May , 1883 ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
361 
where it appears to have flourished from time immemorial, to be indi¬ 
genous there. The writer has not forgotten the immense area covered 
withCaladium esculentum, Cyperus, Agapanthus, Dracaena, Richardia, 
Sanseviera, and similar plants, which luxuriate about the creeks, 
lagoons, and lowlands on each side of the Orange and Limpopo rivers, 
in “ the dark continent.” Its vast quantities thereabouts is too 
common to excite wonder, except to the stranger. I have forgotten, 
if I ever knew, by wha.t name it is there known to the natives. But 
this much I know of it, that along the Gold and Slave Coast in 
tropical Africa, where it grows from 8 to 10 feet high, the negroes 
eat it under the name of Eddoes. I also saw it in New South Wales, 
about the Darling river, and other parts of Austi’alia, where it grew 
wild, as it does in Texas and Mexico. Again, I have seen the New 
Zealanders, as well as the inhabitants of Norfolk Island, where it 
seems to be equally at home, roasting it for food. As with the Maize, 
it may be considered a travelling plant; and, like it, only stops to 
settle where it finds the climate favourable.—W. T. Harding (in 
The American Gardeners’ Monthly). 
STIGMA PH YLLON CILTATUM. 
Old plants as well as new are worthy of having their merits 
recorded, hence we direct attention to this attractive stove plant. 
It is only met with occasionally, but its cheerful yellow flowers 
Fig. 85.—Stigmapliyllon ciliatum. 
and pleasing foliage entitle it to a place in our stoves. It is an 
evergreen perennial, and was introduced from Brazil towards 
the close of the last century. Its habit is somewhat trailing, 
hence it requires some training; but it never looks so well as 
when growing against a wall and not fastened too closely. It is 
easily cultivated, requiring only a mixture of loam and peat, and 
frequent syringings, to prevent red spider attacking it. Cuttings 
of half-ripe shoots strike tolerably freely if inserted in silver sand 
and protected with a bellglass. It commences flowering in April, 
and continues growing and flowering for many weeks. Its sprays 
are pretty for associating with other cut flowers in furnishing 
vases, but they do not endure long when severed from the plant. 
THINNING PEAR BLOSSOM. 
I HAVE been gardening for over fifty years, but this is my first 
year to see almost every dwarf Pear tree, from 6 feet high down¬ 
wards, in my garden, with a tuft of flower buds on the extremity 
of every branch. I have seen many flowery years, but this one 
for Pears quite surpasses them all. Then quoth I to myself, if I 
allow all these flowers to open I expect the trees will die by 
exhaustion and my Pears will have to come from abroad, while if 
I pull off most of the flower bunches the trees may be strong 
enough to set some Pears, and with sun ripen them. So scissor 
armed in this lovely weather I set to work and clipped off three- 
fourths of the bunches of flowers of so many of my thirty to forty 
little trees. Had I done them all, a week would not have seen me 
through the work. Then quoth I to myself, I will clip away every 
bud from every branch cluster but the strong end or centre bud, 
which ought to be stronger in body (as he looks) than his side 
satellites, which I clip all away, thus reducing each flower bunch 
to the one centre bud, which, if the trees had any discretion at 
all, really ought to become a trump Pear (frost permitting). 
Now, then, do tell me, if wise gardeners have reduced the pips 
or bunches of their Pear trees in such circumstances this spring, 
and observed more than average crops set, as they think, from 
using the scissors ; or if other men have clipped away all the 
buds but the stout centre one, and observed this setting better 
than the flowers where merely few bunches were left on the tree. 
And although tackling so many trees (my gardener scoffs at my 
idea) is alarming, I will have a try at them as soon as you say 
“ Go ahead, and you’ll prosper.” 
I told you about a crazy branch of a Vine, led from my vinery 
to shade my conservatory from too much sun. Now that un¬ 
earthing the Vine roots had started the conservatory Vine buds 
3 inches before those in the vinery, the former have kept all 
ahead ever since, and have such shoots and bunches as never 
grew in my conservatory till now ; though I would say I never 
had more poorly ripened wood in the latter than last year. 
“ Some things no fellow can understand,” any more than— 
J. Mackenzie, M.D. 
[We have heard of blossom being thinned with advantage to 
the succeeding crop of fruit, but the custom is to thin the fruit 
after the blossom has been shed. We have not heard of the plan 
of leaving only the central blossom. Instead of advising you to 
“go ahead,” we would prefer that you halt in your manipulations, 
note carefully the results, and in due time oblige by allowing us 
to publish them for the benefit of others. The portion of the 
Vine in your conservatory is, we presume, the younger and more 
vigorous portion, hence the promising crop.] 
REMOVAL OF A MEMORABLE ELM. 
On the Dover Road, also known locally as the “ Old Road,” a 
little to the south of the town of Gravesend, there was formerly 
an inn bearing the sign of the “ Old Sun,” familiar to travellers 
in the era when this road was lively with coaches before railways 
had been constructed. Beside this inn stood an ancient Elm of 
considerable size, largest of the remaining Elms in the vicinity, 
but this it has been now thought requisite to fell, since the 
condition of the tree was dangerous. The wood had been exten¬ 
sively attacked by the caterpillar of the Goat Moth, one peculiar 
circumstance being that the base of the trunk appeared to be 
sound, as there were no holes or outer fissures until the height 
of nearly 9 feet. On inspection, however, about 8 feet depth of 
water was discovered within, an accumulation consequent upon 
the heavy rains of the past winter. Under ordinary circum¬ 
stances the grubs of a beetle, Scolytus destructor, make various 
channels through the bark to the interior of a tree, completing 
the ruin began by the Moth caterpillar, and bringing it to the 
ground piecemeal very frequently. In an instance like this, as 
the caterpillars, voracious as they are, do not actually clear the 
hollow space, it must be formed partly by the evaporation of its 
contents as gases, partly by a solution of them passing down the 
bole into the soil, I presume.—J. R. S. C. 
CUTTING DOWN CAMELLIAS. 
When I wrote to you about cutting down Camellias on page 
156, February 23rd, 1882, I did not intend to advise the cutting- 
down of all Camellias, but only such as were grown too tall for 
the house, or such as were like the two I had to deal with. They 
were not only infested with insects, but they were bare of young 
wood for more than 24 inches from the pots. By cutting the plants 
down they broke freely from the old wood and made healthy 
plants in one year, and in my opinion they could not have been 
similarly improved in six years by any other mode of treatment. 
Nor do I believe they would ever have broke so low down so 
long as there were a few growing branches left. I am rather 
surprised at “ J. U. S.” saying that unless plants are in vigorous 
health the less they are cut the better, as that is quite the reverse 
of my experience. I should hare sent this letter last year, but 
several gardeners said it would ba many years before my cut- 
