458 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 403. 



not even in Nicholson's Dictionary of Gardening. The plants 

 grow hke Cucumbers, the vines being six or seven feet long, 

 and the fruit oval in form, about two and a half to three inches 

 in length and one and a half inches in diameter, including the 

 spines. These latter are thickly placed upon the surface, and 

 vary from one-fourth to five-sixteenths of an inch in length. 

 They are soft greenish yellow in color, and give the fruit the 

 appearance of being rather thinly studded with very coarse 

 hairs. The surface of the pericarp is of a light green color, 

 tinged with yellow. This fruit has no edible qualities, so far as 

 anybody knows, but is cultivated as are twenty-five or thirty 

 other species, simply for its curious appearance. 



Cornell University. 



ment further another season, and trust others may do the 

 same. 



Floral Parli, N. Y. C. L. Allen. 



L. H. B. 



Correspondence. 



Keeping Grapes Fresh all Winter. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In your issue of the 9th of October, under the title 

 " Lake Keuka Vineyards," it is stated that " table grapes are 

 shipped all through the winter months until March and April, 

 now that the art of keeping them is understood." Will you 

 have the goodness to publish the method alluded to, as it 

 would be of great value to your readers on this coast ? 



San Francisco, Calif. John Benson. 



[There are but few varieties of grapes which can be kept 

 through the winter, even under favorable conditions. The 

 Catawba is the standard winter variety in western New 

 York, and Mr. G. C. Snow, of Penn Yan, New York, who 

 was the Commissioner of Viticulture for that region at the 

 World's Fair, writes that this fruit is picked a few days be- 

 fore it is dead ripe — experience must tell the exact time — 

 and the clusters are laid on trays holding about forty 

 pounds of fruit. The fruit is cooled as soon as possible to 

 a temperature of some forty-five degrees, either in a cellar 

 or on the cold side of a building where it can be exposed 

 to the night air ; in the easiest way, in short, that it is pos- 

 sible to reduce it to the proper temperature. The trays 

 are then placed in a cellar or storeroom where varia- 

 tion of the temperature can be prevented as far as 

 possible. Ventilation is necessary in order to get rid 

 of the stale air, and care must be taken that the air in 

 every part of the cellar is changed, but draughts must 

 be avoided, or there will be a tendency of the stems 

 to shrivel. These are the main points of the process, 

 about which there is no secret. Expensive buildings 

 are not essential, for, as a matter of fact, it is only by 

 testing that it is discovered whether the cellar is good for the 

 purpose or not. Mr. Snow adds that some of the most suc- 

 cessful houses for keeping fruits are inexpensive, and he 

 does not know of a single cellar for this purpose alone in 

 which ice is used. It ought to be added that Mr. Snow had 

 on exhibition at Chicago, Catawba, Diana and Isabella 

 grapes of the harvest of 1892 up to August ist of the fol- 

 lowing year and enough fresh grapes in good condition to 

 have lasted a month longer, when they were destroyed by 

 the burning of the cold-storage building. He expected to 

 show fresh grapes twelve months old, and would probably 

 have done this but for the fire. — Ed.] 



Late-flowering Golden-rods. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — A kindly word for the Golden-rod is always appreciated, 

 and your reference to a late-flowering species, on page 440, 

 suggests the query, why not have other of the species flower 

 at this season ? By accident vi^e found this to be easily done. 

 Last year the v.'ife of a Long Island farmer called my attention 

 to a clump of Solidago Canadensis, in tlie corner of the garden 

 where it had been allowed to remain undisturbed for a num- 

 ber of years, that had been cut nearly to the ground by the 

 scythe, but had branched out anew and was flowering beauti- 

 fully the last week in October. This year the operation was 

 repeated, systematically, a portion being cut early in June, 

 another just as the plants were coming into flower, the result 

 being that there were flowers until quite recently. Whether this 

 plan will always work, and whether other of the species will do 

 as well under the same treatment, I cannot say, but shall experi- 



Exhibitions. 



The Horticultural Show in Philadelphia. 



'X'HE Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia afforded a con- 

 -'■ venient and beautiful exhibition place for the autumn 

 show of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society last week. The 

 display was, perhaps, more remarkable in tasteful arrangement 

 and in variety of exhibits than in any other particulars. The 

 broad marble stairways were tastefully, but not lavishly, deco- 

 rated with plants, and the long hall at its head, between the 

 half-dozen connecting rooms on each side which contained 

 the main exhibits, was lined with well-grown, single-flowered 

 Chrysanthemums, in classes of six pots each of five different 

 varieties and of twenty-five plants of twenty-five varieties. 

