I 
A US. 44 
justified in doing so. But by your patronage 
impress upon our nurserymen that you will 
buy your plants at home rather than abroad, 
and you will find men and capital, too. at home 
that will penetrate the uttermost ends of the 
earth to procure “ new,” choice and unheard- 
of exotics to supply your wants. Then you 
may expect to purchase plants at first cost, 
without the burden of trans-Atlantic expenses, 
customs, and other items that swell your bill 
some one-third or half the price of the plants. 
out from a certain quarter, that these very 
early varieties produce fruit prematurely 
simply for the reason that they are attacked 
by the yellows. I have escaped this trouble 
entirely. It does not do much injury on our 
strong loamy soil. Chas. A. Green. 
Monroe Co. 
fruit, as they look better on the table. For 
such use the eye as well as the palate must be 
taken into consideration. 
ARALIAS 
Marsellnise Figg, 
I can corroborate what B. F. J. quotes from 
a French savant, on this fruit in the Rural of 
Jaly 24. I whs at Marseilles in the summer of 
1867, but as the soil around It. is generally very 
barren, I do not recollect seeing fig trees grow¬ 
ing in its immediate vicinity, though they 
probably may to some extent in gardens. 
At Avignon, 50 miles or so up the Rhone, 
north of Marseilles, I plucked figs of fair qual¬ 
ity from trees growing in quite a dry soil. I 
did not observe the character of this soil par¬ 
ticularly, but it is my impression now that it 
was a light gravelly loam, and naturally rather 
poor. How much it had been fertilized artifi¬ 
cially I cannot say. 
No doubt by a proper choice of varieties, the 
growing of figs could be greatly extended in 
the United States j and this is a thing well 
worthy of more attcution than has yet been 
given to it by our horticulturists. The best 
sorts are delicious, the poorest are little better 
than a green cucumber—that is, to my taste. 
Others, however, may differ witn me as to this, 
for the old adage says: De gusvibus non esi 
disputandum ; which is equivalent to the Eng¬ 
lish “ There is no disputing of tastes.” 
WILLIAM FALCONER 
Aralias grow wild in Europe, North Amer¬ 
ica, Japan, Eastern and Southern Asia and the 
South Sea Islands. They consist of trees, 
shrubs and herbaceous plants, aud arc valu¬ 
able, some on account of their ornamental 
character and others because of their econo¬ 
mic use. Our native aralias, as the Ginseng, 
Dwarf ginseng, common Wild sarsaparilla aud 
Spikenard, are common in rich woodlands; the 
Bristly sarsaparilla prefers rocky places, and 
the Angelica tree or Hercules Club Is found 
along our Southern river banks. 
The Angelica tree is grown in gardens for 
its sub-tropical appearance aud its immense 
eompoundly-pauicled umbels of white flowers. 
A. Chiuensis, from Northern China, and A. 
cordata, from Japan, closely resemble the 
Angelica tree and are cultivated for the 
same end. In European sub-tropical gardens 
they are extensively used, the Angelica tree 
the most so. 
The Spikenard, on account of its ornamental 
appearance when laden with fruit, sometimes 
gets a footing in our gardens; but it is not 
worthy the place. A. papyrifera, the Rice- 
Paper Plant indigenous to the swampy forests 
of Formosa, is also highly favored for sub¬ 
tropical work, aud although not hardy in the 
North, it winters well in a frame, pit or cellar. 
The stems may bo all wiuter-killed, but so long 
as the fleshy roots keep plump and iresh, so 
long can a numerous stock be raised. Little 
pieces of the roots, as in the case of bouvar- 
dias, produce goodly-sized plants in one season. 
A. Japonica, has large, deep-green, glossy 
leaves, is a common plant in cool green¬ 
houses, a pretty ornament in the Summer gar¬ 
den, and a second-quality window plant. It is 
not hardy here. It is hardly choice enough 
for a small plant collection. 
