246 



ih4 ^ardswr's JKonthlg. 



Jamaica, through Mr. Wilson, of the Government 

 gardens of that island, and propagated, under glass 

 about fifty plants from the seed. Mr. Saunders, at 

 the experimental garden of this department, has 

 also grown them, and now has them in his garden." 



Mr. Bacon, in his recent paper on the ramie, or 

 rami, says, relative to its propagation by Mr. Roezl : 



''The Ramie, as Mr. Roezl informs us, is planted 

 like sugar-cane, by laying the stalks or canes about 

 two or three inches under the prepared, earth in 

 rows. The first crop from this planting will reach 

 only two or three feet in height, when it will be 

 found ripe for the knife, and should be cut close to 

 ground. These stalks will not produce the thread 

 in perfection. From the stubble thus cut, new 

 plants will rise and attain a greater height, and be 

 cut in a I'ke manner again and again, until, in San- 

 tocomapam, Mr. Roezl takes ofi" five crops in each 

 season ; the plant when well rooted reaching the 

 height of twenty feet, each crop being equal to one 

 of hemp as cultivated in Europe. It is his opinion 

 that in this country Florida, Louisiana, and th^ 

 middle and southern portions of Greorgia, Alabama, 

 Mississippi, and Texas are alone suited in climate 

 to its profitable growth ; and that here from three 

 to four crops of it may be made in each year. 



The plant, when once rooted in the soil, is exceed- 

 ingly hardy, and in this climate a perennial one. It 

 will be greatly benefited by cultivation ; but neglect 

 will not endanger it. It has no insect enemies dan- 

 gerous to its growth or existence. If, when ripe 

 for the knife, the cutting of it is delayed through 

 any fortuitous circumstance, it is not injured by 

 standing. The machinery invented by Mr. Roezl 

 for cleansing it may be provided at a very moderate 

 cost, and is simple and comparatively light of 

 carriage. 



It remains only to add, as to its practical value, 

 that in 1865, Mr. Roezl sent fifty tierces, contain- 

 ing over five thousand Spanish pounds, of the tex- 

 tile to England, and that it was there sold at double 

 the price of the best quality of cotton. Fabrics 

 woven from it will be exhibited in the approaching 

 world's exhibition of Paris, woven in the looms of 

 Lyons, Belgium, and England. Its great product- 

 iveness will, doubtless, in the end reduce the cash 

 value of it in the manufacturing markets ; but with 

 it that of cotton, linen, and other rivals." 



Grapes not/coloring — "i?ea(7er," Baltimore^ 

 Md. — " Can you give me a plan to ^ake my grapes 

 color. They taste sweet, but are not black?" 



[ The root fibers have got killed in some way, 

 See if the border is wet, or the roots too deep.] 



Pooh, (JafaloguFS, %t. 



American Pomology, Part 1st, Apples. By 



Dr. J. A. Warder. New York: 0. Judd & Co. 



In the introduction the author disclaims any 

 attempt to ofi"er anything new in matters relating 

 to orchard practice. Practical notes, he was advised, 

 would give additional value to his work and he 

 drew up therefore an account of his ideas, of what 

 should be done in fruit culture, as he had expe- 

 rienced it, without reference to what had or had not 

 been given by authors before him. The originality 

 he claims as his warrant for a new book is the de- 

 scription and classification of apples. In this he 

 has succeeded wonderfully well. The labor has 

 been immense, but it must be a consolation to him 

 to have the congratulations of his pomological 

 friends on so happy a termination of his task ; while 

 from the excellent typographical execution tf the 

 book, we have no doubt his publishers will be able 

 to offer him "consolations" of a more substantial 

 kind, for a bad book if well printed will often pay 

 its way, and a good book should do so handsomely. 



As for the classification itself we think Dr. 

 Warder has done the best any one can do with a 

 strictly artificial system ; but the great defect of all 

 systems so constructed is that it brings together 

 things which 2lXQ naturally unlike, so that when once 

 the key character is lost for a section — and when we 

 grant that characters vary — there is no chance for 

 us to find our way out of the difficulty. It is just 

 like finding out a strawberry by the old Linnsean 

 classification. He saw it had Hermaphrodite 

 flowers with many stamens, and placed it in his 

 class Polyandria. In our country where it often 

 comes Monoecious and Dioecious, a young student 

 starting by the Linnean classification, would at 

 once get on the wrong track and never find out that 

 he had the stiawberry Linnaeus had. To obviate 

 this a natural system has been adopted which brings 

 together like and like, and thus if one or two charac- 

 ters are variable, it makes no difi'erence, all the 

 other characters retain the variety in its place. 



Thus it will be with fruits, — all attempts to found 

 a classification on any system which brings together 

 unlike forms, will have at best but a temporary 

 value. Until the time comes when some one shall 

 give us a system founded on resemblances, as we 

 have so repeatedly suggested. Dr. Warder's book 

 will be the vade mecnm of Pomologists. 



And speaking of " vade mecums,^' we would sug- 

 gest that every Pomological Society should buy a 



