For hine. 1Q23 



isy 



root cuttings are inserted in sand. Autumn is the best season for 

 making" root cuttings as the ripened root contains a large amount 

 of matter stored up, whicli will produce either roots or shoots. 

 Some plants require heat to strike their root cuttings, but there 

 are many others which will grow easily without any beat. A good 

 subject to try root cuttings of is the Californian Poppy, Romueya 

 coulteri. — So. African Giirdciiing and Country Lilc 



Brief Horticultural Jottings 



Under tlie heading "A Sprin.t; Garden Growing Wild in 

 the Fields of Texas." the Christian Science Monitor writes: 

 The botanical name for the Texas bluebonnet. is lupinus 

 texensis. Old settlers have named this plant Buffalo Clover. 

 This is the state flower, and covers the meadows, hillsides, 

 railroad right-of-ways, and roadsides w'ith its extravagant 

 blossoms and folia.ge from April until July. The plants stand 

 about ten inches high, and have palmately compound leaves 

 and elongated clusters of ultramarine with purple-colored 

 flowers. Each flower is a bonnet-shaped series of petals, with 

 a white blotch on the upper petal, next the bonnet crown, 

 which turns to pink as the flower grows older. After being 

 open about six days the blossom is dropped and a pod appears. 

 These erect, full, silky, hairy pods form up the flower stalk as 

 the blossoms continue to open nearer the end. The flowers 

 cluster thickly on a pencil-size stalk which is usually six 

 inches long and resembles the well-known wisteria blossoms 

 in arrangement. One plant often yields eight clusters. Blue- 

 bonnets grow in patches on hillsides or stream banks where 

 the foundation is rocky and the soil is well drained. The 

 roots of these plants are interesting because of the nodules 

 that form to gather the nitrogen from the soil. 



That Madison, N. J., is the location of one of the two largest 

 sassafras trees in the world was recently brought to light in an 

 editorial in the New York Tribune which stated : It has Ijeen 

 declared by United States government experts to be one of the 

 largest sassafras trees ever 'known in the world, the other, of 

 almost precisely the same gigantic proportions, being in Missouri. 

 Such a unique wonder of the sylvan world may well be the object 

 of civic pride and guardianship. A community which is so 

 fortunate as to be endowed by Nature with a living memorial of 

 colossal stature, vital and vigorous with the strength of centuries, 

 should surely conserve it at least as jealously as it would any 

 structure of men's hands. 



The trunk on the big sassafras measures about eight feet in 

 diameter, and one of its enormous branches extends over the road. 

 It is believed that its age is more than ISO years, with 200 years 

 being more than nearly the exact figure. 



In an article in the "Horticulture in Holland," Quarantine No. 

 37 and the Federal Horticultural Board are again being severely 

 condemned. It asserts that European countries will take reprisals, 

 first against California fruit wdiich is bein.g imported in enormous 

 quantities. Diseases, it is claimed, have been found on this fruit 

 which form a great danger to European Nurseries and if Europe 

 should adopt American measures, American fruit must be pro- 

 hibited from Europe, and the same fruit which is now olitained 

 from California can be imported from South .Africa and Australia. 

 The statement is made that leading men in some countries have 

 already come in contact in order to bring their governments to 

 this point of view : if America goes on to exclude European 

 horticultural products, it will only be right to exclude American 

 fruit and agricultural products from Europe. This will in the 

 coming years be the slogan for the International Congresses and 

 those interested will not rest until the slogan is put into practice. 



Called according to its alias, the "boll weevil," this bug which 

 has carried destruction to southern planters' fields has had be- 

 stowed upon it a distinction never before vouchsafed to any insect 

 of any species : a real monument has been erected to it by the town 

 of Enterprise, in Cofifee County, Alabama, with a real inscription 



In Profound Appreciation 



Of the Boll Weevil 



.\nd \\'hat It Has Done 



.-Vs the Herald of Prosperity 



This Monument Is Erected 



When locusts lit on Egypt they did hardly more damage, some 

 .\labanians assert, than did "boll weevil" when it chewed up Coffee 

 County's cotton crop, the second season. Production fell from 

 35,000 hales to about 10,000. Coffee County, facing the need of 

 innovation or liankruptcy, turned to raising corn, sugar-cane, cattle, 

 hogs, peanuts, hay and sweet potatoes with a will. The result was 



that i>eanuts akme returned $5,0OO,(X)0, it is said, in a season, wliiili 

 is not considered bad for a county of 1,500 farmers. 