Among tue ecouomic ns -.s of the aralias, the 
famous Chinese rice paper, made from the pith 
of A. papyrifera is conspicuous. My neighbor, 
Dr. Henry P. Thayer, at his extensive lab¬ 
oratories at Cambridgeport, manufactures a 
fluid extract from the American sarsaparilla 
(A. uudicaulis) that is gently stimulative aud 
alterative ; oue from the bark of the root of the 
Dwarf Elder (A. hispida), ofdiurotie and alter¬ 
ative propensities; aud another from the root 
of the Spikenard (A. racemosa), that is aro¬ 
matic and alterative and which is used in pul¬ 
monary diseases. 
But the most beautilul kinds come from afar 
—Iudia and the South Sea Islauds. Many of 
these aralias, as Veilchii, Guiifoylei, elcgantis- 
sirna, macnlata, armala aud the like, are valu¬ 
able and highly decorative greenhouse plants 
seldom met with outside of our choicest col¬ 
lections of tropical exotics. They are mostly 
shrubby aud always prettiest in a young state 
—say when two to five years old. But what 
are we to do with such costly plants after they 
grow up leggy aud bare and in a measure lose 
their comeliness ? Cut them back and use the 
branchlots as cuttings and cions for grafting. 
Those who propagate the finer, hard-wooded 
aralia 3 sometimes experience diliicuity and 
delay in attaining this object; hence the finer 
sorts will always be expensive. 
In habit and leaf form these exotic aralias 
vary more than do the wildlings of our own 
woods; A. filiciiolia, for instance, has ample, 
fern-like leaves ; reticulata, strap-shaped ; ele- 
gant'issima, digitate with slender, thread-like 
leallots, aud 60 on. The color of the leaves 
also differs materially in the different species. 
tSome are deep-green; others olive-green, 
bronze, spotted and blotched, or maybe mar¬ 
gined with white or whitish yellow. 
Aralia monstrosa, the subject of the annexed 
illustration, is one of the handsomest of the 
genus. It is a “ uow " plaut, receutly intro¬ 
duced from the South Sea Islands and is now 
being disseminated by Mr. B. 8. Williams, of 
London, Euglaud. Mr. W’fl description of the 
plant is; ‘’leaves pendant, primate, having 
throe to seven oblong elliptic leaflets deeply 
and irregularly serrated. The leaflets are 
broadly margined with creamy white, the sur¬ 
face blotched with grav.” He quotes tjie price 
of each plant at oue guinea—about$5.25. But 
The Early Sweet Water Peach. 
Latelt on some of the fruit stands about the 
city could be seen quite a quantity of this old- 
SIMMONS’S RED.—FIG. 203 
time favorite, early peach. Many years ago 
this variety was considered the best of the very 
early peaches in this neighborhood, ripening 
about the first week in August. It was largely 
supplanted by Hale’s Early, on account of its 
color, the Sweet Water being pale white and 
Hale’s Early a deep red. Everybody planted 
the latter, aud everybody wished it had never 
come into existence, for more money has been 
lost by it than was ever made by it. If a wet 
day. or even a good shower comes when the 
fruit i3 ripening, it immediately commences to 
rot, and the larger part of the crop is lost. In 
Delaware whole orchards of it have been 
grubbed up and used as firewood. This only 
shows the folly of abandoning well-tried, 
standard fruits for the untried novelties con¬ 
tinually coming up. Great caution should be 
used in such cases, aud a few experimental 
trees planted and tried before planting large 
orchards of them. James Hogg. 
Besides, we will banish the life-risk of the 
plants—the greatest barrier of all. 
NEW GRAPES AND OTHER FRUITS 
That there have been great improvements 
made in fruits and vegetables during the past 
50 years will be admitted by everyone who has 
paid auy attention to the subject. Some of 
these improvements have been made by hybrid¬ 
ization, a method requiring more science and 
care than most farmers and horticulturists pos¬ 
sess; but many of them have occurred by nat¬ 
ural cross-fertilization or evolution, requiring 
no more science than any farmer, man or boy, 
possesses. 
