BUDS, BLOSSOMS. FRUITS. 



427 



plants, we are satisfied that a decided reaction against 

 this craze is now setting in, and that fragrant flowers 

 are again finding favor. There never was a time when 

 plants of such sweet flowers as roses, lilacs, honeysuckles, 

 violets, pinks, lily-of-the-valley, mignonette, carnations, 

 etc., were more in demand than they are now for gar- 

 den-making. Ask the florist who sells cut-flowers, re- 

 garding the comparative demand for fragrant blooms 

 and those that are only bright, and he will quickly tell 

 you that the former are always at a premium. Years 

 ago the odorless camellia was very popular: it is now 

 absolutely out of demand, and its growth has been dis- 

 continued. Our correspondent seems to find in the ab- 

 sence of the wallflower from our gardens, evidence of 

 a decline in taste for sweet flowers. The absence of 

 this flower is due to other causes. The 

 wallflower, so immensely popular in 

 Europe, can never become equally so 

 here, for the reason that our climate is 

 not so congenial to its culture. It is na- 

 tive to the British Isles and hardy there ; 

 were it so here it would be more highly 

 esteemed. If we grow it at all, it must 

 be in moist sections of our country, and 

 it must be preserved through the winter 

 in a greenhouse or coldframe — care that 

 the average American does not wish to 

 take vfhen he has so many other frag- 

 rant flowers that are perfectly hardy. 



The Idaho Pear is good, no doubt. 

 Unfortunately the tree has not yet been 

 tested enough to give us a basis for an 

 estimate of its hardiness and reliability. 

 It is simply worth trying. The accom- 

 panying illustration was made from a 

 specimen exhibited by H. S. Anderson, 

 of Union Springs, N. Y.. at a fruit-show 

 of the Western New York Horticultural 

 Society. Dr. F. M. Hexaraer, chair- 

 man of committee upon native fruits, at 

 the American Pomological Society, 

 Ocala, Florida, in 1891, said: "The 

 most noteworthy new fruit which has come to the notice 

 of your committee is the Idaho pear. In size, general 

 appearance and aroma, it resembles the crosses of the 

 Chinese sand-pear, but its eating qualities are far super- 

 ior to those of any of this class known in cultivation. 

 The cavity of the fruit is very irregular, basin shallow and 

 pointed ; calyx very small and closed ; core very small ; 

 skin golden yellow, with many russet spots ; flesh melt- 

 ing and juicy, with a sprightly, vinous, delicious flavor; 

 season September and October." 



Genista-Culture in England.— One of the most 

 beautiful varieties of genista is G. raccmosa elegans. 

 Good cultivation will give saleable plants from cuttings 

 in one year, but the plants usually marketed are two 

 years old. Old stock-plants are put in the propagating 

 house to grow young shoots for cuttings some time before 

 the latter are wanted. The young shoots are cut just 



below a joint and set either in the propagating bench, or 

 better, in five-inch pots. These pots should be well 

 drained and have a few inches of good soil below the 

 clean white sand on the surface, in which the cuttings 

 are set. When the cuttings are calloused they can be 

 taken out of the propagating-house and placed in a cooler 

 one. While th.-y rre callousing and rooting the house 

 should be kept close and 

 well syringed. It is easy to 

 harden them, by exposure to 

 more air, as root - growth 

 progresses. Plant the cut- 

 tings, when rooted, in thumb- 

 pots filled with a compost of 

 loam, peat, leaf-mold, well- 



The Idaho Pear. 



decayed fertilizer and sand. Give them some bottom- 

 heat, and in bright weather syringe them daily ; but do 

 not keep the roots of the genistas too wet, as this would 

 kill the tenderer rootlets and retard the plants' growth. 

 As soon as the thumb-pots are filled with roots, remove 

 the plants to three-inch pots filled with the same kind of 

 soil. Their next move will be into five-inch pots. 

 During warm summer nights, take the glass from above 

 the genistas to harden them, and when autumn comes 

 they will be ready to set in the open air. Plants that are 

 in five-inch pots should be kept in a coldhouse during 

 winter, that they may be strong and hardy for the next 

 season. In March such plants ought to begin blooming. 

 Often at this time they bear twenty-five or thirty flowers 

 each. Begin to pinch in the shoots of the plants when 

 they are quite small, and keep it up until they are well- 

 shaped and bushy. — A. K Anderson, London, EnghtK... 



