io8 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 420. 



aphis will injure Lilies if allowed to get a foothold, and they 

 must be held in check either by dusting the tips with tobacco- 

 dust, syringing with tobacco-extract dissolved in water, or by 

 fumigation. Callas are useful for decorative purposes ; we 

 grow the large tubers of C. ^Ethiopica in ten and twelve inch 

 pots, placing three and five to each pot. The variety Little 

 Gem, while not of value as a winter bloomer, is now com- 

 mencing to flower freely, and is useful to mix with other plants. 

 Grown in eight-inch pots these will each have five to eight 

 open flowers by Easter. Callas are gross feeders, and strong 

 liquid food twice a week improves them. Spiraeas are among 

 the most useful plants for Easter. We prefer S. grandiflorum 

 to the older S. Japonica. S. astilboides makes an elegant plant ; 

 it is taller in habit than the others, with handsomely cut and 

 showy foliage and minutely branched panicles of white flow- 

 ers ; it requires two weeks longer forcing than the Japonica 

 type to bring it into flower. Spirreas must have plenty of room 

 to develop their foliage, stimulants and copious waterings. 

 They are easily injured by tobacco-smoke, and it is well to re- 

 move them to another house while any fumigation is going 

 on. I have seen many fine lots completely ruined by neglect 

 of this simple precaution. 



Easter comes a week earlier this year than last, and Hy- 

 drangeas will require considerable forcing to have them in 

 good flower. The heads on our plants are now showingwhite, 

 and will be well expanded by the required time. We have had 

 to retard Cytisus racemosus and Indian Azaleas, but they 

 are now being carried into heat. Bulbous plants, such as 

 Hyacinths, Tulips and Narcissus, require some three weeks 

 from the time they are housed until they are in flower. If the 

 weather is very warm and sunny they may need holding back ; 

 if the reverse, some extra forcing may be necessary. Paris 

 Daisies, especially the white variety, Grallert, are useful grown 

 in six and eight inch pots. Plants of Antirrhinums in six-inch 

 pots, carrying five or six spikes, are effective, and can readily be 

 brought into bloom for Easter in an ordinary greenhouse tem- 

 perature. We purpose trying the white Swainsonia galegifolia 

 as a decorative plant this year for the first time. Its beautiful 

 white sprays of flowers should make it extremely popular, and 

 it is of easy culture. Calceolarias and Pelargoniums will both 

 be somewhat late for Easter this year. Neither of these plants 

 tolerate forcing, so it is useless to attempt to hurry them for- 

 ward. Green aphis is very partial to both, and we pack plenty 

 of tobacco-stems among our plants. A cool airy structure suits 

 them, and they relish frequent syringings overhead until the 

 flowers begin to expand. The flowering Begonias are among 

 the most cheery objects in a greenhouse .it this season, and 

 florists are giving more attention to their cultivation. While 

 they have comparatively little value as cut flowers for decora- 

 tive purposes, as pot-plants they are unexcelled. A good batch 

 of cuttings for next winter's crop should now be inserted. 

 Later in the season the old plants grow finely if planted out in 

 a partially shaded border. For midwinter blooming Begonia 

 incurvata (called also carminata) deserves special commenda- 

 tion ; we have just put in cuttings of this excellent variety. 

 The old plants if cut back give abundant cuttings from the 

 base, and these are preferable to those taken from flowering 

 wood. The Cornell Experiment Station is trying to gel together 

 a complete collection of Begonias, and it is hoped all gardeners 

 and florists will send to that institution varieties and species 

 it may not have. A primary object in making the collection is 

 to establish correct nomenclature of Begonias. 

 Taunton, Mass. W. N. Craig. 



Caryopteris mastacanthus.— This neat subshrubby member of 

 the Verbena family is said to be hardy as far north as Boston. 

 Thomas Meehan & Sons, of Germantown, state that they have 

 thoroughly tested it for the last five years in their nurseries, 

 and that it has been only slightly winter-killed. As the flowers 

 are produced on the current year's growth this is no disad- 

 vantage, for, no doubt, like many other plants of this charac- 

 ter, it will be benefited by being pruned annually. The plant 

 branches freely from a woody base. The leaves are ovate 

 and hoary, with adpressed, silky hairs in greater abundance on 

 the lower surface. The flowers are lavender-blue, in dense 

 axillary clusters, and are produced in great profusion during 

 the months of September and October. It is one of the easiest 

 of plants to manage, and in the greenhouse has been quite 

 free from insect pests of all kinds. Our halt-dozen plants were 

 raised from cuttings taken from a plant purchased last spring. 

