7o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 416. 



higher than the Spruce and Hemlock, or to about three 

 thousand feet, growing on these high slopes in jungles so 

 dense as to be almost impenetrable, ami constituting one 

 of the most serious obstacles to mountain climbing, 



A Blueberry, Vaccinium ovalifolium, a shrub four feet in 

 height, forms a large part of the forest undergrowth near the 

 The dark purple berries, rather larger than peas, are 

 collected in great quantities by the Indians, who use them 

 fresh and preserve them for winter, drying the fresh berries 

 by artificial heat. In September, immediately after the close 

 of the fishing season, nearly all the women and children 

 devote themselves to collecting and drying blueberries for 

 winter. The fruit of Rubus spectabilis, the well-known 

 Salmon berry of the north-west coast, ripens in August and 

 is also an important article of food among the natives. 

 This fruit is usually crushed in a wooden bowl and eaten 

 with. sea-oil, and is not preserved for winter use. 



Notes. 



Mr. James A. Pettigrew, late Superintendent of Parks in 

 Milwaukee, has been appointed Superintendent of Parks in 

 Brooklyn, in place of Rudolph Ulrich, who has resigned his 

 position, the resignation dating from the first of March. 



The Botanic Garden of the University of Pennsylvania is 

 hardly more than a year old, and consisted originally of six 

 acres of very rough land. Already a little lake takes the place 

 of what was a gravel pit ; there are bog and aquatic gardens, a 

 rock garden, a bulb garden, an Iris garden, an herbaceous 

 garden and a great many trees and shrubs, so that more than 

 three thousand species are already represented. Professor J. 

 H. Maciarlane is Director, and Alexander MacElwee the head- 

 gardener. 



The herbarium of the late John H. Redfield, of Philadelphia, 

 which is extremely rich in Ferns from all parts of the world 

 and in North American plants generally, containing all the sets 

 made during the last fifty years in the western and south- 

 western parts of the country, is to be sold by the Philadelphia 

 Academy of Sciences, to which it was bequeathed under Mr. 

 Redfield's will. The money derived from its sale, as well as 

 that lately obtained from the sale of his botanical library, will 

 form the nucleus of a Redfield fund of $20,000 his friends hope 

 to raise for the benefit ot the Botanical Department of the 

 Academy, which Mr. Redfield served taithfully tor many years 

 as curator. 



East River Park is one of the comparatively new pleasure- 

 grounds of this city which includes two blocks on the river, in 

 one of the densely inhabited districts of the city between 

 Eighty-fourth and Eighty-sixth Streets. A correspondent of 

 The Sun of this city writes to say that just as soon as the im- 

 provement of the land was begun and the place grew in attrac- 

 tiveness the character of the neighborhood at once changed 

 for the better, the houses became neater, cleanliness was more 

 general, there was less dissipation, for the people now sit in 

 the park instead of in the saloons. Altogether the change 

 wrought in a congested neighborhood is reported as remark- 

 able, and it furnishes a strong argument for providing more 

 open spaces in the tenement-house districts. 



Not long ago Mr. J. L. Normand, of Marksville, Louisiana, 

 sent to this office what he considered the fruit ot Benincasa 

 cerifera, but which seems to be the fruit of Sicana odoriiera, 

 a Brazilian cucurbitaceous plant. This fruit is about a foot 

 long, three inches in diameter, with rounded ends, of a deep 

 crimson color and delightfully fragrant. In its natural state it 

 does not appear be at all edible, but Mr. Normand has made 

 some preserved preparations which he considers worth some- 

 thing. Benincasa cerifera, the so-called White Gourd of India, 

 is more nearly spherical, greenish in color, covered with a 

 waxy bloom, and is used while green in making curries. If 

 seeds of this Sicana are started early in pots and the plants set 

 in rich soil atter all danger of frost is over, they make a large 

 growth in a single season. One of Mr. Normand's plants 

 climbed, it is said, to the top of a good-sized dead tree and 

 produced two hundred fruits, which weighed from four to six 

 pounds each. 



A few Florida oranges are included in the stock of the 

 best fruit stores, and cost $1.00 each. A limited quantity 

 of Navel oranges from that state recently secured by the 

 old retail fruit house of W. & C. Smith, on lower Broad- 

 way, is selling for from seventy-five cents to $2.00 a dozen. 

