98 



Garden and Forest. 



INUMHER 367. 



Correspondence. 



The Cultivation of Tea in America. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In Mr. Watson's London letter, in your issue of January 

 161I1, I notice some remarks on Tea cultivation which miglit 

 induce American planters to think that the plant could be 

 profitably cultivated in the southern states. It will, no doubt, 

 grow there and may produce tea of fair quality, but unless 

 labor can be had at an almost nominal rate it cannot compete 

 in price with tea from India, Ceylon and China. A great deal 

 of the manufacturing process is now done in India and Ceylon 

 by machinery at a low cost, but hoeing and picking must be 

 done by hand, and as in Sikkim we pay coolies at the rate of 

 from four to seven rupees a month, without food, which is 

 equal at the present rate of exchange to from one to two dollars 

 a month, and have virgin soil of the greatest fertility, in a most 

 forcing chmate, at a trifling cost, we have advantages in India 

 which seem to me to make competition in other countries 

 impossible. Statistics show that the proportion of China tea 

 now used in England has steadily fallen, notwithstanding its 

 very low price. The average price of Indian tea in Calcutta on 

 January 24th was nine annas, equal to about fifteen cents a 

 pound ; and though this includes much tea of low quality, yet 

 an average of ten annas is a very profitable price for the total 

 output on many plantations, and some pay fairly with an 

 average price of only six annas. 



I was much surprised when in America to find how little 

 known Indian Tea is tliere, and how few people really know 

 the taste of good tea. If it were understood that almost every 

 leaf of Chinese tea is contaminated by perspiration, owing to 

 the system of rolling by hand still followed there, while Indian 

 tea is now almost everywhere rolled by machinery, I feel sure 

 more people would drink tlie India product. Adulteration is 

 absolutely unknown in India, while muchChinaand Japan tea is 

 artificially colored. Of the various sorts of Indian tea, Darjee- 

 ling is the finest for drinking unmixed. Assam and Cachar tea 

 is stronger, and the best of it too astringent for many palates. 

 Ceylon is good cheap tea, but rarely has the delicate aroma of 

 Darjeeling, Pekoe or Broken Pekoe. The presence of a num- 

 ber of the young unopened leaf-buds, technically called tips, 

 in Indian Tea, is always a sign of good quality, and in the 

 finest qualities of Darjeeling tea there is a delicate after-taste 

 of chocolate, more easily perceived when the tea is drank 

 half cold. Weak cold tea is about the best and most refresh- 

 ing drink I know in hot, dry climates, and much less heating 

 than coffee, which is also more difficult to make properly. 



Chellenhain, England. H. J. Elwes. 



Flowering House-plants for Early Winter. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Owing to certain mischances, the last autumn found 

 us with only a few large plants for winter display, and these 

 were mostly so-called foliage plants. We wanted something 

 bright in the way of flowers during November and December. 

 We had quantities of potted plants, but their lack of size and 

 dignity emphasized the need of something with more charac- 

 ter and distinction. Later on we could have Azaleas, Lilies, 

 Genistas and ff olland bulbs, but for these two months we had 

 no decorative flowering plants except Chrysanthemums. In 

 early autumn we had a three-days' rain that soaked the l:)eds to the 

 bottom, and as frost approached I thought of the bright Salvias 

 and royal Dahlias that would soon be frozen and blackened. 

 Why not try these for window-i>lants .' One deep stroke with 

 mattock behind the ball of roots, then one on each side, then 

 a deft understroke and a steady leverage from the mattock, 

 and Salvias three feet in diameter, Celosias with heads sixteen 

 inches long, clumps of Crozy Cannas and great bushes of 

 Cosmos came up with huge balls of earth unbroken. Placed 

 in tubs the lifted plants were shaded for a. day or two, but this 

 precaution seemed unnecessary. Not a leaf withered or a 

 flower drooped. The gorgeous Cockscombs and flaming 

 spikes of Salvia made a bright display for three months, while 

 the smaller and later plants had a chance to do their growing 

 and make ready to take their place later on. 



These g.irden-grown plants had double the bulk and weight 

 of roots that would have been made by a pot-grown plant. 

 But to offset this disadvantage they had an exuberance quite 

 unusual to indoor plants, and, altogether, the experiment was 

 so successful that I shall certainly try it another year. 



PineviUe, Mo. LorCl S. Lil MiDlce. 



