WHITE GASCOIGNE.-A fine white grape; bunch large and compact, with shoulders; berries inclining to oval, cracks, and does not hang well. Suitable for forcing or cold house.

PITMASTON WHITE CLUSTER.-Bunch small, compact and shouldered; berries small, rich, and amber colored. Suitable for forcing or a cold house.

VERDELHO.-The Madeira wine grape; bunch, medium size and shouldered; berries small and oval, and amber colored; flavor rich; hangs well.

WHITE NICE.-Bunch very large; berries small and round; rich flavored.

SYRIAN.-Bunch very large and shouldered; berries oval; flesh firm, and, if allowed to hang until of an amber color, very fine flavored; hangs well. Suitable for forcing or late house.

Salem, December, 1846.

It is scarcely necessary for us to make a remark upon the above most excellent and invaluable article to every grape cultivator; for Mr. Allen is every where well known as one of our most zealous amateur grape-growers, devoting nearly all his leisure time to this choice fruit alone. His houses are of great extent, and grapes are cut nearly the year round-commencing with the forced ones, in April, and ending with those from the late house, in January. Mr. Allen has upwards of sixty varieties of grapes planted out, but he has only given us the results of his own experience in regard to such as have fruited, leaving the others to be noticed hereafter, when their qualities can be compared and tested in the same manner as those now enumerated. In connection with Mr. Russell's, and other articles we have given heretofore, it affords all the information any cultivator need require to produce grapes in the greatest abundance and perfection.-Ed.

HORTICULTURAL MEMORANDA

FOR JANUARY.

FRUIT DEPARTMENT.

Grape Vines in greenhouses and graperies will be at rest, and will require no particular care till next month. Vines in hot houses will now begin to

show their buds, and will require much attention at this early season. Vines in pots may now be brought into the greenhouse, where they will push their buds early, and ripen a good crop of fruit, if properly managed.

Peach Trees in pots may now be brought into the greenhouse or vinery. Figs in pots may be also forced in the same way.

Scions of fruit trees may be cut now, and placed away for use in spring. Insert the lower ends in a box of earth.

FLOWER DEPARTMENT.

Camellias will now be the most brilliant ornaments of the greenhouse, and will continue so until the roses begin to open their blossoms. But to enjoy a good collection of this splendid flower, it is necessary that the plants should be in the most healthy and flourishing condition. They should be well shaped, the foliage deep green, glossy and rich, and the decaying flowers should also be gathered every morning. An occasional syringing should be given on fine days, with perfectly clean water, and with a good supply of moisture at the roots they will continue to flourish and give an abundance of flowers. Attend to the impregnation of the flowers if seeds are wanted.

Japan Lilies should now be carefully repotted, injuring none of the fleshy roots; the offsets should be carefully taken off and placed in small pots. The best soil is peat and leaf mould, with a very small quantity of loam and sand. Place in a cool shady situation till the tops appear above the soil.

Dahlias for very early flowering should be potted this month.

Roses will now be coming forward rapidly, and will need attention. Syringe freely, and keep the earth sufficiently moist without being too wet. Fumigate as often as the green fly appears; and water every 10 or 15 days with weak guano. Repot young plants rooted in August.

Pelargoniums will now be acquiring strength to push their new growth, as soon as they are repotted the last part of the month. Keep them rather dry, and as near the light as possible.

Gloxinias, Gesneras and Achimenes may be potted now, and placed in the warmest part of the house, when they will come forward early.

Azaleas may now begin to have rather more liberal supplies of water.
Cactuses should now be rather sparingly watered.

Fuchsias intended for raising young plants should now be placed in a warm situation, in order to induce them to make shoots for cuttings. Old plants do well headed quite down to the ground; they then throw up a strong straight shoot.

Pansy seed may now be sown to supply young plants for early planting in the borders.

Nemophilas should now have another shift into the next size pots. Heaths will require attention; if the pots are full of roots, let the plants be shifted at once; water carefully, and syringe occasionally over the tops. Verbenas should be repotted now.

OF

HORTICULTURE.

FEBRUARY, 1847,

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

ART. I. Root Grafting the Peach Tree and Rose; Grafting the Pear upon the Apple; the Apricot on the Peach; new Mode of Raising Cucumbers, &c. By M. W. PHILLIPS, Esq., Log Hall, Edwards, Miss.

I HAVE neglected a reasonable duty longer than I should, but my various duties have so completely taken up my time at home, that I have postponed.

