4o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 413. 



in America as they are in England. Here are Nightshade, 

 Buttercup, Dandelion, Mallow, Bindweed, Marsh Mari- 

 gold, Meadow-Sweet, Plantain, Harebell and Silver-Weed 

 running wild — either the identical ones figured, or such 

 near relatives that the picture of one will answer for both — 

 while the Cora Bluebottle, Ragged Robin, Wild Hyacinth 

 and many more can be found domesticated in country 

 gardens, so that the little books can be used to a consid- 

 erable extent as manuals for young botanists even on this 

 continent. 



Notes. 



It is estimated that in Ventura County, California, alone 

 15,000 tons of Lima beans and 7,500 of other beans are raised 

 annually. 



We learn from Le Petit Republican de I'Aube, published at 

 Troyes, France, that Monsieur Charles Baltet received the Prix 

 Montyor for his book, L' Horticulture dans les Cinq parties du 

 Monde, from the Socie'te' Academique of that city at its meet- 

 ing held on the 18th of December last. 



The latest results of comparative experiments with bone 

 meal and other phosphatic fertilizers seem to show that the 

 superior value hitherto given to the undissolved bone is due 

 to the nitrogen which it contains and not to the phosphoric 

 acid. As a phosphatic fertilizer bone meal gives no better 

 results than the mineral phosphate. 



In an address recently delivered in Munich, Dr. Baur, Rec- 

 tor of the Ludwig-Maximilian University, mentioned that sixty 

 per cent, of the wood now yielded by the state forests of the 

 kingdom of Saxony is used in the manufacture of paper pulp. 

 In other European districts there is likewise a great and grow- 

 ing demand for timber for this purpose. And the extent of 

 the demand in this country may be divined from the fact that 

 pulp mills have been built at seven places in the single county 

 of Penobscot, in Maine, and that the daily product of three of 

 these mills constitutes a train-load of paper pulp, usually 

 consisting of eighteen or twenty car-loads. 



Dr. D. T. MacDougal has taken pains to verify the results of 

 former experiments, which show that the leaves and stems of 

 adult plants of Cypripedium spectabile and C. pubescens exert 

 a poisonous influence on the human skin. Later tests with both 

 these plants and C. parviflorum establish the fact beyond doubt 

 that all three of these species are poisonous. The irritant 

 action is found to be due to a secretion of the glandular hairs. 

 On account of the extremely small quantity of this secretion 

 its exact chemical nature has not yet been ascertained, but it 

 was found soluble in alcohol and gave the reaction of an oily 

 substance. The irritant action of the plants increased with 

 their development and reached a maximum effect during the 

 formation of the seed capsules. 



A memorial has been addressed to Congress by the legisla- 

 tive assembly of Arizona, asking that the lands covered by the 

 famous "petrified forest" should be reserved as a public park. 

 They form an area about twelve miles square and lie in the 

 heart of the Apache country. But, despite the remoteness of 

 the spot, curious tourists have already wrought much damage 

 to the singular and beautiful petrifactions, commercial enter- 

 prise has been active in the exportation of specimens, and 

 even the residents of the country who do not try to make 

 money out of the "forest" seem also to be active in willful 

 depredations. It is reported that, not long ago, a cow-boy 

 rode his horse over the most remarkable petrified trunk, 

 which forms a natural bridge above a ravine, in the mischiev- 

 ous hope that he might thus break it down. There are no 

 settlers upon this tract of land, and therefore its reservation 

 would not injure or even inconvenience any one, while it 

 would preserve an array of natural curiosities which are unique 

 of their kind and as interesting to the lover of the picturesque 

 as to the scientific student. 



For many vears the boxes in which plug tobacco was packed 

 in the UnitedStates were madeof Sycamore lumber (Platanus), 

 which, owing to its properties of great strength and freedom 

 from all odor, made it the favorite wood for this purpose. It 

 is now stated by Hardwood, however, that there is not enough 

 Sycamore lumber manufactured in the United States to supply 

 twenty-five percent, of the plug tobacco boxes used annually, 

 and that Gum wood, Liquidambar, is going to be the popular 

 wood for this purpose, if it is not so already. Formerly the 

 plugs were pressed by powerful machinery directly into the 

 boxes, which therefore had to be made of some strong wood. 



