258 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDEN EK 
March  30,  1899. 
EARi.Y  SPUING  AROUND  JERUSALEM. 
The  writer  recalls  many  features  of  interest,  such  as  an  ardent  lover 
of  Nature  might  revel  in,  daring  a  sojourn  in  the  unique  couliguration 
of  this  for  all  time  wonder-enthralling  country.  At  the  fiist  blush  I 
must  confess  the  soil  seemed  as  if  its  powers  of  fertility  had  been 
utterly  extracted,  and  only  a  grey  rocky  and  barren  crust  survived,  not 
much  else  than  the  sombre  but  useful  Olive  being  in  evidence,  and 
many  of  these  gnarled  and  stunted  to  a  degree. 
Standing  as  it  does  some  2500  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
jMediterranean,  Jerusalem  and  the  peaky  mountainous  tableland  around 
has,  as  may  be  surmised,  an  atmosphere  keen  and  extremely  in- 
vif^orating  early  in  the  year.  I  recollect  if  I  made  a  start  betimes 
inUhe  morning,  the  roads  were  hard  and  the  ground  wdiite  with  hoar 
frost.  You  may,  too,  experience  a  cutting  cold  wind.  Nevertheless 
the  sun  is  very  powerful,  and  by  midday  of  such  great  heat  as  to 
account  for  the  early  growths  in  flowers  that  one  comes  across. 
Even  on  these  elevated  heights,  and  no  later  than  tnid-January, 
I  was  delighted  with  the  lovely  red  Anemones  and  Orchids  amongst 
other  dowers  which  I  saw  in  my  saunterings  round  about  Bethlehem, 
Solomon’s  Pool,  and  Hebron.  The  latter  is,  I  think,  considerably 
lower  in  ahitude  than  Jerusalem,  and  is  famous,  besides  the  mosque 
where  the  patriarchs  are  buried,  for  the  time-honoured  Abraham’s 
Oak.  This  said  tree  is  of  gigantic  girth  and  proportions,  and  evidently 
sufficiently  venerable  looking  to  sustain  its  legendary  character.  I 
bore  away  with  me  as  a  trophy  one  of  the  huge  acorns  with  which 
the  ground  was  strewn.  A  precocious  kind  of  Gentian  revealed 
itself  to  me  in  the  Valley  of  Jehosaphat  between  Jerusalem  and 
the  Mount  of  Olives.  On  the  very  summit  of  the  latter,  after 
enioying  the  hospitality  of  a  resident  there,  I  gazed  my  fill  from  the 
house  top  upon  the  most  sublime  and  marvellous  coup  cVceil  which  I  have 
ever  experienced,  the  most  striking  features  being  the  far  away  Dead 
Sea,  with  the  blue  mountains  of  Moab  in  the  extreme  background 
bathed  in  the  glories  of  the  setting  sun.  Had  the  “  latter  ”  rains  not 
failed  the  season  I  was  in  Palestine,  doubtless  many  other  flowers 
would  already  have  burst  into  bloom. 
A  fairer  and  more  likely  field  at  this  early  period  affords  itself  down 
in  the  plains  of  the  Jordan.  Quite  a  carpet  of  the  red  Anemone  we 
sralloped  over  in  our  scamper  on  our  game  little  Arabs  across  these 
plains  from  Jericho  to  the  Dead  Sea.  Were  such  ever  again  taken  in 
hand  and  cultivated  by  irrigation,  what  a  rich  and  fertile  harvest 
would  result.  The  Jericho  Oranges  are  the  finest  in  the  world, 
eclipsing  those  even  of  Jaffa,  but  unfortunately  do  not  stand  expor¬ 
tation.  *"The  contrast  in  the  climate  from  Jerusalem  owing  to  its 
]rnsition  under  the  mountains,  and  the  remarkable  descent  to 
2500  feet  below  the  level  of  the  Mediterranean,  causes  Jericho  to  be  a 
place  cf  very  great  heat  and  the  lowest  city  in  the  world. 
