February 25, 1893. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
403 
coccineum. According to L’Illustration Horticole, M. 
MacOwan relates that, during the war of the 
Russians on the south of the Caucasus, the encamp¬ 
ments were invaded by fleas to such an extent that 
the Cossacks preferred to lie down in the open air so 
as to escape the attacks of the insects. Some 
Circassian prisoners made known to them the 
virtues of a plant generally distributed in the 
Caucasus. That was Pyrethrum coccineum of 
Sims, or as we should say P. roseum. The volatile 
oil, which characterises several species of that genus, 
is of the nature, if not to kill, at least to cause the 
insects to sleep for hours at a time, and thus to 
assure the repose of the men. 
FRUIT GROWING IN 
CALIFORNIA. 
Mr. William Laing Malcolmson, of Aberdeen, 
whose interesting experiences as a fruit grower in 
California we published in our issue for February 
4th has kindly supplied the following supplementary 
detailsThe instances I noted of “ many men 
landing in California without any other capital than 
their own labour, and working themselves (with the 
aid of a wife) up to such a position as to be able, 
through their savings and economy, to own an 
orchard or a vineyard within a few years of their 
arrival ” (which I could enumerate in detail) are 
cases of men who had been brought up to field work, 
and who within a few hours of their arrival in Cali¬ 
fornia could command immediate work at from £5 
to £6 per month and their board ; whilst if they had 
a wife, she could command from £y to £5 per month 
as a domestic servant. To the ordinary clerk, 
artisan, or mechanic, there is practically no work in 
California, as there is more labour of this class in 
that State than there is actually work for. So to 
these people I can give no encouragement to go out 
to California, unless they have the necessary capital 
to purchase a small tract of land, and commence 
orchard or vine growing on their own account. 
From the correspondence I have received from those 
with a little money, and who, I think, would form 
splendid colonists, let me select a letter received a 
day or two ago ; and in answering it I will pretty 
well cover the ground of the inquiries which have 
and may be made of me. The writer says :— 
“ I have read your account of California in “ The 
Gardening World” with considerable interest. I 
will be obliged for a reply to the following : 
" 1. In what condition is the unbroken land ? 
“ 2. What can the waste land be bought for ? 
"3. What could land stocked with fruit trees, 
and bearing to be a fair return, be bought at ? 
“ 4. Could you advise a person (who has money) 
to buy a going orchard, that has had no experience in 
fruit growing ? 
“ 5. Would a person who has a young family 
and a few hundred pounds be likely settlers in Cali¬ 
fornia? ” 
I shall now answer, for the benefit of your readers, 
these questions as follows :— 
1. " In what condition is the unbroken land ? ”— 
The answer to this is that generally the land in Cali¬ 
fornia suitable for fruit growing is level and of the 
richest description ; no stones, shrubs, or trees ; soil 
usually aluvial deposits easily worked, and splen¬ 
didly adapted for irrigation purposes. 
2. "What can waste land be bought for?”— 
Land suitable for fruit growing cannot be got for 
much less than £20 per acre, and runs up to as high 
as £50 per acre, according to situation and other 
facilities, although there might not be probably much 
difference in the quality of the land itself. 
3. "What could land stocked with fruit trees, 
and bearing to be a fair return, be bought at?”— 
This depends on the position of the property, and its 
improvements, and its age; also the class of orchard. 
Orange groves bearing a net annual return of £200 
per acre would, in proportion, be more than a young 
orchard or vineyard only a few years old; so this 
question is rather hard to answer. 
4. " Could you advise a person (who has money) 
to buy a going orchard, that has had no experience 
of fruit-growing?” Hundreds come out to California 
who have money, and rather than wait until an 
orchard comes into bearing, purchase a growing 
orchard or vineyard right out, and derive a handsome 
return from their investment. It is not necessary 
to have any experience in fruit-growing, as experi¬ 
enced help or assistance can be easily procured. 
5. " Would a person who has a young family and 
a few hundred pounds be likely settlers in 
California ? ”—There is only one answer to this, 
most decidedly, yes. 
