514 



Garden and Forest. 



[December 19, 18 



can hardly help asking- whether Mr. Norman does not use 

 some liquid fertilizer, but that he denies emphatically. 



Cyinbidium ISIastcrsi albiiiii. — Mr. John Wallace, of Paterson, 

 New Jersey, has a plant in bloom in his collection of this some- 

 what rare variety. The flowers are born on a pendent stem 

 having sepals, petals and lips of the purest white, the latter 

 having a yellow crest, the purple spots as seen in the ordinary 

 form being entirely absent. This plant inhabits the lower 

 parts of the Khasia Hills, and luxuriates on old clumps of trees 

 where from time to time decayed vegetable matter has col- 

 lected. A Cattleya house temperature suits it admirably, and 

 it enjoys a compost of decayed leaves, fibrous loam and an 

 abundant supply of moisture while making its growth. During 

 its period of rest it should be kept dry and somewhat cooler. 

 Several plants of the chaste and scarce Odonfoglossnin Harre- 

 anntn are flowering in this collection. This Orchid is sometimes 

 called a yellow O. Rossii, but it is a supposed natural hybrid 

 between 0. Rossii a.n6.0. cordatmn. Some of the flowers are of 

 great size, and on one stout spike here the llowers were three 

 and one-half jnchts across, with markings of a very rich color. 



Jersey City. A, D. 



Correspondence. 



Improvement of Nortli American Fruits. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — We have cultivated for several years the wild Papaw 

 {Asimina triloba), and it bears fruit regularly here every sea- 

 son. The fruit is delicious, and to my taste the best of the 

 wild indigenous fruits of North America. Unfortunately, 

 however, it contains too many seeds ; these are large, and the 

 amount of edible pulp is too small, therefore, in proportion to 

 the size of the fruit, to make it really valuable. The Papaw, 

 however, has not been improved by cultivation, and when it 

 is remembered how the fruit-trees of Europe have been 

 altered by long cultivation, and particularly by raising seed- 

 lings of good varieties, and by selection, I cannot help think- 

 ing that the same results may be secured by operating in this 

 way with the Papaw. The result to be obtained is the estab- 

 lishment of a variety with a large amount of pulp in the 

 fruit, and, if possible, without seeds. Such varieties are 

 already known among grapes, pears, Japanese persimmons, 

 oranges, bananas, etc. This improvement, if if can be 

 effected, will make the Papaw a fruit of great commercial 

 value, and it seems to be the duty of American pomologists 

 and horticulturists to experiment in this direction. It would 

 be necessary in the first place to select among the wild Pa- 

 paws the varieties that seem to come nearest to the ideal 

 standard, to grow seedlings from them, and then to select 

 those seedlings which show the most improvement in the de- 

 sired direction. If the experiments are continued long enough 

 the ideal fruit will be developed, and then can be perpetuated 

 by grafts. It will need, of course, some time to arrive at any 

 result, but I am convinced that in three or four generations 

 real progress can be made. 



The Loquat {Eriobo/rya Japoiiicd) is now very well known 

 in the south of France, but the variety which we grow is by no 

 means the best. A Japanese agriculturist who has lately 

 visited the Villa Thuret told me that a variety of Lociuat exists 

 in Japan with fruit three or four times as large as the one 

 which we have. This variety, moreover, has only one seed, 

 and not three or four, as in the common varieties. The size 

 and number of its seeds is the only reason why the Loquat 

 has remained such a third or fourth rate fruit, inferior even to 

 the Medlar and Sorb {Sorbiis domesiica). 



It surprises me that the Sabal Palmetto, which ought to be 

 one of the hardiest Palms, has not, up to the present time, suc- 

 ceeded in the south of France or anywhere in southern Eu- 

 rope. Why? What is the influence in air or soil which pre- 

 vents it from growing as well as many Palms do here.'' 



The year 1888 has been the most abnormal known in Europe 

 since tlie beginning of the century, and tlicre has been no 

 summer heat even in Algiers. The temperature in Provence 

 has been three degrees centigrade lower than the average; and 

 the result is that many exotics have not flowered this year, or 

 have flowered so late that they will not perfect their fruit ; 

 and there are many failures witli garden and field crops due 

 to this lack of heat. Charles Naudin. 



Villa Tliuret, Antibes, November, i388. 



