July 1906 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



325 



the desired kind is kept all summer in a six- 

 inch pot, in very shallow water. It will 

 make good growth for some time, and then 

 all the leaves will die off. If this does 

 not occur naturally, it must be induced in 

 August or early September, by raising the 

 plant to the surface of the water, or partly 

 out. When the leaves are gone, a tuber the 

 size of a robin's egg should be found in the 

 pot. Now remove the pot from the water, 

 and let it become nearly dry. Take out the 

 tuber, place it in clean sand, and keep it in a 

 moist, temperate, or warm greenhouse until 

 next March. Never let the tuber get hard 

 and desiccated, nor should it get really wet. 

 It wants only a gentle air-drying. 



Now, to propagate, set pot and sand and 

 tuber in a warm tank in March. The tuber 

 should be planted about an inch deep. Soon 

 a shoot comes out, sends up leaves to the 

 surface of the water, and makes roots. 

 When one good floating leaf is established, 

 wash away the sand from roots and tuber, 

 carefully break off the shoot with its roots 

 from the apex of the tuber, and replant both 

 plantlet and tuber. Of course the plantlet 



now goes into rich earth. The tuber should 

 give off at least one more shoot. The first 

 plant is pushed forward for flowering, the 

 next is kept to form a tuber for the following 

 year. 



The easiest to grow, to keep over winter, 

 and to increase from the tuber, are N. flavo- 

 virens, N. Win. Stone, and N. Mrs. C. W. 

 Ward. The easiest to grow from seeds are, 

 the blue lotus, Zanzibar water-lily, and Nym- 

 phtza flavo-virens. 



KEY TO THE TENDER DAY-BLOOMING 

 WATER-LILIES. 



A. Color of flowers white 

 B. Lvs. green beneath; petals 



acute i. flavo-virens 



BB. Lvs. red-purple beneath; 



petals obtuse 2. ampla 



AA. Color of flowers pink or red 

 B. Lvs. with little wart-like 



pustules beneath 3. stellata, var. 



versicolor 

 BB. Lvs. not pustulate 



C. Petals broad and rounded 4. Zanzibariensis, 



var. rosea 

 CC. Petals narrow ; flower 

 stellate 

 D. Color of flowers pinkish 5. Mrs. C.W.Ward 



DD. Flowers red 6. 



flavo - virens, 

 var. rubra 



AAA. Color of flowers blue 



B. Sepals densely marked 

 with black spots 

 C. Fl. small; stamens 50 to 



70; fertile 7. cserulea 



CC. Fl. large; bud sharply 



conical; sterile 8. pulcherrima 



CCC. Fl. large; bud rounded 



ovoid 9. Pennsylvania 



BB. Sepals pure green or with 

 very few spots 

 C. The stamens all round 10. gigantea 

 CC. The outer stamens with 

 broad flat stalks (fila- 

 ments) 

 D. Lvs. entire; petals deli- 

 cate violet n. elegans 



DD. Lvs. sinuate, large 

 E. Color of flower deep 

 royal blue, cup- 

 shaped 12. Zanzibariensis 



EE. Fl. azure blue 



F. Shape stellate; flower 



stalk tall 13- Wrn. Stone 



FF. Shape cup -like; fl. 

 stalk shorter 

 G. Lvs. bluish beneath 14. Zanzibarien- 

 sis, var. azurea 



GG. Lvs. pure 

 beneath . . 



green 



15. Capensis 



A Round-Up of the Garden Peppers— By e. d. Darlington 



Penn- 

 sylvania 



ILLUSTRATING THE WONDERFUL TRANSFORMATION FROM THE FIERY, HOT, SMALL, THIN-SKINNED, SEEDY, OLD- 

 TIME PEPPER TO THE LARGE, MILD, SWEET, THICK-SKINNED, ] FEW-SEEDED PEPPER PREFERRED BY CONNOISSEURS 



THOUGH the large sweet pepper is a 

 most delicious vegetable it is but 

 little known or appreciated. Contrary to 

 one's imagination, it is not hot, at least, the 

 seeds are the only warm portion of the fruit, 

 and these are removed before cooking. 

 Until recently peppers have been a late 

 summer or fall crop, the fruits being used 

 as an ingredient for fancy pickles, pepper- 

 hash and sauces. But now there is a de- 

 mand for earlier large-fruited, meaty varieties 

 to be served as a separate dish, or the fruits 

 are stuffed with force meat, and baked. 



TYPES AND VARIETIES 



The Bull Nose, or Sweet Bell pepper 

 (Fig. 1) has long been the standard variety 

 for general use, its bright red fruits are from 

 two to three inches in length, and about two 

 inches broad at the shoulder or stem end, 

 with a broad blunt, or slightly sunken point 

 at the blossom end. The plants grow about 

 two feet high, and are well branched. 



The Ruby King (Fig. 2) is a little later 

 than the Bull-Nose, but produces a much 

 larger and handsomer fruit, with thicker 

 flesh, and a very mild, sweet flavor. The 



Fig. 2. 



Ruby King, larger and later than Bull Nose. 

 ThicK flesh, mild and sweet 



Fig. 1. The Bull Nose, or Sweet Bell pepper, 

 the old standard variety for general use. Two to 

 three inches long 



fruits measure four inches in length, and two 

 and a half inches across at the shoulder. 

 The plants grow three feet high and have 

 a stiff, erect habit. 



An exceptionally mild, sweet, and very 

 thick meated sort is the Chinese Giant (Fig. 3) 

 with the same habit as Ruby King, but with 

 larger fruits — five to seven inches long and 

 from five to six inches across. It is especially 

 esteemed for exhibition purposes. The 

 flesh of both the Ruby King and the Chinese 

 Giant is so sweet and mild that they may be 

 eaten raw, and when sliced, they add a crisp 

 piquancy to raw salads. 



In season the Chinese Giant is a little later 

 than the Ruby King, but its very large size 

 is not as acceptable for general use. 



THE EARLIEST VARIETY 



A very early and productive variety is the 

 Neapolitan, which is a very desirable kind 

 for the home garden, as it has a very mild 

 flavor, and sets fruits very freely. It is so 

 early that fruits from well grown plants in the 



open field have been picked in June, several 

 weeks in advance of the earliest fruits of the 

 Bull Nose, or Ruby King varieties grown 

 under the same conditions. The fruits of 

 this variety, when of full size, turn to a 

 creamy yellow, then to a brilliant scarlet. 

 The shape somewhat resembles that of Ruby 

 King (Fig. 2), but they are rather longer and 

 more slender, and sometimes are sharply 

 pointed averaging three and a half to four 

 inches in length, and from one and a half to 

 two inches in diameter. 



The Neapolitan will probably become the 

 leading variety, although the shape is not as 

 desirable for stuffed peppers as the broader 

 and blunter pointed varieties. The plant is of 

 rather open branching habit, two and a half 

 feet high. 



There are two excellent large-fruited 

 peppers, in which the ripe fruits are of a deep, 

 golden yellow the earlier being the Golden 

 Dawn (Fig. 7) the other a larger, later variety 

 the Golden Queen, which is the counterpart 

 of the Ruby King, in all but coloring. These 



Fig. 3. Chinese Giant— a large, late variety, thick 

 meated, and so sweet and mild that it may be eaten 

 from the hand. Five to seven inches long and five 

 to six inches across 



