HORTICULTURAL JOTTINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10410, 7 April 1897, Page 6

HORTICULTURAL JOTTINGS.

SUNFLOWER SEEDS. Writing to an American journal, a lady states that her husband was relieved from a severe attack of rheumatism by the use of sunflower seeds. Prepare as follows:— Grind 2lb of dried seeds in a coffee mill, pub in a porcelain kettle, simmer all day in one gallon of water, strain and keep covered. Every night and morning take one teacupful (afterwards, if you can, increase to one and one-half) until you have used it all. This may be a wrinkle worth knowing. FLOWERS FROM SCILLY. According to the Western Morning News, the first special train of flowers from the isles of Scilly for the season was dospacthed on January 12 for the London and other markets. The consignments consisted of about 1800 packages, weighing between 10 and 11 tons, and the train consisted of five vehicles. Tho broccoli traffic from Wosb Cornwall had also commenced in earnest, very fair prices having been realised.

WHITE TOMATOES.

A tomato-grower in the United States writes as follows Four years ago I began raising tomatoes for canning, and contracted ten acres. At harvest I discovered one vine which boro white tomatoes; clearly transparent when ripe. I planted seed from them the following year, took five to tho fair, secured first premium ; last year had a largo yield. Hauled 200 bushels to the canning factory that would average 200 cans to the bushel. Thoy are never green ; white from bloom, keep four to six weeks after being picked; are crimson a few days before ripening, are very solid and unexcelled in flavour. FRENCH APPLE ORCHARD. Tit Bits of January 9 relates that) the French is the only European Government that maintains an orchard for tho special cultivation of the apple. It is<si the garden of the Luxembourg, in a snug corner, and well protected by being completely railed in. Two hundred and fifty varieties are cultivated, and hither come the pomologists of France for cuttings. When the fruit in this Government apple orchard is ripe ib is divided into four lots. The finest fourth is sent to the President of the Republic, and figures at the official dinners of the season. The second is for the Prefect of the Seine; the third for tho Military Hospital in Paris; and the fourth goes tothe large restaurants of Paris. HORTICULTURAL DEMONSTRATION AT BERLIN. The oldest horticultural socioty of Germany, the Verein zur Beforderung des Gartenbaues in den Preussiscben Stauten, will celebrate its seventy-fifth anniversary by a grand general exhibition to bo held from April 28 till May 9, and in which foreigners are invited to take part. In the programme and its .supplement, announcement is made of many valuable prizes, amounting to 50,000 marks (£2500), as well as many honorary prizes, amongst which is a very valuable prize offorod by the Emperor. It would be of the greatest interest (says a home paper) if British growers would exhibit on this occasion, especially orchids, Chinese pri-' mulas, cyclamens, etc., to see if the English strains of the latter are better than the German.

THE GOOD HOPE POTATO. The Good Hopo is a now variety of potato raised by Mr. Findlay, the celebrated potato-grower, and is named after Mr, J. Hope. Tho Haddingtonshire Courier reports We had an opportunity last week of seeing a crop of theso being lifted in a field near Sandy's Mill, where they wore grown for Messrs. Wm. Davie and Company, seed merchants, Haddington, and the produce was remarkable, the ground being literally full of tho tubers. The crop is estimated by test weights at 18 tons per acre. The potatoes are a boautiful sample of excellent quality, and perfectly free from disease. We understand a small lot grown in Messrs. Davie and Company'* teat ground yiolded at the extraordinary rate of over 29J tons per acre, but this was under very favourable circumstances. Surely with crops such as this, potato-growing will still pay the farmers. THE TITOKI. The titoki, known also among the natives as titongi and tokitoki, botanical name Alectryon Excelsum, is quite a handiome tree, notably whon in bloom, which is towards the end of the year. The tree is indigenous to Netv Zealand, and may attain ft height of SO feet) and a diameter of three feet), though its usual growth is of smaller dimensions. The fruit of the titoki requires a year to mature, so that) ripe fruit and flowers may be found on the tree at the same time. The timber is valued because of its strength, toughness, and elasticity. It is easily worked, and invariably straight in the grain. It can be utilised for handles, both for axes and carpenters' tools; also for swingle-trees, spokes, and felloes, After a bush burn, when logging, the timber of the titoki should be preserved, and not committed to the fires, as it is useful for so many purposes, THE COW TREE. One of the greatest wonders in plant life is the cow tree of South America (Brosiraum galacto-dendron), which grows in large forests on the arid, rocky plains of South America, being most abundant near the town of Cariaco, and along the sea coast of Venezuela. It has a trunk six or eight feet in diameter, growing more than one hundred feet high, and without branches for the first sixty or seventy feet of its height, The leaves, about a foot long and three or four inches broad, are of leathery texture, strongly veined, and of a deep, shining green colour. This tree yields a supply of rich, wholesome milk, which is said to be as nutritious as cow's milk; yet, strange to say, the cow tree belongs to the same natural order as that which includes the deadly upas tree. We are indebted to Baron Humboldt for the first account of this curious tree, the bland and nutritious juice of which has been found, on analysis, to contain 30 per cent, of galactine, the analogous principle to lactine, or the sugar of animal milk. The juice is obtained from the stem of the tree by making incisions, and is collected by the natives in gourds. It is used with cassava and Indian corn bread, and far several months of the year is the principal food of the natives; they go at regularly to these trees in the morning for their supply of food, as our farmers do to their cows.