one man cutting the sod, while another rolls it up like a carpet as fast as it is sheared off. The crop is variable, but often reaches a hundred and fifty barrels per acre, and sells quickly at present for about fifteen dollars per barrel.

The tree is of vigorous habit, of pyramidal growth.

The fruit is about four and a half inches long by two and a quarter in diameter; the stem is large, thick, and forms a club-shaped crook; fawn-colored;

the calyx is open, in five shallow, fleshy divisions, and deeply indented, of a yellowish color.

The skin is clear green, covered with reddish markings, especially towards the stem and calyx, which changes to a citron-yellow at maturity, which is in September and October. The flesh is yellowish, fine-grained, and melting, with abundance of sugary juice.

This pear much resembles the old St. Germain. The form of the fruit is very handsome.

It was obtained as a seedling in 1829, and first fruited in 1842. It has been dedicated to M. Puvis, former President of the Society of Improvement of Ain. It is as yet but little known.

PEAR DÉLICES DE FROYENNES. - This pear is of very vigorous pyrami

dal growth, and an abundant bearer. The wood is slender, of an olive-yellow color.

It grows equally well upon pear or quince, in open culture. The fruit measures three and a half inches in length by two and quarter in diameter. The stem is straight, stout, and rounded at the end, clear brown, rather more than an inch

long, sometimes on a slight base. The calyx is open, star-shaped, and with brown, unequal divisions, inserted in a wide, shallow cavity.

The skin is thin, a little rough, clear fawn-color, as in the Beze-Quesnoi d'Été, becoming fair at maturity in November and December. The flesh is fine, white, and melting; the juice sugary, perfumed, and of best quality.

This fine fruit was obtained by M. de Courcelle of Lille, near Tournay.

THE FRUIT CROP IN ILLINOIS. Taken as a whole, there is no State in the Union so well adapted to fruit culture as the State of Illinois, whether we consider the great diversity of its product, the certainty of the crops, the quality of the fruit, the convenience of the market, by river, by lake, and by rail, or in the adaptability of the soil.

Without going into this question at the present time, we will take a glance at the present condition and prospects of the crop in the State.

On the whole, the season is full three weeks behind the average. At this date, we should have ripe strawberries at this point; but they are only in full bloom, and just beginning to reach the market from the south part of the State. In the north part of the State, the apple is not yet in bloom; in fact, the shadplum (Amelanchier Botryapium) has not as yet unfolded its snowy flag, while at Cobden the berries are nearly full-grown.

In the north part of the State, once in eight or ten years, they have a peach crop; but nothing like peach-orcharding is attempted. In the central part, we have this fruit in about four out of five years, though the crop is not a profitable one for market. In the south part, the crop is quite reliable. This year, the trees in all parts of the State are giving promise of fruit. North of lat. 39°, the trees are mostly seedlings; the budding varieties being too tender for general planting. The fruit-buds of the peach were badly killed south of that point; yet, with few exceptions, they have set a fair crop of fruit. Hale's Early, Troth's Early, and Coolidge's Favorite, are very promising; but these have yet to run the gantlet of the curculio and the peach-rot. The former can be destroyed by jarring and catching in a sort of inverted umbrella, called Dr. Hull's curculiocatcher. In a visit through these orchards last week, I found too little attention paid to this certain mode of protection; and the result will be a fadingaway of the crop from day to day from the attacks of this pest of the peachorchard.

The pear crop gives promise of an abundant one; and the same may be said of the apple. On the whole, the apple, pear, peach, and strawberry promise an unusual yield in all parts of the State. The curculio will destroy most of the plums, although they can be protected.

The early May cherry (early Richmond of Elliott) is being largely planted, and some of the older orchards are coming into bearing. My orchard of six hundred trees is very full. At this point, lat. 40°, they usually begin to ripen June 10; but they are now just out of bloom; at Cobden, half grown, and will follow the strawberry into market. The English morello is another valuable market-cherry, for the kitchen only, but is full a month later. The Heart and Duke cherries are of little value except along the rivers, where the soil is what

the geologist terms loess. I saw one tree near Cobden, in Union County, of the Eltons, nearly ripe, May 24; but the tree is tender.

