no objection, but hope none of the readers of 
the Rural New-Yorker will be so foolish as 
to take it, for this plant will not compare 
very favorably with the choice varieties cul¬ 
tivated by our florists. 
CULTURE OF GERMAN IVY. 
Will you tell me what is the best, soil and 
treatment for the German ivy, and oblige a— 
Rural Reader. 
The climbing vine known as “German 
Ivy » jg not, in fact, an ivy or any relation of 
“THE FIRST FUCHSIA.” 
Dr. James Eights, who accompanied 
r iLKES in his exploring expedition to the 
luth Seas in 1838, told me that when on 
the Island of Juan Fernan¬ 
dez he was pleased with the 
exceeding beauty of the 
fuchsia, there growing wild, 
and that he brought the seed 
to New York, and from it 
grew the first plants that 
were known here. 
Humboldt, in his Cosmos, 
makes some allusion to the 
doctor, in connection with 
his scientific researches in 
South America, and about a 
dozen years ago Parsons 
added ft new flower to his 
%. catalogue which Dr. Eights 
' discovered in one of the 
Southern States and for 
_ which he received the mu- 
p IN. nificent. sum of fifty dollars. 
l£i- \ An article on the introduc- 
'i, a \ tion of the fuchsia into En- 
sl glaiul, in a late number of 
1 \ the Rural New-Yorker, re- 
\ called the above incidents, 
--—-r-rffl which may be interesting to 
IfIII W™ the admirers of the delicate 
and graceful flower. To me, 
in all the flora of the North 
there is nothing prettier than our native 
fuchsia—the Celandine whose golden drops 
hang over meadow brooks and contrast har¬ 
moniously with the surroundings. 
A LATE discussion on tms auujw, - - - 
m£t£ofthe Alton Horticultural Sooety, t 
as reported in the Frame F^rme^ aflorde f 
some vigorous statements relative to the l 
by shpsbod management. After recommend- - 
ations by some that canning 
establishments be erected for 
disposing of the great quan¬ 
tities of surplus fruit which 
could not be sold. Dr. Hull, 
who is well known for the 
excellence of Ids crops 
through good culture, and 
who always obtains high 
prices, remarked : 
‘‘ I have figured on canning 
peaches carefully, and am 
convinced that at present vf 
prices you cannot buy 
peaches at a dollar a bushel 
and can them with any 
profit. Now, 1 have a bet- f 
ter plan to propose than can- 
ning peaches, or drying A 
peaches, and that don t /Jfi. 
raise any more poor fruit, to / , ^ 
get rid of which you all have / 
to go to the expense of put- / 
ting up canning or drying / 
establishments. If you can’t 
raise peaches which will be Mil 
worth more than a dollar a ‘ ‘ 
bushel, cut your trees down 
and put in something that 
you can make pay you. Unless you mean to | 
take enough pains to raise the best peaches, 
and only the best peaches,—large, high-col¬ 
ored, without worms,—then the most scien¬ 
tific course left for you is to grub the trees 
up. I call those second grade fruit men who 
only saw their peach trees back, contented to 
go on in the old slipshod, haphazard way, 
raising peaches every year at a loss. Make 
up your minds to raise the finest fruit, or else 
go out of the business altogether. Don’t flood 
the market any longer with worthless fruit, 
which will not pay the cost of handling, and 
break down the price of good fruit. Some of 
our fruit-growers don’t even have enough 
good peaches to line all the cracks of then’ 
boxes.” 
To these remarks Mr. Challacombe exclaim¬ 
ed—“That’s me I 1 have never had enough 
to go all the way around, and 1 am goiug to 
give it up. I know flow to raise wheat and 
com, and hogs, and potatoes, too, when the 
bugs will let me alone, but 1 always expect 
to have two worms to every peach. I wont 
DECORATION S.-(See Page lo.) 
one, but a climbing species of Groundsel from 
the Cape of Good Hope. Its right name is 
Senecio scandens , aud it resembles ivy only ui 
its leaves, which are heart-shaped, or angled. 
The flowers are yellow and produce abund¬ 
antly on old plants which are exposed to the 
sun and a dry atmosphere ; but under such 
conditions the plants lose their beauty, as the 
leaves become brown and burnt in appeal- 
ance. The plants grow rapidly in almost 
any good, rich soil; but a light lent mold, 
w ith a little decomposed barnyard manuie 
added, improbably the best. Shade is indis¬ 
pensable, if a deep, rich green color is desir¬ 
able in the foliage, consequently it is veij 
suitable for room decorations, and may be 
trained on trellises or around the walls where 
the direct rays of the sun never reach it. 
It is readily propagated from cuttings oi 
layers, any small piece of the vine taking 
root and growing with great rapidity. 
ment, the next best in baskets witn my name 
on the cover and the last in baskets with 
only my number on them. I have had no 
trouble in selling my crop of peaches at an 
average of three doLlara a bushel through the 
Beason, and the more I have had, the better 
they have sold. 
Stewart,—We need to study the demands 
of the market, raise the kind of fruit that 
will sell, and then see to it that wc send it to 
the market in the most attractive shape. In 
shipping blackberries last season, 1 took espe¬ 
cial care to have all my boxes weU filled, with 
no soft berries, each box covered with fresh 
leave* so as to preserve the freshness of the 
fruit, and the result was that my cases wore 
all sold before their arrival, and it paid me 
weU - __—-- 
BEN DAVIS APPLE IN ILLINOIS. 
