May 9, 1896. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
579 
VIOLAS FROM ROTHESAY. 
It is very early in the season to have Violas in 
bloom at the end of April, more especially when we 
consider the latitude where they have been grown. 
A boxful of blooms in delightfully fresh condition 
reached us from Messrs. Dobbie & Co., Rothesay, 
last week. 
Many of them were delicately and deliciously 
scented, including a glorious white variety named 
Marchioness, havirig a creamy lip. Very fine were 
Blue Cloud, and Laverock, with ultramarine-blue 
edges, and James Cocker, with deep purple edges 
shaded blue to the inner side. The last named is yet 
an uncommon variety. A charming rosy-mauve 
flower is Cecilia, with a creamy centre and long 
flower stalks. Mary Jack is in the way of Columbine 
with a darker purple margin. Princess Ida is new, 
and seems a glorified Wm. Neil with a lively rose 
shading. The flowers of Border Witch are of great 
size, and beautifully shaded with lavender on a 
creamy groundwork ; later in the season the blue and 
cream get separated into splashes. Bullion is still a 
grand golden-yellow, and apparently darker at pre¬ 
sent than later on. Judging from the conformation 
of the petals of A. J. Rowberry, it is allied to the last 
named, but entirely rayless and of a rich golden- 
yellow. It received an Award of Merit last year and 
is now put into commerce for the first time. If the 
habit is good it will make a grand bedding plant. 
Luteola is a soft yellow variety with a golden blotch 
on the lip, and rayless. 
Additions continue to be made to the variegated or 
parti-coloured varieties. Dandy Dinmont is a large 
flower, as round as the full moon, intense purple, 
shaded with black in the centre and having a laven¬ 
der blotch at the tip of each petal. It would come in 
the same group as Magpie and Iona, but is quite 
new. Minnie is a white flower with a violet centre, 
shaded with purple. Crimson King is dark plum- 
purple and well-known. A singular-looking flower is 
Garnkirk, of a lurid coppery-brown colour, and cer¬ 
tainly distinct if not novel. Countess of Kintore 
still ranks amongst the most reliable of bedding 
varieties for the dry and warm atmosphere of the 
south. Very handsome is Princees Beatrice, of a 
deep purple fading to rose on the upper petals, but 
deepening to black in the centre, with blue eyebrows. 
A larger flower is Lizzie Barron, of a deep purple in¬ 
tensified in the centre ; it is quite new. Mrs. Grant 
is rather a bold purple flower with rosy-pink upper 
petals. 
A slightly variable flower is Iona, of a velvety black 
with a large deep sky-blue blotch on each petal ; and 
at present the two upper blotches are very largely 
developed and handsome. A strong contrast to the 
above is furnished by the new Rosea pallida, of the 
faintest blush lavender, and almost rayless. Another 
new sort isColumba.with violet flowers and blue edges. 
Mary Gilbert is a golden yellow variety in the way of 
Bullion, but smaller and of better shape. A fancy 
flower and rather attractive is Accushla, having a 
milk-white centre and broad, irregular, deep purple 
margins. H. W. Stuart is maioon-purple and rose 
striped in a varying manner, but we have no fancy 
for it in the face of so many choice types above men¬ 
tioned. Such handsome flowers as Marchioness, 
Blue Cloud, Laverock, Border Witch, Princess Ida, 
Bullion, Mary Gilbert, A. J. Rowberry, Luteola, 
Iona, Cecilia, James Cocker, Princess Beatrice, 
Dandie Dinmont, Minnie, Crimson King, Countess 
of Kintore, and Accushla, are well worth general cul¬ 
tivation in collections of these popular flowers. 
Tastes vary, but the above would please a large num¬ 
ber of cultivators. 
A new type of striped Violas includes some curious 
combinations and arrangements of colour, and possibly 
some of them would find admirers, particularly one 
that is striped with maroon-purple and rose. 
Rather pretty and distinct in its way is a sort having 
the three lower petals maroon-crimson, but the stripes 
on the upper petals are scarcely decided enough. A 
new strain of bedding Pansies contains some very 
beautiful colours. They are allied to a Continental 
strain named Cardinal, which is meant to imply 
scarlet ; and something good may yet be evolved 
from this type, as it contains some highly-desirable 
colours if they could be infused into the Violas. 
