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JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AIS'D COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Angoat 31, 1871. 



part very coarsely and rudely made, and, as it ia ordinarily 

 seen, does not do fair jnstice to its capacity. Wiien skilfully 

 prepared it has a pleasant acidity, delicately touched with the 

 peculiar flavour of the fruit, which gives it a fair claim to 

 colonial favour, although it must be admitted that even then it 

 stands a long way behind the Raspberry, Gooseberry, and 

 Green Gage of Old England. 



The "Kei Apple" is the berry of a plant belonging to the 

 interesting family which produces ebony and the iron woods. 

 It is a large evergreen shrub with small thick-set leaves, and 

 grows well in higher and colder districts than the Amatungula. 

 It is, indeed, properly a member of the upland and inland 

 bush. The shrub has hard wood, is of slow growth, and is of 

 great value on account of the splendid thickset hedge which it 

 forms, densely armed with strong dry spines three-quarters of 

 an inch long, and as hard and sharp as a needle. The well- 

 grown Eei Apple fence is a barrier which no living creature 

 will face. It is simply impenetrable, and in addition to its 

 proper bulwarks, it throws out outworks in the form of long 

 straggling arms that are also bristling with sharp spines. It is 

 a deciduous plant, having a tender light hue in the first spring, 

 maturing in the advanced summer into the dark green of the 

 Beech, and occasionally almost assuming the sombre tint of 

 the Tew. The plant is also dia-dous, some of the trees bear- 

 ing only a stamen producing unconspicuous flowers and no 

 fruit. When not trimmed and trained into a fence, the Kei 

 Apple developes into a very large tree. The plant is either a 

 Diospyros, or a near ally to that genus. In common with all 

 the Ebenaceons plants it has some affinity with the Holly. 

 Another species of the Diospyros genus, the Diospyros Kaki, 

 furnishes a well-known Chinese sweetmeat. 



The name Kei Apple has been conferred in consequence 

 of the fruit having been originally noticed in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Great Eei River, the stream which divides the Old 

 Cape of Good Hope settlements from Independent Kaflraria. 

 The fruit is, however, quite as generally known in the Natal 

 district as Dingaan's Apricot, the second part of this desig- 

 nation being suggested by the wooUey Aprioot-like aspect of 

 the skin. Dingaan, who confers the other part of the name, 

 was the brother and successor of the first great Zulu potentate, 

 Chaka ; and was also the chief adversary of the Dutch Boers, 

 who occupied Natal before it became an English dependency. 

 It is to be presumed that he was a patron of this fruit, as he 

 has thus made it a present of his august name. But that he 

 ever used it in any other sense than a medicinal one in those 

 ante-saccharine days, when neither the cane not its sweet 

 extract had yet put in an appearance in the Zulu Kafir district, 

 is certainly very much to be questioned. Distilled vinegar is 

 tame as an acid compared with the matured juice of the Ksi 

 Apple. The Dutch settlers, indeed, prepare it for their tables 

 as a pickle without vinegar, and it is by no means contemptible 

 in that form. It is also, on this very account, a good preserve 

 of the Red Currant jelly class, when prepared with a liberal 

 hand in the matter of sugar, and a thrifty and prudent one in 

 the matter of fruit. From my own personal experiences I am 

 able to offer Mr. Jackson my warm congratulations that fate 

 has allowed him to be innocent of the Kei Apple in its fresh 

 slate. If he ever chanced to make an acquaintance with it in 

 that condition, I venture to assure him that he will return to 

 his first love, the Kei Apple preserve. 



There are other fruits which are now most valued acquaint- 

 ances in every garden of Natal; not, however, indigenous, 

 but introduced and naturalised productions. First and fore- 

 most there is the most exquisite Loquat, an importation into 

 South Africa from some of the islands of the Eastern Archi- 

 pelago. The Loquat is a small apple, just of the right size for 

 a tolerably well-developed human mouth, with a jaicy pulp in- 

 termediate between the Gooseberry and the Peach, and with a 

 malic flavour strongly inclined in the Gooseberry direction. It 

 has two or three large central pips, almost arriving at the 

 dignity of stones. In fact, the Loquat is very much a small 

 apple, that you can squeeze like a Gooseberry, and that has a 

 flavour more exquisite and delicate than the best Apple of 

 England. It is one of the most agreeable and refreshing fruits 

 that can be encountered in a hot climate ; and it has the great 

 advantage that it can be indulged in without any of those 

 second thoughts that will come over the botanical mind when 

 it contemplates the so-called harmless fruit proffered by some 

 atrocious ally of Dogbane or Nightshade. The Loquat is the 

 fruit of the Eriobotrya jiponica, a true member of that honest 

 Apple family, whose worst perpetration, under the most un- 

 favourable circumstances, is malic acid and rough cider. And 



a perfect glory of the garden is the Eriobotrya japonica, with 

 its whorls of pendant dark green leaves, glistening white under- 

 neath, and fashioned upon the mould of the Sweet Chestnut. 