The grape crop has not been so fortunate in all parts of the State. In some localities, the frost of the 12th inst. killed the fruit-blossom; but, on the whole, the vines have wintered well, and the crop promises to be a good one. Vineyard-planting in the south part of the State, and north along the Mississippi River, is largely attended to. Concord is the leading sort. In some localities, the Delaware is healthy and productive, but, for general planting, is worthless. The Clinton is coming into favor for wine; and I should not be surprised to see it take the lead for this purpose. When fully ripened with us, it is a very good table-grape. Trial is being made of several of Rogers's Hybrids; but Adirondack, Iona, Israella, and Allen are already thrown out.

The apricot and nectarine are little grown in any part of the State.

Among the small fruits, the Doolittle and Miami Black-cap Raspberry do well in all parts of the State, and are being largely planted. They are usually cut back instead of tying up to stakes. None of the English raspberries are planted for market. No extensive trial has been made with the Lawton Blackberry; but it gives promise of value. At Cobden, it was just coming into bloom. The native blackberry is so abundant is the chief reason for the want of attention to the improved sorts. I should have said that the Wilson is the only strawberry sent to market from any part of the State. All the new kinds are put on trial; but, thus far, none have succeeded. M. L. Dunlop.

CHAMPAIGN, ILL., May 27, 1867.

SEDUM CARNEUM VARIEGATUM (Variegated flesh-colored stove-crop). Permit me to draw the attention of those of your readers who are interested in the cultivation of basket-plants to a very charming plant of this family, well suited for cool greenhouse or conservatory decoration; namely, Sedum carneum variegatum, which, as a foliage-plant, has no equal for such a situation. It was introduced from Japan not very long ago. It is a very free-grower, though it does not impoverish the soil in any perceptible degree; and, besides, it is densely clothed with neat and perpetual foliage. The leaves, which are more or less narrow and elongated, are so deeply variegated as to have at least two-thirds of their surface of a light cream-color, the main stalks being tinted throughout with a bright, pleasing tint of rose-color.

The habit of this plant, when grown in a basket, is peculiar; as, when once in process of elongation it has grown over the outer edges of the basket, it falls abruptly down, as if inert, and, with its increasing length, produces a plentiful supply of side-shoots, which push forth from the drooping main stalks, and, in seeming antagonism, grow as abruptly, and perpendicularly upright, as the others grow directly downward: this gives to the plant a most peculiar and elegant appearance. The variety, which has yellow flowers, not very freely produced, is perfectly hardy, and propagates with extraordinary facility. Its complete hardihood recommends it as being well adapted to decorate the humblest form of structure in the possession of any amateur.—William Earley, in Florist.

NEW HYDRANGEA.-The ornamental capabilities of H. Hortensia and H. Japonica are well known; but these by no means exhaust the floral beauty with which the Hydrangea family is capable of embellishing our gardens, as some recent acquisitions from Japan testify. One of these, shown on a reduced scale in the accompany sketch, is the Hydrangea stellata prolifera, a double or proliferous-flowered state of the H. stellata of Siebold and Zuccarini, and of which the separate flower is represented of about the natural size. This novelty was introduced to European gardens by M. Maximowicz, and flowered last June in the Botanic Garden of St. Petersburg, where it is regarded as a worthy rival of the old Hortensia. Its habit is shrubby; its leaves are ovate-oblong, acumi

nate, and serrated; and its radiate flowers, which grow in very large terminal globose cymes, are mostly sterile and proliferous, producing several smaller flowers of a similar kind in the centre of each, these opening of a yellowish-green, and changing to rose-color. The inflorescence thus becomes a dense head of double star-shaped, sterile, rosy flowers, and must be of a very ornamental character. Dr. Regel, who gives a good colored figure in his "Gartenflora" (t. 521), states that the plants require the same treatment as the common hydrangea. It is