March 25, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



1 29 



in a notch, bootjack fashion, as it were, and the more the in- 

 sect pulls the more its trunk is drawn toward the end of the 

 notch. Thus caught, the insect starves to death." The plant 

 is quite easily propagated from cuttings. The usual plan of 

 cultivation is to trim plants in, which have been blooming all 

 summer, and keep them rather dry during the winter in an 

 ordinary greenhouse. It is very effective trained to a post or 

 trellis. 



Wellesley, Mass. T. D. H. 



Correspondence. 



Shrubs which Flower in Early Spring. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Will you be kind enough to give a list of shrubs which 

 flower very early in the spring ? I have a lawn with a warm 

 and sunny exposure, and I should like to border it with a 

 shrubbery which will make some sort of Moral display before 

 the great mass of spring-flowering shrubs are in bloom. 



Bordentown, N. J. R.A. 



[Perhaps Chimonanthus fragrans would survive the win- 

 ter in our correspondent's latitude, though it is not reliably 

 hardy much north of Washington. Its remarkably sweet- 

 scented flowers appear very early. The long wands of 

 Jasminum nudiflorum are covered with bright yellow 

 flowers very early, also, but this, too, is doubtfully hardy 

 except from Philadelphia southward. Corylopsis pauci- 

 flora, which was brought from Japan some years ago by 

 Dr. Hall, is perfectly hard}'. It belongs to the Witch 

 Hazel family, and bears pale yellow flowers. C. spicata, 

 a rarer shrub, is hardy in Philadelphia, and its flowers are 

 more showy and interesting, of richer color and with an 

 odor which reminds one of Violets. Fothergilla Gardeni, 

 a native of our southern Appalachian region, is also a 

 member of the Witch Hazel family, and, although it 

 has been grown in English gardens for more than a cen- 

 tury and a quarter, it is rarely seen in American gardens. 

 It is perfectly hardy, and the flowers, which appear before 

 the leaves at the end of all the branches, cover the plant 

 with brush-like masses of long white stamens, which have 

 a very curious and beautiful effect. It is a shrub of good 

 habit all summer long. The old-fashioned Cornelian 

 Cherry, Cornus mascula, with its abundant small yellow 

 flowers, is a first-rate plant, and later in the season its 

 cherry-like fruit is attractive. Daphne Mezereum, a 

 stiff upright shrub with fragrant rose-colored flowers, 

 should come in the list. Our native Andromeda flori- 

 bunda, an exquisite shrub with evergreen leaves, and 

 the Japanese Andromeda, a more spreading shrub with 

 broader panicles of handsome white flowers, should both be 

 planted. Two Chinese Bush Honeysuckles, Lonicera fra- 

 grantissima and L. Standishii, both display their odorous 

 flowers before the leaves appear. The native Leather Wood, 

 Dirca palustris, the Yellow Root, Xanthorrhiza, the fragrant 

 Sumach, Rhus aromatica, all have inconspicuous flowers 

 which appear very early, and the last two are useful for 

 connecting the turf on the borders with the taller plants in 

 the rear of the shrubbery. Some of the Currants, like Ribes 

 saxatile, R. alpinum and the native R. aureum, have 

 handsome and fragrant flowers. The little Heath, Erica 

 carnea, rarely more than a foot high in this latitude, is very 

 interesting in early spring on rockwork, and, of course, if 

 there is a place for the Mayflower, Epigtearepens, this should 

 not be neglected. Some of the bush Cherries, like Primus 

 tomentosa, P. Davidiana, and the Sweet Almond, P. Amyg- 

 dalus, are very desirable, and they will be still in bloom 

 when Spiraea Thunbergii opens its profusion of pure white 

 flowers and the Forsythias are in the full splendor of their 

 bloom. For full descriptions of all these shrubs and for fig- 

 ures of several of them we must refer to back volumes of 

 Garden and Forest. 



A place like one of the small openings in the Ramble of 

 Central Park, if bordered with shrubs of this sort, might be 

 made especially attractive. Into the border some of the 

 Hazels and other plants with conspicuous catkins could be 

 admitted, and behind the border would be a suitable place 



for early-flowering trees, among which the Swamp Maple 

 and the Red Bud and tall shrubs, like our Spice Wood, could 

 be made prominent. Shrubs, like Magnolia stellata, with 

 very showy bloom, perhaps, might be discarded from a 

 quiet nook like this, and even Forsythias might be too 

 glowing in color. But, certainly, such a lawn would be 

 most interesting just after winter has relaxed its hold. 

 —Ed.] 



Recent Publications. 



The Spraying of Plants. By E. G. Lodeman, Instructor 

 in Horticulture in Cornell University. With a preface by 

 B. T. Galloway, Chief of the Division of Vegetable Pathol- 

 ogy, United States Department of Agriculture. New York : 

 Macmillan & Co. 



The literature of horticulture must more and more from 

 this time on fall into the hands of professional men and 

 students. There is so much of science attached to the art 

 of horticulture, so much detail, such an accumulation of 

 experimental facts and methods, that it is now beyond the 

 powers of the layman to digest and collate these stores. 

 The coming literature may not be in all respects better than 

 the old, but it will be different in type, and it will certainly 

 gain in freedom of treatment and in the breadth of its mis- 

 sion, and it will be freer from provincialism and dogmatism 

 and hereditary errors. Mr. Lodeman's book on spraying 

 is a noteworthy illustration of the modern horticultural 

 treatise. Ten years ago spraying against insects and fungi 

 was practically unknown as an important, or as even an 

 accredited, operation, and yet here is a volume of four 

 hundred pages devoted to the subject. All the practice has 

 been developed since Downing, Barry and Thomas and 

 other authorities wrote or revised their books, and the 

 special literature on the subject is now so extensive that 

 only a specialist can master and classify it for use. Two 

 hundred and thirty closely printed pages are given to the 

 history and principles of spraying, in which the gradual 

 advancement of our knowledge is set forth, together with 

 the principles which underlie the practice. The remainder 

 of the book is taken up with specific directions for the spray- 

 ing of cultivated plants, with descriptions of the most im- 

 portant insects and fungous diseases affecting them and the 

 method of treating each. Mr. Lodeman has gathered the 

 results of an immense amount of experiments, both in 

 Europe and America, and his book can be trusted, not only 

 as a manual of practice, but as a true and well-classified 

 record of our knowledge on this subject at the present time. 



We have received the interesting Hand List of Orchids 

 Cultivated at Kew, and find it a very useful little manual for 

 all who have to deal with these plants. The brief preface 

 contains many interesting historical facts in relation to the 

 growth of the collection there, and the list comprises nearly 

 two thousand species and garden hybrids. Wherever pos- 

 sible there is a reference made to a figure, and as the list is 

 only printed on one side of the leaf there is abundant 

 room for annotations. There are many collections where 

 Orchids which bear the fashionable and popular flowers are 

 more largely represented than they are at Kew, but this 

 one is particularly strong in the so-called botanical Orchids, 

 which are absolutely essential to the student who wishes 

 to gain a complete knowledge of the family. Of course, 

 dried specimens of the botanical Orchids can be had in 

 herbaria, but a living plant is better for purposes of study 

 than a dead one, and it is by an examination of living plants 

 alone that we can observe the contrivances for cross- 

 fertilization which so interested Darwin and many other 

 naturalists. 



Notes. 



One of the most striking features in some of the florists' 

 windows now are exceptionally long and full-flowered spikes 

 of Gladiolus, probably the variety Shakespeare. The large 

 flowers are white, with light stripes of carmine or rose color 