 The flower is an enlarged copy of the Hawthorn, with the true 

 Hawthorn fragrance, comes out from the centre of the leaf- 

 tuft, and there ripens into large bunches of luscious fruit, look- 

 ing like small golden Pears, often of considerable size and 

 weight. The tree is an evergreen, and has a curious habit of 

 always keeping itself in the fashion of a trim standard. — B. -J. 

 Man'n, M.D. — [Food. Journal.) 



DESTROYING THE MEALY BUG. 



Theee are few who like to acknowledge the presence of this 

 pest in their collections. I am bold, perhaps, in saying that I 

 have been in summer in very many stoves and warm plant and 

 fruit houses, and in most instances have seen unmistakeable 

 evidence of its presence. I am sorry to say it, but it must be 

 said, plants infested with mealy bug are not uncommon on the 

 exhibition stage. Why, then, strive to keep in the background 

 what will always show itself ? I know its presence is con- 

 sidered solely due to want of cleanliness on the part of the 

 cultivator. I have heard blame attached where no blame was 

 due. It is one thing to find fault, another to have cause. It 

 is a common failing for people to see the negligences of others, 

 and utterly fail in seeing what is needed on their part to make 

 cleanly cultivators. How frequently are slovens made by the 

 little care and the indifference of those whom they serve in 

 providing willingly the means requisite for cleanliness, which 

 they often do grudgingly or altogether withhold? The im- 

 portance of cleanliness cannot be over-estimated. A clean 

 person and a clean healthy dwelling, are the highways to health ; 

 but a dirty person and a dirty unhealthy dwelling are where 

 disease strikes in its greatest severity. So of plants ; they 

 need a clean house, properly constructed to afford the light, 

 air, moisture, and temperature needed for their healthy de- 

 velopment, and these conditions must not only be provided at 

 first, but be maintained. The glass must be kept so that the 

 light is not obstructed by a coating of moss, and ventilators 

 must be workable. I have known more than one gardener not 

 able to give air to vineries because their employers were slow 

 in supplying the required cord, and in other cases the lights 

 could not be moved because they were out of order. The 

 masters were indiilerent as to that, but not backward in com- 

 plaining of the Grapes being all at the top of the house, and 

 ripening there much earlier than elsewhere, and in grumbling 

 at defective bunches and berries, failing to see that that in- 

 difference was the cause of red spider and perhaps mildew. 

 Indifference on the part of employers tends to produce indif- 

 ference in servants. 



The most important agent in keeping down mealy bug is 

 thorough cleanliness. Mealy bug is one of those pests which 

 harbour in wood as well as on living plants ; indeed, it will 

 exist on everything used in the construction of plant houses, 

 and in the culture of plants. The woodwork should be 

 thoroughly cleaned at least twice a-year — October and March, 

 using soft soap not less strong than 3 ozs. to the gallon, keep- 

 ing it from the glass, and this should be cleaned with clear 

 water. Every wall should be coated with limewash, adding 

 1 lb. flowers of sulphur and 4 ozs. of soft soap to every gallon, 

 and the woodwork should be well painted every alternate year 

 — better every year. The cleaning must be thorough. Mealy 

 bug cannot endure paint ; there is no insect, probably, that 

 spirits of turpentine, especially its vapour, will not kill. 



As regards cleaning the plants, I am a firm believer in water 

 being the best thing to use. Mealy bug cannot withstand it, 

 and, though it may shield itself from it in the cracks and 

 crevices, on the plant which can be subjected to the force of 

 water from a syringe its days are few. When a plant is in- 

 fested (and all plants should be frequently examined to see 

 that they are free of insect pests), I advise that it should be 

 gone over where it stands, if this can be done, and if not, it 

 should be removed with the least disturbance — not that the 

 insects are likely to run, but they fall, and one dropped may 

 soon cause a generation on other plants near which it falls ; 

 but if cleaned where it stood, if any drop, the insects will 

 generally return to whence they came. I go over the plant 

 leaf by leaf, scanning well every joint, and wherever a mealy 

 bug is seen, or the cottony substance of the brood, it is taken 

 between the finger and thumb, and this is after all the best 

 cure ; it is tedious, but sure. That done, remove the plant, 

 and laying the pot on its side syringe the plant thoroughly. 



