4=62 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
Vegetation in the “Pine Barrens.” 
There is no more interesting section of coun¬ 
try than that extending from Ocean County to 
YELLOW MILKWORT. 
Cape May, New Jersey, commonly known as 
the Jersey “Pine Barrens.” Here it is that 
many of our rarest plants are found, some species 
of which are not known in any other locality. 
There are the dry and the swampy “ Pine Bar¬ 
rens.” The former con¬ 
sist of large tracts of dry 
sand, covered with a 
growth of scrub oaks and 
pines; the latter, which 
border the coast, support 
a dense growth of Mag¬ 
nolias, Rhododendrons, 
etc. Many of the -plants 
found here are very beauti¬ 
ful, while others are in¬ 
teresting on account of 
their rarity. We here 
figure two species which 
came from the swampy 
“Pine Barrens” in the 
vicinity of Tom’s River. 
The Gentiana, angustifolia, 
or Narrow-leaved Gentian, 
though having a wide 
range, is not often found 
growing in any consider¬ 
able numbers in one place. 
The plant grows from six 
to twelve inches high, and 
bears one to three flowers; 
these are two inches long, 
of a beautiful azure blue, with the inside of the 
corolla striped with white. There are nine species 
of Gentian found in the Northern States, all of 
which produce handsome flowers. One of these, 
Gentiana Andrewsii , or Closed Gentian, was 
figured in the Agriculturist for December, 1870. 
Very little attention has been paid to the cul¬ 
tivation of Gentians in this country, owing to 
the supposed difficulty in growing them. When, 
as is usually the case, the plants are taken up 
from the fields, they seldom do well under cul¬ 
tivation, but if the seeds are sown as soon as 
ripe, they vegetate freely, and may be easily 
transplanted, though it requires several years 
before they become well established. The other 
plant we figure is the Poly gala lutea , or Yellow 
Milkwort. The leaves are thick and fleshy, 
mostly clustered at the surface of the ground. 
From this cluster of leaves rises the flower-stalk, 
six to twelve inches high, usually bearing a soli¬ 
tary head of showy orange flowers. As it is a 
biennial, it can only be grown from seeds. We 
do not know that any attempt has ever been 
made to grow this plant, but it is worthy of a 
trial. Besides the plants mentioned there are 
many others which are interesting, though they 
generally have no common name, owing to their 
local character. One of the earliest found is 
Pyxidanthem barbulala. This is a prostrate ever¬ 
green plant, producing numerous white or rose 
colored flowers, which appear early in April, 
with the Trailing Arbutus. Following the Pyxi- 
danthera is the Sand Myrtle, Leiophyllum buxi- 
folium , a low, branching evergreen with ter¬ 
minal clusters of small, white flowers. Next 
follow Helonias bullata , bearing fragrant purple 
flowers, in a dense raceme, two or three 
inches in length, upon a stalk fifteen to eighteen 
inches in hight, and Xerophyllum asphodeloides , 
a plant resembling somewhat an Asphodel, 
which produces a raceme of showy white flowers 
in June. The last two did well with us this 
year under cultivation in common garden soil. 
The Pinneo Pear. 
This pear, represented in figs. 1 and 2, was 
brought to the notice of the horticultural world 
by Mr. Hovey, of Boston, some years ago, and 
was by him called the Boston. It is an old 
variety, cultivated and quite extensively disse- 
years ago, on the farm of Esquire Pinneo. It 
is a chance seedling which he found in an out- 
lot where he was cutting brush. He transplanted 
it to a place near the house, thinking to graft it, 
but finally concluded to let it stand and mature 
the natural fruit. The pear was so good that 
NARROW-LEAVED GENTIAN. 
he never wished to change it, and his neighbors 
were so far of his mind that they came to him 
for grafts. It was scattered all through the 
northern part of New London County, and 
finally found its way to the Hartford and Bos¬ 
ton markets. Mr. Hovey was so well pleased 
with it that he propagated 
it, and sent it out ex¬ 
tensively among horticul¬ 
turists. There is no longer 
any doubt about the iden¬ 
tity of the pears bearing 
these names of Pinneo 
and Boston. The tree is 
vigorous and productive, 
the young wood brownish 
red. The fruit is below 
medium size, obovate, in¬ 
clining to conic, remotely 
pyriform. Skin yellow, 
with numerous small 
green or gray dots, and 
patches of russet all over 
the fruit, but much more 
upon one side than upon 
the other. The stem is 
rather long, and inserted 
in a slight depression, and 
sometimes a little upon 
one side. Calyx set in 
a broad, shallow basin. 
The flesh is white, 
tolerably juicy, with a 
somewhat aromatic flavor. 
Connecticut. 
Fig. 1.— PINNEO PEAR. Fig. 2. —SECTION OP PINNEO PEAR. 
| minated in Eastern Connecticut. It originated | pleasant, sweet, 
| in the town of Columbia, more than a hundred I September. 