In comparison with trees grown in this latitude, your trees are far behind in size, though equal in the bright and healthy appearance of the bark and twigs. I can assuredly show maiden pear trees, double and treble the size of yours, and peach trees that are full twelve feet high, and two to three inches in diameter. I do not wish to be understood as overrating my country, but as giving the facts, that I know I can show any day. I can show fifty varieties of pear, maiden trees, that will average ten feet high, with size and branches to correspond. I have lost of pears nearly all that have been here long enough to bear, whilst some, here since 1832, have size, health and vigor, but never yet fruited.

Have you ever tried grafting peach trees? Have you any knowledge of root grafting of the peach? I can show a few grafted peach trees that are decidedly the prettiest trees I have, not so tall, nor inclined to make long branches, but more bushy. I desired some varieties, that were too remote to get buds, and where I could get no one to work me a tree as a specimen, as a dernier resort, I concluded to try grafting, and though the trees were in bloom, the 'grafts with leaves and bloom, I grafted, and have specimens about seven feet high,

grafted between the 6th and 9th of March, near one month too late for this climate, but I could not get the grafts in time. I was induced to try it, having been told by a youth that his father succeeded well in grafting the peach, by using the terminal ends of branches, and whip grafting. I did not graft thus, but pared the graft as for whip grafting, and then split the bark of the stock, and inserted the graft..

Root grafting the peach will be regarded, in this country, as something new; with your experienced countrymen it may not, but it has advantages over all other modes. I received the hint from a friend near Mississippi city, who informed me that a neighbor of his, who was a very expert budder, and who budded for any that required, would not work his own trees, and gave, as his reason, that he intended to root graft, that it was more certain, and made handsomer trees. Previous to this, I was shown a lot of trees that were root grafted in Hatch's nursery, but the information was vague; since that time, the gardener who worked the trees has returned, and says they were worked on refuse roots, that were left after removing trees, and that he uses any part of the branches, just as in any other grafting, and that he gave the hint to a gentleman who was either living, or was moving below, but is not certain that the above gentleman is the one. Mr. Patrick O'Connor, gardener at Hatch's nursery, has assuredly very successfully root grafted the peach, and they are five to eight or ten feet high-maiden trees.

He also root grafts the rose, and upon removal, the junction is complete, and the wound will not be observable in another twelve months. These trees and roses are, if any thing, larger than I desire to remove. The advantages are, that, in the month of February, when but little out-door work can be advantageously done, the peach can be grafted; the trees will be saleable in November to any one, whereas my budded trees of, say 10th of June, are not large enough to please one in fifty, yet they are, in some instances, as large as those you sent me; and there is not such necessity for peach pits, and so long culture. So far as I know, or can learn, Mr. O'Connor deserves the credit, for he has actually the trees to show.

As to grafting the pear on the apple stock, I recommend it to nurserymen, who desire wood, on the same principle as

for budding the rose; the growth the first year is truly astonishing, though probably on the same size pear stock, it would be as great. My reason for inquiring-page 430, November number- about this kind of grafting was, a friend sent me eight different pears grafted on apple stocks. I had expressed to him an unfavorable opinion of the plan, he boasted of the size, and would prove to me I was wrong. Before August, four of the eight were dead, and the residue not promising, except two, Meadow and Butter. Upon noticing his own trees, I find the ends of branches have decayed, and that the trees seen by me are unhealthy.

I have seen many apricots worked on the peach, and I can see no objection to it, our peach trees not being, in this particular region, so liable to decay as with you. I would recommend grafting in the earth, so that the apricot could be under the earth. We have no other stock here that will suit, our Chickasaw plum stock not being large enough, and is too slow in growth: our native plum, though large enough, is too slow. What do you work apricot and plums on? The plum will not live on the peach, so says an intimate friend, zealous in the cause, but young in it. I have never tried.

When giving you my experiment with soot and saltpetre for cucumbers and melons, I ought to have included purple egg plant; for this last it seems a soak, that is well adapted to pushing vegetation forward, as well as keeping off a fly, or flea, that destroys them. I could not succeed to get a plant, save under glass, until I tried this steep. I have, from time to time, tried ashes, soot, salt, lime, dry dust, smoking the plants in the morn, with tobacco smoke from my cigar, but they were not effectual. At length, in 1844, I tried the steep first on the egg squash, and noticing some change, I tried it immediately on cucumbers and from that time, I declare to you, I have not seen a striped bug around my plants.

I differ from any person, except a lady now in Virginia, in the mode of planting cucumbers. I make a rich, light, deep tilled bed, about ten by sixteen or eighteen feet; I then mark off rows north and south, two feet apart, and draw up into ridges, as high as can be, with a hoe. I then rake down the ridge, so as thoroughly to pulverize the top, and plant my steeped seeds some two inches apart; cover lightly and press