The Concord grape, after deducting from its 
many superior qualities its lack of true vinous 
flavor aud its too thiu skin for keeping and 
rough handling, stands to-day, after many 
years’ experiment, nearly, if not quite, at the 
head of American grapes. This, as I under¬ 
stand, was obtained by careful selection from 
the product of the seeds of native wild grapes. 
The Iona, standing nearly at the head of the 
list for flavor and for wine, is simply the second 
generation from the Catawba, and obtained by 
merely a selection from the products of the 
seeds of selected specimens. 
On page 190 of the Report of the Mich. Slate 
Pom. Society for 1879, is an account by T. T 4 
Lyon, President of said Society, of his recep¬ 
tion from G- W. Fulkerson, of Ovid, Clinton 
county, of eight varieties of seedling grapes, 
selections from the products of the seeds of a 
single bunch of the Wilder—Rogers's hybrid No. 
4; and Mr. Lyou says of them: “We were 
greatly surprised, not so much on account of 
the quality of the fruit, 6ome of which we 
thought as good as, possibly even better than, 
the parent; but more especially from the cir¬ 
cumstance that so many varieties of such high 
average quality should spring from a single 
bunch of any variety*" 
The writer of this article has been in the hab¬ 
it for the past few years (after lamenting that 
he did not begin 30 years earlier) of selecting, 
from the seedlings springing up in his garden, 
any vines that have shown marked peculiarities, 
and giving them cultivation ; and though their 
products have always, so far as fully fruited ( 
been worthless, there is one fruiting for the 
first time this year that shows remarkable pro¬ 
gress in one direction, it has sixty clusters of 
blossoms on its ten feet of a single cane, most 
of them shouldered or forked. What will be 
the color or quality of the fruit is not yet 
shown, but its fecundity is certainly remark¬ 
able. I have two others not yet fruited that 
are remarkable in their nearly round, very 
dark-green leaves aud dark-colored, hard, 
wiry eaues. I speak of these, not so much as 
showing marks of improvement, but as laler- 
esting features in natural products, and as an 
encouragement to young people of both sexes, 
who have anything to do with the cultivation 
of the soil. Fortunes have been made by the 
production of new varieties of plants by the 
most simple processes open to all, and I 
promise with much eoufideuee that fortunes 
are still in store lor the persevering in horti¬ 
cultural experiments. Let not ninety-nine or 
nine hundred failures to one success discourage 
you. Select seeds from the best fruits; plant 
them in profusion; select the most promising 
plants and give them the best culture, in the 
best soil, and if, on fruiting, their product 
show any improvement, plant again from this 
improved product. 
What I have said of grapes by the way o 
SIMONS’S RED APPLE 
Size, medinm to large. Form, oblate, taper¬ 
ing to the apex; sides unequal. Flesh, me¬ 
dium fine, pale yellow or yellowish-white, 
tender, moderately juicy, nearly sweet or 
mildly subaeid, with a pleasant, aromatic flavor. 
Core, rather open. Seeds, light brown and of 
medium size, pointed. CaljTi open, in a deep 
basin. Stem short and small, set in a very 
deep, open cavity. Color, ciimson, dark on 
the sunny side, but lighter in the shade, with 
somewhat obscure but darker stripes through¬ 
out, and clear, deep russet around the stem 
and calyx, and russety specks covering the 
whole surface. Quality, “ very good." Ripens 
in Georgia the last of August and beginning of 
September. 
It is said to produce regular crops. It is a 
wilding, having been found growing iu the 
woods in Macon County, Georgia. 
Small Pears and Apples. 
It is a prevalent idea among fruit growers 
that for marketing purposes large pears and 
apples arc the most salable. However this 
may be with late Autumn and Winter fruit, it 
is not really so with t,he Summer and early 
Autumn varieties. During the Summer and 
early Autumn the markets are supplied with 
berries, plums and peaches, grapes and mel¬ 
ons which people largely use and only need 
pears aud apples to make up a larger variety 
of table fruit The large hotels at the water¬ 
ing places and in our large cities have to sup¬ 
ply their tables with everything in season, and 
require a large variety of fruit. A guest at one 