 They made neat little bushes of ovate pyramidal form about 

 two feet high. We grew three in six-inch pots, and they made 

 the best of decorative plants. Those kept indoors ripened 

 seed abundantly. The plant can be easily increased from cut- 

 tings as well, so that it will be plentiful. 



Abutilon Souvenir de Bonn is the best Abutilon with parti- 

 colored leaves that I have seen. The variegation is white 

 and confined to a rather heavy banding on the margin of the 

 deeply cut palmate leaves. It is a highly decorative plant, 

 however used, and small specimens in pots are especially 

 beautiful. For foliage contrasts in informal gardening it is 

 most effective. The variegation does not seem to interfere 

 with the vitality of the plants, and they are always healthy and 

 vigorous. Unlike many Abutilons, it naturally forms a stocky 

 bush of pyramidal form and never needs staking. The red- 

 striped orange flowers contrast well with the foliage, as is not 

 the case with the Thompsoni forms, which have yellow varie- 

 gation. 

 & Welles'ley, Mass. T. D. Hatfield. 



Correspondence. 



Decoration of School Grounds. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The subject of ornamenting our country roadsides 

 with trees and shrubs has lately been treated interestingly in 

 your columns, and I wish now to call attention to the tasteful 

 planting of grounds about country schoolhouses. They stand 

 at present, as a rule, as "ragged beggars sunning," without 

 so much as a Sumach or Blackberry vine to adorn them. 

 Not infrequently the playground is altogether omitted, and 

 the children play in the road. Certainly the school-build- 

 ings in the country that are provided with pleasant grounds 

 are exceptional, and although in a few instances sites have 

 been chosen near native groves with pleasing results, planting 

 is almost wholly neglected. This oversight where land is avail- 

 able and bees and shrubs can be procured at little or no cost, 

 evidences lack of thoughtfulness on the part of the rural popu- 

 lation rather than lack of taste. Children enjoy planting trees 

 and seeds, but, as with other things, soon tire of the labor 

 and care of cultivating unless stimulated by some unusual 

 motive. The idea of ownership or proprietorship has been 

 tried in many places with success, and children have been led 

 to take pride in trees and shrubs placed under their care. As 

 many children do not possess attractive homes the influence 

 of a prettily decorated schoolhouse and grounds would add a 

 much needed element in their education. The advantages to 

 be derived by children trom pleasant surroundings seem to 

 have had little or no place in the arrangements for their earliest 

 impressions at school in the country, where of all places the 

 most natural beauty may be provided with the least exertion. 

 Since childhood is the most impressible period of life it cer- 

 tainly is better to have schoolhouses and grounds comforta- 

 ble and tasteful rather than inconvenient and unsightly. The 

 remembrance of hours spent years ago in shady woods, 

 among wild flowers and ferns, under orchard trees, or in old 

 gardens, remains with us as we advance in life when later expe- 

 riences are forgotten. Washington Irving wrote : "I thank 

 God 1 was born on the banks of the Hudson ! I think it an 

 invaluable advantage to be born and brought up in the neigh- 

 borhood of some great and noble object in Nature. I used to 

 clothe it with moral attributes and almost to give it a soul." He 

 traces to his companionship with it whatever is good or pleasant 

 in Ins character. 



Comparatively few are born with what are usually termed 

 grand objects about them, but none in the country need be 

 deprived ot much that is refreshing and ennobling to the mind, 

 provided the attention is early called to it. 

 White Pigeon, Mich. Dorcas E. Collins. 



John Brown's Grave. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The letter of Mrs. Van Rensselaer, in your issue of 

 January 29th, in regard to the recent purchase by the state of 

 New York of the John Brown tract, reminds me that it may 

 be worth while to reproduce part of an article printed in Kate 

 Field's Washington, under date of. September 26th, 1894. This 

 account was given to Miss Field by the Rev. H. C. Lyon, who 

 lived in North Elba for several years and knew many of the 

 Brown family personally. 



" It is more than likely that of the tens of thousands who 

 have visited the grave ot old John Brown, at North Elba, in 

 the Adirondack's, not fifty have ever heard the history of that 

 inscription so deeply chiseled in the gieat granite "bowlder 

 near the grave — 'John Brown, 1S59.' This bowlder, with its 

 clear-cut letters, will always be regarded as the real memorial. 

 It is true that the thin stone slab which formerly marked the 

 grave of Captain John Brown, the grandfather of John Brown, 



