THERMOPSIS 



AA. P''(? stritiijlil i'r '<»lij sJiiihtbj <-iirr<:d i.t( (In: apex. 

 B. ri'int o-o ft. liii/h. 

 Caroliniina, ^I. A. Curtis. Stem stimt, >;mootIi. sim- 

 ple: Ivs. loii,i;-p«'tiuio<l: Ifts. (liH.vatc-nlWon^-, silky Ik-- 

 Ufatli; stipules lar:;'i.\ L-laspiii^- ; ra-TiiK- (i-TJ iu. Ioul^, 

 erect, rii^iil, many-llil. : pod Ll in. Unitx. rrcct, villous and 

 huary. Juuc, July. Alts, uf N. C 



Ri!. Plant 1-r, ft. irnjh. 

 0. Stii'uh's lo)njcr t]i,i II ISf [U'tiolv. 

 montana, Nutt. Plant 1"^^ ft. !uij:!i. somi-what silky- 

 pul.>esi_-ent : Ifts. oblunii:-ol>ovate to ohluni;-. I-;: in. lonn*; 

 ris. in long spikes : pod straiy:lit. erect, lailieseeiir. 

 ]Mav, Juue.^ Westeru states. B.T^I. ."Uill. W.K. 1.1:127:^ 

 (both erroneously as T. fnhacrif). Sometimes called 

 "Buffalo pen" iu the west. 



re. Sapiit,.-^ <<]inrtrr tlnn, the petiole. 

 I'. Ixarrme^ axUhn-ii. 

 fab^cea, DC Roscuildes T. )tio)itiiiia and has possibly 

 been cout'ounde<l witli it iti tlie trade. It iliftei-s in hav- 

 ing more spreading' pods and hirger ami nn.'re com- 

 pressed seeds. May, Jtme. Siberia. 



DD. IiKcemes term uia 1 . 



m611is, 31. A. (.'urtis. Stem erect, branched. 2-:'-\ ft. 

 hi^h, pubescent : 1 fts. obovate-obh-ng, 1-12 in.loiii,^: ra- 

 cemes G-10 in. loni,'': pod slightly curved at the end. 

 2^ in. loug. May-July. Va. and North Carolina. 



T. Caslnneriaua, Hort. Saul, does not appear to lie knoivii t:> 

 botanists. j, b. Keller and F. W. Bauolay. 



populnea, Sulaml. A small tree \Yitli tin- yoimirer por- 

 tions t'<.)voro(i with ]>oitate seak-s: Ivs. lMni,^-peti(>lo(l, 

 ovate. C'lrdate. aL-iimiuate. '■:' in. ai-ri^ss; lis. axillary". 

 2-3 in. arross, yellow. Trnp. A^ia, Atrira and tlie 

 islands of the racilic. — C'nit. in S. ( 'alii'., where, aoeord- 



warm and moist 



luff to Franeesrhi. it siireeeds only iu warm and moist 

 locations. He also notes the tl^. a^ \aryini;: from yellow 

 to nnrole. i.^ ^i- t^,,...t , x- 



to pnrple 



F. W. B,\UOLAY. 



THEVfiTIA (Andre Thevet. l.-.n2-l.'IMl, a French 

 monk who traveled iu Brazil and (iniana and wrcde a 

 book on French Guiana in wdrich tin.- plant is nn.'ntioneLi i . 

 Apoc}fudce<v. A tropical American ;^a-nus of about 7 

 species of trees or shrubs with alternate, 1-nerved or 

 lightly penniveined leaves and rather larij:e yellow 

 flowers in terminal few-tiowered cymes. 



'Tltevetia tieni folia , the Yellow oleander of Florida 

 gardens, is a very ornamental .small evergreen shrub, 

 growing luxuriantly in rich, sandy soil, not too moist 

 and not too dry, ultimately attaining a lieight of 6 to 8 

 feet and almost as niach in diameter. The foliage is 

 abundant, light glossy green and reniimls one of the 

 oleander, but tin- Ivs. are narrow^er. The pale yellow 

 flowers are abnmlantly produced. The fruit, which is of 

 the size and sonicwbat of the form of a hickory nut, is 

 regarded as poisonous by the iieu:roes. The Thevetia 

 can stand a few degrees of frost, Imt it was killed out- 

 rigllt on Februarv 7. ]«fl,'., when the therno. meter went 

 down to 1«'= F. Jf banked with ilry sand in fall it does 

 not suffer imadi, though the top niay be killed. 



,y Lr.-i, S-ll) ill. Jntuj. ahoiit i hi. iclilr 



nitida. lie. A fonder shrub: Ivs. obloim'-laneeolate. 

 acundnate. marv'ins revolute.- tls. ratlier lari;e; corolla 

 white, with a velh.w throat. We^t Indio^; cult, in 

 southern Calif.' 



