194 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 429. 



resent the Amaryllids. A Dasylirion, several Yuccas and 

 a few smaller species of other genera stand for the Lily 

 family. Amaranths and Chenopods give character to the 

 vegetation of the alkaline flats, while species of Prosopis, 

 aBaccharis and "Cachamilla" Arrow-wood, Pluchea bore- 

 alis, not a very good Pluchea, though as well in that genus 

 as anywhere, attend them. 



VVislizenia refracta, of the Caper family, was met here 

 for the first time, and in the prime of its flowering. It is a 

 plant of queer habit and of queer ways ; sometimes spread- 

 ing, it is usually erect and two to four feet tall. It bears 

 its flowers in long terminal racemes. In fruiting the pe- 

 duncles bend backward ; hence the significance of the 

 specific name of our plant. 



Biscutella Wislizeni, a rather handsome Crucifer, grows 

 in the damp sands of the "draws" of the mesas and in the 

 mountain dells. This species, too, wears a peculiar habit 

 which makes its recognition easy. It bears its rather large 

 white flowers in pairs. They are succeeded by rounded 

 pods, so as to appear, as its generic name signifies, like two 

 little shields. It "is the "Spectacled Plant" of Dr. Havard's 

 catalogue of the plants of southern and western Texas. 



Martynia althaTolia is common in fertile places. This 

 species produces rather large flowers, which are purplish 

 on the outer and yellow-spotted on the inner side. The 

 plant sometimes spreads over a square yard of ground. 

 Atriplex canescens, which is common from the lower Rio 

 Grande far northward, has not missed this locality. Several 

 other species of that genus have settled here. A. elegans 

 appears to be the beauty and the pet of the genus as seen 

 around El Paso. 



Helianthus ciliaris, the odd one of our species of that 

 genus, is one of the chief groups of plant-workers that 

 Nature is employing to remove alkali from the low bottoms 

 of the river. It is a low-growing species, and it is kept too 

 busily at work to enable it to take the time to make its 

 flowers large and gaudy, nor is it able to hold its head as 

 high or to dress in the style of its taller and more aristo- 

 cratic relatives of the species of Helianthus. 



This entire region abounds in rare and peculiar forms of 

 plant-life. A botanist could well employ a year's time in 

 the county of El Paso. I know of no other short ramble 

 that a botanist or a tourist could take and see so much of 

 living nature that should interest and instruct him as a half- 

 day's walk from El Paso up the Santa Fe Railway by old 

 Fort Bliss to the smelter and back along the other railway 

 to the city, especially if the walker on his return leave the 

 railway when about a half-mile from the city, taking the 

 wagon-road over the hills. He could see Acacias, the curious 

 Screw-bean, Arrow-wood, Cassias, Willow Catalpa, Hyme- 

 noclea, Wislizenia, Biscutella, Daleas, Lepidium, Tribulus 

 grandiflora, Martynia, Riddellia, Baileya, Janusia, many 

 handsome and strange Grasses, and many more extreme 

 western Texas and Mexican species. „ „. „, , 



La Junta, Colo. ______ E.N. Plank. 



Plant Notes. 

 Magnolia stellata. 



THE flowers of all our native Magnolias open after the 

 leaves expand, and some of the Asiatic Magnolias, 

 like the beautiful M. hypoleuca, belong to the same class. 

 But there is another well-known group of species and 

 hybrids which form their flower-buds completely during 

 the summer, and these open early in the spring before the 

 leaves appear, when their abundant large flowers always 

 make them objects of popular interest. The best known 

 of these is the Yulan Magnolia, M. conspicua, a large 

 shrub, or often a symmetrical tree, twenty-five or thirty 

 feet high, which bears large lily-like, pure white flowers. 

 M. Soulangeana has the same habit as M. conspicua, but 

 smaller white flowers, streaked with purple at the base, 

 which open a few days later. This is a hybrid between 

 M. conspicua and M. obovata, a large shrub, with flowers 

 cream-white within and deep purple on the outside. In 



its original form the latter plant is comparatively rare. M 

 Lenne, a widely spreading bush, somewhat resembles it. 

 and it may be a hybrid between M. obovata and M. con- 

 spicua. 