 Previous to the freeze in Florida a year ago last December 



$4.00 a box for grape-fruit was a high price in the wholesale 

 markets of this city, but in view of the unusual scarcity as 

 much as $18.00 a box is now asked, and retail dealers are 

 forced to sell this fruit at $6 00 a dozen. The experiment is 

 being made of introducing some bitter oranges from the 

 Bahamas, to take the place of grape-fruit, the initial importa- 

 tion last week selling at $2.00 a box. Selected pineapples from 

 Havana cost fifty cents each at retail, and large smooth Cayenne 

 pineapples from Florida, beautifully colored and with luxuriant 

 tops, command double this price. Showy Lady-apples from 

 Missouri bring twenty cents a dozen. Long Island Newtown 

 pippins, mottled and brightly colored, and the green and russet 

 Albemarle pippin from Virginia cost sixty cents a dozen for 

 selected fruits. Pint boxes of small but well-colored strawber- 

 ries from Florida cost fifty cents. The first Charleston straw- 

 berries were seen here last week. 



Besides celery from this state and New Jersey, this vegetable 

 is now supplied by some of the middle western states and 

 Calitornia. The latter state is also sending tomatoes, the prin- 

 cipal field-grown supplies coming from Key West, Florida, 

 and Cuba. Smooth, even-sized and beautifully colored toma- 

 toes from Pennsylvania hot-houses cost thirty-five cents a 

 pound. Lettuce is coming from Louisiana in small lots, the 

 dependence being on Florida, South Carolina and Virginia. 

 Egg-plants, beets and string-beans also come from Florida, 

 and new peas from the same state cost $1.00 a half-peck. The 

 first Florida cabbage of the season has been forwarded, but is 

 not yet fully grown. The regular winter supply of. home- 

 grown cabbage is nearly exhausted, and that imported from 

 Denmark now constitutes the main supply. Norfolk is send- 

 ing kale and spinach, and Bermuda is contributing a variety of 

 new crop vegetables, as potatoes, onions, carrots and beets. 

 Asparagus from Charleston brings $2.50 a bunch ; a dozen 

 long shoots from pear-by hot-houses, and enough of a luxury 

 to be held together by narrow ribbon, cost $1.00, and the less 

 crisp and fresh product from western glass houses may be had 

 for sixty cents. Large mushrooms of uniform size and even 

 color from Long fsland forcing-houses are offered at $1.00 a 

 pound, some hardly less attractive costing sixty to seventy-five 

 cents. 



Beds of many colored Tulips and other gay bulbous flowers, 

 which made gardens of the florists' windows a few weeks ago, 

 have given way to other suggestions of approaching spring, 

 as branches of Pussy Willow thickly set with downy catkins, 

 and of Forsythia, the golden bells in luxuriant flowering on the 

 nearly leafless stems. Small plants of Heaths continue to be 

 a conspicuous offering, although many of the best plants are 

 still in the greenhouses of cultivators and will not be seen in 

 city stores until the Easter season. The window exhibits of 

 florists are more than a display of stock, and in the best estab- 

 lishments are both tasteful and artistic. A crowded window 

 of thickly placed plants, without reference to arrangement or 

 color, is rare enough to impress this fact. Groups of Cine- 

 rarias are likely to make exasperating masses of color, but a 

 few of these plants in the window of a store on Fifth Avenue 

 appeared to really pleasing advantage, the bouquet-like mass 

 of flowers set in the immense leaves. Pink and white Azaleas 

 are among the best-flowered and most beautiful plants now 

 seen, and Cytisus racemosus and the more delicate flowers 

 and foliage of Acacia dealbatagive the touch of yellow which 

 seems necessary in a collection. In one window the moss- 

 draped trunk and branches of a tree constitute the main attrac- 

 tion, with Orchids growing from the bark, and openings, an 

 owl and hornet's nest being added for more realistic effect. 

 In another a great vase of Bride roses was easily the most 

 attractive object in a collection of cut flowers, .and large deep 

 buds, the edges of the outer petals beautifully recurved, made 

 a richer show in their ivory whiteness than any of the more 

 brilliantly colored flowers. An exceptional stem of this par- 

 ticularly well-grown lot measured four feet, the average being 

 more than two feet in length. Marie Louise violets, in bunches 

 of fifty blossoms, command $1.50. Tiny spikes of a dwarf 

 mignonette, very attractive in their neat form, cost thirty-five 

 cenis a dozen, and great spikes of the same flower measuring 

 nearly a foot in length cost fifty cents each. The brightest and 

 showiest bits of color are made by neat little buds of Papa 

 Gontier roses, which sell for the reasonable price of a dollar a 

 dozen. Sprays of white and purple lilac are included in the 

 best offerings of cut flowers. An original effect with the 

 charm of simplicity is a window measuring, perhaps, seven 

 by eighteen feet, the margin framed with a wire foundation 

 fifteen inches wide, hidden with smilax and dotted with 

 Bridesmaid roses. A mass of well-grouped Palms set back 

 some six feet furnish the satisfying picture for this beautiful 

 frame. 