I should like you to mention also that I know of 
a property in California, situated in perhaps the best 
position of the State, known as Chino. The owner 
of this property, Mr. Richard Gird, has had lately 
erected on his property—which extends to some 
55,coo acres—one of the largest sugar beet factories 
in the world. On this property the settler has 
perhaps a better advantage of doing well than in 
most parts of California The settler on this 
property can, after he has planted his orchard, 
utilise the space between his trees for Beet-growing, 
so that he can commence earning a return from his 
orchard, say, £6 to £8 per acre within six months 
from his taking up the land ; and this advantage 
cannot be attained in any other portion of 
California. 
Mr. Malcolmson’s address is 102, Union Grove, 
Aberdeen, and he authorises us to say that he will 
be happy to give, to those desiring it, all the informa¬ 
tion in his power regarding California. 
-- 
MOTH ORCHIDS AT 
CLAPTON. 
The collection of Phalaenopsis in the nursery of 
Messrs. Hugh Low & Co , Clapton, has always been 
noted for its extensiveness, and the beauty of the 
flowers and their quantity are probably unsurpassed 
in Europe. The house near the office is always a 
gay sight at this period of the year, provided the 
intense and mischievous metropolitan fogs keep off. 
On the whole they have been moderate in their 
duration this winter, and although a good many buds 
have turned yellow and dropped here and there, 
sufficient is left to make a grand display. 
The different species and varieties are mixed and 
distributed through the house, but P. Schilleriana is 
by far the most plentiful, and shows considerable 
variation in the markings of the foliage and the 
colour of the flowers, the rosy-purple being brighter 
or more intensified on some than on others. The 
rarest and most interesting of its varieties is P. S. 
vestalis, also known as P. S. alba, because it is an 
albino of great purity —a fact evidenced not only by 
the flowers but also by the leaves and growing tips 
of the roots. The latter are purple in the type, but 
in the present case green. The broadly oblong 
leaves are of an intense green on both surfaces with 
the marbling of the upper face reduced to a few 
small grey spots. On the edges of the lateral sepals 
are a few faint yellow spots instead of purple, as 
well as at the base of the lateral lobes of the lip ; 
the crest is of a pale yellow with a few minute purple 
spots. All the rest is pure white. A few days ago 
this plant, on the occasion of a foggy night, was put 
into a close box and protected with two or three 
layers of tissue paper. A new plant described about 
three years ago is P. Schilleriano-gloriosa, the com¬ 
bination of names indicating the parentage of the 
supposed natural hybrid. The leaves are grey, 
mottled with star-like green spots. The flowers are 
of the same type as P. leucorhoda but deeper in 
colour and the lip and contiguous edges of the 
lateral sepals are heavily spotted with purple. 
There is only one plant of it in existence as far as is 
known. 
In P. leucorhoda we have a supposed hybrid 
between P. Aphrodite, better known amongst gar¬ 
deners as P. Amabilis and P. Schilleriana. The 
sepals are rosy purple and the petals paler except at 
the base. The lip is of large size, and the lateral 
lobes have some bold blotches at the base ; the ter¬ 
minal lobe strongly resembles that of P. Aphrodite, 
but is more or less suffused with rose throughout its 
length. The tails of the lip are intermediate as to 
length between those of the parents. The foliage is 
marbled like that of P. Schilleriana but is sometimes 
entirely green above in different plants. This fact 
would support the supposed hybridism. Closely 
allied to the above is P. casta another supposed 
hybrid ; but in this case the seed parent must have 
been P. Aphrodite (amabilis) as the leaves are of a 
rich dark green above and purple beneath. The 
sepals and petals are white, with a rosy-purple blotch 
radiating from the base of each. The lip is like that 
of the supposed seed parent except the tails which 
are broader and shorter. The foliage of P. Cynthia 
on the other hand resembles that of P. Schilleriana. 
The sepals and petals are white with a blush of pur¬ 
ple running half way down them. The terminal 
portion of the lip is white with a yellow basal por¬ 
tion spotted with purple and tails similar to those of 
P. Schilleriana. The above three kinds form a 
group interesting in their way and withal very beau¬ 
tiful. 