Many of the flowers are velvety maroon, and brown 
with paler edges. Our choice would be the sort 
with dark orange-brown or orange-crimson flowers, 
closely resembling that of a good dark strain of Wall¬ 
flower, but having three maroon blotches in the 
centre. A purple-red flower with violet blotches is 
also a distinct variety of the same strain. A dark 
maroon-crimson variety with narrow yellow edges is 
also choice and pretty. This strain ot Pansies is 
often distinctly and sweetly scented. 
SOLOMON’S SEAL. 
We have long regarded Polygonatum multiflorum as 
one of the most effective and beautiful plants when 
forced in pots for decorative purposes; for when 
dotted about in an arrangement of other spring¬ 
flowering plants it produces an effect quite distinct 
from anything else used for the same purpose. Our 
own observation leads us to think that it is not used 
for this purpose to the extent which its merits would 
lead one to expect. Our plan is, during the summer 
months, to mark one or more old stools which are 
likely to afford a sufficient supply of strong flowering 
crowns, and lift these early in the winter, shaking the 
soil away, and cutting all the strong crowns out with 
from 3 in. to 4 in. of the stem. These we pot into 
4-in. pots, cramming in as many as we can, and 
stowing them away plunged in a frame till wanted 
for forcing. It forces admirably. On occasion when 
required, it can be had in bloom in a fortnight, but a 
longer time is preferable, because then it comes 
stronger and lasts longer in perfection. If stock is 
scarce the remaining portions of the rhizomes with 
no crowns to them may be cut into 2-in. lengths, and 
planted in lines about 2 in. below the surface. These 
will often remain apparently dormant the first year 
and make new growths the second one. We plant 
out those forced, and allow them one year's rest 
before potting them up again.— W. B. G. 
—- - wl— ■ 
FRUIT AND VEGETABLE DRYING.* 
It is common knowledge that in gocd fruit years 
there is at certain periods an over-abundant supply, 
or gluts, of our home-grown hardy fruits, and prices 
rapidly become so unremunerative that large quan¬ 
tities of apples, pears, plums, &c., are often left to 
rot on the trees, simply because it does not pay the 
grower to gather and market them. This state of 
things has occurred again and again during recent 
years. American fruit-growers used to suffer from 
the same cause, but about thirty years ago they 
applied themselves with characteristic energy to 
finding out a remedy and were not long in doing so. 
The remedy was found in drying, or, as they say, 
evaporating the surplus fruit in a specialised 
apparatus by artificial heat, whereby it is converted 
at a small cost into a commodity which can be kept 
perfectly sound and marketable for many months, 
and, if necessary, for years. Ihey found they were 
thus enabled to wait for a market until the supply 
of fresh fruit ceased or greatly diminished. This 
method was at first tried on a small scale only, and 
in a somewhat rough and ready fashion; but 
experience soon suggested improvements, and it 
was not long before the appliance I am about to des¬ 
cribe was evolved, and rapidly came into general 
use. As the demand for it grew, many forms of 
evaporator were manufactured, the principle being 
the same in all, with an important excej tion, to 
which I shall presently refer. In most fruit-grow¬ 
ing districts of the United States the evaporator is 
now in general use, and evaporated fruit is an 
every-day article of food in hotels and private 
houses. The production and consumption is so very 
considerable, that in New York, Chicago, and else¬ 
where, there are now many important firms of 
commission agents, whose special business it is to 
receive large consignments of many kinds of out-door 
fruits direct from the growers and evaporators, 
which they readily dispose of in the States, or export 
to other countries. But it is not fruit only that is 
evaporated, vegetables of nearly all kinds are so 
preserved, those most usually done being peas, 
beans, potatos, sweet potatos, spinach, carrots, 
sweet corn, turnips, and onions; these are all pop¬ 
ular kinds, and are much used for ship stores, both 
in the navy and in the mercantile marine, also at 
military frontier stations and in the Colonies. 
There are, as I have already intimated, many 
manufacturers of evaporators in America, and 
each maker naturally claims that his apparatus is 
the best. Not one of them, so far as I know, is 
without some merit, but there is no reason why we 
should trouble ourselves on this occasion with a 
discussion of their several good or bad qualities. 
* Paper read before the Society of Arts, Wednesday, April 
29th, 1896, by Edward W. Badger, F.R.H. 5 . 
