great degree of perfection. The cultivation of asparagus is not sufficiently understood-and hence the abundance of poor quality which is to be found in our markets. New beds, properly made, the soil sufficiently nourishing, the roots well selected, and their after culture duly attended to, would throw up numerous spears of immense size. But the roots are too frequently planted in a shallow soil, and afterwards the beds receive but little care, when they soon lose their vigor, and produce weak shoots.

It is from a knowledge of this fact that we have the giant and common kinds of asparagus, the former of which, so called in the vicinity of Boston, we now believe to be wholly owing to cultivation. Since we penned the article before alluded to, in our second volume, we have been convinced of this in more than one instance. By this we do not, by any means, intend to be understood as saying that we shall not, at some future time, have what may truly be denominated giant asparagus, or, in other words, that asparagus may not be very greatly improved from seed, by skilful practice. Horticulture has made such rapid. strides, particularly in Britain, of late years, that we know not where improvement will find its bounds. A few years, or, if not in so short a time, another century, may find the gardens at that time producing asparagus twice or three times as large as that which has been denominated the giant of our gardens. It is not at all unreasonable to suppose this, as we have already seen, in our day, as great, or more important, results in other vegetables, as well as fruits, under the hands of skilful practitioners.

When we drew up the communication of Mr. Pond's, from a few notes furnished us, we did not inquire from whence he had procured his seed. We saw ourselves that the asparagus was extremely large and handsome; and as he pronounced it the giant, we at once attributed its size to the peculiar kind, rather than to its vigor. But we have since known beds which have been planted from his seedling roots, which possess no stronger claims to be called giant than that which has been called, in distinction, the common sort. Ready are we always to afford our aid in the dissemination of any superior new variety of fruit or vegetable; and equally ready shall we be to denounce any inferior sort, as well as all attempts at making new names to old varieties, from interested motives. Let all who wish to procure fine giant asparagus pay the same attention to the planting of the roots as has been directed by Mr. Walker, or practised by Mr. Pond, and we can assure them that, upon the care bestowed in planting, the choice of soil and situation, the age of the roots, &c., will depend the procuring of giant or dwarf asparagus.

Mr. Walker has grown asparagus for a long period; and although he has not, that we are aware of, made any exhi

bition of specimens of his cultivation, yet he has produced that which would equal the giant of his neighbors. His mode of making the beds is very good, and answers every purpose: they are easily weeded, and the asparagus can be cut without tramping the soil down until it acquires such a firmness that that alone is one great obstacle to the health and success of the roots. Let all remember, who are about forming new plantations of aspara gus, that a little extra care and expense will lay the foundation of beds which will flourish, with the greatest vigor, years after those have ceased to produce asparagus which were carelessly and hastily set out.-Ed.

ART. IV. Some account of the Papaw Apple, (Cárica Papaya,) and its fruiting at Hyde Park, N. Y. By JAMES HOGG, New York.

THE Cárica Papaya, or papaw apple, is a native of the East Indies, and is considered a very delicious fruit; it is also grown in South America and the West Indies. The fruit, a drawing of which I send you, was produced upon a plant in the collection of the late Dr. Hosack of Hyde Park, where it was raised from seed sent to Dr. Hosack by Dr. Stevens, from the Island of St. Thomas, in 1831. The plant has now upon it three more fruits like the present, but they are not quite ripe.

This is the first time that the Cárica Papaya has fruited in this country, and I am not sure that it has ever ripened in the gardens of England. Loudon, in his Encyclopedia of Gardening, does not mention it among his exotic fruits. The fruit is of a bright gold color; skin smooth, and interspersed with little russetty spots. Yours,

New York, Feb., 1838.

J. HOGG.

The drawing of the fruit of the Cárica Papaya L., kindly sent us by Mr. Hogg, was taken by a lady of New York, of its natural size; but the dimensions of our page would not allow us to give it without reducing; the annexed engraving (fig. 3,) is, therefore, three quarters of the natural size of the fruit, produced on the above named plant, which measured six inches

in length, and five inches in diameter. A long account is given of this fruit by Sir W. J. Hooker, in the Botanical Magazine, 2898, but as we have not the back volumes of that work before

us, we are unable to make any remarks. Dr. Lindley states, in his Introduction, that the fruit has little to recommend it." Its great peculiarities are, that "the juice of the unripe fruit is

a most powerful and efficient vermifuge: the powder of the seed even answers the same purpose, and thus a principal constituent of this juice is fibrine, a principle otherwise supposed peculiar to the animal kingdom, and to fungi. The plant has, moreover, the singular property of rendering the toughest animal substances tender, by causing a separation of the muscular fibres: its very vapor does this; newly killed meat, suspended among the leaves, and old hogs and old poultry, becoming tender in a few hours, when fed on the leaves and fruit."

