582 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Dec., 1899. 
stakes or some arrangement to support your flowers. I plant mine generally in 
rows. This year ] have driven in a stake at every twelfth plant, and to these 
are fastened long lengths of split bamboo at a suitable height from the ground. 
The spikes are then tied to these. he arrangement is not particularly sightly,. 
but it answers well and saves a great many stakes. 
A large collection takes up much room, and time must be given to ripen 
the bulbs before they are risen, and for such time the plants are not always. 
pleasant to the eye. 
To obviate this I leave room to plant dahlias, which are coming on mean- 
while, and take the place of the Glaivlux. ‘Vhe disadvantage of this is that you 
must water your dahlias when necessary, and the “ glads” would ripen better: 
without shade or moisture. 
Gladioli bloom in Queensland at the season we expect hailstorms, and. 
Gladioli in flower have a poor chance in a hailstorm. Two or three years ago: 
T had a sheet of splendid bloom destroyed and flattened out in a few minutes. 
Have a few good varieties; stick to these, and increase your stock with 
bulblets—that is, supposing you wish to keep named varieties. The number of 
named varieties of the present day is prodigious, and second only in this respect: 
to roses. 
I am not prepared to recommend a selection, for all are beautiful, and you 
can hardly go wrong if you start with a few of each strain, taking care to 
secure an assortment of colours. 
Tropical Industries. 
PEABERRIES AND MALE COFFEE PLANTS. 
Dr. D. Tuomaris, commenting on a paragraph in the May number of this: 
Journal (1899) on the subject of male coffee plants, writes :— 
“As our Government Botanist, Mr. F. M. Bailey, states, the coffee plant 
is neither diacious nor monecious, but beyond doubt hermaphrodite, as clearly; 
shown by the examination of its flower. Why should the abundance of pea- 
berries fruit on a tree indicate that it isa male? Is not peaberry fruit all the 
same? And still more, a peaberry seed germinates as readily as a bi-lobed 
berry. The paragraph says that the cause of peaberry fruit 1s not definitely 
known. I am surprised at this statement, as itis very easy to find the cause,, 
which is in the poverty of the soil and the dryness of the weather after the blos- ° 
soming time, as through these two causes the young fruit could not be fully 
formed, developed, and nourished ; hence only one lobe grew, and the germ of 
the other became abortive and atrophied, and consequently the single lobe or 
grain grew in a roundish form, and the fruit, being a single-grained berry, is. 
richer in the essential aroma. If the ground be rich, season favourable, tree 
well trimmed and pruned, and blossoms thinned, very few peaberries will be 
produced.” 
Reporting on the question raised in the paragraph and in the above: 
letter, Mr. Howard Newport, Instructor in Coffee Culture, says :— 
PEABERRIES AND MALE COFFEE PLANTS. 
Tn the accompanying letter on this subject, sent on to me for an expression. 
of opinion, I fail to see where the question arises as to why the abundance of 
peaberries on a tree should indicate that it is a male. 
On referring to the article in the May issue of the departmental Journal 
quoted by the correspondent, it would seem that the first mention of the idea. 
was in the form of a contradiction. It is later contradicted by the Colonial 
Botanist, and is in itself a contradiction. The amount of peaberry on a tree has. 
nothing whatever to do with the sex of coffee. : 
