3° 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 412. 



suggest the context and recall impressions which are left 

 by entire essays. One closes the book with something of 

 sadness, and, in fact, an hour with Jefferies never has the 

 exhilaration of an outdoor walk, although no one de- 

 scribes what he sees more accurately, and few men ever 

 had more of genuine poetic insight. He lacks, however, 

 the serenity of real greatness, and, although it would be 

 unfair to say that there is anything like querulousness in the 

 tone of his writings, there is a certain discontent as of one 

 who had made a failure in the battle of life and is not 

 ready to accept the situation with patience or subordination. 



Notes. 



Diseases of Carnations is the subject of a bulletin which will 

 be issued by the Indiana Experiment Station next month. As 

 it is expensive, owing to elaborate illustrations, only a limited 

 edition will be published, and, therefore, Carnation growers 

 who desire to see it should send their names as soon as possi- 

 ble to C. S. Plumb, Director, Lafayette, Indiana. 



A newspaper in Denver states that seventy-five acres of 

 ground near that city are covered with glass for growing 

 winter vegetables, such as Lettuce, Radishes, Onions, Spinach 

 and Cucumbers. Car-loads of mixed vegetables, like celery, 

 cauliflower, parsnips, etc., are sent every day to St. Louis, 

 Kansas City and other points to the east. 



Mr. Edson S. Bastin and Professor Henry Trimble begin in 

 the January issue of The American Journal of Pharmacy a 

 series of papers on the botany, histology, chemistry and 

 economic properties of some of the important coniferous 

 trees of North America. In the first paper, after a general 

 account of the family, which is divided into two suborders, 

 the Pinoideae and the Taxaceae, Pinus Strobus, of which the 

 photograph of a branch is reproduced, is described, and the 

 tannin contained in the leaves and bark is determined, 25.7 of 

 tannin being found in the absolutely dried leaves, 9 37 in the 

 dried bark of the stem, and 6.48 in the root bark. 



There are a good many complaints about the careless and 

 dishonest packing of fruits in this country, but it seems that 

 growers beyond the sea are not altogether above criticism in 

 this matter. In a paper on the fruit supply of Covent Gar- 

 den, read before the Horticultural Club in London last month, 

 Mr. George Monro said that he was informed by the proprietor 

 of a large wholesale store in Manchester, where both English 

 and American apples were on sale, that one thousand barrels 

 of American fruit were sold against one hundred bushels of 

 English fruit, and this was simply because the packing of the 

 English apples could not be depended upon — there being no 

 proper selection or grading in the English packages of fruit. 



The Lemon growers of southern California think that the 

 fertility of the soil of that state and its adaptability to the pro- 

 duction of citrus fruits will enable them to compete with the 

 product of southern Europe in spite of the low price of labor 

 there and the small cost of freight from Mediterranean ports. 

 It is not expected in Lemon-producing districts of Europe that 

 a tree will fruit before the sixth or seventh year, and it will do 

 well if it yields three boxes of fruit the tenth year. In Califor- 

 nia a Lemon-tree is expected to pay expenses the third year, 

 and it should yield from five to ten boxes of fruit in the sixth 

 year, while it is not an exceptional occurrence for trees ten years 

 from planting to produce twenty-five or thirty boxes of fruit. 



Rhubarb, forced in cellars, is already in our markets, a dozen 

 small stalks selling for fifteen cents, and also young carrots, 

 grown under glass on Long Island and in New Jersey. New 

 okra is coming from Cuba, and parsley, Romain lettuce and 

 kohl-rabi from Bermuda. Last week's Bermuda steamer 

 brought twelve crates of onions, the first of the season, which 

 sold at $2.00 a crate, wholesale. Chervil, delicate and fresh-look- 

 ing, from hot-houses on Staten Island, is selling in considerable 

 quantities, as also tarragon, and spring lamb has made an 

 active demand for mint and for peas. Besides peas from 

 Florida, a considerable supply is received from California. 

 These are well filled out and tender, in baskets holding a half- 

 peck, and cost seventy-five cents. 



The so-called Paradise nuts, known in English markets as 

 the Sapucaia nuts, are rather more common in our fruit stores 

 this winter than they formerly were, and sell for fifty cents 

 or more a pound. These nuts are closely allied to the Brazil 

 nuts, although they are superior in flavor and more whole- 

 some. They are about two inches long or rather more, and 

 half as thick through, with a corky shell furrowed lengthwise, 

 and they are the true seeds of the large, urn-shaped woody fruit 



of Lecythis Zabucajo. This pericarp is six inches across and 

 half an inch thick. It is very hard, and has a lid which fits 

 tightly at the top, and which, when the fruit is quite ripe, is easily 

 lifted oft, and this gives the general name of Monkey Pot to the 

 several trees of this genus. These trees grow in the forests of 

 Brazil, Guiana and Venezuela, where their great trunks are 

 seventy-five or more feet high, carrying a broad head of 

 glossy leaves. Sapucaia nuts keep for a long time, and some 

 of those in the market here have been held for more than a 

 year. 



