August i, 1891.] 
THE TROPICAL AQRICULTURIST 
95 
FRUITS FROir WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 
It would appear that we »re soon to have impor- 
tations of various kinds of fruit, Potatoes, and Maize 
from our youngest Australian Colony. The midUud 
Railway Company in that colony extends now some 
considorablc distance from Perth, and tho lauds abut- 
ting on the line have in some places been brought 
under cultivation to some extent. A amall collection 
of the produote of tbase farms and gardens was exhi- 
bited at the offices of the railway company above- 
named at WiDchoater House, Old Broad Street, on 
Thursday^ and Friday last, which we had the pleasure 
of inspecting. 
The apples were a very well-grown lot, and showed 
I n their fine smooth skin and freedom from apecki- 
uess the genial climate in which they had been grown. 
Tlio kinds were apparently Blenheim Orange, Pott’s 
Seedling, Tower of Glamis, Northern Greening and 
Yorkshire Greening. 
The only Pear shown was William’s Bon Chr6tien. 
'^ery large and highly coloured. Fine Quinces wore 
also observed. 
The Grapes were a thio-Bkinned white variety, 
with a good deal of the flavour of the Muscat of 
Alexandria. These last-named fruits had travelled 
owing to their not being properly packed. 
'Vuh BO good a climate as that of Western Aua- 
nianufaotiire of raisins would bo more 
prontable to the growers thau exporting unprepared 
»rapow,^ which are scarcely fitted for a journey occu- 
pying bix to seven weeks. Ripe Qrapoa fetch in the 
oiony about Id. a Jb. Wine making is, we bolievo, 
already an industry that is carried on in the colony. 
A Bamplo waa Khowo of the Giant Rocca, a nice 
nion of mild flavour, but oiio that does not keep for 
length of time ; however, it had atood the 
armth of the passage through the tropics very well, 
t waa a surprise to find Pomegrauatis fully 45 inches 
m diameter. 
, of thelPotatoE — kidneys — were of nice market- 
e . whilst others wero very large and deep- 
jeiJ. Evidently the merchants do not make good 
e ections of those tubers for their colonial customers, 
ue prico of Potatos ranges from 2d9. to dOs. por 
the colony The hciida of Maize, both rod and 
wnite Varieties, wore of fine nizo and thoroughly 
ripened. 
The land on which these varied productions were 
grown conbists of a sort of ironstone sand mixed with 
something of the nature of post, but in a very fine 
1ft intimately commingled with the sand, at 
afft ?!*** sample shown. It contains no 
“lost of it bad, previously to the railway being 
af covered with scrub or timber, and 
oeed of manure, as the various 
products attest. 
♦Ill** room were the fruit was laid out was shown 
at u • ougget of gold that had been found 
8 Falls, which weighed 3H3 ounces. The winter 
wintA° fho colony resembles a favourable 
rare nrv.i' Gomwall Or Devonshire, frost being very 
cours® nil even inland only a few hours. Of 
•f soon ^ooutaiiis, some of which reach a height 
— T’bc last numbe 
l>rol..tonito NiHar“.n,l 
^ ■’ ^“'80 WooilrufE and Jf. F 
Ero.““prW.?rietW« 
abovM by the two pioneer 
tL ™ of the appearance o 
tspiit t!e corps manifoet ip thee 
and “'•« tl‘« hopefi.lnoB 
cisnt These, however, wore not sulli 
the.B ward off remittent fever, to which botl 
tneie young men unfortuuatoly suooumbwd.— /(■«. 
The Avocado Peah, — The Rruite Morticols atatea 
tliat a plant of this species, Persea gratissima (a 
true Laurel not a pear), has produced edible fruit iu 
the open air, at Golfe Jaan, near Nice. — Ihid. 
The Gkape : as- OkientaI- Lkoend,— Four Travel- 
lers, an Arab, a Turk, a Greek, and a Persian, says 
Ths Canadian Horticulturist, met at a city’s gate; it 
was decided tliat one of them should take the com- 
bined moneys of the four, and purchsse for the com- 
mon stock the food which they needed ; but they 
differed each from the other as to what food should bo 
chosen : the Arab insisted that no food waa so sweet 
and nourisliing as the agub, while anghar was the 
food the Persian desired ; the Turk said that aznm 
was the only thing which they shonld cat, while the 
Greek oonteiideil that symplialioii was the choicest 
of all the foods which men could eat. As they thus quar- 
relled one with the other, before their eyes a gardener 
passed with grapes. “See, agnb I ’’ cried the Arab. 
“No, it is anghar,’’ said the Persian. “This isazum,” 
said the Turk. “ That is my symphalioo,’’ cried the 
Greek, and so they ate their Grapes in peace. — 
Ibid. 
Kbw. — Fifty years sgo, says Oardsn mid Forest, ths 
British Government, prinoipaUy at the solioitation of 
the then Duke of Bc'fcrd, a man famous in his 
time for bis enlightened enthusiasm in gardening, 
which mado Woburn Abbey one of the great gardens 
of England, determined to convert the old gardens 
and pleasure-grounds surrounding the royal palace 
at Kew into a public botanical establishment. Sir 
William Hooker was invited from Glasgow to 
manage it. He brought with him a Kuropsan repu- 
tation as a botanist, unflagging zeal, industry, aud 
enthusiasm, a fund of sound Scotch common sense, 
tbo friendship and cunfldeuoe of sU naturalists, and 
the largest botanical library ami herlarium wliioh 
liad at that time hem made. Ilia reputation anl 
the import.snce of his collections at once attracted 
botanists to Kew from all parts of the world, 
'fheir visits benefited the estabnslimont, and plants, 
specimens and books poured into it from all sides. 
The scientific character of Kew was thus estsblisliod, 
and it is this high oharaoter that has given it the 
lead it has long held among the gardens of the world. 
Sit William Hooker gave the remaioder of bis long 
life to Kew, and dovotod alt his enorgiea and resour- 
ces to its welfare. His son, a man more famous than 
the father , sneoeeded niin, and under bis administra- 
tion Kew gained wonderfully in every direction, 
efpeoially in popuh'r favour. The second H' oker 
retired from Kew a few years ago full of honours, 
handing down the administration of the garden and 
all the family traditions to a connection by marriage, 
under whose wise and broad management it is grow- 
ing now still more rapidly than ever before in use- 
fulness and beauty. In no other spot in tho world 
can so many different plants be seen growing ; the 
museums of economio botany are uneqnall^, the 
borbnriam is the most extonsive that man have ever 
made, and tho library is unsurpassed. This is the work 
of fifty years, carried on by men of extraordinary 
ability and world-wide reputation, working under tho 
most exceptionally favourable ciroumstances, and 
with tho whole British nation behind tliom. Kew has 
received many gifts of great value, and is receiving 
such gifts every week. It costs, however, to carry 
on tho establishment, 75,000 or 80,000 dots, a-year. 
Tho cost of all sorts of garden labour in England is 
not more than half what is paid for sncli labour iu 
tbo States, aud everything connected with a garden 
costs less there than it does here. If, then, Kew 
furnishes tlie ideal at which tho promoters or tho 
projectors of the new garden aim, they must realise 
that this can bn reached only by tho expenditure of 
a great deal of money, and that oven with all money 
needed, such results as the poople of New York 
have tho right to expect, can ocly be brought about 
slowly, and with the aid of unusually favourable con- 
ditions. Somelhiog can be accoraplishod with 1150,000 
dels, but this amount is only a beginning, if New 
York expects to rival London, or St. Louil, or Boitoq 
in its Botanic Garden.— /ii'if. 