 C. W. Cox, gardener to Clay Kemble, Esq., Glenside, Penn- 

 sylvania, took first premium in both these classes. 



Specimen plants were arranged about the group of centaurs 

 in the rotunda. Among them the prize plant of a variety not 

 disseminated prior to 1895, which was an unnamed pink seed- 

 ling of good color and quality. The plants throughout were 

 in unfavorable contrast with the magnificent specimens famil- 

 iar in 1892 and several years previous, when James Verner, 

 then gardener for the late A. J. Drexel, Esq., showed how 

 much may be accomplished by perseverance and skill, and, it 

 should be added, by the unlimited use of money. The largest 

 premiums for plants in pots, $130 altogether, was offered for 

 collections of live plants, five varieties, and the first prize went 

 to plants of Mrs. Frank Thompson, Mrs. Hicks Arnold, Puri- 

 tan, Good Gracious and a pink seedling. The best white-flow- 

 ered specimen was a plant of Queen, the best yellow of W. H. 

 Lincoln, and the best of any other color Mrs. Hicks Arnold. 

 In the list of special prizes offered by individuals, the Record 

 prize for best three plants, yellow, three varieties, was given 

 to plants of Georgianna Pitcher, W. B. Dinsmore and W. H. 

 Lincoln, the first-named being the finest plant in the exhibi- 

 tion. A plant of Mrs. Frank Thompson, ranking second best, 

 took the Corkerhill prize. Plants of Gettysburg, Ada Prass, 

 Minnie Wanamaker and Mrs. Frank Thompson won the 

 Pembroke prize for the best four Japanese varieties. In all 

 these classes first prize was won by Gordon Smirl, gardener 

 to Joseph F. Sinnot, Esq., Rosemont, Pennsylvania. Other 

 first-prize winners for plants were John iVIcCleary, gardener to 

 William Weightman, Esq., and Patrick Conlan, gardener to N. 

 Z. Graves, Esq. 



The exhibition was rich in cut flowers, many of which were 

 generously furnished for display only, and not entered for 

 competition. The Chrysantliemum receiving the greatest 

 number of awards was the new seedling first labeled Quaker 

 City, but since named William Simpson, originated by Joseph 

 Heacock, Wyncote, Pennsylvania. This silver-pink variety is 

 similar in character of petals and in form of flower to Philadel- 

 phia, the blooms generally being of great depth. It is the 

 largest pink Chrysanthemum yet produced, and some of its 

 flowers have measured as much as eleven inches across. The 

 one adverse criticism is that the stems within about ten inches 

 of the flovver have scant foliage. It received a silver medal 

 and a certificate of merit and first premiums in various classes. 

 Mrs. Perrin, Mr. E. G. Hill's new pink, which recently scored 

 one hundred points of merit in New York, received first pre- 

 mium for the best fifty pink cut blooms. The specimens 

 shown here resembled Ivory in form. They were of uniform, 

 medium size, broad petals, of not very heavy texture, loosely 

 and regularly incurved ; in color the clearest and brightest 

 pink yet seen. The foliage was in all respects excellent. 

 These two pink varieties were the conspicuous new sorts of 

 this show, as Philadelphia was the noteworthy flower last year, 

 Eugene Dailledouze in 1893, and Golden Wedding and Mrs. 

 Craige Lippincott in 1892. Three notable vases of fifty white 

 flowers were of Mayflower, Mr. John May's striking seedling 

 of last year, grown by Mr. Robert Craig, and of Minnie Wana- 

 maker and Ivory. The prize for twelve blooms, one of a kind, 

 open to amateurs only, was won by J. E. Krayer with flowers 

 of Queen, Mrs. Bayard Cutting, Harry Balsley, Mrs. W. Tre- 

 lease, a pleasing pale pink, loose and feathered ; Mrs. Craige 

 Lippincott, H. Sunderbruch, Colonel William B.Smith, Minnie 

 Wanamaker, Philadelphia, Mrs. A. J. Drexel, Golden Wedding 

 and Imperial Castle, an improvement on the old white, spheri- 

 cal Mrs. George Bullock. Imperial Castle again showed to 

 advantage in the amateur's exhibit of twenty-five blooms, one 

 of a kind, in which also appeared the best bloom of Eugene 



