Annals of Horticulture. 



Western 

 straw- 

 berries. 



New 

 vegetables. 



duction and use of the fruit in the home garden. In studying 

 the localities in which our native berries are found, especially 

 F. Californica, it has occurred to me that the necessity of irriga- 

 tion might be overcome by selecting and hybridizing these 

 varieties, which naturally grow in the dryest and most unprom- 

 ising locations. Another point to be considered is the deli- 

 cous sweetness and delightful aroma of our native berries, both 

 of which qualities it is possible to perpetuate. This subject 

 of quality is of very great importance and has not received 

 proper consideration at the hands of California berry-growers. 

 A large proportion of our strawberries grown by irrigation, 

 while large and finely colored, are to the educated palate but 

 a mass of subacid pulp.* * * * As to the length 

 of fruiting-season of our native strawberries, I am unable to 

 speak with accuracy ; but the range is very wide, and, under 

 cultivation, in favorable circumstances, they would fruit 

 for nearly the entire year. Berries have been picked from F. 

 Chilensis in favorable seasons, in the neighorhood of San 

 Francisco, from January until August ; and I have found 

 what I suppose, without careful examination, to be F. Cali- 

 fornica fruiting upon the bay side of the summit of the San 

 Mateo mountains in the middle of July. The latter vines 

 were very abundant, and were growing in the brush and in the 

 hard, open ground, up to within a few feet of immense red- 

 wood trees. The subject of improving our native fruits is of 

 great interest ; and it is hoped that intelligent experiments will 

 be much more common in the future among our progressive 

 horticulturists than they have been hitherto." 



New types of vegetables are not numerous. Perhaps the 

 most important new types of recent years are the chorogi, or 

 Stachys Sieboldi (better known as Stachys affinis and »S. 

 tuber if era), introduced to America in 1888, and the pepino 

 (Solatium muricatum), introduced in 1882. The chorogi is a 

 native of China and perhaps also of Japan. It was intro- 

 duced into France in 1882 from Pekin. It is a mint-like 

 plant producing subterranean edible tubers. The pepino 

 was introduced into the United States from Guatemala by 

 Gustav Eisen. It is a native of Peru, and was introduced into 

 Europe over a hundred years ago.* A small form of the 

 muskmelon species (Cucumis Melo) has come into cultivation 



* For full accounts of chorogi and pepino, see Bull. 37, Cornell Exp. Sta. Dec. 1891. 



