290 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 438. 



region. The only trees of western origin are Pinus pon- 

 derosa scopulorum and Betula occidentalis ; the others are 

 eastern or transcontinental. The flora resembles, there- 

 fore, more the region around the Great Lakes than that of 

 the Rockies." Mr. Rydberg's report is based on his own 

 botanical exploration made in 1S92 as a field agent of the 

 Department of Agriculture, and covering three months 

 from about June 1st. His collection contained a little over 

 seven hundred Phanerogams and vascular Cryptogams. 



Notes. 



Yucca angustifolia is not as robust nor stately a plant as Y. 

 filamentosa, which is more generally known in cultivation. It 

 has the advantage of flowering two weeks earlier, however, 

 than the other species, and for this reason alone it is desirable 

 in a collection of hardy perennial plants. 



The health officer of San Francisco recently examined eight 

 samples of fruit jellies bought in the open market, and not one 

 of them proved to be made of sound ripe fruit. Several apple 

 jellies were colored, while one in tin contained turnip pulp, 

 colored with analine dye to represent strawberry jelly. 



Eggplants from New Jersey are among the later offerings 

 in vegetables, and cucumbers from the same state and from 

 Maryland. Tomatoes from New Jersey are plentiful and of 

 good quality and are crowding southern-grown stock out of 

 market. Peas, beans, sugar corn, peppers, cabbage and 

 squashes are all coming from near-by points. Asparagus is still 

 in fair supply and of good quality, and costs twenty-five cents a 

 bunch. 



Professor Halsted writes that complaints have come to him 

 from several directions of the blight which attacks the leaves 

 of Nasturtiums before they are fully grown, showing colored 

 spots which are watery at first, but soon become blotched with 

 brown. The disease seems similar to the bacterial blight of 

 the Bean, and a microscopic examination of the germs suggests 

 that the organisms may be the same. This theory is still fur- 

 ther corroborated by the fact that one of the worst cases of this 

 blight which has been brought to Professor Halsted's atten- 

 tion was on plants growing within a few feet of a field of 

 Beans badly affected with the bacterial disease. 



There are few trees in flower during the first weeks of July, 

 and for this reason the large branching panicles of small but 

 bright yellow flowers on the ends of the branches of the 

 Kcelreuteria always make this tree a conspicuous object at 

 this season. Owing to abundant rains for a month past its 

 foliage is thick and abundant, and it always is of the deepest 

 and darkest green, which strongly brings out the pure color 

 of the flowers. The Kcelreuteria is a comparatively small 

 round-headed tree, useful not only as a single specimen on 

 the lawn, but interesting also when planted on a wood border, 

 which the flowers light up at this season in an attractive way. 



A writer in The Garden speaks in praise of the annual spe- 

 cies of Gypsophila, like G. elegans, a plant which grows to a 

 height of one or two feet, with a loosely spreading panicle of 

 small white or rosy flowers. G. murahs, a lower plant, with 

 pink or purple flowers on very slender pedicels and with very 

 narrow linear leaves, is also an admirable plant for cutting, 

 and can be used like the well-known perennial G. paniculata 

 to give a misty surrounding for brighter flowers. Both of 

 these annuals will come up from the seed every year, and, 

 although they start rather late, they mature rapidly and will 

 flower in early July. Seed started in a cold frame will produce 

 flowers much earlier, of course. G. muralis has already 

 become naturalized in a few places in this country. 



Mr. Elijah A. Wood, writing to the American Florist, says 

 that when Chrysanthemums have been overfed, as they some- 

 times are at this season, the trouble can be detected by the 

 light and sickly color of the foliage. Of course, the liquid- 

 manure must be stopped at once, a little charcoal and lime 

 should be sprinkled on the soil, and until the plants have 

 regained their color they should have no liquid fertilizer, when 

 a very weak solution can be used to begin with. Soot from 

 soft coal is very useful for Chrysanthemums which are sick 

 from overfeeding. It can be sifted upon the soil and washed 

 down gradually to the roots of the plants, or a bag of it can be 

 hung in a barrel of the water which is used for watering the 

 plants. Of course, it should be used in a very diluted state. 