Having  trusted  myself  to  the  rather  uncanny  looking  waters  of  the 
Jordan  by  way  of  an  early  morning  bathe,  in  company  with  several 
others  we  rowed  down  the  river  into  the  Dead  Sea,  and  after  another 
bathe,  in  which  I  tried 'the  possibility  of  sinking  without  any 
success,  my  dragoman  and  I  plunged  into  the  wilds  of  the  Dead 
Sea  Mountains,  with  the  view  of  reaching  the  lonely  monastery  of 
l\Iar  Saba  before  sunset.  A  weirder  spot  it  would  be  hard  to 
find.  Built  on  the  very  edge  of  a  precipitous  gorge,  the  monks,  to 
the  bearer  of  a  letter  of  introduction  from  the  Armenian  Patriarch, 
receive  a  traveller,  and  give  him  a  bare  sustenance  of  bread  and  water, 
and  a  lodgment  for  the  night.  In  my  own  case  we  were  not  destined 
to  reach  there  as  soon  as  hoped,  for  after  going  up  and  down  the  most 
pathless  and  impossible-looking  mountains,  my  dragoman  (a  Syrian 
Jew)  frankly  acknowledged  he  had  lost  us.  I  intimated  to  him  that 
his  backsheesh  would  be  lacking,  and  broke  my  umbrella  over  his 
back,  but  to  no  avail  ;  and  being  almost  dark  (there  is  scarcely  any 
twilight)  w'e  accepted  faute  de  mieux  the  hospitality  of  a  Bedouin 
Arab  encampment,  and  reposed  our  limbs  in  the  tent  of  a  patriarchal 
Sheik  after  a  sumptuous  repast,  together  with  two  pure  white  camels, 
a  lot  of  black  goats,  and  innumerable  smaller  companioas  of  a  more 
troublesome  nature. 
Here  towards  dawn  the  jackals  and  hyenas  helped  to  wake  us  for 
an  early  start  across  those  wild  and  desolate  regions  in  the  howling 
wilderness  of  Judaea,  towards  our  belated  goal.  Very  fresh  and 
beautiful,  however,  was  the  sunrise,  and  the  dew  sparkled  like 
crystals  on  some  fragrant  blue  and  yellow  cup-shaped  flowers,  which 
were  just  appearing  in  the  more  sheltered  nooks  of  this  vast  elevated 
tableland  of  mountains.  Our  Sheik  guided  us  to  Mar  Saha,  and 
there  left  us,  rejoicing  in  a  liberal  amount  of  backsheesh.  Truly  these 
sons  of  the  Desert  are  a  fine,  enduring,  and  heroic  race,  of  splendid 
qrhysique,  and  possessing  a  most  dignified  and  patriarchal  mien. 
I  realised  a  peculiarly  subtle  charm  in  this  historic  part  of 
Palestine,  and  left  the  country  by  the  difficult  and  dangerous  Port 
of  Jaffa  with  much  regret,  and  a  keen  desire  to  revisit  the  scenes  of 
such  abiding  interest. — J.  A.  Carnegie-Cheales. 
THE  OSAGE  ORANGE. 
I  HAVE  read  the  interesting  account  of  the  Osage  Orange  in  your 
issue  of  15th  December  last,  page  453.  Perhaps  you  would  kindly  give 
me  some  further  information  on  the  subject.  I  may  say  that  I  know 
little  of  gardening  or  horticulture.  In  the  year  1880  I  brought  from 
St.  Louis  a  strange  fruit  that  WaS  new  to  me,  called  the  Osage  Orange. 
It  had  a  delicious  scent,  but- was  apparently  quite  uneatable.  I  dried 
the  seeds  and  planted  them,  and  in  a  few  years  we  had  at  Chisleburst, 
in  a  sheltered  but  not  protected  garden,  a  fine  impenetrable  hedge, 
growing  6  or  7  feet  in  the  year,  and  which  had  to  be  severely  cut 
back  to  keep  it  within  bounds,  I  have  just  obtained  from  America 
some  cuttings  to  plant  in  Worcestershire,  as  we  found  that  the  plants 
we  endeavoured  to  take  from  Chislehurst  would  not  grow. 
In  January  of  this  year  we  found  in  the  markets  of  Algiers  and 
Biskra  a  fruit  which  we  fancied  must  be  an  Osage  Orange,  though  the 
rind  of  the  fruit  was  rather  smoother  than  that  of  the  one  we  brought 
from  America. 
The  Osage  Orange  makes  such  a  magnificent  hedge,  with  its  long 
stiff  thorns,  and  seems  to  be  so  hardy,  that  I  should  be  glad  to  know 
how  to  cultivate  it  to  advantage.  I  mav  mention  that  our  hedge  at 
Chislehurst  never  had  flowers  or  fruits. — PiICHARD  B.  Martin. 
[It  would  be  interesting  to  know  if  the  Osage  Orange  hedge  at 
Chislehurst  passed  without  serious  injury  through  the  memorable  frost 
of  Februarjq  1895.  We  do  not  know  of  any  better  account  of  the  shrub 
or  tree  than  that  of  Mr.  Jefferies  above  cited.  It  has  been  long 
known,  but  not,  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  grown  to  any  noticeable 
extent  in  England. 
