i8gS. 



GARDENING. 



375 



Miscellaneous. 



RUST OF GARDEN FINKS. 



The garden pinks (Dianthus Species) 

 are sometimes badly rusted. Not long 

 ago, while in a commercial garden, the 

 writer was impressed with the bad condi- 

 tion of the various sorts of pinks. The 

 engraving shows, nearly natural size, 

 three leaves that were then gathered. 

 This rust while affecting the whole leaf 

 and causing it to lose its green color, 

 develops conspicuous circular patches of 

 pimples. There are two of these patches 

 upon the under surface of the leaf to the 

 left hand, three in the middle and one 

 upon the right hand leaf. A careful 

 inspection of the clusters will show that 

 the pimples are more or less in concentric- 

 circles, giving a peculiar appearance and 

 one that does not admit of an easy 

 explanation. 



In connection with this rust there fre- 

 quently arises the question of its identity 

 with that upon the carnation. The pinks 

 and carnations are very closely related, 

 but here is a case where the fungi attack- 

 ing hosts of the same genus are widely 

 separated. To the naked eye the rust of 

 the pinks and carnations resemble each 

 other even to the circular arrangement of 

 the pimples above noted, but here the 

 likeness ends for with the compound 

 microscope the fungi are seen to be so 

 unlike as to belong to different genera. 

 That of the carnations is Uromyces cary- 

 ophyllinus Sehr., while the pink rust is 

 Puccinia arenaria? Schm. 



It is therefore a pleasure to assure all 

 interested in the question that while both 

 are genuine rusts and flourish upon hosts 

 that are as closely related as cousins, so 

 to speak, yet they are not propagated 

 the one from the other. The rust of the 

 pinks is an old enemy in this country and 

 has a wide range of plants upon which it 

 grows, both cultivated and wild, as the 

 sandworts, chickweeds, corn cockle and 

 sometimes the bouncing Bet. 



Because of its wide range of hosts, 

 some of them being common weeds, there 

 is but little hope of extermination. The 

 two points here being to give informa- 

 tion upon a pest of the ornamental 

 grounds and secondly to assure those 

 who may have it that their carnations 

 need not be expected to contract rust 

 from other plants of the pink or any 

 other family. Byron D. Halsted. 



AN UNSOtVBD WATERING PROBLEM. 



Not long ago when a group of garden- 

 ers and florists were chatting together, 

 the question of taking the chill off water 

 in the winter before using it upon plants 

 was discussed. The consensus of opinion 

 was to the effect that it seems natural 

 that water with the "chill oft" was more 

 congenial to plants growing in a temper- 

 ature of not less than 56° at night, 

 yet everyone present acknowledged that 

 no comparative tests had ever been 

 made to their knowledge, in order to prove 

 the matter, one way or the other. One 

 grower in relating his experience made 

 the statement that he had only used 

 water one season that had undergone the 

 process of having the chill taken off, and 

 during that whole season he had more 

 red spider on the plants in his houses than 

 he had ever had before or since in one sea- 

 son in an experience extending over some 

 twenty-five years. He admitted, upon 

 cross-questioning, that he would not like 

 to blame the warmer water for the flour- 



ishing condition of the red spider, but 

 rather that the men who had the manip- 

 ulating of the hose were most at fault; 

 yet he adhered to the idea that possiblj 

 growers paid moreattention to the senti- 

 ment of the matter of warm water than 

 to its practicability. 



The temperature of water is deceptive. 

 In my immediate locality wells are of 

 varying depth, because some are dug 

 wells while others are drilled, and every 

 quencher of his thirst in summer time 

 generally makes remarks as to the tem- 

 perature of the water he is drinking. One 

 of the oldest inhabitants, when imbibing 

 at a drilled well last summer, stated that 

 it was good water, but was not as cold 

 as that from his own — a dug well. One 

 investigator present at that time desiring 

 to find out as far as possible how nearly 



RUST OP GARDEN PINKS. 



our ancient friend was from being correct, 

 secured a thermometer and in testing the 

 water of the drilled well whence the water 

 being drank was obtained, found that it 

 registered just 56°. He tried several wells 

 carefully in the neighborhood during the 

 same day, both drilled and dug, with the 

 same thermometer, and he found them all 

 56° without variation. My contention 

 is that when water can be delivered to 

 the plants not colder than 56° there is no 

 necessity of going to the expense of mak- 

 ing it warmer, as no injury can possibly 

 result from ad ministering water to plants 

 that is no colder than the temperature, 

 or at most a few degrees less, than that 

 to which the plants are subjected at 

 night. 