The genus was formerly placed in the order Cucurbitaceae of the natural system. Dr. Lindley has, however, made it the type of a new order, Papayacea. In this opinion he is supported by Auguste St. Hilloise. The plant must be a very beautiful object when covered with its monstrous golden fruit, and would be a great ornament to all stove collections. We hope the gardener at Hyde Park will send us his mode of treating the plant since it was raised from the seed.

In regard to the fruiting of the papaw apple in England, we have ourselves no evidence. We find it, however, enumerated in the catalogue of plants in the Duke of Bedford's collection, at Woburn, given in the Hortus Woburnensis. Loudon, in his Hortus Britannicus, states that it was introduced to England in 1690, and is figured in the Botanical Register, 459. But we have not the first series of this work, and therefore cannot state whether the figure was from a British or foreign specimen: as many tropical plants and fruits have been figured both in the Botanical Magazine and Botanical Register, from drawings taken in their native countries, that of the papaw apple may have been made in the same manner. If the gardener at Hyde Park, or Mr. Hogg, should favor us with its management, from the seed to its fruiting state, we will endeavor to append, to the same, some account of it from the above-mentioned works.-Ed.

ART. V.

Observations on the Camellia and its Varieties, with some account of its introduction into Great Britain and this country. By M. P. WILDER.

[Continued from Vol. III, p. 136.]

55. Caméllia japónica var. Gràya nòva. French Catalogues.

This is a fine French variety. The flowers are large, of a brilliant crimson color; the exterior petals are in two or three

rows, heart-shape, the inner ones smaller, undulated and twisted, forming a perfectly full double flower.

56. Caméllia j. var. Vandèsia supérba. Hort. Comptesse de Vandes superb Camellia.

An English seedling, raised, with another named Vandèsia cárnea, (of which we shall speak hereafter,) in the Comptesse de Vandes garden, Bayswater, near London, probably about the year 1828 or 29.

This is a robust, strong growing variety: the flowers are quite large, from four to five inches in diameter, of a dark orange scarlet color. The outer petals are in two or three rows, broad and flatly expanded; the inner ones are smaller, unequal, of various shapes, intermixed with the stamina, and sometimes striped with white; a remarkable showy variety.

There is another of this name in commerce, which is not a full double flower; the petals are few, in two or three rows, of a bright scarlet, and showing the sexual organs.

57. Caméllia j. var. Colvillii. Sweet's Brit. Fl. Gard.

Colvill's Carnation-flowered.

Raised at Mr. Colvill's Nursery, King's Road, Chelsea, England, in 1824. "The petals are numerous, and of a lively blush color, spotted with innumerable small red spots, and marked with narrow stripes of a deeper red, approaching to crimson. Some specimens are as perfect as a carnation, to which the flowers have a great resemblance." (Chandler & Booth's Ill.) 58. Caméllia j. var. Buckliàna. Camellias of Bolwiller.

This camellia has full double and well formed flowers, of a fine crimson color; the size three to three and a half inches in diameter. The outer petals are round and slit at the apex, the inner ones more or less irregular in shape; the whole frequently marked and spotted with white, and sometimes an entire petal of the same color, strongly resembling C. j. var. Chándleri.

59. Caméllia j. var. venòsa. Fr. Cat.

This flower is of the form of C. j. var. Pompònia, the color a deep blush, almost a pink. C. j. var. intermèdia of American catalogues is the same variety.

60. Caméllia j. var. Decandòlleii. Fr. Cat.

Syn: C. j. var.

Candolleàna Fr. Cat.

A very pretty variety, and remains a long time in perfection on the bush. The color is a very bright pink, the outer petals large, the inner ones smaller, spathula form and twisted, the whole with a faint watery line at the edge, approaching to white.