At the last meeting of the Warsaw Horti¬ 
cultural Society, the question was : What one 
variety of apples combines in the greatest 
degree tho three following conditions ; bcai - 
ingqualities, keeping, und commercial value f 
“ It was decided that the Ben Davis apple 
met these requirements more fully than any 
other variety. Willow Twig would stand 
next, according to the remarks of those speak¬ 
ing on the subject. 
•* It is proper to observe here that the Ben 
Davis apple grown in this locality is not the 
leathery, tough, tasteless apple which seems 
to attach to it m other localities, but is a flue, 
large apple, of uniform size, and, 
4 Pure White Abutilon nas oeeu in ¬ 
duced into England by Messrs. Staxdish & 
i the South of France, and 
withstood the winter, grow- 
It is described as a 
u _ " t blooming with 
and till'owing its chaste, bell- 
Co. of Ascot, from 
has successfully \. - 
ing in the open air. 
“line, bold-leaved variety, 
great profusion, j- - f) 
shaped blossoms outside the leaves. 
Blue King is the name of a new and really 
good blue-colored bedding Pansy, just intro¬ 
duced in English gardens. The flowers are 
described as fine in form, of a deep, vuid 
blue color, with a bright and conspicuous 
yellow eye. it is not liable to sport nor to 
be scorched by the summer’s sun. We hope 
it will be introduced in this country. 
Manning Bulbous Plants.- The London 
Garden complains of the massing s> s m 
bulb growing, and says it is illustrated in 
Hyde Park now. The Hyacinths have all 
gone out of bloom at nearly the same time, 
and the vast line of beds devoted to these 
..lonfa Vine VinATi worse than a blank foi . one 
NEGLECTED PLANTS APPRECIATED 
Ontario, by Mrs. Gen. Crutchlev, Ascot 
where it is said great bids of it Btaud aU the 
winter without harm. It has a very ee, 
vigorous character of growth, the leaves re- 
sembiing those of strong seedling verbenas m 
this country; it is very free-blooming,beai- 
intr trusses of flowers of a pale, losy-pmk 
hue It is described by Mr. Stasdish as a 
thoroughly hardy verbena, while the tops of 
the yuimg shoots strike in beat as readily as 
those of any' cultivated variety in tins coun¬ 
try Messrs. Stan dish & Co. have a laige 
number of seedlings coming on. Crosses 
made between this new species and » . 
would m all probability produce an interest¬ 
ing progeny, and if it were also used by rais¬ 
ers of seedling verbenas for the purpose of 
restoring something of the lost constitution 
which lias resulted from iliter-breeding, the 
verbena might eventually become more pop¬ 
ular, or at least better fitted for ? uut-door 
purposes in our gardens .—Gardener s thron 
icle. 
The above has commenced its travels in 
this country, and no doubt many will be in¬ 
quiring where this wonderful plant can be 
obtained. Now, this same species was in¬ 
troduced into English gardens in l-N, or J9 
years ago, under the name of Verbena Au- 
blelia, by which name it is also known in this 
country. We believe that the name V. Mon¬ 
tana was given it by a certain R. O, Thomson, 
well-known in the Western States for his 
operations in selling wild, Rocky Mountain 
plants, mammoth blackberries, honey-pro¬ 
ducing plants, etc. etc. This verbena grows 
wild in Southern New Jersey, Carolmas, and 
westward probably to the Rocky Mountains, 
although we should not like to take Mr. 
Thomson’s word for this last-named locality, 
even if he did pretend to get his stock of 
seed of V. Montana from that region of 
countiy, because it grows abundantly in 
Illinois and Missouri, where he could have 
) ports for Hyacinths in Glasses, 
t who was bothered about adequate 
supports for Hyacinths, come to . 
the conclusion that they must >e 
fixed to the glasses. He says : 
“ With this object 1 got a piece o 
oak and fashioned it as in I' * > 
the notch a flits on to the hp oi 
the glass, and a piece of string 
at B keeps it in its place. t 1S 
very easily made, and with a little 
ingenuity might be made neat and 
elegant, I have tried a lot, and , 
find them answer perfectly, a 
present they are rough sticks, as 
have not time to go in for orna- 
, mentation. Fig. 3 is the ^ -Jj\ 
handsome, large apple, of unuorm size, unu, 
although not the finest- flavored apple on the 
list, ia nevertheless a very good apple, and 
leads all others in bearing and keeping, and 
beats everything in the market. It is be¬ 
lieved by some that the soil of the white oak 
clearings, having a more or less substratum 
of limestone, has something in favor of orch¬ 
ards. This is more especially so commencing 
immediately south of Warsaw, along the tim¬ 
ber ridges. At all events, tho Ben Davis is 
growu in its greatest perfection in these lo¬ 
calities. The apples before the meeting were 
noted for their size, beauty, flavor, aud per¬ 
fectly sound condition. We shall not be dis¬ 
appointed to witness apples of the same 
POMOLOGICAL GOSSIP 
Pine. Apples in Illinois.— Observer, me 
apples will only succeed in the tropics, where 
there are no frosts. They are sometimes cul¬ 
tivated in what are termed pine-pits, that is, 
greenhouses made expressly for the purpose. 
The cultivation of this fruit under glass can 
scarcely be made profitable in this counti y, 
although it is said to be in Great Britain, 
where labor and money is both plentiful and 
cheap. 
Apples for Texas— The Rural Alabamian 
furnishes a list of a shipment of market trees 
for Texas, to show what sorts stand promi¬ 
nent there, viz.; — Ben Davis, 10,000 ; Red 
June, 10,000; Red Astrachan, 10,000: B&wles 
Janet, 5,000; Grimes’ Golden, 5,000; \V lute 
Winter i’earmain, 5,000; Dyer, 3,000; Willow 