.iA. Li-x. .:-r, ;„, /,,;,,,, ;,,,,,■ //,,,„ pj /,,. „.;,;,■. 

 nereif61ia,.Tuss. Known locally inl-dorida as "Trumpet 

 Flower" and incorrectly as "Yellow Oleandio-." A ten- 

 der shrub; Us. linear, shining, margins i-e\-<jlute: 

 Is. about 3 in. long, yellow, fragrant. \\'est holies. 

 Jlexici, B.M. 230!) (:ls Cerb'^n 77/cr,7;.M . -Cult, in 

 S. Fla. and S. California. 



F. W. Barot.av ami H. Xef-irlino. 



1 



THINNING FRUIT 1 705 



THIMBLEBERRY. JA''ib>i.s urculenUili.^ iin^\od.'rat>is. 



THINNING FRUIT. All fruit -rows larger an. 1 bet- 

 ter, ami oflen l)ecomes nmre highly colored, uihci- tbin^-s 

 lieing equal, when it has an ainmdanre <d' readily avail- 

 aide food. The su).|dy of ctanb- tn,n{ oiaho^'iaN is 

 increased l)y allowing ro.nn euoiiicb i.i eaidi jdaiit and 

 by eurichin,-- the s(mI ami keepin-- it suflicieni l\' imdst. 

 The plant may set so many I'ruiLs, however, tliat it can- 

 md possil)|y grow all of them t(.i large size even tlion-b 

 an abundant supply of crude food material is riadily 

 availalde. The leaves l)uihl tiji tlie crude maieriafs 

 taken from the soil and air into organic cumponnds 

 wliicdi the plant must liave to sustain its life and .^iip- 

 ]Mirt its growth. Frtiit-i^rowers often fail to rei-ogn ize 

 that the fruit dei^ends u|.on tbe leaves most directly 

 connected with it for ehd)orate<l foo<l, -which alone can 

 nfuirish it. It is nevertheless \ru\'\ and for this reason, 

 even when there i.s no crop on the rest of the tree an 

 overloaded branch needs to ha\ e Its fruit thinned to 

 secure the highest possible number of fine large fruits. 

 By reducing the ntiml)er of fiuils the pro]'orlion of 

 tdaborated food for those which remain is inei-cased. 

 Sometimes checking the too vii^^onuis grovth <if llie 

 vegetative parts is also ri'sorted t(. for the same |)ur- 

 posi.-. The hitter ]u-actiee is i>roiierly con- 

 sidered under ihe subject of Piiiunni: 

 the forjuer m.ay be treated under the 

 topic of Thinning Fruit. 



In its l)road signilicance Thinning Fi'uit 

 includes not only ]d(d-cing off some <d- tjn^ 

 immature fruit, lait also any prTudng of 

 MJ \ii ri'duce the nuni))er of 

 a plant is allowed to produce. 

 Such pruninti' is usu- 

 ally done A\ hen the 

 plant is in a d<ir- 

 niant condition. It 

 may be performeil on 

 grapes iu autumu as 

 soon as the leaves 

 fall. It is then easy 

 to cover the vines if 

 winter protection is 

 needed. The more 

 hardy orchanl frnils 

 may "be attmiderl to 

 at any time wbi-n the 

 leaves are off'; tlie 

 m<.n'e tC'Ucb'r I<i]ids 

 should be left till the 

 severities of ^^■iIlter 

 have passed, so that 

 tlie amount of liear- 

 ing ^vood viiiich is 

 taken off may be 

 varied iu ■i.)roj)ortion 

 to the loss of fruit- 

 buds by winter in- 

 jury. The Work on 

 peaches and apricots 

 is thus siinietinies 

 deferred till the trei s 

 bloom, or even later. 

 The sooner a fruit 

 can he relieved fioni 

 stni,u:gling with other fruits for its food the lu'lti'i- its 

 cliances are for reaching extra large size. It is, tbere- 

 foi-e, liest to reduce the anujitnt of l.iearipg ^vood In'lor(.' 

 the Idossoms open, as much as can safely be dmie, 



IV'rhaps a method of thinning orchard frtiits by treal- 

 in^X the open blossoms with some s]>ray mixture may 

 evi-ntually be perfected. This wouhl give the fruit the 

 a-lvantai^'-e of an increased food sujijdy from the time 

 the Idossoms opened. It is known tliat such trealnient 

 may jtri.'vi-nt the setting of fruit. It remains to demon- 

 strate whetiier by a judicious use of this nn-thoil the 

 setting of fruit too abundantly may be prevented. If 

 tliis can be done successfulljs much labor iu thinning 

 by pickiTig off' immature fruit might be thus avoided. 



To av(dd the extra labor -which -would be required by 

 thinning immediately after the fruit sets, it is custom- 

 ary to defer the work till the weaker fruits drop. 



2497. Thinning: fruit. 



(Drawn from pliotograiihs and 

 rediaced to ^-^ natural size.) Tlie 

 large separate fruits i-ndicate tbe 

 relative e;ain in size in thiuiiinj^ 

 plums. The right-hand twig slmws 

 relative stage of developinent at 

 whicli peaches sho-ald Vie thinned; 

 the twig at the left indicates rela- 

 tive distance between thinned 

 licaidies. 



