January 15, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



23 



care is taken to select flowers of a tint which will be in effec- 

 tive harmony or contrast with the other decorations of a 

 room or a table, or of a gown. Even in white the flowers 

 must match the exact tone, whether ivory or cream or pearl, 

 and samples of dress materials are often sent to the florists 

 with orders. To meet these demands the larger stores are 

 compelled to have a superintendent, skilled bouquet makers 

 and buyers who command large salaries. 



The cost of material given away nowadays would almost 

 have paid the expenses of an ordinary flower store a quarter 

 of a century ago. Boxes which cost fifty cents each, ribbons 

 where cotton cord was formerly used, expensive lavender- 

 colored tinfoil, fine papers of various textures, corsage pins, 

 and the greens which are used for filling amount to a round 

 sum'in the course of the year. Twenty years ago a ball bou- 

 quet was made of Eon Silene roses and Ground Pine, and the 

 regulation price of five dollars left a fair profit for the dealer. 

 Now a bunch of choice loose flowers costs twenty-five dollars, 

 because no culls can be used, and only perfect long straight- 

 stemmed flowers. Where Geranium leaves were once accept- 

 able for foliage, modern taste demands the use of expen- 

 sive fronds of Adiantum and Asparagus. Then it should 

 be remembered that the season in this city begins 

 with the week of the Horse Show and ends with Easter, 

 with many breaks caused by holiday visits to country 

 places and to the south, so that whatever money is made in 

 the year must be made within a comparatively few weeks. 

 This necessitates for a part of the year long hours and hard 

 work for many employees, with no holidays. 



All this means high prices for the most fashionable 

 flowers, and yet the business is making a steady and 

 healthy growth. More flowers are sold every year, and 

 more growing plants are used for decoration. As a 

 general rule, too, the popular taste is becoming more 

 refined, and not a few of the retail dealers are exerting a 

 wholesome influence in this direction. 



New York. Al. ■£>■ C. 



Trees of Minor Importance for Western Planting. — I. 



THE Kentucky Coffee Tree, Gymnocladus Canaden- 

 sis, has not received the attention it deserves in 

 ornamental planting in the United States. It is indigenous 

 as far west as central Kansas, to my knowledge, and grows 

 thriftily and with comparative ease even on dry upland. 

 It is not difficult to handle in the nursery while young. The 

 tree has in all stages of growth picturesqueness and charm. 

 Its foliage is beautiful, and while it gives a distinct variety 

 in the foliage-texture of any planting, it is not so conspic- 

 uous as to appear obtrusive, nor does it bring any note of 

 disharmony to the composition. In winter, after the foliage 

 is shed, the large, dark seed-pods persist, adding to the 

 picturesqueness of the gray branches and making alto- 

 gether such a piquant effect as an artist might long seek 

 for. The tree is sound and healthy, and not subject to 

 insect attacks, so that I am at a loss to understand why it 

 •is not more frequently used. Some twenty-year-old speci- 

 mens recently examined in McPherson County, Kansas, 

 have a height of twenty feet, and have been bearing seed 

 for eight or ten years. 



The Honey Locust, Gleditschia triacanthos, is native to 

 pretty much the same western situations as the Coffee Tree, 

 which it resembles in more points than one. Though the 

 foliage is not so compoundly pinnate as in the Coffee Tree, 

 it is much finer and gives an even more emphatic touch 

 of shimmering tremulousness to the masses which it com- 

 poses. This effect is much heightened by the glossy sur- 

 face of the leaves, which reflect the sunlight at every move- 

 ment, and this becomes more important in a country which 

 has twice as much sunlight in a year as New York state. 

 This tree thrives throughout Kansas and Oklahoma in al- 

 most all situations in which any other trees grow, though 

 it is, perhaps, a trifle shy of the drier uplands. I have seen 

 many handsome specimens in several western states. It is 

 said to be attacked sometimes by borers, but I have never 

 had evidence of serious trouble on this score. 



The American Elm was omitted from my notes of west- 

 ern timber-trees in Garden and Forest, December 18th, 1895, 

 because I have not seen it planted for timber. For ornament, 

 and especially for streets, it is a great favorite in the west, 

 though its popularity has, I think, been somewhat declin- 

 ing in recent years. The young trees are grievously worked 

 by borers in many cases. I especially noted several hun- 

 dred large nursery-grown trees along the streets in Norman, 

 southern Oklahoma, which had been totally destroyed the 

 first year, with hardly a single exception. The long, slen- 

 der, exposed trunks of these trees, however, offered an 

 unusually fine harbor for the insects. Lower-headed trees 

 with cleaner bark should be chosen for planting, and it 

 seems as if some other defensive measures might be 

 adopted. 



At Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I also noted Tea's Hybrid 

 Catalpa used as a street-tree. The trees had only recently 

 been set from not very good stock, and so gave small oppor- 

 tunity for judgment; but, so far as my observations went, 

 they helped to confirm a prejudice which 1 had already 

 formed against all Catalpas for street-trees. 



The American Ash has sometimes been used as a timber- 

 tree in the west, and has, I think, been carefully tried in 

 the well-known plantings at Farlington, Kansas. I have 

 never seen it much used for any purpose, and the only 

 really satisfactory record of it which I have ever made is 

 taken from several trees which came up from seed as under- 

 growth in a planting of Ailanthus, Catalpas and Cottonwoods 

 in a timber-claim in McPherson County, Kansas. In this 

 situation they did well, and when examined a few months 

 ago were good, straight trees of eighteen or twenty feet 

 high. They are now twelve years old. I have once or 

 twice seen them planted in solid blocks, without shade, in 

 timber-claims, but I never saw them successful under such 

 treatment. I remember also a close planting of Ash in 

 blocks on the Kansas Agricultural College farm, and my 

 impressions of their success as a forestry venture were not 

 flattering; but for good reasons they had not come under 

 such systematic and sympathetic treatment as might have 

 developed a better showing. This Ash is also sometimes 

 used as a street-tree, but nowhere with great success, so 

 far as my observations have gone. 



Maples have been extensively used in western towns as 

 street-trees, the Silver Maple being in a large majority. In 

 some places public squares have been planted with them, 

 and the result is generally entirely satisfactory. All things 

 considered, it is probably the best street-tree for the west, 

 though it has its faults, to be sure. Some seasons it is 

 quite defoliated by a lepidopterous larva, which adds a con- 

 siderable unwelcomeness of its own to the unsightliness of 

 the naked trees. But these ravages do not occur every 

 year, and some of the people who, a few years ago, cut 

 down fine large Maple-trees on this account were undoubt- 

 edly hasty. 



University of Vermont. & ■ -<■ ii'Ulgll. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



Gleichenias. 



WHEN well grown the Gleichenias form handsi 

 specimen plants. They are among the most 

 attractive of the Ferns cultivated in the cool fernery at 

 Kew, where the conditions as to temperature, moisture, 

 etc., appear to exactly afford their somewhat special 

 requirements. This house is one of the most recently 

 erected; it is built of light iron, with wood sashes, the 

 panes of glass ten inches wide, the root span-shaped, with 

 a lantern ventilator, the position being from nortl 

 south. A central stage and two sid , the latter a 



yard from the roof, formed of thick slate, resting on an 

 iron frame and covered with small coke, accommodal 

 collection of all kinds of Ferns which require a minimum 

 temperature in winter of from forty-five to fifty degi 

 I describe the house because it is the first of those .it Kew 

 set apart for Ferns that has pro\ ed suitable foi Glei 



