February, 1917 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
15 
The beautiful foliage of the Pepper Vine would seem to jus- 
tify the wider appreciation of this native plant for garden use 
“ Illustrated Flora,” say that it is found in rich, 
moist soil, it seems to be content with any 
soil whatever. A root cutting about a foot 
long that I had thrown out on a pile of yellow 
clay, which was neither rich nor moist, in some 
way got its ends covered and forthwith sent 
up a shoot that has continued to grow vigor- 
ously. 
“ Gray’s Botany ” gives the range of the pep- 
per vine as “Virginia to Missouri and south- 
ward,” and Britton and Brown say substan- 
tially the same thing. These statements and 
the fact that the only nursery I know that offers 
it is in North Carolina might suggest that it 
is a Southern vine, not hardy in the North. But 
it is perfectly hardy in southwestern Ohio and 
in Washington, D. C., having been unhurt by 
the severe winter a few years ago that killed 
down to the ground most of the California 
Privet in Washington. That seems to indi- 
cate that it will live wherever the California 
Privet will survive the winter, at least. I 
wish some venturesome gardener north of 
Mason & Dixon’s line would try it and report 
results. — Bernard II. Lane, Washington, D. C. 
Gooseberries for Table Use. — Perhaps non e 
but an Englishman or some one who has 
recently come over from the other side or one 
who has been over there would realize what 
this means. Think of a plate of Gooseberries 
on the table to be eaten as one would eat 
Reine Claude plums or peaches-and the same 
to be as highly prized as if one had a plate of 
nectarines or was cutting up a melon which 
had been grown under glass. There are varie- 
ties of gooseberries which could be grown so 
that they reached the size of two inches in 
length. They can be grown here, such varie- 
ties as Industry, Whitesmith, Chautauqua, 
Poorman and Columbus, and undoubtedly 
as soon as there is the slightest indication that 
the public will appreciate them other varieties 
will appear, so that there will be nothing su- 
perior anywhere than those grown in America. 
The Lancashire miner makes a great hobby 
of his gooseberry bed. Considerable pride 
is taken in being the one to win the first prize 
at the gooseberry show. The gooseberry 
bushes which produce these fruits are usually 
grown as small standard trees with a central 
trunk and perhaps one and in some cases two 
layers of branches. A plant may have 4 or 5 
feet spread, it is carefully pruned so that the 
fruit is not too thick and it is enclosed in a 
frame which is usually made with 1 inch by 
j inch lath. This frame is probably 2 feet 
tall and a little wider than the plants. It is 
equipped with side curtains and a top, the 
object of all this being to keep the rain off the 
ripening gooseberries when they are approach- 
ing maturity, for should the rain strike a fruit 
which is just ripe it is quite apt to burst and 
be spoiled for exhibition. The story is told of 
a Lancashire miner who did not have his goose- 
berry bed covered the night before the show. 
He was giving the fruits the last 24 hours on 
the bushes, and during the night he heard the 
first patter of the rain on the windows and 
seizing the bed clothes he hurried down-stairs 
to cover up the plants with them until he had 
time to put the curtains on the frames. En 
thusiasm will carry one anywhere. 
These fine fruits can be grown here. One 
may need some shade to protect the ripening 
fruits from our hot sun. The shades are laid 
off during dull days and during fine weather, 
for during certain seasons like the past, ex- 
cellent fruits may be ripened without any 
protection, but sun-scald is generally a very 
serious obstacle to the ripening of the fruit 
on the bush. 
The varieties to plant are Industry or 
Whitesmith, the former being a red and the 
other a yellowish white gooseberry when ripe. 
Columbus and Chautauqua are identical and 
are yellowish white when ripe, and Poorman 
which is of American origin and promises to 
be more resistant to mildew than Industry or 
Whitesmith is worthy of trial. 
The bushes need dormant spraying with 
Lime Sulphur 1 to 8 and then three or four 
sprayings to protect the foliage from the 
downy mildew, the material used being Lime 
Sulphur 1 to 40, the spraying should be given 
as soon as the plant is out of bloom and at 
intervals of 10 days to 2 weeks thereafter. 