[There are a^ few American fruits, as Monsieur Naudin 

 points out in the case of the Papaw, capable probably 01 

 very great improvement. The Persimmon {Diospyros 

 VirginiaiuT), as well as the Papaw, is one of them, the fruit 

 when fully ripe being considered by many persons, even 

 now, delicious. It varies a great deal in quality, the fruit 



from the extreme south being much less austere than that 

 produced in the IVIiddle States. It is sometimes entirely 

 destitute of seeds, and of course these seedless varieties 

 are the most valuable ; and there seems to be no reason 

 why the American Persimmon cannot in time be made 

 to equal the Japanese varieties in size and flavor. 

 There is no reason, too, why the American Chestnut 

 cannot be as much altered and improved in time as 

 the European variety has been; and the improvement of 

 Hickory nuts, especially pecans, offers an excellent field 

 for the American pomologist ; nuts of all the Hickor- 

 ies show a great tendency to variability in size, shape and 

 thickness of walls, but no special efforts have yet been 

 made to take advantage of these variations with the idea 

 of developing superior nuts. Sooner or later, however, 

 this will be done. Pomologists have already shown what 

 can be accomplished with our common eastern American 

 plums, by intelligent selection and cross-fertilization, but 

 no attempt, we believe, has yet been made to improve 

 the common Plum of the Sierras, Prunus subcordata, a 

 native of northern California and Oregon. The fruit is of 

 very fair quality, although, of course, capable of improve- 

 ment by the selection of seedling varieties. The Beach 

 Plum, too {P. niarilima'), found upon the shores of the 

 northern Atlantic seaboard, is another plant to which 

 pomologists might, perhaps, direct attention with the hope 

 of obtaining satisfactory results. A correspondent in 

 Oregon calls attention to the size and beauty of a native 

 Gooseberry (Ribes Lobbii), and suggests that it might, with 

 a little care in selection, be developed into a valual^le 

 dessert fruit. — Ed.] 



Recent Publications. • 



The Etiloi^y of Richard Jefferies. By Walter Besant. Lon- 

 don : Chatto & Windus. 1888. 



To those who love Nature and Nature's lovers, who have a 

 sense for that mastery in the use of words which means high 

 literary art, and who rejoice when one literary artist is com- 

 memorated by another, this life of Jefferies may well seem the 

 most interesting book of the day. It would be too much to 

 claim for Mr. Besant that he is an artist in words to the same 

 degree, or even in the same sense, as Richard Jefferies was ; 

 but an artist he is, and he has never turned his talent to 

 better account than he has in writing of the brother-in-arms 

 whom he here commemorates. His book is a little pearl 

 among biographies, and it will be a jewel of price indeed if it 

 wins for Jefferies a wider place than he has hitherto held in 

 the aif'ections of the American public. Even in his own land 

 he has had a somewhat limited, though enthusiastic, circle of 

 admirers, but here his circle has been smaller still — because, 

 perhaps, here he has had more rivals to compete with. 

 Thoreau's name is the best which can be cited to explain — or 

 rather, to suggest — the character of his writings ; and Tho- 

 reau's followers have been more numerous in America than in 

 England. Such articles as Jefferies wrote stood almost alone 

 in English periodical literature ; but on this side of the ocean 

 work similar in kind (we do not speak of quality just now) 

 comes steadily from a score of pens — work inspired t>y a keen 

 love for all the minor as well as major beauties of Nature, in- 

 stinct with true and delicate appreciation, and cast in a per- 

 sonal and artistic mould. 



Richard Jelf eries came of good yeoman stock, and was born 

 in 1848 at Coate Farm, not far from Swindon, in Wiltshire. 

 He was a studious boy, yet loved books scarcely so well as the 

 great Book of Nature, lived much out-of-doors, and was taught 

 by his father to use his eyes upon all he saw. A literary 

 career early appealed to him, and at the age of eighteen he 

 embarked in journalism, in connection with a Swindon paper, 

 and almost at once began the writing of books as well. A 

 pathetic time then ensued, when his novels went the round of 

 London publishing houses, to come repeatedly back, as he 

 said, " like the stone of Sisyphus." The first mark he made in 

 the world was when, in 1872, he wrote a letter to the London 

 Times on the condition of the agricultural laborer. This at- 

 tracted great attention, was followed liy three or four others, 

 and Jefferies saw himself recognized as the chief authority in 

 England on the agricultural questions of the day. But even 

 then he did not realize that his true path was opening before 

 him. For several years he still preferred to write novels of 

 "high life " and adventure — things about which he Icnew noth- 

 ing^'rather than articles on country scenes and country people — 



