January i, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



shaped segments finely toothed at the edge and bordered with 

 a narrow band of a reddish color. The slender petiole is but 

 slightly longer than the blade and of a reddish chocolate hue. 

 L. Commersonii is a dwarf species of elegant habit and de- 

 sirable for all decorative purposes. As a small plant it is more 

 graceful than Livistona Sinensis, but of a duller coloring. In 

 conservatories and greenhouses it is thus far very rare, being 

 found only in some of the larger establishments. Rich fibrous 

 loam, with an addition of leaf-mold, well-decayed manure and 

 sand, forms an excellent compost. The drainage must be 

 good, and during summer an abundant watering is necessary, 

 as well as frequent sprayings. Although a tropical Palm, it 

 will do well in any warm greenhouse in a half-shady position. 



Chama^rops stauracantha. — This picturesque and graceful 

 Palm has large palmate leaves divided into four to eight broad 

 linear segments one foot or more long of a very dark green 

 color. The petioles are very slender, not unlike the petioles of 

 the well-known Thrinax, and about twice as long as the blade. 

 The stem is covered with thin fibrous sheaths and protected at 

 thebase with enormous-branched spines of a needle-like sharp- 

 ness. Leaves, in ordinary greenhouse specimens, are from 

 eight to fifteen. This Palm is quite unlike the common types of 

 Chamaerops in foliage and habit. It is of a striking and unique 

 beauty, and as it requires no special treatment deserves to be 

 more generally grown. As yet it is very rare and expensive. 

 It thrives best in a partial shade, and with ordinary greenhouse 

 treatment in any rich and fibrous soil. 



Newark, N.J. JV. J. Rose. 



. Asparagus Culture for City and Village Lots. 



ASPARAGUS, considered as a vegetable, has some pecu- 

 liarities which distinguish it from other plants of the 

 kitchen garden. The growing plant is very beautiful. Its 

 feathery masses of graceful foliage, its peculiar shade of green 

 in summer, the bright red berries contrasted with the rich 

 yellow of the maturing plant in the autumn, make it well 

 worthy of a place among ornamental plants, particularly in the 

 shrubbery border. In cultivation the plant is injured rather 

 than benefited by frequent stirring of the soil ; all it asks is 

 abundant room, not less than five feet square to each plant, 

 and liberal feeding. It takes time to establish itself, but when 

 this is well done a little care and free manuring each year will 

 keep it permanently and enormously productive, a single plant 

 under the Argenteuil system of cultivation having furnished 

 thirty-seven pounds of the choicest asparagus in a season. 



The beauty, the ease of culture, the permanency and pro- 

 ductiveness of the plants, and the fact that asparagus, even 

 more than most vegetables, should be used when perfectly fresh 

 — should be cut and cooked the same hour — warrant the culti- 

 vation of this plant in places where the attempt to grow other 

 vegetables might not be wise. A few plants can be introduced 

 with good effect in highly kept pleasure-grounds. A few can 

 be set in the corner of the fence or beside the shed in places 

 too contracted to warrant the attempt to have a garden of any 

 kind. In fact, there are very few town and village places that 

 could not easily furnish the family with an abundant supply of 

 this vegetable at a trifling expenditure of labor, and without 

 detracting from the beauty or usefulness of the grounds. As 

 a guide to those who may wish to undertake asparagus cul- 

 ture in the way suggested, I give the cultural methods fol- 

 lowed in the Argenteuil district of France, which has the repu- 

 tation of producing the finest asparagus in the world. A 

 considerable proportion of that grown there is the product, 

 not of Asparagus farms, or even of fields and beds, but. of sin- 

 gle plants or clumps standing by themselves, or in groups of 

 from five to twenty scattered here and there in any open space 

 that may chance to be left in corners or between trees and 

 buildings. Wherever there is an unused bit of ground five 

 feet in diameter, which is not in dense shade or liable to be 

 covered with water, there the Argenteuil gardener sticks in 

 a plant, gives it good care, and is well repaid for his labor. 