The plants of P. Aphrodite (amabilis) are much 
less numerous than those ofP. Schilleriana, but their 
white flowers offer a beautiful contrast to those of 
the latter when seen in mixture. We noted a parti¬ 
cularly fine form of it with large flowers and broad 
imbricating petals ; even the lateral sepals slightly 
overlap one another. P. Stuartianais also flowering 
freely and in some variety. The spotting on the lip 
and lateral sepals varies considerably. We noted 
some plants having the whole of the lip, with the ex- 
don of the tails, of a bright yellow, spotted with 
crimson-purple. The foliage of this species is beau¬ 
tifully marbled but very variable. Another quaint 
little species that must not be overlooked is P. rosea, 
with rosy white flowers smaller than any of the 
above. Larger flowers, but scarcely so pretty, are 
produced by P. denticulata, the sepals and petals of 
which are pale yellow spotted with tawny brcwn. 
The ridged lip is slightly bearded. P. grandiflora 
will flower a little later. 
-- 
dlqaning* furntt xh$ 
of Science 
Experiments on Apple Scab.— A rather exten¬ 
sive series of experiments for the purpose of checking 
the fungus known as Apple Scab was carried on in 
Wisconsin, in 1891, by Professor E. S. Goff, as re¬ 
corded in Bulletin 3 of the United States Department 
of Agriculture. The experiments cannot be consi¬ 
dered as conclusive from the fact that the early part 
of the season was very dry and likewise again in 
August and September, so that the scab made but 
little progress. The crop was gathered on the 10th, 
nth, and 12th of September. A single treatment 
with the Bordeaux Mixture in winter gave no benefi¬ 
cial results, but in spring and summer some advan¬ 
tages were discernible. Copper carbonate in sus¬ 
pension applied in spring and summer showed some 
beneficial effects, but not so important as in the case 
of the Bordeaux Mixture. Paris green, being a com¬ 
pound of copper, suggested the idea that it might be 
of some service in checking the fungus, and it was 
accordingly used by itself without admixture of any¬ 
thing else. Very marked results were obtained from 
its use. The method of computing the relative ad¬ 
vantages of the different fungicides employed was as 
follows :—the whole of the fruits from a given number 
of trees were counted, and then divided into three 
qualities, namely, those entirely free from spots, those 
slightly spotted, and thirdly, those consisting of badly 
affected and more or less contorted fruits. The best 
results were obtained from spraying with the Bor¬ 
deaux Mixture, once in spring and three times in 
summer. Eight trees bore 4,873 fruits, giving 37 59 
per cent, of fruits entirely free from the scab, 60.31 
per cent, slightly spotted and only 2.10 per cent 
badly spotted. The results with suspended copper 
carbonate gave the following figures, namely, 34.14, 
62.77, and 3 °9 respectively, while the sprayings with 
ammoniacal copper carbonate gave 27 08, 68.83, and 
4.09 respectively, representing the quantities in the 
three different qualities. 
Monograph of Dianthus — A monograph of 
the genus Dianthus has been prepared by Mr. F. N. 
Williams,' F.L.S., and given in the Journal of the 
Linnean Society, vol. xxix., p. 346. He records and 
describes 238 species and a number of hybrids that 
have been produced at various times. He says also 
that the species of Dianthus hybridise freely with 
one another, but of the two commonest garden 
species, namely, D. Caryophyllus and D. plumarius, 
he does not record a single hybrid. Nothwithstand- 
ing the fact of D. Caryophyllus being the most 
popular at the present day in its multifarious forms, 
it has a very limited geographical distribution in a 
wild state. In Europe it is confined to North and 
West Normandy, and in Asia to the South and East 
of the Punjaub. 
The Carnation: its History, Properties, and Management 
with a descriptive list of the best varieties in cultivation. By 
E. S. Dodwell. Third edition, with supplementary chapter on 
the Yellow Ground. London: Gardening World Office, 1, 
Clement’s Inn, Strand, W.C. is. 6d ; postfree, is.7d.—[A dvt- 
