November 23, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



'561 



during bright sunny weather. It is easily multiph'ed by remov- 

 ing some of the short young growths, with a small portion of 

 the older wood, in early spring, inserting them in the sand of 

 a propagating-bench and shading until rooted, when they may 

 be managed in the same way as older specimens. Young 

 plants grown in this manner will flower during the ensuing 

 autumn if confined to a single stem. Seeds of C. fallax are 

 sometimes obtainable, and good flowering plants may be had 

 from them in two years. They should be sown in spring, using 

 sandy soil, and placed in strong heat until the plants appear. 

 Pot them off singly when large enough to be handled without 

 much trouble, and treat them afterward like plants raised 

 from cuttings, pruning the stem to a couple of nodes above 

 the soil in winter. i^ r. 1 



Cambridge, Mass. ■™- -OarKer. 



Begonia decora.— This is a new species of Begonia, and one 

 which is likely to become a favorite in gardens because of its 

 prettily marked leaves. It was found in Perak by Mr. C. Curtis, 

 who sent it to Messrs. J. Veilch & Sons, Chelsea, by whom it 

 was exhibited at the Begonia Conference last August under the 

 name of B. barbata. This latter name, however, belongs to a 

 well-known and common Burmese species, of which plants 

 have been in cultivation at Kew since 1886, when seeds of it 

 were sent home by Mr. C. B. Clarke, F.R.S. B. decora has a 

 short fleshy stem crowded with leaves, the petioles of which 

 are four inches long, and the blades obliquely ovate-serrate, 

 not lobed, and five inches long by three inches in width. The 

 whole plant is covered with a soft pubescence, giving it a vel- 

 vety feeling, and the leaf-blades are colored a bright coppery 

 red, with conspicuous veins of yellow-green. The flowers are 

 pink. The plant appears to require stove treatment. 



Kew. 



W. W. 



Correspondence. 



California Oranges and Lemons. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I have been spending the first week of November 

 among the orange and lemon growers of southern California, 

 and I am greatly interested in the more recent features of 

 Citrus culture. Without instituting any odious comparisons 

 with Florida, the only rival Orange state, I cannot help feeling 

 that the well-directed energy and intelligence of the horticul- 

 turists in the colonies I have been visiting can hardly be sur- 

 passed in any other part of America. I look upon Riverside, 

 Redlands and the San Bernardino country generally as fairly 

 typical of the most advanced Orange treatment in California ; 

 nearer the coast, at Santa Paula, Ventura County, the culture of 

 the Lemon is as well understood as anywhere else in the state. 

 Everywhere in the great Citrus fruit districts that- I have 

 studied a far higher ideal prevails now than ten years ago ; the 

 fascinating industry is becoming permanently established by 

 highly educated specialists who love their work. 



Twenty years ago there was no one in California who really 

 knew much about Citrus fruits. A few families of small 

 means founding colonies, under great difficulties^social, legal 

 and physical — obtained water for irrigation and began experi- 

 ments. When their efforts had fairly created a new industry 

 the inevitable era of land-speculation set in, and dotted many 

 a rich valley with mushroom towns. Thousands of promising 

 young Orange-groves were neglected ; progressive horticul- 

 ture received a check ; the weeds often grew waist-high in 

 orchards where the land-boomer had driven his town-lot 

 stakes. As this craze died out, the solid towns grew faster 

 than before, and the tide of investment flowed back upon hor- 

 ticulture. The last five or six years have witnessed a marvelous 

 development, especially in the Citrus fruits, which appear to 

 belong more and more to certain districts, and to be more and 

 more the specialty of certain families and colonies. 



The true limits of successful Orange culture, long loudly 

 quarreled over, are being settled by the simple commercial 

 test — the sale of products in the open market. Details of cul- 

 ture — problems of stock, planting, pruning, and all that — are 

 discussed daily, and almost hourly, in the Orange districts. 

 Active organizations, with committees in every department, 

 watch the whole world for news about orange matters, and 

 are prepared to act as a unit. Every new variety is tested ; all 

 that skill and money can do to raise the standard of the prod- 

 uct is constantly being done in such districts as Riverside. 