Most manufacturers now, however, have iron or steel moulds 

 into which the plugs are pressed into a body of exactly the 

 size of the wooden boxes in which they are marketed. This 

 plan allows the use of lighter boxes without cleats or corner- 

 pieces ; and many of these light boxes are now made from 

 three thin layers of Gumwood, the middle layer being placed 

 transversely to the other two and the whole solidly glued to- 

 gether under great pressure. Gum boxes made in this way 

 are said to be substantial and durable. Rock maple and black 

 birch are also used in some factories for tobacco boxes, but 

 probably not to any great extent. 



We have often spoken with regret of the wanton destruction 

 of song-birds in this country, not only because their beauty 

 and melody are a delight to all who live in the country, but 

 because they are such important auxiliaries in the war against 

 insects injurious to vegetation. This wholesale butchery is by 

 no means confined to our own country. A recent number of 

 the Fortnightly Review states that forty thousand larks daily 

 come into the London markets, where poulterers sell them by 

 the bushel. Besides those sold for table purposes, there are 

 thousands killed for their feathers, their wings, when dyed so 

 as to counterfeit tropical birds, being worn for ornaments. 

 Large numbers are also trapped to let fly at shooting-matches, 

 and many more are sold to be confined, not as household pets, 

 but by gamblers, who, strangely enough, keep them and bet 

 on their powers of song, although how such matches are 

 decided one can hardly understand. All this makes agricul- 

 ture and horticulture more difficult in England, where, under 

 any circumstances, it is none too prosperous. But what seems 

 surprising to Americans is that public sentiment in England 

 will allow the extermination of a songster which seems to be 

 such a favorite and holds so high a place in the poetical litera- 

 ture of the language. 



A few boxes of grape-fruit from southern Florida and, per- 

 haps, fifty barrels from Jamaica made up last week's supply 

 for this city. The Jamaica output is nearly exhausted ; much 

 of this fruit now coming is of hybrid origin, and other, no less 

 inferior, is gathered from old and neglected trees. This small 

 thick-skinned fruit sold for $5.00 a barrel, while large speci- 

 mens, with the fine quality of skin known in the trade as silky, 

 readily brought $7.00 to $8.00 a barrel at wholesale, and the 

 choicest from Florida commanded $10.00 a box. On Monday 

 of this week a dozen barrels from Jamaica were eagerly bought 

 up on the dock at $12.37 each, and owing to the scarcity and 

 prevailing high prices so small a lot as two boxes was included 

 in a large shipment of citrus fruits received from California on 

 the same day. Grape-fruit has been known in this city only 

 about twenty years, and so little was it appreciated fifteen years 

 ago that some of each lot from the Bahamas was reshipped to 

 England, where the prices, $7.00 to $8,00 a barrel, were double 

 those obtained here for a very limited quantity. During the 

 last five years the demand has increased rapidly, and each of 

 the past few years has seen the supply doubled, until this sea- 

 son of scarcity due to the freezing of the trees in Florida last 

 year. 



In the recently published report of the Dean of Barnard Col- 

 lege, in this city, which covers the year 1895, we read: "In 

 view of the importance of her work, the responsibility she 

 carries, and the learning and ability that enable her to bear it, 

 the title of Professor of Botany has this year been conferred 

 upon Dr. Gregory, with the approval of the President of 

 Columbia College. Her department is doing its full share of 

 university work, besides containing successful classes of 

 special students and undergraduates. It has this year four 

 candidates for the higher degrees and five for the Barnard 

 Certificate. Its exhibit at the exposition of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences attracted much favorable attention. The 

 department is one which has been of interest and usefulness 

 to the community. But, though its progress is gratifying, it is 

 also expensive. Professor Gregory reports that it is impossible 

 to carry out our plans in regard to advanced work with our 

 present equipment. A much-needed course in plant physi- 

 ology, for instance, calls for materials and apparatus which are 

 not at our command." The state of things which the Dean thus 

 makes plain seems to offer a good opportunity for practical 

 benevolence to some person of botanical tastes who is like- 

 wise interested in the higher education of women. Certainly 

 there is no pursuit in which certain qualities which have 

 always been considered characteristically feminine ought to 

 make themselves felt to better advantage than in the higher 

 branches of botanical research. We mean those qualities of 

 patience, perseverance, careful attention to details, preciseness 

 in observation and delicacy in manipulation which this branch 

 of science conspicuously demands. 