For all practical purposes they may be classified 
into two types— 
1. The Uptight or Vertical Evaporator. 
2. The Oblique or Inclined Evaporator. 
The "Upright” evaporator I have selected for 
illustration is known as the " Zimmerman.” It is 
manufactured by the Zimmerman Company at 
Cincinnati. This evaporator is constructed almost 
entirely of galvanised iron. 
It is made in several sizes, which are described in 
the company's trade list as No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, &c. 
No. 1, is the smallest size, and costs at the works 
£5 5 s - It is intended specially for family use, and is 
so constructed as to be usable either as a fruit 
evaporator or, by aid of a simple contrivance, as a 
baking oven. It is large enough to dry from three 
to five bushels of apples per day, or to bake eight to 
ten loaves of bread at a time. It is 4 feet high, 26 
inches wide, and 2 feet from back to front. It is 
supplied with six galvanised wire trays, on which 
the fruit is placed to be evaporated, the drying 
surface thus provided being rather more than 20 
square feet. In appearance this dryer is much like 
an ordinary stove. At the bottom is the furnace in 
which coal or wood can be used as fuel. The smoke 
is carried off by a pipe at the back of the drier. The 
evaporating chamber is placed vertically above the 
stove or furnace in this and all other evaporators of 
the same type. The admission of air is regulated by 
dampers. The air when heated by contact with the 
furnace, passes among the fruit, and out through a 
covered chimney at the top of the chamber ; thus 
there is a continuous upward current, which in the 
larger dryers is increased by so connecting the 
smoke-pipe with the ventilating-pipe that the 
ascending current from thp furnace helps the 
upward draught. The drying trays rest upon ledges 
fixed on the sides of the drying or hot-air chamber, 
The dryer No. 2, which is double t}te capacity of 
No. 1, and 5J feet high, is also both dryer and baker- 
Its cost is £10 10s. This is the size most generally 
sold for private use. It will dry from five to seven 
bushel of apples per day. No. 3 is a larger apparatus, 
stands 6 feet high, 38 inches wide, 37 inches deep, has 
24 wire trays, each 15 inches by 24 inches, supply¬ 
ing 85 square feet of drying surface. The drying 
space is divided into two chambers, the smoke-pipe 
being carried up between them. It has about double 
the drying capacity of No. 2. Its price is £21. 
This is the size in most general use for market on a 
moderate scale. Larger sizes, No. 4 and 5, are 
called factory dryers. No. 4 will dry from twenty 
to thirty bushels of apples per day, and costs £35. 
No. 5 will dry from thirty-five to fifty bushels per 
day, and costs £52. It is the same size as No. 4, 
but differs from it in being fitted with an elevator, 
by means of which the racks or drying trays are 
gradually lifted from the bottom to the top of the 
drying chambers, whereas in all the smaller sizes the 
trays are stationary. 
The second type of evaporator differs from all 
others I know of in this respect: the hot-air or 
drying chamber is fixed at a small angle in an inclined 
direction away from the stove or furnace; and it is 
in this type of evaporator that the important excep¬ 
tion to the general principle on which the other 
evaporators are constructed (to which I have recently 
referred) will be found. 
This, yvhich is known as the “ American” 
evaporator (Dr. Ryder’s patent), was first made at 
Waynesboro', Pennsylvania, by the American Manu¬ 
facturing Company. Mr. A. Ludwig, 16, Mincing 
Lane, London, has introduced„this evaporator into 
England, under license by a firm in Germany ; but I 
understand that this gentleman would prefer that 
some British firm, interesting iteelf in this apparatus, 
should take up its manufacture here, and so make it 
unnecessary to import it from Germany. The 
American Manufacturing Company thus describe its 
merits: — 
“ By a process, contrary in effect to that so long 
practised, faute de mieux, by the old school dryers, 
we, by the direct action of heat in the primary 
stages, fix the essential oils to which aroma and 
flavour are due. At the same time, by the action of 
the automaticall) diffused currents of hot, dry air, 
is developed an artificial cuticle, or parchment-like 
skin, and thus hermetically sealing the cellular 
formation containing the volatile essential oil, on the 
perfect retention of which so much depends. . , . 
By our method we likewise prevent any retrograde 
effects, for the evaporation is continuous to the 
