140 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 423. 



Notes. 



The Ceylon Forester gives the dimensions of a Banyan-tree 

 at the Admiralty House at Trincomalee, the girth of whose 

 central trunk is nineteen feet six inches at three feet from the 

 ground, the full height of the tree being sixty-six feet and six 

 inches, and the circumference of the circle shaded by its 

 foliage being 541 feet. 



At the recent meeting of the Massachusetts Fruit-growers' 

 Association at Worcester it was stated that the canning of good 

 apples was constantly on the increase in obedience to a 

 steadily growing demand for them, especially abroad, Great 

 Britain alone last year having taken 20,000 dozen. The canned 

 product is so attractive that the demand for evaporated apples 

 is diminishing. 



Some experiments made in Belgium recently tend to throw 

 doubt upon the truth of the assumption that insects are 

 guided to flowers by the brightness of their colors. Bril- 

 liantly colored Dahlias were covered so as to expose only the 

 disks, and butterflies and bees sought these flowers with the 

 same eagerness and frequency as those which were fully ex- 

 posed. The conclusion by Plateau was that the insects are 

 guided more by their sense of smell than by their perception 

 of the bright colors. 



A Buffalo correspondent writes that he finds Linum (Rein- 

 wardtia) trigynum one of the best of the few window plants 

 which flower in early winter — that is, before ordinary bulbs 

 are brought forward. Beginning with the last of November the 

 Linum will rival the Chinese Primrose in profusion of bloom, 

 and if the two are placed together in a cool window where the 

 temperature is kept above actual freezing the golden yellow 

 flowers of the Linum will appear to admirable advantage 

 among those of the Primroses, and both will keep on flower- 

 ing until late in February. 



Mr. Joseph Meehan writes to confirm what we have stated 

 about the shy way in which Magnolia Kobus blooms when 

 young. He speaks of a beautiful specimen in Germantown 

 with a trunk four feet in circumference at a foot from the 

 ground, just below its separation into several large limbs. 

 The tree is twenty-two feet high, with a spread of twenty feet 

 across, and very symmetrical in shape. This tree has flow- 

 ered as yet but very little, although it is doing so more freely 

 every year. Large as it is, he thinks it carries no more than a 

 hundred flower-buds this spring, while a tree of M. conspicua 

 of the same size would have thousands. The flowers are not 

 large and the buds at present are not more than one-third the 

 size of those of M. conspicua. 



Green peas have recently been shipped from Florida 

 in comparatively large quantities, this vegetable, with mint, 

 being in more especial demand as an accompaniment to spring 

 lamb. Seventy-five cents a half-peck is the current price. 

 Tender and fresh-looking string-beans, also from Florida, sell 

 for twenty-five cents a quart, and some late okra, from Loui- 

 siana, costs ten cents a dozen. But little cauliflower is coming 

 from Florida, and the dependence has been on the California 

 supply, which finds ready sale at twenty-five cents a head, a 

 limited quantity from France selling for sixty cents. Boston 

 hot-house cucumbers sell at fifteen cents each, and mush- 

 rooms from Long Island and New Jersey at ninety cents a 

 pound. Large stalks of asparagus, as fine as any grown in 

 northern gardens later in the season, are now coming from 

 South Carolina, and sell for sixty-five to ninety cents a bunch. 

 Egg-plants from Florida and Cuba cost twenty-five to thirty 

 cents each, and celery, from Florida and California, $1.25 for a 

 dozen stalks. Beets are coming from Florida and the Ber- 

 mudas, and other field crops arriving from these islands are 

 kohl-rabi, carrots, onions, potatoes, parsley and Romaine let- 

 tuce. Tomatoes from Florida and Key West cost twenty-five 

 cents a pound, and the near-by hot-house product thirty-five 

 to fifty cents. Other new-crop vegetables now in market are 

 white squashes and cabbage from Florida, and lettuce from 

 Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina. Some of the first-class 

 fruit and vegetable stores now include in their varied stock 

 yams, from the Bahamas. These rough-skinned, irregularly 

 shaped tubers find not a few curious purchasers, fifteen cents 

 a pound being the price asked for this popular food of the 

 West Indian negroes. 



