464 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 509. 



across with velvety cream-white petals blotched with 

 purple at the base. The male plant is worth a place 

 in a warm conservatory as a handsome-flowered climber. 

 The female flowers, which are smaller, when artificially 

 fertilized develop large egg-shaped or oblong fruits nine 

 inches long, the surface clothed with closely set spine-like 

 points an eighth of an inch long ; when ripe these fruits are 

 of a rich scarlet color, on which account I should class 

 them among the most ornamental of the Gourd family. 

 The species is a native of India, China, etc. Good seeds 

 were matured in quantity by this plant at Kew last year. 



The Mangosteen (Garcinia Mangostana). — Fruits of the 

 Mangosteen have lately been received at Kew from the 

 Botanic Gardens, Trinidad, where trees have been estab- 

 lished and have borne fruit since 1875. The tree is a 

 native of the Malay Archipelago, and is cultivated in 

 various parts of India. It forms a small conical tree 

 twenty or thirty feet high, with bright green, Laurehlike, 

 leathery leaves and fruits the size of an orange, with a hard 

 smooth rind, colored dull purple, enclosing a spongy 

 mass of pulp, which is divided into eight sections, as in the 

 orange, two or three only of the sections containing each a 

 single seed about the size of a plum-stone. The pulp is the 

 delectable part, being white or pink, very juicy and of an 

 agreeable flavor, suggesting that of the Granadilla. In the 

 east the Mangosteen is considered to be the choicest of all 

 tropical fruits ; I question, however, if it would win such a 

 position in temperate climes when pitted against the apple, 

 pear, grape and pineapple. Still it has the charm of nov- 

 elty, and would probably find a market here. The fruit 

 appears to keep and carry as well as an orange. 



The Durian (Durio-zibethinus). — This is another Malayan 

 fruit-tree which is celebrated for its large delicious fruits ; 

 delicious, that is, to those who have overcome its powerful 

 disagreeable odor. Fruits of it have lately been produced 

 by a tree in the island of Dominica, in the West Indies, and 

 one of them was sent to Kew, where I ventured to taste it, 

 half-rancid and evil-smelling though it was. I never want 

 to taste it again. It is a large evergreen tree with the habit 

 of a Pear (according to an example in the Palm-house at 

 Kew, which is fifteen feet high), and oblong, long-pointed, 

 gray-green leaves clothed with scales beneath. The fruit 

 is like an enormous sweet chestnut, as large as a child's 

 head, covered with hard spines and enclosing a mass of 

 cheese-like pulp, in which the four or five large seeds are 

 embedded, the pulp being the edible portion. The tree is 

 said to be commonly cultivated throughout the Malayan 

 peninsula and islands, where its fruit, during the period it 

 is in season, forms the greater part of the food of the 

 natives. The flavor of the Durian is unique, no other fruit 

 combining such a delicious flavor with such an abominably 

 offensive odor, which has been compared to that of rotten 

 onions. When once the repugnance to this odor has been 

 overcome the fruit becomes a favorite, Europeans becom- 

 ing extremely fond of it. Mr. Wallace, in his Malay Archi- 

 pelago, says : A rich custard highly flavored with almonds 

 gives the best general idea of it, but there are occasional 

 wafts of flavor that call to mind cream cheese, onion sauce, 

 sherry wine and other incongruous dishes. . . . The 

 more you eat of it the less you feel inclined to stop. In 

 fact, to eat durians is a new sensation worth a voyage to 

 the east to experience ! From the condition of the fruit 

 sent from the West Indies to Kew I should say the durian 

 is a bad traveler. Still it ought not to be hard to over- 

 come this difficulty, at any rate for the journey from the 

 West Indies to the United States, where a fruit with such a 

 character as Mr. Wallace describes ought to find a ready 

 market. 



New Hybrid Orchids. — Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons exhib- 

 ited two new hybrids last week which were awarded cer- 

 tificates. They were Cattleya Olivia, a hybrid between C. 

 Trianse and C. intermedia, showing the influence of both 

 parents in the habit and form of its flowers, which were of 

 a rich peach-blossom color suffused with yellow ; C. Mel- 

 pomene, a hybrid between C. Mendelii and C. Forbesii, 



with rose-colored flowers, the lip shaded with yellow and 

 brown, with a heavy marginal fringe. A hybrid between 

 Cypripedium Haynaldianum and C. Chamberlainianum 

 was shown by Mr. E. Ashworth, and obtained a certificate. 