Some  years  ago  a  projiosal,  if  not  an  attempt,  seems  to  have  been 
made  to  cultivate  the  tree  for  its  fruit  in  this  country,  a  rather  curious 
notion,  as  it  is  not  conceivable  that  anyone  would  eat  the  fruits  if  they 
were  produced,  for,  though  they  are  i  ot  unpleasantly  perfumed,  there 
is  no  evidence  that  the  native  North  American  Indians  ate  them. 
They  smeared  their  spears  with  the  juice  before  going  to  war,  and 
made  bows,  if  not  arrows,  of  the  wood  for  shooting  their  enemies,  and 
hence  the  tree  is  popularly  called  “  bow'-  wood.” 
As  to  “cultivation,”  this,  for  the  purpose  of  fruit  production 
would,  we  presume,  be  much  the  same  as  that  which  is  appropriate  to 
the  Fig,  which  belongs  to  the  same  natural  order.  Whether  grown 
against  walls,  or  as  open  standards  in  favourable  positions  in  the 
south  of  England,  Fig  trees  do  not  bear  till  they  arrive  at  maturity, 
and  produce  firm,  short-jointed  wood,  which  ripens  to  the  tips.  They 
would  never  do  so  if  cut  closely  back  yearly  to  keep  them  in  hedge 
form,  as  then  they  would  produce  gross  and  essentially  fruitless 
growths  after  the  manner  of  the  “  Orange  ”  hedge  of  Chislehurst. 
The  Osage  Orange  (Madura  or  Toxilon)  however,  does  not  belong 
to  the  Orange  (Citrus),  but,  like  the  Fig  and  the  Mulberry,  to  the 
Nettle  family,  and  the  trees  when  mature  are  said  to  attain  a  height  of 
from  20  to  60  feet  in  some  parts  of  America.  Moreover,  as  Mr. 
Jefferies  remarked,  Maelura  aurantiaca  is  dioecious,  the  staminate 
(male  or  pollen  bearing  flowers),  and  the  pistillate  (female  or  fruit 
producing  forms)  being  produced  on  separate  trees,  so  that  both  kinds 
are  necessary  for  fruiting  purposes,  and  then  specially  favourable  con¬ 
ditions  and  many  years  of  waiting  for  a  crop.  The  tree  from  which 
the  specimen  figured  in  December  was  taken  is  said  by  Mr.  Jefferies  to 
have  been  growing  for  many  years  against  a  wall  with  a  southerly 
aspect. 
Reverting  to  the  proposed  Worcestershire  “  hedge.”  The  failure 
of  the  plants  removed  from  Chislehurst  probably  resulted  from 
their  either  being  too  large  for  successful  transplantation,  or  to  their 
not  having  been  cut  down  nearly  to  the  ground  after  planting.  If 
they  were  not  so  cut  down,  and  more  are  obtainable,  let  the  plan  be 
tried.  We  fear  there  is  no  certainty  that  the  cuttings  procured  from 
America  will  grow.  Cuttings  of  the  roots  are  said  to  be  more  likely 
to  do  so  than  cuttings  of  the  shoots,  and  plants  are  also  increased  by 
layering.  If  more  seeds  can  be  procured  from  America  the  Chislehurst 
experiment  might  be  repeated,  with  the  expectation  that  it  would 
answer  in  Worcesterthire. 
We  shall  be  glad  to  have  particulars  of  further  attempts  to  establish 
a  hedge  and  the  results  of  them.  There  are  plenty  of  Osage  Orange 
hedges  in  America,  and  there  may'  be  some  in  England,  though  we  do 
not  happen  to  have  seen  them.  The  Chislehurst  example  cerrainly 
showed  abundant  freedom  of  growth,  but  we  should  like  to  know 
what  effect  the  arctic  frost  of  1895  had  on  the  quickly  forme  1  and 
“  impenetrable  hedge.”] 
Broccoli  Spring  White. — For  early  use  this  is  a  particularly 
reliable  and  useful  variety,  and  is  one  that  has  been  proved,  not  once 
or  twice,  but  over  a  series  of  years.  Broccoli  is  neither  abundant, 
nor  in  my  case  of  normal  size  and  strength.  Small  heads  are  neverthe¬ 
less  of  much  value  now,  and  furnish  an  agreeable  change  to  Brussels 
Sprouts,  forced  Beans,  Asparagus,  and  other  green  and  root  crops.  It  is 
a  variety  that  those  who  may  have  had  a  dirticulty  in  getting  an  early 
spring  supply  in  past  seasons  should  make  a  point  of  securing,  to  sow 
during  the  next  fortnight. — W.  S. 
