No. 98.] 137 
portion of the leaves, causing them to turn black and die. The Bos- 
ton Market variety seemed to suffer most from these attacks ; so much 
that the leaf-stalks grew scarcely more than six inches long, while 
those of the other variety attained double that length. 
When the seed of Celery was sown in the hot-bed, a portion was 
covered with a thin layer of pulverized sphagnum (swamp moss) as an 
experiment. It was noticed that the portion so covered vegetated 
earlier, and produced a greater number of plants to the square foot 
than the part covered with soil only. 
PEPPERS, 
Thirty seeds each of eleven varieties of peppers were planted in the 
hot-bed April 6, the temperature of the soil being 90° F. 
The plants that vegetated were transplanted May 29 to a well-fer- 
tilized garden plat, having a sunny exposure, and were cultivated with 
the hoe throughout the season, as often as the soil seemed to require 
it. 
The varieties, number of seeds vegetated, and. time of vegetation, 
blooming and maturity, so far as noted, will appear in the following 
table : } 



l 
Out of 
VARIETY. Vegetat’d.| Days.| Bloomed. | Days.| Ripe. | Days.| 30 seeds 
vegetated. 
POE SUCTIN iy fislane'e cos + Are 16.) X10 June 30 | 85 Sept. 6] 153 19 
Sweet Mountain......... Apr. 14 8 July 3] 88 Sept. 16 | 163 4 
ST) ele alle ian Apr. 14 8 July 6] 91 Sept. 6] 1538 19 
Large Bell or Bull Nose..| Apr. 15 9 July 10 | 95 Sept. 6 | 153 10 
Squash or Tomato Shap’d; Apr. 14 8 July 10 | 95 Oct,  H-f 182 9 
New Cranberry ......... Apr. 15 9 July 12 | 97 Oct. 6] 153 15 
Long Red Cayenne...... Apr. 13 7 July 14] 99 Oct. 13 | 160 8 
Long Yellow Cayenne...| Apr. 15 9 July 17 | 102 Oct. 13 | 160 10 
Sweet Spanish.......... Apr. 16 | 10 July 18 | 103 Oct. 13 | 160 10 
Monstrous or Grossum..| Apr. 14 8 July 26 | 111 Oct. 7 | 184 4 
Small Red Chili......... | July 6| 91 Sept. 6 | 153 10 



The Sweet Mountain or Mammath, and the Large Bell or Bull 
Nose rotted considerably on the plants before ripening. ‘The Sweet 
Spanish also rotted slightly. The Sweet Spanish, and Squash or 'T'o- 
mato Shaped, ripened but a small proportion.of their fruit. The 
Monstrous or Grossum was extremely late, not ripening a specimen of 
its frnit until October 7. 
The pepper plant isextremely variable. ‘The fruit on different plants 
of the same variety often varies much in shape. On one plant of the 
Long Yellow Cayenne variety the fruit was all borne erect, while on the 
others it was pendant. Oertain plants of a variety often mature their 
fruit much earlier than others. Flowers on the same plant differ in 
the number of parts of the corrolla and the number of stamens, and 
the fruit in the number of its cells. 
[Assem. Doc. No. 8. | 18 
