December ig, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



509 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



THE attempt to induce English farmers to plant their 

 fields with Tobacco instead of Wheat and Potatoes hav- 

 ing proved abortive, efforts are being made to induce colonial 

 farmers to try Tobacco for the English market. A prize is 

 offered by the London Chamber of Commerce for the best 

 specimen of colonial-grown Tobacco, of not less than 400 

 pounds. Without protection, however, it is not clear how 

 the present supply can be superseded by what must ob- 

 viously be an inferior article. 



Begonias pay in England better than Tobacco, and I hear 



flowers, which are open together. The individual blooms, 

 male and female, attain the size of three inches or more in 

 diameter, and are composed of si.x to eight large, oval 

 petals, which give them the shape of Anemone fulgens or of 

 A. Japonica. A nearly complete range of colors, from pure 

 white to scarlet, with various shades of pink and carmine, is 

 to be found in this new race, which produces a beautiful 

 display of bloom at a season when the tuberous Begonias 

 are over — that is, in November." The most marked charac- 

 ter in this new race is the number of petals in the flowers, 

 the common ones having four only in the male flowers and 

 si.x in the females ; the increased number in M. Lemoine's 

 latest success is owing to the eight-petaled character of one 

 of the parents, B. octopetala. 



Fig. 80. — Shortia galacifolia. — See page 506. 

 I. A plant of the natural size. 2. Corolla laid open, showing the stamens and staminodes. 3. Diagram of the flower- 

 A stamen, 5. Pistil. 6. Vertical section of the ovary. 7. A fruit. 8. Cross-section of a fruit. 9. A seed.— All enlarged. 



we have still another race of these plants to add to those 

 which have become universally popular for out-door bed- 

 ding and green-house decoration. Mons. V. Lemoine, of 

 Nancy, already famous as the raiser of some first-rate 

 Gladioli, Pelargoniums, etc., has succeeded in crossing the 

 very distinct species, B. octopetala, with some of the linest of 

 the tuberous section. He writes to Dr. Masters : " The re- 

 sult of this cross is a magnificent one, and the new race, 

 ' Octopetala Leinoinea' is one of the handsomest which 1 

 have ever raised. The root is somewhat irregularly length- 

 ened, black, intermediate in shape between that of the two 

 parents. The stem is herbaceous and short, so that the 

 leaves seem to be radical ; they are broad, undulated, of a 

 glossy green, with round, hairy stalks. Each plant bears 

 from six to eight erect flower-stalks, thick and fiairy, about 

 two feet high, and each supporting from five to seven 



Mr. Rivers, of Sawbridgeworth, famous for first-rate work 

 among fruit-trees, the raiser of some of our finest Peaches, 

 Nectarines, Plums, etc., and the pioneer of house-cultiva- 

 tion for orcliard-trees, has gathered a very fine collection of 

 Oranges, Citrons, Lemons, etc., which he cultivates by the 

 thousand, and fruits when only two or three feet high. Al- 

 together he has over fifty distinct kinds, which are true to 

 name and comprise all the very best commercial sorts. I 

 saw them a few days ago, and was especially charmed with 

 die show-house of well-fruited plants, none in pots above 

 eight-inch size, and some with over a score of large, beauti- 

 ful fruits upon them. I was surprised to find that these pot- 

 gTown Oranges were better in flavor and much more juicy 

 than those imported. Mr. Rivers supplies the colonies and 

 also America with plants from his nursery, which, being 

 grafted and carefuUv named, are much more reliable than 



