560 Domestic Notices. 



show of apples alone would have repaid our visit, to say nothing of the many 

 familiar faces and old correspondents whom we should have met there from 

 all parts of the country. We would have sacrificed much to have heen 

 with our frif nds, but the duty we owe to our readers, in connexion with 

 other engagements, rendered it quite impossible for us tD leave at that 

 period of the year. 



The pear you name as having been received for the Winter Crassane, 

 we should suppose might be the St. Ghislain or Belle Lucrative, both upright 

 growers. If you had given an accurate description we might have been 

 more certain in our opinion. 



There are quite a number of Evergreen trees which will do well with 

 you, viz. : the Scotch pine, (P. sylvestris.) Austrian pine, (P. austriaca,) 

 European Silver fir, Pinus excelsa, Norway spruce, Black and White 

 spruce. White pine, Norway pine, and several others more rare. The two 

 first, especially, are admirably adapted to your locality, as they bear ex- 

 posure without the least injury, and grow rapidly in almost any soil or 

 situation. They are also very fine Evergreen trees. We shall be happy 

 to receive the notes on the new varieties of apples exhibited at the North- 

 western Pomological Convention. — Ed. 



Mu^sA Cave.ndishii. — Can you inform me whether the Musa Cavendishii 

 is a banana or a plantain. I am aware that the only diflference recognized 

 between the banana and plantain is that of variety as between a melting and 

 cooking" pear. That is, the banana can be eaten raw, and the plantain 

 must be cooked to be edible. What I wish to know is, whether the fruit of 

 Musa Cavendishii is edible and fine flavored in a raw state, like the banana, 

 or not. 



I had a Musa Cavendishii to fruit this year in my vinery. The bunch 

 now weighs 25 pounds ; but has not and will not ripen, because of a hail 

 storm which occurred on the 9th instant which destroyed all the glass in 

 my vinery, and cut to pieces the fruit and plant, so damaging it that I have 

 no hope of its properly maturing. The fruit was making its last swell, and 

 was changing from green to yellow, when the hail storm occurred. 



The fruit is so cut by the hail and glass, and injured by exposure to the 

 weather, that it is disposed to rot rather than ripen. 



I have examined several books ; some call it a plantain, some a banana, 

 and sometimes the same author will call it both. 



Unless, therefore, you have actually tasted it, or have heard from some 

 person that has tasted it in a raw state, I would consider it very uncer- 

 tain. — Yours, &c., M. C. Johnson, Lexington, Ky., Oct. 27, 1853. 



The Musa Cavendishii is a true banana. We have never eaten the 

 fruit, but have seen it growing at Chatsworth and other places in England. 

 Mr. Paxton, the Duke's gardener, has given a full account of it in the Mag- 

 azine of Botany and Gardener's Magazine, and has recommended it as a 

 cksert fruit, and it was cultivated for that purpose at Versailles and Meudon, 

 for the late Louis Philippe, King of the French. 



If our correspondent has a copy of Loudoii's Magazine for 1841, he will 

 there find (p. 430,) some interesting information respecting its fruiting. If 

 not we will publish the article at another time. — Ed. 