The method of cultivation is simple. The spot is put in 

 good tilth and made moderately rich ; a vigorous plant is care- 

 fully set out so that its crown will be about four inches below 

 the surface-level ; weeds are kept down by shallow surface 

 cultivation, and in the fall, after the tops are fully matured 

 and dead, the surface for a circle of five feet in diameter is 

 covered with rich and well-rotted manure. As early in the 

 spring as possible this manure is well-forked into the surface, 

 and the starting weeds kept down by shallow hoeing until the 

 plant has made sufficient growth to take care of itself. The 

 third season the treatment is the same as in the second, espe- 

 cial care being taken to take out any seedling Asparagus- 

 plants which may spring up, they being treated as the worst 



of weeds. The fourth season the harvest commences, though 

 if the plants have made a good growth a few cuttings are made 

 the third year, but it is considered better practice to wait until 

 the fourth, in order that the plants may become well estab- 

 lished. The manure is spaded in as early in the season as 

 possible, and as soon as the first shoots appear at the surface 

 the soil is heaped over the crown of the plant in a mound 

 about a foot high, which serves to blanch the growing shoots. 

 In gathering, the shoots are broken as far as possible below 

 the surface. The covering soil being friable from its abundant 

 manuring enables one to secure much longer shoots than if it 

 were level. Care is taken to remove all the shoots at each 

 picking and not to prolong the season far into the hot weather, 

 so that the plants may have a chance to make a good growth 

 in preparation for the next season's crop. At the close of the 

 season the mound of earth is leveled with the surface, and 

 about two quarts of fresh wood-ashes and a handful of salt are 

 scattered- about each plant and hoed into the surface. The 

 treatment given the fourth year is repeated, and the shoots 

 gain in number and size as the plant increases in age. 

 Detroit, Mich. Will W. Tracy. 



Correspondence. 



Class Work in Horticulture at Cornell. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — You have said so much in recent numbers on the sub- 

 ject of horticultural education that I make bold to send you 

 a brief account of certain class work as it is now conducted 

 in this university. Course No. 1 in horticulture is a term's 

 work in "The Evolution of Cultivated Plants." Necessarily, 

 much of the discussion turns upon the general theories of 

 evolution and a sweeping conspectus taken of the natural his- 

 tory of the plant-world. The course consists of lectures, but 

 the following account of the incidental work will show some- 

 thing of the scope of instruction. This may be of interest, 

 because we are told that no attempt exactly like it has hereto- 

 fore been made in this country, and, perhaps, in the world, to 

 apply current philosophical speculations to horticulture. 



Aside from the regular class work, the students were called 

 upon during the term for two original essays, one upon the 

 subject, " Expound the Philosophies known as Lamarckism, 

 Darwinism and Neo-Darwinism," and the other, "Why Do 

 Plants Vary ? ' Each student was also obliged to read and 

 assimilate chapter iii. of Wallace's Darwinism ; Weismann's 

 original essay on Heredity ; a chapter of Cope's Origin of the 

 Fittest; two chapters of Herbert Spencer's Principles of 

 Biology ; chapter xv. of Darwin's Origin of Species ; Gray's 

 essay on The Flora of Japan. These exercises were selected 

 in order to acquaint the student with some of the leading 

 types of philosophical writing. The final examination com- 

 prised the following questions : 



(1) What do you understand by the term evolution as techni- 

 cally used at the present time? (2) Name five reasons for the 

 belief in organic evolution. (3) What are the dominant causes 

 of the variation of plants ? (4) In what directions does climate 

 modify plants? (5) What is Neo-Darwinism? (6) Explain 

 how bud variation is possible. (7) What, if anything, is the 

 philosophy of pruning ? (8) Expound the one chief agency 

 which man can employ in the amelioration of plants. (9) Why 

 does nature cross plants ? (10) To what extent has agriculture 

 modified plants ? 



Cornell University. 



Stilt lent. 



Notes from Southern California. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — There are two species of Bouganvillea in cultivation 

 here, which are extremely showy. One under the name of B. 

 glabra, with very bright bracts, produced in great abundance 

 through the summer and sparingly in winter, so that it is never 

 without Mowers. I have a specimen of B. glabra, as known in 

 eastern greenhouses, which is not worth growing compared 

 with the other, its bracts being a dingy rose-color and the plant 

 flowering only once in the year. Both have smooth foliage. If 

 theplantT speak of is B. glabra I should be pleased to know the 

 correct name of the former. B. spectabilis, with bracts ol 

 rich crimson magenta, usually flowers from February to April. 

 For some reason it has been in bloom with me during the 

 three months. This has pubescent leaves and bracts rather 

 larger than the other. 



Another climber which has been flowering out of season is 

 Bignonia venusta. It bloomed in soul'' gardens during 1 

 ber and November, its usual season being January to March. 



