4:62 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
the weeds no chance. We give an engraving, 
which shows its construction sufficiently well. 
It will be seen to consist of a wide blade, which 
HAND CULTIVATOR AND WEEDER. 
serves as a lioe, and a revolving rake or cultiva¬ 
tor. We do not know who makes the machine, 
but the parties will doubtless make them¬ 
selves known. The one we have was forward¬ 
ed by Louis Perrot, Outagamie Co., Wisconsin, 
who states that he is one of the inventors. 
A Japan Pear. 
This spring Mr. Quinn, of Pear celebrity, sent 
us some cions of what he called a Japan Pear, 
with the recommendation that it was valuable 
as an ornamental tree. Having 
an old, worthless pear-tree upon 
the edge of the lawn, we grafted 
it with these cions. The growth 
they made was something 
wonderful, and the leaves! some 
of them were nearly as large as 
one’s hand, and in autumn they 
held on long after most other 
pears had cast their leaves, and 
became as finely colored as those 
of the maple. As the tree pos¬ 
sessed such interesting charac¬ 
ters, we were desirous to see 
the fruit, and at our request Mr. 
Quinn brought us specimens, but 
evidently of two distinct varieties 
—one bright green, with a few 
russet splashes, and the other of 
a fine golden russet with con¬ 
spicuous white dots, the one we 
have figured. It will be seen 
that the fruit is in shape so like 
an apple, that we do not wonder 
that several pomologists who saw 
it upon our table each took it for 
an apple. The history of this 
remarkable fruit is a little ob¬ 
scure, and can not be traced be¬ 
yond the person from whom Mr. 
Quinn obtained it. We suppose 
it to be a seedling of the Chinese 
Sand Pear, Pyrus Sinensis, which 
has been for a long time in culti¬ 
vation as an ornamental tree, 
and that the name of “Japan 
Pear,” under which Mr. Quinn 
received it, is a misnomer. At 
all events, the thing is a puzzle. 
The tree has the wood, leaves, 
and habit of growth of a pear; 
the fruit has the shape of an 
apple and the odor of a quince, 
while the seeds have a little of the 
mucilaginous character of those of the quince. 
Bentham and Hooker, in their recent great 
work upon genera, unite the quince ( Cydonia ) 
with the apple and pear ( Pyrus ), and this fruit 
would show that the characters which botanical- 
ly separate the apple and the 
pear are not well defined. 
The tree is altogether a most 
interesting one, and while 
it is highly ornamental, we 
learn from Mr. Quinn that 
it bears most abundantly of 
fruit, which makes the most 
delicious preserves, with a 
positive quince flavor.— 
Since the above was in 
type, we learn from Mr. 
Thomas Hogg that both 
forms of this fruit above 
referred to are common in 
Japan. He considers it 
spcifically the same with 
the Sand Pear, which has long been cultivated. 
-**—« ——... - > -m- - 
Sorrel. —This vegetable is but little known 
in American gardens, but in France it is as 
common as spinach. It is not the -weed known 
by this name, but a much larger plant with a 
general resemblance to a dock. It is a perennial 
easily raised from seed, and will furnish leaves 
for use the first season. It is cooked the same 
as spinach, and boils up into a very tender mu¬ 
cilaginous mass. It has a brisk, pleasing acid 
taste, and forms alone or cooked with spinach 
a very acceptable accompaniment to meat. We 
BALSAM PEAR. 
JAPAN PEAR. 
cultivated it mis year for the first time, and are 
much pleased with the result of the experiment. 
Balsam Apples and Pears. 
One need not be a centenarian in order to 
have noticed that many 
plants that were com¬ 
mon enough in his youth 
have so nearly disap¬ 
peared from culture, 
that they only turn up 
now and then as curios¬ 
ities. It was the custom 
of our good grand¬ 
mothers to look after 
the gardens, and espe¬ 
cially that portion con¬ 
taining those herbs so 
useful “in case of sick¬ 
ness.” Among the 
plants thought in those 
days to be valuable were 
the Balsam Apple and 
the Balsam Pear. These 
are both species of Mo- 
mordica , and belong to 
the same family with 
the cucumber, melon, 
etc. Though formerly 
so common, they are 
now but rarely met 
with; even the name 
seems to have been for¬ 
gotten, as almost every season we have a speci¬ 
men or two brought to us to be named. The 
vines are rather pretty climbers, 
with their lobed leaves and yel¬ 
lowish flowers, which if not 
showy are pleasing. The fruit 
is, however, the most ornamental 
portion, and it is for this that the 
plant is cultivated. That of the 
Balsam Apple ( Momordica Bal- 
samina) is egg-shaped, and point¬ 
ed at each end; that of the Bal¬ 
sam Pear {M. Charantia ) is larger 
and oblong. The fruit of both 
species is covered with warts, as 
shown in the engraving. When 
ripe, the fruits break open with 
some force and scatter the seeds, 
which are covered with a brilliant 
scarlet envelop. Both the seeds 
and the fleshy wall of the fruit 
are quite mucilaginous, and in 
olden times were supposed to 
possess valuable healing proper¬ 
ties. The fruit and .seeds were 
formerly put into spirits, and the 
liquid used upon fresh wounds. 
As these generally healed in spite 
of the application, the Balsam 
received much credit. The en¬ 
graving shows the general ap¬ 
pearance of these fruits, and is 
taken from a specimen sent for a 
name. We suppose it to be Mo¬ 
mordica Charantia , though it is 
more regular than we recollect 
to have seen the fruit of that 
species. One species, 1/1 mixta , 
is said to bear a fruit as large as 
a child’s head. Both the Balsam 
Apple and Balsam Pear are na¬ 
tives of the East Indies, and per¬ 
fect their fruit wherever the 
melon will. They are interesting 
plants for a low trellis, and in 
Europe are sometimes used for 
the decoration of greenhouses. The namefl/o- 
mordica comes from the Latin mordeo , to bite. 