The boll weevil's ravages turned crop rotation from theory into 

 a necessity in the South. The monument is more than a town's 

 passing whim, it marks the time when the cost of efficient produc- 

 tion was discovered, on which disco\ery the cornerstone of agri- 

 cultural success has been laid. 



.\n international conference of phytopathologists and entomolo- 

 gists will be held at W'ageningen, the center of one of Holland's 

 market gardening districts, from June 25 to June 30. The confer- 

 ence will be presided over by the Dutch Premier and the Minister 

 of Agriculture, and the honorary Presidents include Dr. L. O. 

 Howard, Director of Entomology of the Washington Department 

 of Agriculture. 



One of the chief questions under discussion will be the carrying 

 of plant sickness and insect plagues, and international co-operation 

 and control in preventing the transporting of these plagues. 



Great interest has been evinced in the conference from all sides, 

 and no less than twenty-one foreign countries, including the United 

 States, are sending fifty-three experts as delegates. 



Dr. Howard will deliver one of the first lectures on International 

 Co-operation to Combat Plant Sickness and Insect Plagues." Dr. 

 C. L. Shear of the United States will lecture on "International 

 Statistics and Supervision of Plant Sickness." — New York Herald. 



It is reported from Germany that an experimenter has obtained 

 good results by storing juicy fruit, such as pears, in peat dust, 

 says The Fruil-Croii'er (London). By reducing evaporation, peal 

 dust is said to enable the fruit to ripen without wrinkling. When 

 dainp and loosely packed peat dust is used, fruit will keep good, 

 and, so the report says, even improve in color. It is not claimed, 

 however, that the use of peat dust will arrest or eliminate decay if 

 the fruit is in any way infected Ijy bacteria before storage. 



Comments from Our Readers 



Your article in the May number, "Planting Trees as Memorials," 

 should not only inspire "tree lovers" to advocate the use of trees 

 for memorials, but should urge them to greater effort to spare 

 those silent sentinels that have stood, for many, many years, and 

 wdiich are often thou.gbtlessly sacrificed for "civic improvements" 

 where a little consideration would not only save them but would 

 also benefit the contemplated improvements. It is not uncommon 

 to see beautiful specimens destroyed to make a contractor's job 

 easier, where with a little extra exertion, the work could be 

 accomplished without molesting the trees. It takes but the blow 

 of an ax to destroy what it has taken Nature a century to produce, 

 and it is not in man's power to replace it. The great value of trees 

 to a community is not recognized as it should be. If it were, 

 there would be less ruthless destruction of them. 



Chestnut Hill. Pa. Mrs. H. T. H. 



In reading the reprints and excerpts in the Gardeners' Chronicle 

 from the foreign gardening magazines, it is really surprising how 

 much better some of the European gardeners are'informed on our 

 native plants than we appear to be here at home. One hears so 

 rnuch of being deprived of European plants through Quarantine 

 No. i7, that he feels we possess nothing worth while of our own, 

 while the foreigners write enthusiastically over their experiences 

 with American species. In.stead of bemoaning their fate over the 

 loss of foreigii supply, why do not the American nurserymen 

 exert themselves to develop those beautiful American shrubs' that 

 we read of, but do not seem to be able to obtain? 



New Rochelle, N. Y. Mrs. F. B. L. 



In your current issue, you ask readers to suggest what may 

 occur to them. Repeatedly in your paper — and naturally elsewhere 

 as well, I read of varieties that I cannot find listed in any catalog. 

 Last year this occurred in several articles on rare plants and 

 alpines. In this very issue, you have two articles on Spring 

 flowering bulbs, and at least half of these I cannot locate. Whereas 

 I realize it is contrary to the. policy of most papers to introduce 

 in reading matter anything that might appear to be of an adver- 

 tising nature, still I do not believe you would antagonize any 

 dealer if you would in some way, note where the plants or seeds 

 were obtainable. It would, I am sure, be of great value to 

 readers. 



Greenwich. Conn. [~[. J. E. 



H. J. E.'s suggestion is an excellent one, and the G.\rdeners' 

 Chkonki.e will adopt it at an early date, when rare varieties of 

 plants or bulbs are referred to by stating, whenever possible, where 

 thev may be obtained. — Editor. 



