BOTANICAL, INDEX. 
63 
this past Winter, ami has several to-day. My Calla is next; it opened its first flow- 
er on New Year’s day, and lias bloomed nearly every month since, and it now has 
its fourth bud. I set the vase iu a dish, half its height and two inches larger across, 
which I filled with coarse gravel and water, putting a few small, clean stones on the 
top of the vase. It keeps so clean and sweet, and does so nicely, that I wish some of 
your customers who cannot make their Callas bloom, would try it. I put it in my 
flower-garden, in summer, to rest. I cannot have much success with the Fancy Be- 
gonias. I have a large Rax which has blossomed twice; also, Saundersi and Walt* mi- 
ens is. * * * Many thanks for your past favors. Yours, 
Chinese Sand Pear. 
Thomasvillk, Ga., April 17, 1870. 
Mr. L. B. Case. — Dear Sir : Your letter received to-day, and contents noticed. 
This Pear was sent to Liberty Co., Ga., about twenty-three or twenty-five years ago, 
by Maj. John LeComte, who resided, at that time, either in New York or Philadel- 
phia during Summers, and spent his Winters with Mrs. II., his neice, in Liberty Co., 
Ga. Mrs. II. says that this tree was set out with other trees, and her attention was 
called to this one as being a foreign tree, and that it would not ripen the fruit ill 
the northern states. This tree grew so rapidly that it soon claimed the attention of 
all; and a Mr. Barnadoe, a neighbor, took some cuttings from the tree and set them 
out on his own place near by, and one out of three grew. At this time the old tree 
began to give her annual installments of good, large, fine pears. This kind of fruit 
being rather new for that part of the country, (this was right on the sea coast) it 
created much excitement, and, of course, all were willing to give the tree a trial, 
and it was found to succeed well on all good dry soil. How this Pear first got the 
name of China Sand Pear, I am not able to tell ; or where Maj. LeComte got this tree, 
no one living knows. In 1876, in September, the Thomas County Horticultural So- 
ciety named this Pear after Maj. LeComte, after trying where to find more of its his- 
tory and failing. This tree grows from cuttings or slips, cut off about fifteen inches 
.long, and stuck in the ground like quinces, &c. It also grows well from grafting or 
budding; I had a number of them to grow ten feet high, in one season, and one inch 
through. This Pear tree comes info bearing, usually, in four or five years from 
cuttings; sometimes, in three. The habit of the tree is to grow very tall, and looks 
very much, at a distance, like the Lombardy Poplar. The leaves are a very deep 
green, glossy, and look as if they were burnished. This tree has never shown any 
signs of decay of any kind. It is first to take on foliage and last to drop it off in 
the Fall; and in this section, it always gives two crops of fruit the same year. We 
consider the fruit very good, indeed, and we obtain good prices for it in Boston and 
New York markets. I can see but little difference between this and the Bartlett, 
raised in this section, and I think it much better than the Duehes, Louis B. P. Y., 
and many others of the leading varieties. This fruit is not very large; it will aver- 
age eight ounces. It is very smooth, no blemishes, has a little blush on the sun-side, 
and ripens here about the 20th of July. My oldest trees are eight years old this 
Spring ; last season they gave me about five bushels, to the tree, of good marketable 
fruit, which l sold from $3.50 to $5.50. 
I have given you about all the information I can, and hope this will give you 
some idea of the new fruit and its worth to us down here, &c. 
1 remain yours, &c., H. H. SANFORD. 
Carthage, Mo., May 12, 1879. 
L. B. Case. — Sir: * * * * We have some native plants here, which I 
think deserving of a place in cultivation. Among others, is the Dodecatheon Jleadia, 
(white and purple) now in bloom, and the Viola Delplinifolium ; they both do well 
in cultivation. A beautiful low growing pink Tradescantia — not the T. Rosea describ- 
ed in Wood’s Botany — which blooms very early, the flowers coming directly from 
the root; but, 1 believe, as the season advances, they sometimes throw up a stalk 
with leaves and flowers; some are dark blue and purple, but I like the pink ones best. 
After a little, we shall have the wild Perennial Sensitive plant, or “Wise Briar,” 
which, I suppose, is what Wood calls Schrankia Uncinata; it is very handsome and 
fragrant. There will be others as the season advances. * * * * 
From statements made to me by many persons at and from the north, I am in- 
clined to think you greatly underestimate the Tree Cranberry, ( V. Oxycoccus) when 
you say none are of any economic value except the Black Haw. In western and 
northern New York, I have been refused the berries for planting, because they were 
wanted for cooking; and 1 know of their being a good deal used, and considerably 
prized, in Wisconsin and other places. Very truly, 
JOHN C. TEAS. 
