14 



MARTIN BENSON, SWANWICK, ILLINOIS. 



LOQUAT. (Eriobotrya Japonica.) 



A most beautiful plant; has large beautiful evergreen foliage. The fruit is produced in 

 great profusion, is yellow, grows in clusters, and is very delicious. Fine for pot culture ; 

 bears while small. 75 cents each. 

 Foliis Variegatis. Leaf superbly variegated ; choice and rare. I3 each. 



MANGO. 



A rich and deliciously flavored fruit, larger than an egg and about the same shape. The 

 seed is quite a curiosity. In productiveness it surpasses any fruit we have ever seen. The 

 foliage is most beautiful ; the tree bears when two or three years old, and is one of the 

 finest of all trnpical fruits. |i.5o each. 

 Apricot Mango. A very choice variety. $2 each. 



*IVIAMIVIEAS. 



Mammea Sapota. Large brown oval fruits, tasting very much like pumpkin pie ; very 



scarce and rare. $2 each. 

 Mammea Americana. St. Domingo Apricot ; a delicious fruit, very rare. $2 each. 



THE MELON PEAR or MELON SHRUB. 



The Melon Shrub, as it grows in the Central American highlands, is as the name defines 

 it, a shrub. It reaches at its best two or three feet either way, but is generally'smaller, and 

 recalls in many respects the Chili pepper vine, the tomato or the nightshade. The flowers 

 resemble those of the Chili pepper, are very numerous and of a beautiful violet color, most 

 charming when used in floral decorations. When planted, the plants should be set in rows 

 four feet apart and two feet apart in the rows. About six weeks after being set out, the fruit 

 will begin to set, and in three months after planting the fruit will ripen and continue^ to ripen 

 until frost. The fruit is of the size of a hen or goose egg, or even larger, and of the same 

 shape. The color is lemon or pale orange, with streaks or waves of bright violet, the whole 

 making a fruit unrivaled in beauty. The interior of the fruit is solid pulp, free of seeds, 

 of a pale yellow color, and of flavor resembling that of a fine musk melon, having also a 

 rich sub-acid taste. It is so wholesome and delicious that when the fruit is eaten on a hot 

 day it allays the thirst for several hours. The plant is an enormous yielder — I have seen 

 plants of small size bear thirty large fruits. The Melon Shrub can stand light frost, but a 

 heavy frost will cut it to the ground ; the dead branches should then be cut off, and the 

 plants covered with straw and earth. 



The Melon Pear, is not a tropical fruit ; it delights in a cool atmosphere, and will with- 

 out doubt do as well here in the north as tomatoes, and will prove a most valuable and pro- 

 fitable fruit. It may not be able to stand our winters, but that is not essential — tomatoes 

 are always killed, but are not less grown on that account. The Melon Pear can be wintered 

 as easy as potatoes, by taking the roots up and keeping them in a cellar. Should be planted 

 here by the middle of April, and cultivated like tomatoes. They will begin to ripen by the 

 middle of July or first of August. Make a grand pot plant. Price of genuine plants, f 1.25 

 each, Jio per dozen. 



*MELON TREE or PAW-PAW. {Carica Papaya.) 



Entirely distinct from the Melon Shrub ; is from South America, and is one of the most 



remarkable plants I have ever grown. The 

 tree consists of a branchless stem, crowned 

 with very large palmate, deeply cut, most 

 beautiful leaves. The fruit is pear-shaped, 

 yellow, three to five inches in length, and 

 two to four in diameter, grows in clusters 

 among the leaves, and very, delicious. It 

 has most remarkable medical properties) 

 and the juice of the pulp is said to form an 

 excellent cosmetic for removing freckles 

 from the skin. The plant bears very young 

 (when only two or three feet high,) grows 

 rapidly, and is a perpetual bearer of flow- 

 ers and fruit. I consider this without excep- 

 tion the most curious and interesting of all 

 plants for pot culture ; it is as ornamental as 

 a palm, bears great quantities of fruit and 

 flowers, is as easily grown as a geranium, 

 stands the dry air of a house remarkably 

 well, and should be in all collections of 



, plants, however limited. It will give great 

 satisfaction ; extremely rare ; the cut gives a 

 good idea of its appearance ; the smallest size 



■ trees will be two feet high by fall, and will 

 bear the next year. Small plants, $1.50 each, $10 per dozen. Bearing size, $5 each. 



MELON TREE OR PAW-PAW. 