Arsenateof Lead, 2 pounds to 40 gallons, should 
be added to the first of these sprayings, to 
keep off the green worms. 
Clean cultivation should be given, the beds 
should be well manured and the cultivation 
should be very shallow, the roots being too 
near the surface to warrant deep digging. If 
the plant is excessively loaded it should be 
thinned in order to get large sized fruit. The 
green gooseberries which are taken off may be 
bottled for winter use and the ripe fruit will 
be an addition to the table for those who ap- 
preciate it .—-Samuel Fraser, Genesee, N. Y. 
Personal Experiment is a Delight.— Some- 
times I wonder if these highbrow garden 
experts like your globe-trotting friend, Mr. 
E. H. Wilson, have any real sporting hor- 
ticultural blood. For instance, you recently 
published a long dissertation on Rhododen- 
drons, and told how foolish people dug ’em 
up from the woods. This article almost 
discouraged me, because I had just bought 
a carload of these hacked-up plants and Mr. 
Wilson made me believe that they would 
all die. 
They didn’t die; practically none, certainly 
not 1 per cent. They have been hand fed, 
I admit; their feet never grew cold; leaves 
and mulch always comforted them, and they 
splendidly withstood (with the help of a 
weekly bucket of water for each plant) a 
fierce drought. “Safety first” may be a 
good axiom, but “Take a chance” is not so 
bad. Fellow Gardeners, don’t let people 
who write these learned articles in The Gar- 
den Magazine frighten you. — Effendi, Long 
Island. 
[Our recollection is that Mr. Wilson observed 
that digging up native Rhododendrons by 
the carload would not solve the question of 
hardy hybrids. — Ed.] 
Evodia Danielii. — Until Mr. Wilson’s ex- 
plorations in Western China no hardy or 
relatively hardy Evodias were known or cul- 
tivated in eastern North America. A number 
of species from the Old World tropics were 
known as warm-house evergreens. We have 
several species growing here in the parks, but 
the only one that has flowered with us so far 
is Evodia Danielii. It appears to be the 
hardiest and has flowered annually for the 
past three to four years. 
The Evodias belong to the rutaceae family, 
to which the Citrus belongs, and the foliage 
of nearly all of its members is characterized 
by a strong, pungent, aromatic odor, of which 
the writer is rather fond, but it may be ob- 
jectionable to some people, and this feature is 
markedly noticeable in the Evodias. 
Evodia Danielii has compound leaves ten 
to sixteen inches long, usually composed of 
seven to eleven sessile leaflets, ovate, acute at 
the apex, rounded at the base, deep green 
above, pale green below, with a few scat- 
tered hairs on both sides. The flowers are 
produced in terminal, compound, corymbose 
clusters from August 7th to 15th. The blos- 
soms are white, and the five yellow anthers 
stand out somewhat prominently. The 
flower clusters can hardly be said to be con- 
spicuous, but they are very interesting. 
The individual shown in the picture is, at 
the present time, twelve feet tall; the trunk or 
stem is gray and' quite smooth. Evodia 
Daniellii is an important and interesting addi- 
tion to our gardens and parks. — John Dun- 
bar, Rochester, N. Y. 
A New White Alum-Root (Heuchera). — 
One of the prettiest perennials introduced 
within the past three years is Heuchera con- 
vallaria, the “ Lily-of-the-Valley ” Heuchera. 
It comes in white, H. convallaria nivea; and 
flesh pink, H. c. carnea, and may best be 
described as a glorification of the type. I 
have found it a much stronger grower than 
the old Heuchera sanguinea and a vast im- 
provement over even the newer hybrids. 
The plants themselves are exceedingly hand- 
some, forming large tufts of ivy-like foliage, 
the individual leaves fully twice the size of 
sanguinea leaves and of a richer shade of 
green. But it is in the profusion of bloom 
and the height and size of the flowering sprays 
that the great value and beauty of this new- 
comer lie. The sprays ordinarily attain a 
height of 28 to 32 inches and a diameter of 
A welcome addition to our summer flowering trees is Evodia 
Danielii which blooms in August at Rochester, N. Y. 