There are various methods of securing 

 water supplies. No plants were ever 

 grown better than were those of former 

 generations, when the water used was 

 caught from the roof and stored in cis- 

 terns inside the greenhouse where the 

 water contained therein is almost certain 

 to be about the same temperature as the 

 atmosphere of the greenhouse in which 

 the cistern is located. The success at- 

 tained by our forefathers was attributed, 

 however, more to the rain-water used 

 rather than the temperature thereof. In 

 modern greenhouse establishments, be 



i he y commercial or amateur, the water 

 supply has to be more systematically pro- 

 vided for; sometimes it is a windmill and 

 a tank with ample capacity; at others 

 some power more readily controlled is 

 brought into service than the wind, such 

 as steam, hot air, or electricity; but the 

 best of all, when obtainable, is that fur- 

 nished by a corporation or a municipal- 

 ity, if not too high in price. In most of 

 the above methods, it is true, the temper- 

 ature of the water is not readily con- 

 trolled unless by a system of warming 

 accomplished according to same primi- 

 tive mode, or by the more up-to-date pro- 

 cesses of the present day, which are in 

 successful operation in different parts of 

 the country. 



The question is, At what temperature 

 does water do injury to plants growing 

 under gla s? Peter Henderson said in 

 effect in his "Practical Floriculture," if 

 my memory serves me correctly, that no 

 evil resulted from the use of cold water 

 upon plants growing in greenhouses, 

 claiming that it is not necessary to warm 

 it before use in sprinkling the leaves of 

 the plants or watering them at the roots 

 and stating that in a very short time it 

 will attain the same temperature as the 

 greenhouse in which it is used. If expe- 

 riments have been made, along these 

 lines, and positive knowledge is in the 

 possession of some good soul, I am sure 

 there are numerous florists and garden- 

 ers, both old and young, who would 

 receive the results with gratitude through 

 the columns of your popular floricultural 

 paper. E. L. 



AMERICAN SEED GROWING. 



Apropos of Prof. Waugh's remarks in 

 reference to want of uniformity among 

 plants of new varieties I might mention 

 my own experience the present season 

 with a new pansy. The seed was sup- 

 plied by one of the foremost seedsmen of 

 the United States, with the object of 

 securing a suitable name for the pansy 

 from among those suggested by the 

 growers of the variety. In the descrip- 

 tion it is said that "the coloring in this 

 variety is a marvel of richness, velvety 

 garnet, bright red and golden yellow 

 indescribably blended." I secured twenty- 

 seven plants from the package of seed 

 and all of them are now in blossom, yet 

 no two in the entire lot have flowers 

 exactly alike. In most of them "velvety 

 garnet, bright red and golden yellow are 

 indescribably blended," but in one the 

 two upper petals are a uniform light gar- 

 net, while the three lower are a very dark 

 garnet splashed with yellow; in a second 

 the two upper petals are yellow with pen- 

 cilings of garnet and the three lower, gar- 

 net shading to a yellow margin, while in a 

 third all the petals have a reddish ground- 

 color with pencilings and shadings of 

 black. Almost any one of the different 

 forms is worthy of a place among pansies 

 but the difficulty is that the type has not 

 as yet been "fixed" and a grower sowing 

 the seed from any of them, would have no 

 certainty what color the flowers on the 

 resulting plants would be. The origina- 

 tor should have continued several years 

 longer to select seed from flowers which 

 came nearest to his ideal and then there 

 might be so little variation that it would 

 be possible to suggest a suitable name. 

 The only name that I could now propose 

 which would be in the least appropriate 

 would be "The Pied Piper," and even that 

 would have to be put in the plural, "The 

 Pied Pipers," in order to coverall the 

 variations of coloring. F. C. Sears. 



Wolfville, Nova Scotia. 