Notes from Wellesley, Massachusetts, and its 

 Vicinity. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — On the occasion of a late visit to Mr. Joseph Tailby, of 

 Wellesley, noted as the introducer of Grace Wilder and other 

 good Carnations, we found that the Mrs. Fisher, as grown here, 

 is superb. The centre bed of one long house, planted with 

 this variety, was a sheet of snowy bloom, and the individual 

 flowers showed little of the tendency to burst their calyces, an 

 objection which is sometimes urged against this plant when it 

 is grown in the winter, and there can be no doubt that where 

 it does well it is still the leading white Carnation. Mr. Tailby 's 

 plants are the best I ever saw, and worthy of a long journey to 

 see. Of the seedlings here, Henrietta Sargent, the new yel- 

 low, and Helen Schaffer, white, are two of the best. William 

 Scott is the leading pink variety, but Ada Byron appears to be 

 a failure. 



A small bench of the new Farquhar Violet looked promis- 

 ing, while Lady Hume Campbell and other standard varieties 

 were recovering from an attack of leaf curl and flowering 

 finely. . At the Wellesley College greenhouses two beautiful 

 specimens of Acacia pubescens, with stems seven feet long, 

 were in llower, and their drooping branches, thickly hung with 

 racemes of sulphur-colored flowers, testify to what was said in 

 a recent number of Garden and Forest as to the value of 

 this Acacia for winter flowering. There are few Orchids here, 

 but all are well grown, and two plants of Dendrobium nobile 

 were seen which can hardly lie duplicated elsewhere in'Jthe 

 United States. One of these specimens usually finds its way 

 to the spring exliibition of the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society, and is always a centre of attraction there. The twin 

 plants are now carrying from six hundred to a thousand buds 

 each. The sweet-scented Pilumna nobilis and AngrcEcum su- 

 perbum were both nicely in bloom, and a fine lot of Odonto- 

 glossums were very interesting. At Mr. Hunnewell's place 

 the plant of Clematis indivisa, which has been described in 

 your columns, covers a large part of the roof of one of the 

 cool houses, and it is now a picture, thousands of its beautiful 

 while flowers being fully expanded. For covering pillars and 

 training thinly over the roof of a greenhouse, nothing is more 

 desiralfle than this plant. It will flower freely in a six or eight- 

 inch pot, but to see it in perfection it should have the treat- 

 ment which Mr. Harris gives it here, where it is planted out 

 and occasionally root-pruned to keep it within bounds. I 

 noticed fine flowers of Phalasnopsisin the warm Orchid house, 

 but most of the Cattleyas, Dendrobiums and other Orchids are 

 held back so that they can flower with the Rliododendrons, at 

 which season Wellesley is at its brightest. At Mr. Walter 

 Hunnewell's I observed a fine display of the best winter-flower- 

 ing Begonias, and was interested in Mr. Hatfield's specimen 

 Chrysanthemum plants, which were already in four-inch pots. 

 Here the Violet, Lady Hume Campbell, looked clean and 

 healthy and was behaving ])roperly, as it was at Mr. Arthur 

 Hunnewell's place. 



At Mrs, B. P. Cheney's, South Natick, Mr. John Barr, the 

 head-gardener, showed me a Rose house which contained 

 flowering plants of Madame de Watteville, Catharine Mermet, 

 Bride, Bridesmaid and Perle de Jardin, which were as good as 

 can be seen anywhere. Cyclamens here in ten and twelve 

 inch pots, Cinerarias and Carnations are all capitally done. In 

 the graperies I observed by the mulching on the border that 

 the vines here received generous treatment, and it is worth 

 stating that in too many places the failure of fruit is owing to 

 starvation, the vines neitlier receiving a proper amount of 

 food or of drink. At the greenhouses of Mr. Daviil Nevins, 

 in South Framingham, I saw those remarkable Violets which 

 have made such a sensation at two recent exhibitions in Bos- 

 ton. The average flowers were as large as a half-dollar, and 

 exceptional ones will cover a silver dollar comfortably. The 

 variety chiefly grown is Marie Louise, but Swanley White is 

 equally good. 'The plants are grown in eight-inch pots m a Car- 

 nation house temperature, and many of them show three dozen, 

 and even more, fully expanded flowers, with any number 

 more coming on and not a sign of spot or leaf curl. Mr. 

 McKay, the grower of these remarkable flowers, pointed out a 

 group from which he had picked a thousand flowers the day 

 before and they could hardly be missed. Violets are not the 

 only things done well here, as the hybrid Perpetual Roses and 

 a few well-grown Orchids testify. The most successful Carna- 

 tions here are Lizzie McGowan, Mrs. Fisher, Tidal Wave and 

 Ferdinand Mangold. Below the benches, in the cool house, 

 some beds were carrying a good crop of Mushrooms, as well 

 as Rhubarb and Sea Kale. 



A short walk from Mr. Nevins' estate firings us to Mr. 