Magnolia stellata, which was introduced from Japan 

 nearly thirty years ago by Dr. Hali, after whom it is 

 often called M. Halliana, is now becoming quite com- 

 mon, and its general form is well shown in the illustra- 

 tion on page 195, although, for some reason, the flowers 

 were not as abundant this year as usual. This speci- 

 men stands on the grounds of the late Mr. Francis 

 Jenkins, of Jersey City Heights, and was planted some 

 twenty-five years ago. It is twelve feet high and has a 

 diameter equal to its height. The flowers usually appear 

 a week before those of the Yulan Magnolia, although at the 

 right of the illustration there can be seen a portion of a 

 plant of M. conspicua, which the warm weather this year 

 hurried into bloom with M. stellata. The flowers of 

 this species are pure white, three or four inches in diame- 

 ter, and they have not the somewhat disagreeable odor of ! 

 the other early-flowering species, but are delicately fragrant. 

 The petals are narrow, and they spread out into a star 

 shape, which justifies the specific name. The plant has 

 good foliage and is interesting at all seasons. Besides its 

 other good qualities it is perfectly hardy ; it begins to flower 

 when it is hardly two feet high, and it will flourish in any 

 ordinary garden soil. Like all other Magnolias, M. stellata 

 should be transplanted in spring after the growth has started. 

 If the fresh roots are bruised earlier than this they are liable 

 to decay, but the wounds will heal over readily when the 

 vital forces of the tree are active. 



Cultural Department. 



Culture of the Garden Bean. 



T F we study the characteristics and growing habits of both 

 ■*• the dwarf and tall growing or pole garden Beans, we shall 

 find that while they are rapid growers and good feeders, with 

 a root-system which can collect food from a drier and coarser 

 soil than most garden plants will thrive in, they are not able to 

 profit much from fresh and " unmatured " fertilizers, and will 

 do best on soils which have been made rich by dressings 

 applied during preceding years rather than the current one; 

 also, that of the three elements ot plant-food, nitrogen, phos- 

 phoric acid and potash, it is the last two which the Bean plant 

 seems to find it most difficult to collect in sufficient quantities, 

 so that application of these two elements, in such form and so 

 mixed with the soil that the roots can readily take them in, is 

 most likely to increase the yield and improve the quality of 

 this crop. We shall also find that the plants are very suscep- 

 tible to injury from an oversupply of water, particularly at the 

 root, and a well-drained soil is essential to even a fair growth. 

 Lastly, while the plants seem vigorous and are rapid growers 

 under favorable conditions, there are few of our garden plants 

 which are so easily discouraged and succumb so quickly to 

 unfavorable conditions, or to any injury, particularly if it be to 

 the root. The plant seems to lack recuperative power, and a 

 mutilation of the root, which would be little more than a stimu- 

 lant to Corn, Cabbage or Lettuce, will stunt or even kill a 

 Bean plant. 



If we keep in mind these characteristics of the plant we will 

 be able to cultivate it more intelligently and with greater suc- 

 cess. We should plant our Beans in the driest and warmest 

 part of our garden. As early as possible in the spring the 

 Bean plat should be thoroughly spaded and fined to the full 

 depth of fertile soil ; and unless it is already very rich, we 

 should apply (after the spading) a liberal dressing of well- 

 rotted manure, or a dressing ot from four to twelve pounds 

 of fine ground bone, and one peck to one bushel of wood 

 ashes to the square rod. Care should be taken to spread 

 the fertilizer evenly, and to work it well into the surface 

 soil. A week or ten days later work the ground over 

 again and repeat this deep and thorough cultivation every 

 week or ten days until after the seed is planted and the 

 first true leaves have appeared. After this the soil should be 

 stirred or tramped on as little as possible, though any starting 

 weeds should be destroyed by raking or shallow hoeing which 

 merely cuts the surface. The secret of a good bean crop, 

 either in the garden or field, as far as cultivation is concerned, 



