March 25, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



127 



doors, in a single season it will creep over the ground so 

 as to cover a space a yard across, and in a window at the 

 north or in a cool conservatory it will bloom through the win- 

 ter and spring, and it may also be flowered out-of-doors in 

 the summer-time. After all, perhaps, the most interesting 

 quality of this plant is its fragrance, the flowers being as 

 sweet as Lilies-of-the-valley, so that, indeed, it takes rank 

 with Boronia megastigma among the plants which are con- 

 spicuous for a distinct and pleasing odor. 



Cultural Department. 



Vegetable Notes. 



THE weather experienced here during early and middle 

 March has proved uncommonly severe, and the proba- 

 bilities now are that the ground will not be in suitable condi- 

 tion for seed-sowing and planting until later than usual. We 

 have taken advantage of recent severe weather, when there 

 was no snow, to have manure carted or wheeled on all ground 

 not dug in the fall. This work should on no account be left 

 until the earth is soft, when the operation is both disagreeable 

 and laborious. Pea-brush has recently been secured and 

 pointed ready for use ; also Bean-poles. These and other 

 seemingly unimportant little duties performed now will ma- 

 terially lessen the strain when the busy season is in full swing. 



Lettuces planted out in frames early in February are now 

 well headed and ready for cutting. Plants set out in October 

 gave us a constant supply until these came in. Later batches 

 have recently been planted in a gentle hot-bed, while additional 

 sowings are made fortnightly. We find no difficulty in having 

 a constant supply of lettuce during all the winter. White- 

 seeded Tennis Ball still proves the best all-round variety with 

 us. A sowing of Radishes is made between the Lettuce rows. 

 From February onward these are ready to pull before they 

 interfere with the Lettuce. An early sowing of Carrots, of the 

 French Horn variety, and Beets have recently been thinned 

 out. We grow rows of Radishes between these crops, and 

 they are ready to use before the Carrots and Beets are of much 

 size. Our earliest batch of forcing Erfurt and Snowball Cauli- 

 flower are now in four-inch pots, and will be transferred to a 

 gentle hot-bed about March 25th. A later sowing recently 

 made will give us nice plants by the time they can safely be 

 set outdoors in this latitude. Early Cabbage have just been 

 pricked off in a frame. We have just made our first hot-bed 

 for Cucumbers, having delayed it somewhat owing to the se- 

 vere weather. This, and, indeed, all other vegetable frames, 

 will need to be well matted up on cold nights, and careful at- 

 tention must be given to watering and ventilation. This is a 

 suitable time to make a sowing of Egg-plant and Peppers, and 

 as greenhouse space is just now pretty well occupied, the 

 seeds may be started in a Cucumber-frame. Parsley planted in 

 frames last fall will now be making good growth ; an occa- 

 sional soaking with liquid-manure will improve it. Care should 

 be taken at this season to use tepid water for all plants in 

 frames. Soaking them with water of almost ice coldness 

 drawn from a faucet outdoors chills the plants and checks 

 growth. 



Our earliest sowing of Celery is now almost large enough to 

 prick off. We use equal portions of White Plume and Paris 

 Golden for a first batch. We still have some good heads of 

 Kalamazoo in the trenches outdoors, which will give us a sup- 

 ply until Easter. This winter has not been favorable for keep- 

 ing Celery in the open, since there has been a succession of 

 freezings, thawings and heavy precipitations. But we are more 

 convinced than ever that it keeps best banked up where it is 

 grown, while the flavor is vastly superior to the stored heads 

 usually seen on the markets. Tomatoes for our main outdoor 

 crop have just been sown. These make strong plants by the 

 middle of May, which is quite as early as we can plant them 

 out here with safety. An earlier batch has just been boxed off. 

 These will be grown along and transferred to six-inch pots 

 later in the season. By planting-out time they will have one 

 or two bunches of fruit set on each plant, and under favorable 

 conditions will give ripe fruit by the end of June or first week 

 in July. The most satisfactory forcing kind we have grown 

 this winter is Eclipse, a variety introduced by a Scotch firm of 

 seed merchants two or three years ago. Plants in ten inch 

 pots are carrying bunches with from six to ten fruits on each, 

 averaging about a dozen bunches per pot. The- fruit is uniform 

 in size, fully as large as Chemin, but without the three-cor- 

 nered appearance of that useful variety. Comrade, which we 

 have grown a few pots of, gives some remarkably large 

 bunches. Some have as many as fifteen fruits on, but the 



fruit is more irregular in form than Eclipse. May's Favorite is 

 a good forcing variety and sets well after February. It proves 

 much better than President Cleveland. Nicholson's Hybrid as 

 an early-winter forcer is excellent ; it lacks size, however, and 

 compares unfavorably with some other kinds after this season. 

