720 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS AND ORCHIDS AT HOME. 



sorts, and of no value when pollinated by others. Many 

 of them would bear either none or very poor fruit with- 

 out other pollen than their own. 



The same principle I found to be true with strawber- 

 ries, though with them the shape of the fruit is seldom 

 changed, while their productiveness and quality are greatly 

 influenced by the pollen. I find Captain Jack to be the 

 best general pollinator. Changes in grapes, at least in 

 some varieties, are ruled by the same facts, though such 

 changes are exceptional rather than general. 



But the facts stated fully account for the almost com- 

 plete failure of certain varieties when fruited in certain 

 environments. My observations have proven, to me, at 

 least, that many of our fruiting trees and plants must 

 have an abundance of congenial pollen to bear good 

 fruit, and usually this pollen must be from other flowers 

 than their own. Further application and tests of these 

 facts can be made at will by any fruit-grower, and I 

 shall be glad to hear from them. 



California. D. B. Weir 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS AND ORCHIDS AT HOME. 



NOTES FROM THE FLOWER SHOW AT SHORT HILLS, N. J. 



"W 



ILL you make notes of them all ?" jocularly 

 asked the guide who was doing the honors 

 of the chrysanthemum and orchid show 

 at the United States Nurseries. 



Shades of Japan and China ! Make 

 motes of 38,000 seedlings and 15,000 plants in several hun- 

 dred named varieties ? Yes, in a lump — not otherwise. 



Imagine yourself ushered into the presence of 33,000 

 "Queens of Autumn," all new to the public! What 

 -would you say? where begin to do homage ? how select ? 



After all, the public has a choice, and would start at 

 once, as did the reporter, towird those new chrysanthe- 



FlG 



-Black H ' 



m ims of the hairy type. Who could bring himself to 

 believe that already almost every shade and class is rep- 

 resented in this be-whiskered form, and that the raisers 

 are ready so soon to go on and perfect them ? 



This Short Hills firm reports this year about 200 hairy 

 sorts of their own raising, comprising pinks, whites, yel- 

 lows, bronzes, fawns, etc. As a matter of course, the 

 year's seedlings are as yet all known by numbers. No. 

 439 is a pale, pinkish cream of the hairy type, with deeper 

 center. The flower is full, and better colored than the 

 pioneer, Louis Boehmer, with which all pinks are for the 

 present compared. No. 440 is a pale bronze or fawn- 

 yellow, with a slightly reddish tinge. Its petals are 

 broad, incurved and nearly full. No. 448 is a deeper 

 rose-pink, almost solid in color ; its petals also are in- 

 curved and nearly full. No. 450 is a pale yellow variety, 

 well haired, nearly full, and very slightly 

 blotched with red. All these are of the 

 Iiairy type. 



"Those seedlings which we select as 

 worthy of propagation will be sold by 

 number until after further trial," ob- 

 served the cicerone. 



"But why don't you name them? 

 People feel more interest in a flower with 

 a name. Do you get short of names ?" 



The guide laughed and hesitated. 

 "No-o, but it really is hardly worth 

 while to name them until they have been 

 well tested. Now, last year we got sev- 

 eral grand sorts, but the great majority 

 are thrown away." 



Some especially good forms noticed 

 were Nos. 23, creamy pink, lined deeper ; 

 loi, a combination of recurved and in- 

 curved, yellow, slightly shaded with red 

 at the center ; 64, pure white, with very 

 broad petals ; 1 34, yellow, with whorled 

 center, similar to that of Mrs. E. D. 

 Adams ; 35, similar to the last, but in 

 color cream-white, faintly streaked with 

 , ' pink on the outside of the petals. No. 



) 325 deserves special notice as a golden- 



yellow form of Harry May — the last 

 year's bronze seedling which took 14 first prizes. This 

 new yellow is a seedling of Ada McVickar, also a very fine 

 sport. It is of pure color and almost spherical in shape. 

 Superiority begets superiority, is the tenet of the firm. 