The florists' windows throughout the upper part of the city 

 are now interesting and beautiful in their attractive displays of 

 forced flowers. In a Fifth Avenue establishment flowers of 

 the golden-banded Lily, Lilium auratum, make a rich show at 

 this unseasonable time. Sprays of Calanthes bearing seven to 

 fifteen flowers are occasionally seen, and cost $1.00, and those 

 of Odontoglossum crispum command $1.50 to $6.00. Other 

 Orchids now offered are varieties of Cypripedium insigne, 

 Phalaenopsis Schrcederiana, P. amabahs and Cattleya Trianae. 

 A small group of Cattleyas in a large window bedded with 

 Adiantum cuneatum edged with Lycopodium, was one of the 

 most artistic and refreshing window arrangements last week. 

 Small plants of Azaleas, extremely well flowered, made a 

 nosegay effect in their dressing of white crepe paper, and 

 branches of Pussy Willow seemed to deny winter in the bright 

 glossy brown bark and silvery catkins, while Dracaenas, 

 grouped among Palms and other green-foliaged plants, were 

 hardly less showy and effective than flowering plants. 



According to the Northwest Magazine, a great fruit fair was 

 recently held at Spokane, Washington, and although the 

 admission fee was fixed at the nominal sum of ten cents and it 

 was necessary to construct a great building of timber and can- 

 vas, after all expenses had been paid the net profits amounted 

 to $1,000, which was turned over to the treasurerof the Bureau 

 of Immigration, under whose direction the fair was held. 

 There were 52,000 paid admissions, the visitors coming on 

 cheap fares from all parts of Washington, Idaho, Oregon, 

 Montana and British Columbia. The trains carried from one 

 thousand to three thousand people every day, and the aggre- 

 gate number of strangers entertained by the city often ran up 

 to five thousand daily. Although the exhibition was open to 

 all products of the soil, fruits were the principal objects of 

 display, and there were tons of fresh fruits, dried fruits and 

 canned fruits. Seventy varieties of apples were exhibited, not 

 to speak of other green fruits, besides a profusion of cereals, 

 grasses, flax, broom-corn, sugar-cane, melons, tobacco, hops 

 and native wines, so that fifty thousand feet of floor-space 

 under roof and canvas were occupied. When we consider 

 that the fruit industry of this region is comparatively young, 

 both the exhibition and the interest it excited were remarkable. 



To make good the shortage of oranges in the United States, 

 caused by the loss of the Florida crop, many remote countries 

 are being drawn upon. Jamaica, Mexico, north and south 

 California. Spain and Sicily have each contributed to our mar- 

 kets, and cases of oranges from the Holy Land have recently 

 been put on sale in Chicago. This fruit is said to be light- 

 colored, oval, carefully packed and in excellent condition. It 

 was grown in the district between Jerusalem and Jaffa and 

 sold for $4.00 a case. Only meagre reports of the effects of 

 the freezing weather in California on the last days of the 

 year have gone out from that state. Conservative business 

 men here who have much to lose by the failure of the 

 California orange crop, and every reason to wish for 

 heavy shipments of choice fruit, estimate that as much 

 as eighty per cent, of the oranges in the Riverside 

 district are frozen on the trees, while Redlands, Arlington 

 Heights and other elevated sections suffered little injury. 

 The intense cold continued during the nights of Decem- 

 ber 29th and 30th, the anniversary of the fatal freeze in Florida 

 the year before. The thermometer is said to have registered 

 as low as seventeen degrees, Fahrenheit, at Riverside, and 

 since the trees were killed in Florida at fifteen degrees, the 

 groves themselves may have suffered, and this would be a 

 more serious matter than the loss of a single crop. Hardly 

 ten per cent, of the crop had been marketed, prices for 

 Navels here being $4.25 to $4.50 a box at wholesale. Some 

 oranges frozen in transit during the same period of severe 

 weather have brought but $1.60 to $1.80 here, and the depres- 

 sion of prices will continue for fruit now on the way and sus- 

 pected of having suffered on the trees. In the event of serious 

 injury in California the Mediterranean supply must now be the 

 main dependence, and the quantity of oranges and lemons im- 

 ported from Italy, Sicily and Spain last season, 2,222,044 boxes, 

 is likely to be greatly increased. 