 Our tallest batch of plants for indoor culture are now in four- 

 inch pots ; an earlier lot is ready to transfer to fruiting-pots, 

 and will be grown where space will permit in our cooler divi- 

 sions. Artificial pollination is now unnecessary. Giving the 

 plants a shake about the middle of a bright day will distribute 

 the pollen. Laterals and decaying foliage must be removed 

 each week and sufficient foliage cut away to give the fruit all 

 the sunlight possible. The plants require copious supplies of 

 water, and we scatter a handful of sheep-manure or Bowker's 

 fertilizer on each pot once a week, in addition to liquid stimu- 

 lants. That this treatment is appreciated the network of roots 

 on the surface of the pots testifies. Where Mushrooms are 

 grown wood-lice are apt to prove rather troublesome. We 

 find that by placing a small wisp of straw in a dry corner of 

 the bed most of them will congregate there, and they can be 

 easily destroyed with scalding water. If not looked after they 

 will do untold mischief to the crop. We find that home-made 

 spawn gives us better results than English Milltrack, and gives 

 us mushrooms two weeks ahead of the imported spawn. 



Onions produce so much finer bulbs under what is some- 

 times called the new culture, although in reality it is a very old 

 practice which has been adopted for the production of speci- 

 men bulbs, that even market growers rind it pays to adopt it. 

 Our seed was sown in shallow boxes about February 20th on 

 the shelf of a cool house. In a few days these will be trans- 

 ferred to a frame and gradually hardened off. All varieties 

 are improved in quality by being raised in this way and pricked 

 out ; some kinds, such as Giant Rocca, Prizetaker and Silver 

 King, more so than others. All who have not given this mode 

 of culture a trial should do so. 



Taunton, Mass. W. N. Craig. 



Sensitive Oxalids. 



T^HERE are at least four species of Oxalis in common culti- 

 -*■ vation the leaves of which are sensitive to the touch. 

 They are O. (Biophytum) sensitiva, O. (Biophytum) dendroides, 

 O. Ortgiesi and 0. bupleurifolia. The two varieties of O. Bio- 

 phytum are, of course, closely related, and in appearance are 

 pretty nearly alike, the first being the more sensitive and 

 preferable as an ornamental plant for the conservatory or win- 

 dow garden. The flowers are almost stemless and produced 

 in the heart of the pretty rosettes of leaves which terminate 

 the branches. The leaves are pinnate, with from twelve to 

 twenty pairs of leaflets. On being touched these leaflets close 

 downward until those on opposite sides of the leaf-stem touch 

 each other, just the reverse way in which the common Sensi- 

 tive-plant, Mimosa pudica, closes its leaves when interfered 

 with. From some cause this plant sets seeds poorly with me; 

 although I have grown the same specimen for over ten years, 

 it has never yet reproduced itself from seed. The upper part 

 of the leaf is bright green, the under side of a reddish hue. It 

 is quite an interesting plant to have in a greenhouse, as it will 

 close its leaves on the slightest provocation. O. dendroides 

 takes alarm less easily, and sometimes, especially when it is 

 grown cool, it scarcely closes its leaves at all when touched. 

 The reproductive qualities of this species are such that when 

 introduced into a greenhouse it is not long in permanently 

 establishing itself ; the seeds set very freely, and it would seem 

 as if they all germinated, for they cpme up in every conceiva- 

 ble place where it is at all possible for a plant to live. It is 

 especially at home in the pots of other plants, and so pretty is 

 it when growing in this way that one grudges to pull them out. 

 Its flowers are on long stalks clear of the leaves. The rosettes 

 are arranged in the same way as in O. sensitiva, and they are 

 green on both sides. The plant does not have the same 

 branching habit as O. sensitiva; the flowers oi both are pink- 

 ish white. O. Ortigiesi is a well-known plant in our green- 

 houses, the whole plant, excepting the flowers, having a 

 brownish metallic hue to it. The flowers, which are borne on 

 long stalks, are bright yellow in color. The leaves are trifo- 

 liate, and when disturbed droop downward. The stem is ol a 

 succulent nature, and young plants are easily raised from cut- 

 tings. O. bupleurifolia is a dwarl shrub ; it has leaves unlike 

 any of the other four; when the plant is in a young state or in 

 poor health the leaves are not developed at all, but, insl 

 there are leaf like formations culled phyllodes, which, when 

 the plant is strong, develop trifoliate leaves at the extremities. 

 This species has yellow flowers in the axils of the phyllodes>. 

 It is propagated from cuttings, and, apart from its sensitive 

 nature, it is of little horticultural value. , 



Botanic Garden, Washington, D. C. u ■ "■ ' '• 



