August 31, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



415 



left too lono; on the trees. The fruit should be picked fully 

 ten days before ripening. The points tliat will recommend 

 this pear most strongly are size, color, firmness and fra- 

 grance. 



To find if the seedless nature of this pear was known, I 

 wrote to Wm. Parry, of New Jersey, who offers this variety. 

 In reply he wrote : " A number of trees liave fruited this sum- 

 mer and created a very good impression. We had not noticed 

 that they were seedless, and cannot say whether ours were so 

 or not, as our crop is now all gone." 



The Early Harvest is another new Pear, ripening a week 

 later than the Lawson. If it gives no better results elsewhere 

 than it has given here, it would be better to abandon it at 

 once. This is described in Parry's catalogue as "very firm, 

 can be shaken from the tree like walnuts, packed and shipped 

 to the market, ripening on the way and coloring up hand- 

 somely." All of which is quite true, but disappointment fol- 

 lows. The fruit is very firm even when fully ripe, so much so 

 that the flesh is tougli, and in all the fruits that passed under 

 my observation the centres were soft through decay, and the 

 faint of rottenness affected the entire fruit before even the 

 color of ripeness appeared. Whether picked green or ripe. 



four feet high, the lower portion furnished with dark green 

 ovate-lanceolate leaves, terminating in large flowers, the pur- 

 plish disks of which are prominent and cone-like — hence the 

 popular name — and the drooping rose-purple rays about two 

 inches long. It likes a good free soil, in which it makes vigor- 

 ous growth, and is easily increased from seeds or by division 

 of the plants. 



Some of the Horse-mints, Monardas, notably M. didyma, 

 commonly called Bee Balm, or Oswego Tea, and M. fistulosa, 

 otherwise known as Wild Bergamot, are usually full of flowers 

 at this time of the year, lasting, indeed, well into September ; 

 but, owing to a lack of moisture in July, our plants are 

 not as fine as we have had them in past seasons. The good 

 qualities of the plants, however, are still sufficiently manifest 

 to elicit a word of commendation. They are fragrant peren- 

 nial?, from three to four feet high, and of erect habit. The 

 flowers are borne in whorls at the extremity of the stem, and 

 they are of an intense scarlet color in M. didyma, while those 

 of M. fistulosa are light purple. There are a few other species, 

 but those mentioned are the best of the group. Both plants 

 make satisfactory progress in ordinary soil, but, if possi- 

 ble, they should be sheltered from the direct rays of the sun. 



Fii^. 69. — The Sliad-busli (.\Tiiulancliier alnifolia) in Washington. — See pa^e 409. 



the interior behavior was the same. The quality of the pear 

 in flavor and substance is very inferior. 



Other varieties ripening later yielded their first fair setting 

 of fruit in 1891, and show a good crop again this year. These 

 are the Cocklin, Garber and Mikado, all of them of Sand Pear 

 parentage; ripe in October and November. It is not probable 

 that any of these will ever be considered fine for dessert, be- 

 cause of a certain coarseness combined with a lack of sweet- 

 ness. They are all three to be classed with Le Conte in quality, 

 and therefore not suited to the north. 



State College, Pa. Geo.C.Buiz. 



The Wild Garden in August. — II. 



nPHE Purple Cone-flower (Echinacea purpurea) is very distinct 

 -'• and beautiful. Ample testimony of its attractiveness may 

 be found in the fact that it was the second plant selected by the 

 conductors of the Botanical Magazine for illustration in their 

 great work. Although thus prominently brought to public no- 

 tice so many years ago, it is still comparatively rare in cultiva- 

 tion ; but it remains, nevertheless, one of the best plants of its 

 class to be found in garden catalogues. The stems are about 



There is no prettier sight in the garden at the present time 

 than that afforded by a clump of the Flowering Spurge, 

 Euphorbia corollata, growing strongly on the steep bank of a 

 shallow pond. But this plant is very deceptive in a botanical 

 sense, for what at a first glance seems to be the flower is only 

 a series of bracts arranged around the real flower in the form 

 of a calyx or corolla. The simple stem ascends to a height of 

 about three feet, and is vi'ell clad with pale green, oblong 

 leaves. The bracts are pure white, each cluster of five having 

 the appearance of a spreading flower one-fourth of an inch 

 in diameter, and these floral appendages are borne in immense 

 numbers at the top of the stem, the inflorescence taking the 

 form of a compound whorled umbel. 



The Cardinal-flower, Lobelia cardinalis, is more at home on 

 the lower ground hard by, where its erect racemes of glowing 

 scarlet flowers have been a dazzling feature of the place for 

 several weeks past, and where they will continue a brilliant 

 attraction for some time to come. The blue flowers of L. 

 syphilitica, the Great Lobelia, are quite as beautiful as those 

 of its red-flowered relative, though not so lustrous. The 

 plants resemble each other closely in habit and requirements, 

 but L. syphilitica blooms later, the earliest flowers appearing 



