56 



THE Y SA V. 



Winter Care of Amaryllis (Hippeastrum). — In 

 bringing your bulbs out from their resting place to or- 

 nament the window garden, repotting is not absolutely 

 necessary unless the pots are overcrowded with roots, 

 in which case, give them a pot one size larger than they 

 now occupy. In shifting do not break the ball and 

 pack the new soil — a strong loam being preferable — as 

 firmly as possible. Put the pot in a tub of water and 

 let it stand for 24 hours, in order that the ball will be 

 thoroughly wet through. Pick all the dead leaves from 

 the top of the bulb, without injuring or breaking the 

 fleshy parts. Then sprinkle a little tobacco dust on the 

 top of the bulbs, which will kill any insects that have 

 made the bulb their winter quarters, and are ready for 

 an attack on the new leaves as soon as they put in an ap- 

 pearance. Do not repeat watering until active growth 

 commences ; then water liberally. Active growth and 

 absolute rest are the requirements of the amaryllis. 

 Bulbs not established, and in a dry state, should have 

 small pots ; a four-inch pot is sufficient for a flowering 

 bulb. — Quec-rs. 



Does Fruit Growing Pay? — This question has of- 

 ten been asked. We especially allude to the apple. 

 Probably not one person in ten knows how nice it is 

 when one's home is well supplied with choice fruits that 

 will last not only through the summer, but also through- 

 out nearly the whole year. There are, it is true, several 

 drawbacks to fruit culture. Some of the nurserymen sub- 

 stitute so much. The label is right, but the fruit turns 

 out different. Oftentimes you seta small and worthless 

 yellow apple where a red and first-class one was 

 ordered or r7<v Tc-rsa . Another drawback is that eight 

 out of ten men are too indolent to attend the few trees 

 that they do plant. I here give a list of apples for fam- 

 ily and market use which I know from experience to be 

 excellent. 



Summer, Family. — Early Harvest, Early Joe, Sum- 

 mer Rose, Primate, Fanny, Garden Royal, Golden 

 Sweet. 



Si/inmer, Market. — Red Astrachan, Yellow Trans- 

 parent, Keswick Codlin, Williams' Favorite, Summer 

 Pippin. 



Fall, Family. — Gravenstein, Porter, Chenango Straw- 

 berry, Fameuse, Jefferies, Fall Wine, Pomme Royal, 

 Summer Rambo, Haskell Sweet, Fall Pippin, Red Beit- 

 igheimer. 



Fall, il/<7rXvA— Maiden's Blush, Duchess of Olden- 

 burg, St. Lawrence, Twenty" Ounce, Washington 

 Strawberry, Lowell, Holland Pippin, Late Strawberry, 

 Jersey Sweet, Stump Hurlbut. 



Winter, Family. — Mother, Melon, Wagner, Belmont, 

 Monmouth Pippin, King of Tompkins County, Peck's 

 Pleasant, Jonathan, Smokehouse, Hubbardston Non- 

 such, Golden Russet, Grimes' Golden, Newtown Pippin, 

 York Im.perial, Esopus Spitzenburg, Ladies' Sweet. 



Winter, Market. — Baldwin, Rhode Island Greening, 

 Roxbury Russett, Smith's Cider, Ben Davis, Yellow Bell- 

 flower, Domine, Wealthy, Cooper's Market, Talman 

 Sweet. — P. D. Keiser, Carbon Co., Pa. 



Artillery Plants. — As noted some time ago in The 

 American Garden, the most dry-boned botanist is 

 glad to find that a plant has a good popular name, and 

 invariably uses the popular name when it has become 

 really popular. If they could be controlled as botani- 

 cal names are controlled, there never would be a word 

 said against them. Botanists have agreed among them- 

 selves that the earliest name as recorded in any reput- 

 able work, shall be the one to be generally adopted. 

 We often find plants with several botanical names given 

 in ignorance of previous descriptions or from some 

 other cause, but as soon as an accepted name is shown 

 to be more recent than another, that other, the older 

 one, is taken up in place of the more recent one. 



In relation to popular names there has never been 

 any attempt to insist on priority. Indeed, the very 

 same authority will forget its own names, and in a few 

 years speak of something under name already re- 

 corded in connection with some other plant. A few 

 years ago I was reading in an excellent English maga- 

 zine, one that prides itself in stirring up botanical ped- 

 antry, a pretty account of the artillery plant. Pilea 

 muscosa never had an English name before. We 

 adopted it and put it in our catalogues. The same 

 magazine is now full of artillery plant articles, but they 

 refer to begonias now. Those who read of these ar- 

 tillery plants, and then send for some from our cata- 

 logue, and get a pretty lycopodium-like plant instead of 

 a begonia, are likely to believe our firm a fraud. My 

 stand has never been against popular names. I like 

 them. I protest only against the immense flood of 

 counterfeits sent into circulation with the genuine coin. — 

 Thomas Meehan. ■ 



Ambrette, or Musk Plants. — In my correspondence 

 relating to the introduction in the South of the manufac- 

 ture of pomades from odor-bearing flowers, I learned of 

 the value of Hibiscus .Abebnoschus Musclieutos [? — Ed.] 

 from Mr. Ungerer (Colgate & Co., N. Y.), and am thor- 

 oughly convinced that it is a valuable acquisition to sec- 

 tions where the garden okra will thrive. Ambrette is pre- 

 sumed to be hardy from Virginia, southward, but Mr. 

 Ungerer claims to have reared, from seed sown in May, 

 fine vigorous plants in New Jersey. It is known as 

 musk plant, from the musky odor exhaling from the 

 seed, and is used both by the manufacturers of per- 

 fumes as a substitute for musk, and by tobacconists to 

 flavor the finer grades of tobacco. The supply is small 

 and the demand is yearly growing larger. The prices 

 paid fully warrant people in experimenting to ascertain 

 the localities in which it will succeed. Mr Ungerer is 

 inclined to think that it requires much summer heat to 

 develop in the seed the required strength of musky 

 odor. The more heat the stronger the odor. He makes 

 also the alluring statement that he thinks the successful 

 producer will find in it fully as large net profits as are to 

 be had in the cultivation of either sugar or tobacco. 

 The seed sells easily for from 50 cents to $1.25 per 

 pound, according to the crop. — Mrs. J. S. R. Thomson, 

 S. C. 



