Tradewinds. 
I NSTEAD of a formal mention from week to week 
of seedsmen’s, florists’ and nurserymen's cata¬ 
logues or the reproduction of printed slips which 
are often sent with them, it has been The R. N.-Y.’s 
way for many years to examine the catalogues care¬ 
fully and to notice them according to their real value 
as we see it, or from a knowledge of our readers’ needs. 
In these “ notices ” we aim to be impartial—condemn¬ 
ing all that seems to be merely sensational and prais¬ 
ing all that seems to be com¬ 
mendable, with little regard or 
knowledge of the amount of ad¬ 
vertising with which our patrons 
are pleased to favor us. 
Our friends would directly 
subserve our business interests, 
and indirectly their own, if they 
would mention The R. N.-Y. in 
their applications for the cata¬ 
logues. 
Pitcher & Manda, Short 
Hills, New Jersey.—As a work 
of art this is among the cost¬ 
liest and most elaborate cata¬ 
logue productions The R. N.-Y. 
has ever examined. There is 
nothing coarse, cheap, tawdry 
or exaggerated in the many 
beautiful photo-engravings 
which appear to the number of 
over 100. Most of them are full- 
page illustrations, two of them 
colored, and there are few that 
for accuracy and execution 
might not well be preserved as 
types of the varieties they are 
intended to portray. The cata¬ 
logue is of large size—about 10 x 
6 inches, comprising 220 pages, 
and is devoted to almost every¬ 
thing that a farmer, gardener 
or florist may need in the way 
of seeds and plants. The collec¬ 
tion of orchids offered by the 
“ United States Nurseries,” the 
popular name of the plant, is 
perphaps unequaled by any 
other in this country, as 20 pages 
of description and many life¬ 
like illustrations will show ; 
and the lists of greenhouse, 
stove plants, palms, ferns and’ 
bedding plants of every descrip¬ 
tion are no less comprehensive. 
Chrysanthemums and herba¬ 
ceous plants of all kinds are 
catalogued in endless variety. 
Thirty-two pages are given to 
specialties in chrysanthemums, 
new carnations, begonias, can- 
nas, orchids, dracaenas, pitcher 
plants and, finally, to new or 
recent varieties of vegetables. 
Among these are a new Varie¬ 
gated-leaved-potato, Ice lettuce, Tomato semperfruc- 
tifera, the Stanley pea, etc A full-page photo-en¬ 
graving shows Maranta Lageriana; another the 
Tulip poppy. A beautifully executed colored plate 
shows, without the least exaggeration, a group of 
single and double begonias, which will give those of 
our readers unfamiliar with these magnificent bed- 
ding plants an idea of the w T onderful improvements 
that may be wrought by the hybridizer’s skill. An¬ 
other colored plate shows a double-flowering datura, 
white within and purple without. 
The Rural, New-Yorker delights in giving this 
catalogue unqualified praise, and we hope that all of 
our readers will possess themselves of it, and that they 
will be as much pleased in its examination as we our¬ 
selves have been. 
The Storrs & Harrisox Co., Painesville, Ohio.— 
This excellent catalogue of 165 pages is sent out by 
one of the best nursery firms in the country. Sixty 
pages are given to seeds of all kinds; 60 pages to a 
general collection of plants, in which is included a 
selection of the best roses in cultivation ; four pages 
to hardy perennials ; eight to hardy shrubs and vines; 
z2 pages to fruits of all kinds and the rest to trees and 
miscellanea. 
Among small fruits we see the Timbrell strawberry 
announced for sale for the first time. We are glad to 
see it because the variety, as tried in the Rural 
Grounds, proved to be unequaled by any of the hun¬ 
dreds of varieties which have been raised there during 
the past 20 years. Need we assure our readers that 
we have no interest in making this statement beyond 
a desire to acquaint them with the fact ? The Tim- 
brell may fail elsewhere ; it may have owed its strik¬ 
ing superiority to peculiarities of season which just 
suited it and which may never occur again. The fact 
is simply that as to productiveness, size and quality— 
taking all these together—we have never seen its 
equal, as judged by last season’s trial. The color and 
shape are such that the Timbrell may at once be iden¬ 
tified wherever it is seen, so that any other variety 
sent in place of it, or by mistake, can be at once 
detected. 
It is rarely that we have the opportunity of speak. 
ing in such emphatic terms of 
praise of any new fruit, and 
when the opportunity does oc¬ 
cur, it gives us great satisfac¬ 
tion to do so. 
In view of the fact that The 
Rural’s increase in circulation 
is greater the present subscrip¬ 
tion season than ever before, we 
may be excused for saying to 
our many new readers what is 
well known to our old friends, 
that it has always been con¬ 
sidered a part of The R. N.-Y.’s 
work to try all promising novel¬ 
ties as soon as we could learn of 
them. As a result these col¬ 
umns have been the first to 
speak, from actual experience,of 
such strawberries as the Sharp¬ 
less, Crescent, Parker Earle, 
Iowa Beauty, Brandywine, 
Timbrell, etc.; of such grapes 
as Victoria, Niagara, Colerain, 
Nectar, Ulster, Diamond, Ge¬ 
neva, etc.; of such gooseberries 
as Dougal s, Columbus, Car¬ 
man’s; of such currants as Fay’s, 
and so on through the long lists 
of new potatoes, peas, toma¬ 
toes, sweet and field corn, etc. 
While, however, we have been 
enabled to commend one novelty 
to the public, we have been 
obliged to condemn or to advise 
caution as to a hundred. 
In the catalogue of Storrs & 
Harrison, specialties are not 
printed on colored fly leaves by 
themselves, as in past years, 
but they are placed under the 
regular lists. These we shall 
allude to from time to time. 
J. M. Thorbur.v & Co., New 
York City.—In a colored plate 
which is as true to life as any 
similar production we have 
seen, are three tomatoes, viz,, 
the Lemon Blush, Terra Cotta 
and Longkeeper varieties. The 
last is now well known to the 
public. The others make their 
appearance for the first time. 
The Lemon Blush is so-called be¬ 
cause of its lemon-colored skin 
and flesh, and because of a faint tint of crimson which 
in most of the fruits, during the early and mid-season, 
appears about that part of the tomato opposite to the 
stem or where the lobes of the ovary meet. The seeds 
are small and few, the flesh exceedingly tender and of 
better quality than any other light-colored tomato 
tried at the Rural Grounds. The vines are all that 
could be asked for as to prolificacy and the tomatoes 
begin to ripen early continuing until frost. 
The Terra Cotta is one of those distinct novelties 
that mark the progress of fruit or vegetable culture 
Variegatep-leayed Potato. FrG. 41. See page 123. 
