276 



Garden and Forest 



[June 4, 1890. 



about one-third its' mature size. This is done by cfarefully 

 slitting up with a scissors' point the front of the keel petal and 

 removing the anthers before the pollen is shed, for should 

 this have taken place in the slightest degree it will be well to 

 abandon the operation and recommence on another flower. 

 The foreign pollen of the desired variety can then be applied 

 through the opening made in the keel of the Mower to be fer- 

 tilized, either from a camel's-hair pencil or by direct applica- 

 tion of the ripened pollen-bearing anthers to the upper edge 

 of the carpel. This is best accomplished by an easily acquired 

 movement of the thumb and finger of the right hand holding 

 the pollen-bearing flower, the keel of which, with its point 

 inserted in the opening made in that of the flower to be oper- 

 ated upon, may be drawn back over the anthers, and the pol- 

 len will be delivered by a jerk or spring into the desired posi- 

 tion. I rarely use a camel's-hair pencil in cross-fertilization, 

 as it brings considerable risk of introducing other pollen or 

 undesirable foreign matter in combination with the pollen to 

 be used. After the operation has been performed, it will be 

 desirable to pinch out the crown and all the flowers and pods 

 on the plant except those cross-fertilized. If in conducting the 

 operation care has been taken not to injure the organs of fruc- 

 tification, and these are in ripe condition, and sufficient pollen 

 has been applied, the pod, if the weather be not too wet or 

 moist, will probably set, and in due course ripen its comple- 

 ment of seeds. 



" By means, however, of cross-fertilization alone, and unless 

 it be followed by careful and continued selection, the labors 

 of the cross-breeder, instead of benefiting the gardener, may 

 lead to utter confusion, because, as I have previously stated, 

 the Pea, under ordinary conditions, is much given to sporting 

 and reversion, for when two dissimilar old or fixed varieties 

 have been cross-fertilized, three or four generations at least 

 must, under the most favorable circumstances, elapse before 

 the progeny will become fixed or settled ; and from one such 

 cross I have no doubt that, by sowing every individual Pea 

 produced during the three or four generations, hundreds of 

 different varieties may be obtained; but, as might be expected, 

 I have found that where the two varieties desired to be inter- 

 crossed are unfixed, confusion will be confounded, and the 

 variations continue through many generations, the number at 

 length being utterly incalculable. We must, therefore, still 

 largely look to selection as the final means of obtaining per- 

 manent improvements in the Pea, and I fear the results of the 

 recent work of Pea-crossers can hardly be fully appreciated 

 for some years to come, during which their labors must be 

 carefully followed by those of the seed-grower." 



Notes on Vegetables. 



TO-DAY (May 17th) we saw the first snap beans in Raleigh. 

 They were of the Mohawk variety, and while the Mohawk 

 is not so early as some other and better beans, if both have 

 warm weather to grow in, yet the Mohawk makes its appear- 

 ance first because it is better able to withstand the unfavorable 

 weather and light frosts we have in April. So the market- 

 growers find they cannot dispense with it. The earliest Valen- 

 tines are close behind, but a difference of a few days or a week 

 at this season of the year in a crop so easily grown as Bush 

 Beans means all the difference between profit and loss on the 

 crop. 



If all the claims of the seedsmen in regard to new Tomatoes 

 were true we ought to have a variety by this time which we 

 could ripen here early in May, while the fact is that with every 

 convenience for forwarding the crop the first week in June is 

 as early as any can be had. There has been little or no ad- 

 vance in the earliness of Tomatoes in the past twenty-five 

 vears, and it may be regarded as settled that in the matter of 

 earliness we have reached the limit. Much improvement can 

 probably yet be made in tomatoes in the way of combining 

 size and solidity with smoothness and earliness. In some of 

 the recent extra" early sorts there has been a retrogression in 

 this particular, and the growers have sacrificed vigor of plant 

 for earliness. Dwarf Champion has plenty of vigor though of 

 compact growth. With us it has always been among the 

 earliest, but it lacks quality for the family garden and is better 

 fitted for shipping on account of its tough skin. We have 

 forty varieties now fruiting. 



Henderson's Succession Cabbage promises to be a very 

 close successor to the Early Summer, and being of larger size 

 will come in at a very good season for a summer Cabbage. 

