86 



THE GARDE NEIVS MONTHLY 



[March, 



and wlijit are tho ohli^iitimis to tho puMic in- 

 cuitimI l>y tho Park Clominissioii in executing the 

 agonc-y coniinitteii to tliem." 



After sli()\ving tlio tree planting resources of 

 the oity as derived from the legacy of Elliott 

 Cressou, who left $."),C)00, the interest annually to 

 go to planting shade trees for the citizens, and 

 of Andr^ F. Afichaux, who left $12,(X)0 to the 

 Philosophical Society, for "especially the en- 

 couraireinent of syivaculture," Mr. l*rice says: 



"Within the Park the landscape gardener will 

 exert his skill to hlend in heauty tlie self-sown 

 forests there growing, with artistic ])lanting, as 

 the formation of new avenues and fresh grading 

 will demand; where the new trees will he of 

 kinds not native to our environs, and show in 

 contrast the liand of Art ; hut at the same time 

 greatly add to the variety and novelty of trees 

 and jilants; so that the trees of the Park shall 

 become a great Arboretum, and its flower beds 

 become Botanic Gardens. Thus the landscape 

 formed to please the taste, and the gardens to 

 delight the eye, will become schools of science 

 for all scholars and citizens. For this end, each 

 section of the Park will be planted with the 

 largest practicable variety of trees and plants. 



" That the variety of these may be greatly in- 

 creased, we have purchased the trees exhibited 

 in Horticultural Garden, and the gathering and 

 planting of acorns and tree seeds have had in 

 view mainly to increase the number of species, 

 ■while providing the necessary stock whence to 

 transplant trees over our Park of nearly three 

 thousand acres in extent." 



The Eucalyptus in our Climate. — American 

 nurserymen are " pestered to death " with in- 

 quiries about Eucalyptus plants for forest grow- 

 ing, from all sorts of places, from Labrador to 

 the Potomac. Any man of common sense 

 knows that one might nearly as well plant the 

 pine apple or banana as the Eucalyptus ; but 

 the common newspapers that know little about 

 these things, or anything but "Democrat" or 

 " Republican," keep the people in such a state 

 of excitement over it, that the agricultural press 

 is a poor off"set to this great power. 



It is bad enough to have to be continually on 

 the strain to counteract the mischief these regu- 

 lar papers do ; but what shall we say when men 

 of science join with the newspapers in promul- 

 gating this nonsense. In the proceedings of the 

 American Philosophical Society now before us, 

 a Mr. Davenport is reported as saying at one 

 of the meetings that "some of the Eucalyptus 

 of Australia will probably grow in Philadelphia, 

 and he will be happy to assist in their introduc- 

 tion." 



No doubt they will "grow in Philadelphia" 



during the Summer, but what is to become of 

 them in the Winter, when they don't grow? It 

 is too bad to have such stulT go out under the 

 stamj) of this time-honored Society. 



RincNiNG OK THE Perbimmon. — A correspondent 

 of the London Journal of IlorlicuUure says : — " In 

 your journal of November 30th in an article on 

 Diospyros Kaki you repeat the popular opinion 

 that the Diospyros virginiana's fniit ' is not 

 palatable until frozen.' Allow me to say that 

 this is a fallacy. The Persimmon, as it is known 

 through the southern half of the United States, 

 is quite variable in the size, season and quality 

 of its fruit, and I have no doubt will be ulti- 

 mately developed by selection into a valuable 

 species of fruit. I have seen ripe specimens in 

 this latitude (39° N., about St. Louis) as early as 

 the end of August, whilst the fruit of some trees 

 hardly ripens at all, or if so, imperfectly, by the 

 time cold weather begins. But the ripening and 

 sweetness seem to depend entirely on the length 

 and heat of the Summer, and not at all on the 

 subduing powers of early frosts. Hot Summers 

 produce early-ripened delicious fruit, cold sea- 

 sons and high latitudes produce poor fruit. 

 Arthur Bryant (a brother of the poet Bryant), 

 living at Princeton, Illinois, about latitude 41 J 

 N., tells me that in some seasons the Persimmon 

 with him does not ripen, and he thinks the frost 

 has nothing to do with its maturing. He has 

 trees nearly forty years old of his own planting, 

 and has observed them closely." 



We refer to this in order to say that we thought 

 intelligent persons everywhere now knew that it 

 was not frost that gave sweetness to the Persim- 

 mon, though it often helps the cause which does. 



The ripening of fruits is a chemical process. 

 After growtli ceases, decay or chemical action 

 commences, and what we call "ripening" is 

 really the first stage of decomposition. Early 

 ripening kinds will commence this decay with- 

 out frost ; a late kind will decay if there is no 

 frost. Frost simply hastens decay. Of course 

 nature must have done her part before this par- 

 ticular ripening begins. Frost nor any agent 

 would give sweetTiess to a half-ripe Persimmon. 



The ripening of a Persimmon is just the same 

 process as the ripening of a medlar, about which 

 all our foreign friends know. 



New United States Plants. — As Western ex- 

 plorations are pushed, new plants are discovered. 

 In the Proceedings of the American Academy of 

 Arts and Sciences, just issued, Prof. Gray de- 