Observe, for instance, the present behavior of Riverside re- 

 specting the frost question. The valley has about 50,000 acres 

 under irrigation pipes and ditches. The annual planting of 

 Citrus fruits is between 3,000 and 4,000 acres. Some winters 



the temperature falls so low that the oranges are injured or 

 destroyed. The meteorological record shows that the mini- 

 mum temperature during the past ten years at the town of 

 Riverside has once fallen to twenty-one degrees, once to 

 twenty-five degrees and twice to twenty-six degrees. The low- 

 est was ruinous to much of the fruit, and the others injured 

 fruit in some orchards. The sensible Riverside horticulturists, 

 instead of denying all this, are facing it, confident in their own 

 ability to conquer the difficulty ; they are using appliances for 

 warming the orchards on a large scale. Their experiments 

 show that the temperature can be raised from four to ten de- 

 grees by the use of fires. The moment that the thermometer 

 falls to the danger point electric-bells can be rung and tanks of 

 crude California petroleum can be lit. One gentleman has 

 fitted up an eighty-acre orchard at a cost of $10,000 or $12,000. 

 He claims that his grove is now absolutely protected, and that 

 the running expense will be very little. Since his crop is worth 

 $50,000, and since a single night such as the freeze of i8gi 

 would destroy every orange, the wisdom of the system is 

 manifest. Other growers use coal-oilcans, filled with kindling- 

 wood and coal, and placed in the orchard at the rate of from 

 eight to twenty-five per acre. Some provide themselves with 

 two-gallon iron kettles, and use reduced petroleum, costing in 

 Riverside about ten cents a gallon. Ten dollars per acre will 

 pay for the plant and the expense of one night's burning. Pro- 

 gressive horticulturists in other Citrus colonies are following 

 inthetrack of Riverside, and preparing for future "coldsnaps." 



Thousands of writers have described in magazines and 

 books the beauty of the more famous Orange colonies. While 

 the stranger feels this first, there is, I notice, a broader and 

 more fundainental fact about such places as Riverside. The 

 whole community throbs with one purpose. The most wisely 

 directed horticultural skill is continually at work bringing 

 forth, through vast toils, new achievements. Each new tract 

 planted requires in some degree special treatment, according 

 to slope of hill, currents of wind, altitude or variations of soil. 

 ■ What fine hereditary knowledge of their art the orange-grow- 

 ing grandchildren of these Riverside pioneers may hope to 

 possess ! 



The Lemon, long scorned in California, begins to receive 

 much attention. N. W. Blanchard, of Santa Paula, grows the 

 Eureka, the Lisbon and the Genoa. He has a large sweat- 

 house, and produces a lemon that compares very favorably 

 with the best imported. He cannot supply the San Francisco 

 demand, and is planting 400 acres more. The trees are allowed 

 to trail their lower branches on the ground, and seem far more 

 picturesque in growth than Orange-trees. The fruit is cut when 

 at the desired size, and while still green, so that one seldom 

 sees a yellow lemon in the entire grove. In the older Orange 

 colonies of southern California the Lemon is rapidly rising in 

 favor, and large orchards will be planted the coming season. 

 Villa Franca, Sicily and Lisbon are the varieties generally 

 chosen. The best Sicily lemon is the Royal Messina, a recent 

 introduction. '- 



Berkeley, Cal. Charles Howard Shmn. 



Pedigree Seedling Chrysanthemums. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I am not altogether satisfied with the results of my ex- 

 periments in raising pedigree seedling Chrysanthemums. I 

 started three years ago with the settled conviction that John 

 Thorpe was right. I have watched every little detail. I noted 

 all the first seeds to germinate, and found, contrary to the gen- 

 eral idea, that there was as great, if not a greater, percentage 

 of good double flowers among them than those germinating 

 later. Against the recommendation to discard weak seedlings, 

 I have saved somefortesting, and the majority gained vigor and 

 produced a good percentage of fine flowers. When poUenizing, 

 I found that full double flowers had a greater percentage of 

 trifurcate stigmas than flowers in which the disk florets pre- 

 dominated ; that the seedlings from these flowers were mostly 

 tricotyledonous, and what is still more important, that all these 

 seedlings produced full double flowers. Ligulate florets pro- 

 duced seedlings which maintained in a marked degree the 

 characters of their parents, however much they diverged in 

 color. V. H. Halleck was not influenced by any other color- 

 cross than yellow, and all seedlings from it were either flesh- 

 pink or yellow. On the contrary, it impressed itself upon all 

 others. I have observed a tendency to earliness in all varieties ; 

 early",varieties produce yet earlier seedlings, even when crossed 

 by late varieties, and taking their character in other respects. 

 For instance, E. Molyneaux, early crimson, crossed with 

 Walter Hunnewell, late orange, gave all early seedlings and 

 mostly yellow. Goldfinder, late yellow, x L. Boehmer, early 