 But it must prove good indeed if it supersedes Fottler's Im- 

 proved Brunswick in this. What we want here in the south 

 is a Cabbage that can be safely carried through late summer 

 and be reliable for heading in autumn and winter. The diffi- 



culty in this has led to the almost universal use of the Collard, 

 which by the by is no mean vegetable after frost has made it 

 tender. The practice of calling any Cabbage that has failed to 

 head a Collard has given this vegetable a bad name with those 

 who have never tasted a real Georgia Collard. The difficulty in 

 raising the plants in hot summer weather is one of the great- 

 est obstacles to the raising of winter Cabbage here, and it 

 seems to me that growers at the north or in the mountains 

 might make a good thing by supplying the low country with 

 plants for setting in August and September. 



Since southern growers have found out that the best Potatoes 

 for winter use and the best seed for spring planting are grown 

 here from seed of the early crop planted in August, there has 

 been a large development in this line, and it will not be long 

 before the south will grow its own supply of winter Potatoes, 

 and be able to supply unsprouted potatoes north late in spring. 

 We will always have to buy enough of northern grown seed 

 potatoes in spring to raise our late seed from, for I do not 

 think the process can be carried profitably beyond one season. 

 Formerly there was difficulty in getting the potatoes to grow 

 which were planted in the heat of summer. This arose from 

 the universal impression that they should be planted deep at 

 that season, while the fact is they should be barely covered in 

 the soil and heavily rolled. Planted thus all will grow and the 

 soil is plowed toward them as they advance. Last fall we dug 

 potatoes on the sixth of December which did not appear 

 above the ground until after the middle of September, and the 

 crop was much better than those planted late in July and 

 which had the whole hot weather for their early growth. Late 

 autumn is almost sure to give us good potato weather, while 

 August is apt to be too hot and dry. Therefore potatoes 

 planted from middle to last of August will generally surpass 

 those planted earlier. This late crop of potatoes we consider 

 to be one of remarkable interest to the south and at our sta- 

 tion a series of plantings will be made this year with a view to 

 test the best time for planting. 



North Carolina College of Agriculture, Raleigh. vV. r- MdSSey. 



Cypripedium barbatum. — This species belongs to that beauti- 

 ful group of " Ladies' Slippers " characterized by their marbled 

 foliage. It forms one of the most attractive sights in the Orchid 

 houses during May and June, during which time the beauty of 

 the foliage and flowers is, as it were, combined. The leaves are 

 about six inches in length, oblong-lanceolate, pale green, with 

 darker green oblong bars marbling the upper surface. The 

 dark purple hairy scapes are about a foot high, and usually 

 bear one, though not infrequently two large and handsomely 

 colored flowers, the roundish upper sepal of which forms the 

 chief attraction. It is white above, green at the base and ver- 

 tically marked with broad, dark purple stripes, while across 

 the centre there usually extends a more or less conspicuous 

 crescent-shaped zone of vinous purple, the richness of which 

 distinguishes a good variety from a bad one. The margins of 

 the linear-oblong, slightly depressed petals are thickly fringed 

 with dark, shining hairs, a circumstance which led Dr. Lindley 

 to apply the specific name — although one, nowadays, just as 

 applicable to several other species, which, however, were un- 

 known when C. barbatum was christened. The surface of the 

 petals is green at the base, passing into deep purple toward 

 the tips, while the upper margin (and sometimes the lower 

 also) is adorned with a row of blackish shining warts. Dark 

 purple is the color of the helmet-shaped lip, except on the pale 

 inflexed side lobes, which are studded with small dull purple 

 warts. 



Great variation exists in the size and color of the flowers of 

 C. barbatum — or, as it may be popularly termed, the bearded 

 "Lady's Slipper" — and this fact has given rise to a host of 

 unauthorized fancy names, which are to be found in most trade 

 catalogues. This variation, of course, is caused chiefly by cul- 

 tivation and is of like consequence in the naming. One va- 

 riety, however — that known as Crossi or Warned — is worthy 

 of distinction, and is recognized by its paler and more densely 

 growing foliage, and by its flowers being of an exceptionally 

 rich color. Of course, such a plant as C. barbatum could not 

 escape the toils of the artificial hybridist, whose operations with 

 it in combination with other species have resulted in such fine 

 hybrids as C. Harrisianum (the first artificial Cypripedium 

 raised), C. eurya?idrum, C. selligerum, C. vexillarium and 

 others. 



It has been almost half a century in cultivation, having been 

 introduced from Mount Ophir, near Malacca, about 1840, by 

 Cuming, who sent plants to Messrs. Loddiges, of Hackney, in 

 whose nursery the first flowers appeared. Since that time it 

 has been looked upon as a very useful plant, both for decora- 

 tive and exhibition purposes, and a great improvement in the 