The sales of cut flowers during the Lenten season, which 

 closes with this week, have been more satisfactory to the deal- 

 ers than in former seasons, and informal dinner and theatre 

 parties have made considerable demands until now, in Holy 

 Week, when but few flowers are sold. While there have been 

 not a few muggy days during the weeks when plants and 



flowers have been forced for Easter, the weather, altogether, 

 has not been unfavorable, and the quality of flowers is, per- 

 haps, higher than ever before. To growers whose stock is 

 developed to the point of hardening off sunless days are now 

 comparatively harmless, though a hindrance to any whose 

 plants are belated in development. The uptown flower-stores 

 began on Monday to receive their Easter stock. Lilies, as 

 usual, are most conspicuously associated with the season, and 

 after these azaleas are most abundant. Acacias are among the 

 most popular plants, as are Heaths, the light-colored Erica 

 gracilis and the rich pinkish lavender of the more densely 

 flowered E. globosa being varieties frequently seen. Among 

 the newer and rarer offerings of this season are Asparagus 

 Sprengeri, luxuriant drooping plants of which, in ten-inch 

 pots, are offered at $4.00. Spiraea compacta is evidently sup- 

 planting the old S. Japonica, the larger and denser flower- 

 trusses of the former proving much more durable. Genistas 

 are somewhat less generally grown than formerly, due to the 

 fact that the flowers fall so soon, a complaint also made against 

 the still less popular Hydrangeas, which are specially suscepti- 

 ble to injury from lack of water. In cut flowers carnations are 

 remarkably fine this season, and it is said by expert buyers 

 that ten good flowers are obtainable this year for one a season 

 ago. Helen Keller is just now the most expensive variety, 

 costing one-third more than William Scott and other standard 

 sorts. In roses, Meteor, Bridesmaid, Bride, American Beauty 

 and Mrs. Pierpont Morgan are the favorites in this order, 

 and Baroness Rothschild, Merveille de Lyon and extra-fancy 

 buds of American Beauty have a demand of their own at 

 prices as high as $18.00 a dozen. The greatest novelty is, per- 

 haps, Moss Roses, dainty plants appearing in one of the Broad- 

 way window displays, while small sprays, each carrying a 

 delicate bud, are more frequently seen. Sweet peas, lilacs, 

 Poet's narcissus, forget-me-nots, gardenia and Cape jessamine 

 appear in all the collections. 



Firm, well-grown and richly colored strawberries are now 

 quite plentiful, a well-packed quart box costing sixty-five to 

 seventy-five cents, while the more delicate berries from hot- 

 houses near Hackensack, New Jersey, cost $1.50 for the same 

 quantity. Grape-fruits from Jamaica, carefully carried over in 

 cold storage, bring fifty cents each, and selected Navel oranges 

 from California sell for $1.00 a dozen. New limes from 

 Jamaica, small and not fully colored, cost $2.50 for one hun- 

 dred, and (he first new-crop Jamaica oranges have already 

 followed upon the old crop. While not fully matured, these 

 are in demand at $4.50 to $8.00 a barrel in wholesale lots. A few 

 tangerines are still shown in collections of citrus fruits. Fresh- 

 looking Catawba grapes, covered with bloom, cost so late in 

 the season but thirty-five cents for a three-pound basket, and 

 heavily shouldered bunches of Almerias, with rich pink color- 

 ing, sell at fifty cents a pound. The first native-grown Black 

 Hamburg grapes, from Pennsylvania graperies, now com- 

 mand $5.00 a pound, and large bunches of immense berries 

 of Gros Colman, cut with a piece of the woody vine, are a 

 luxury at the same high price. These come from the Isle of 

 Wight. The staple apples seen in the wholesale markets are 

 Roxbury and Golden Russets, Bald win, Ben Davis and Greenings, 

 these ranging in cost from $2.50 to $4.25 a barrel to dealers. In 

 fruiterers' collections Ben Davis apples sell at sixty to seventy- 

 five cents a dozen, and Newtown pippins at seventy-five cents 

 to $1.00. A showy red apple, known as Willow Twig in the 

 trade, is of more delicate coloring than the Baldwin and resem- 

 bles Northern Spy in its crisp and juicy quality. A few bright- 

 cheeked Lady apples are carried over for use in making up 

 fancy baskets ot fruits. Winter Seckel, Winter Nelis, Forelle, 

 Easter Beurre, P. Barry and the large Acme pears are offered 

 at seventy-five cents to $3.00 a dozen. The best shops include, 

 besides fresh fruits, attractive and varied displays of nuts and 

 of preserved fruits. Among many sorts of nuts that may now 

 be had are large Pecans from Texas, American filberts, Eng- 

 lish cob nuts in their hulls. Paradise and Souari nuts from 

 South America, large Italian chestnuts and the so-called Lychee 

 nuts, besides the commoner domestic nuts, whole and skill- 

 fully shelled. The array of preserved fruits is almost endless, 

 and olives of many sorts and sizes, from tiny, bean-shaped 

 Crescents to large oval Queens ; maroons, crystallized ginger, 

 crystallized fruits from France, and crystallized semi-tropical 

 fruits from California; layer and pulled figs and the candied 

 product, the familiar Fard dates, besides a section of the stem 

 thickly set with this fruit, each in a fancy box, and dates stuffed 

 with Pecans ; German prunes, in pound boxes, costing sixty 

 cents, and large, meaty French prunes, in jars holding two 

 pounds, for $1.00 ; Guava and other domestic and imported 

 jellies, including Japanese and Indian preserves, are a mere 

 suggestion of the tempting and wholesome stock. 