 It is the first hybrid raised from the last-named species, but 

 there was a doubt expressed with regard to the other 

 parent. The hybrid has a white dorsal sepal lined and 

 spotted with rose and brown, the petals are spirally twisted 

 and colored green and brown, while the lip is rose-colored, 

 tinged with green and yellow. A pretty variety of Laelia 

 Lucasiana was shown under the name of L. longipes, and 

 obtained a botanical certificate. TTr TTr 



London. W. WalSOH. 



Cultural Department. 



Japanese Plums. 



TT is hardly ten years since Japanese plums began to attract 

 -*■ the attention of fruit growers in the United States to any 

 considerable extent, but it is now certain that they have won a 

 permanent place among the cultivated fruits of this country. 

 The best of them rank only good to very good in flavor and 

 quality when compared with such varieties as Bavay's Green 

 Gage, Washington, Jefferson and other choice kinds of the 

 European species, Prunus domestica. The Japanese Plums 

 are not exempt from black-knot, and, wherever I have had 

 opportunity to observe them, are fully as susceptible to 

 injury from leaf-spot (Cylindrosporium padi) as are the ordi- 

 nary kinds of Plums. Our Plum orchards suffered from an 

 unusually severe attack of aphis the past season, and native 

 Plums of the Chickasaw, Americana and intermediate groups, 

 together with the Japanese sorts, were injured worse than the 

 varieties of Prunus domestica. Japanese Plums are apt to 

 have the fault of the Wild Goose and many other native kinds 

 in that the ripening fruit drops from the pedicel quite readily. 

 Some of them, like Kelsey, are so tender that they cannot be 

 fruited in the north. Ogon is the hardiest in fruit-bud of the 

 kinds fruited here, but it is not as hardy as the Italian Prune 

 and others of the hardiest Domestica kinds. 



The colors of Japanese plums range from the clear yellow 

 of the Ogon to the beautiful clear red of Red June and the 

 darker, duller red-purple of Satsuma. Sometimes Burbank 

 has a brilliant red cheek deepened to almost red-purple with 

 yellow background, but neither the blue nor purple shades of 

 the prunes and damsons characterize any Japanese plums. In 

 some varieties the yellow is shaded with green, resembling 

 somewhat the color of a Green Gage plum, and nearly all varie- 

 ties have a delicate bloom, which, when it softens such bril- 

 liant hues as those of Red June and Wickson, adds much to 

 the beauty of the fruit. 



As compared with Domestica plums, none of the Japanese 

 kinds rank best in quality, yet some of them have a sprightly, 

 agreeable flavor and attractive colors, and are good enough in 

 quality to sell well. Some kinds, like Abundance and Burbank, 

 begin bearing very young, and are so exceedingly produc- 

 tive that it is advisable to practice thinning, not only to increase 

 the size of the remaining fruit, but also to prevent injury from 

 overbearing. Willard and Ogon ripen before the earliest of 

 the Domestica kinds, and October Purple, one of Mr. Burbank's 

 latest productions, as its name indicates, carries the season for 

 Japanese plums late into the fall. 



It is not at all probable that Japanese plums will supplant the 

 older cultivated kinds where the latter can be grown to perfec- 

 tion as readily as can be done in central and western New 

 York and in various other sections of the country, but they 

 will doubtless supplement them to some extent. In some por- 

 tions of the Hudson Valley, where the ravages of black-knot 

 practically prohibit commercial orchards of Domestica Plums, 

 the Japanese varieties are being grown successfully, and while 

 not altogetherexemptfrom black-knot, so faras my observation 

 goes, they are practically free from that disease even where 

 Domestica varieties near by are severely attacked. 



As they are succeeding in some locations where black-knot 

 is prevalent, and because of their wide range in season of ripen- 

 ing, their vigor and productiveness, their attractive colors 

 and good shipping qualities, Japanese plums, as already 

 remarked, have won a permanent place among our culti- 

 vated fruits. On this account it is especially unfortunate that 

 in the process of introducing them into cultivation here much 

 confusion in their nomenclature has arisen. Thanks to the 

 efforts of some of our pomologists, and especially of Professor 

 Bailey, whose Plum bulletins should be in the hands of every 

 grower of this fruit, some progress has been made toward 



