1885.] 
_AMERICAN 
HENDERSON'S NEW ROSE OELERY, 
The omamontal appoaranco of Colory on 
tho table is almost as important a faotor in 
its value as its eating quality; the introduc¬ 
tion of a rose-colored variety will tborofore 
1,0 welcomed by all who have an eye for 
beauty as well as a palate for taste. In 
Henderson’s New Koso Celery, one of tho 
novelties introduced this season by Peter 
Henderson & Co., 35 and 37 Cortlaudt 
street. New York, w’o have not only a 
variety of superior flavor and crispinoss, 
but also one of remarkable beauty, its stems 
and heart being delicately shaded with rose. 
“All who have had experience in tho 
growing of celery,” says Mr. Henderson, 
“know that varieties that are tinged with 
red are hardier and more solid, and hence 
better keepers in winter, and also that un¬ 
der the same conditions they are alway.s 
more crisp and superior in flavor to the 
varieties that blanch yellow or white.” 
A combination of this new variety with 
White Plume and Golden Heart seems to 
admit of as much display of taste, almost, as 
the ari'angement of flowers. 
A NEW PEPPER. 
With the introduction of some of the 
milder yellow varieties of Peppers has de¬ 
veloped a taste for less pungency in this 
fiery vegetable. The Golden Dawn seems 
to fill this requirement pretty well, but it 
cannot be denied that the correct color in a 
pepper seems to be red. 
Burpee’s Ruby King, now introduced by 
W. Atlee Burpee, Pliiladelphia, is claimed, 
to possess as little pungency as is compati¬ 
ble with a respectable Pepper. It averages 
from four to six inches in length, by three 
to four in thickness, but many specimens 
grow considerably larger, and when ripe it 
is of a beautiful, ruby-red color. It is said 
to be always remarkably mild and pleasant 
to taste—uuequaled, in this respect, by any 
other variety—so that it may be sliced 
and eaten with vinegar and salt like Toma¬ 
toes or Cucumbers. The plant is of sturdy, 
bushy habit, and remarkably productive. 
garden. 
23 
sur- 
nl!ini-„,i f Cabbage, trans- 
the ,;, f soil of 
strutfflo^f ’ f'loltei'od from the 
Sv L exuberant 
u itl vital force, and developed many, and 
maikod variations from tho original. ^ 
THE CABBAGE AND ITS HISTORY 
Sometimes the least attractive olijects are 
full of interest through their associations. 
To the casual observer, the Cabbage is a 
homely thing. The student of natural his- 
feW) however, discovers facts connected 
with it which are most fertile in their sug¬ 
gestions, and which send a gleam of light 
backward into the mystery of the origin of 
species. 
•^8 seen in the markets, the Cabbage, 
Kale, Cauliflower, Kohl Eabi, and Brussels 
Sprouts are five very distinct vegetables, 
hey have, however, one point in common, 
hey all have a certain “Cabbage” flavor, 
e seedsman knows that the seeds of these 
Ye vegetables are strikingly alike, and the 
Se-rdener is aware that the most cai'eful 
sorutiny is necessary to distinguish the 
^oung plants. Despite their difference in 
3.8 we see them in the market, botanists 
ha^ agreed that these five vegetables 
an^* descended from the same remote 
wild Cabbage ; and that the 
result of man’s interference 
the plant. 
hov f expect that the rag-a-muffln- 
ijjj^ the streets of New York, adopted 
^ refined Christian family, would de- 
HENDERSON'S NEW ROSE CELERY. 
The wild Cabbage now grows on the sea- 
coasts of Western Europe. It is described 
as a rather coarse, homely perennial plant, 
that resembles the vegetables mentioned 
above in few respects except in its flowers 
and seeds. It forms neither the head of the 
Cabbage, Cauliflower, nor Brussels Sprouts, 
tho tliickened stem of the Kohl Eabi, nor 
the laciniated leaves of the finer Kales. The 
“"'“"""BtrRPEE’S RUBY KING PEPPER, 
precise order in which these widely different 
£nts have evolved from their common 
:Scf pSr « 
forms have not developed succesmve y ^ 
oneanoaer, but that they rath®]; ^ 
^owth of nearly simultaneous vanataons 
different directions. Tho Cabbage evidently 
possesses great assimilative power, and 
when the wild plant was relieved from the 
crowding of other plants, and given abun¬ 
dance of food, it became fat, by storing up 
nutriment in great abundance. Sometimes 
this fatness was evenly disti-ibuted through 
tho plant, as in tlie larger Kales. In other 
cases it became localised, giving to one, or 
another part of the plant an undue enlarge¬ 
ment. As tlie value of the plant to man was 
in proportion to its accumulated nourish¬ 
ment, such variations were carefully pre¬ 
served. Thus in certain plants, the stem 
became abnormally thickened, as in the 
Marrow Kale, by the continued selection of 
plants having the thickest stems through 
an indefinite number of yeans, a variety re¬ 
sulted having a roundish expansion upon 
the stem ; our Kohl Eabi. 
In other plants, the fatness became lo¬ 
calized in the flower heads, by which the 
normal flowers were substituted by a tender, 
fleshy enlargement. This, being very del¬ 
icate in flavor, was especially sought after, 
and the plants that produced the greatest 
number of these fleshy heads at the same 
time, were most prized. Thus, through cen¬ 
turies of selection, a plant was produced in 
which all the flower heads are fleshy, and 
are produced simultaneously ; I refer to 
the Cauliflower. 
Then in others, the superabundant nour¬ 
ishment was deposited in the leaves, in such 
a manner as to cause them to fold about one 
another : the Cabbage. Just how this fold¬ 
ing is brought about, we do not know. Per¬ 
haps it is due to an excessive development, 
of the mid-rib, which being more prominent 
on the lower side of the leaves, causes the 
latter to curve inward. 
In other plants the buds, which do not 
usually develop until the second year, be¬ 
came much enlarged, by a dense covering 
on tender leaves, forming the Brussels 
Sprouts; while in still others, the veins of 
the leaves became developed far beyond the 
parenchyma, forming the beautifully cut, 
and frizzled Kales. 
Thus, through centuries, perhaps thou¬ 
sands of years of selection, a single wild 
plant has developed into five distinct vegetar- 
bles. These marvelous changes are not the 
result of a preconceived plan, but rather of 
the slow, unconscious growth caused hy the 
natural tendency to preserve the most de¬ 
sirable variations. “Elm.” 
MARVELOUS POTATO YIELD. 
When a few years ago tho former publish¬ 
ers of The American Garden offered 
premiums for the largest amounts of Pota¬ 
toes grown from one pound of seed, the 
greatest yield reported was 1,694 pounds. 
This seemed so incredible that, at the time 
but few persons would believe it, consider¬ 
ed the statement a pretty hig Potato story ? 
But when now, the committee appointed to 
award the premiums offered by the Bradley 
Fertilizer company of Boston, for the lar¬ 
gest yields grown from one pound of Dakota 
Eed Potatoes, with tho use of their fertiliz¬ 
ers, report a yield of 2,558 pounds, that 
former big Potato story sinks into insignifi¬ 
cance. Yet any one who knows that Potato 
slips may be propagated in geometrical 
progression, will not_doubt for a moment, 
that these quantities can actually bo pro¬ 
duced. . 