Frequent rains during the past month have made small 

 fruits unusually plentiful, and prices of blackberries, raspber- 



ries, huckleberries and gooseberries have been lower than for 

 some years. Beach plums, from Delaware and Maryland, 

 have found but few buyers, Wild-goose plums, from the same 

 state, selling for nearly twice as much. The best grapes now 

 in market in this city are Niagaras from Florida, and Moore's 

 Early from South Carolina. Muskmelons are coming in con- 

 siderable quantity from North and South Carolina, the best 

 Jenny Linds and Christinas being from the neighborhood of 

 Norfolk, Virginia. The supply of watermelons is not so great 

 as during the past month, and prices are higher than they have 

 been, the best realizing $25.00 in lots of 100. Sweet Bough, 

 Astrachan and Harvest apples, from Delaware, Maryland and 

 near-by points, bring fair prices for good fruit, hand-picked 

 and well packed. All the standard varieties of peaches are 

 now arriving from South Carolina and Georgia, but most of 

 the fruit is lacking in color or size or soundness, and this is 

 true also of the moderate shipments from Delaware and Mary- 

 land. The thirty-tour car-loads of California fruit sold here 

 during last week included one car of cherries, probably the 

 last for this year, of the large showy Royal Ann variety. 

 Plums, peaches, apricots and Bartlett pears made up the prin- 

 cipal offerings from the western coast. 



Eighteen insects are known to infest the seed of Indian Corn, 

 twenty-seven attack the roots and the subterranean part of the 

 stock, seventy-six feed upon the stalk above the ground, a 

 hundred and eighteen upon the leaves, nineteen upon the 

 tassel and silk, forty-two upon the ear in the field, two on the 

 stack fodder and twenty-four on the corn when stored, either 

 whole or ground. No doubt there are many other insects 

 than these which injure the corn to a limited extent, but that 

 is no assurance that they will not prove formidable in the 

 future, since the two insects most destructive at the present 

 time, namely, the corn-root worm and the corn-root aphis, 

 were almost unknown a few years ago, even to entomologists. 

 A rather complete treatise on the insects which injure the 

 seed and root of Indian Corn has just been issued by Dr. S. A. 

 Forbes as a bulletin of the Illinois Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, although it is, with some alterations, an abstract from 

 the author's report as Stale Entomologist of Illinois, first 

 published rather more than a year ago. Before a detailed 

 discussion of the injuries to seed and root which covers 

 rather more than eighty pages, there is a valuable collection of 

 practical hints which aid the cultivator to determine where and 

 what kind of insects are at work upon the crop, and how they 

 are to be routed. Altogether, it is a most instructive and use- 

 ful little monograph for popular use, and it is to be commended 

 for the perfect system with which the subject is treated, since 

 the orderly mode of discussion and procedure enables any 

 layman immediately to get at what he wants. 



In a late issue of The Florida Agriculturist the Messrs. 

 Neylans, of Tampa, Florida, give an interesting account of 

 their experience in cultivating Celery in that state. Seed-sow- 

 ing is begun in August and continued until November, the 

 later sowings insuring the largest number of plants. When 

 the plants are about six inches high they are transplanted on 

 ridges four feet wide, two rows on each ridge, the plants being 

 set from five to six inches apart in the rows. The celery is 

 blanched when it is mature, which is told by the color of the 

 tops. Boards one by twelve, sixteen feet long, are used, stood 

 up on each side of the rows. The blanching is said to be the 

 most important cultural detail, and must be learned by expe- 

 rience ; if continued too long the celery will not keep, and if 

 not long enough it will not be in good marketable condition. 

 The time required for blanching is influenced by the weather. 

 It takes about six months to raise and blanch a crop from the 

 sowing of the seed. There is a thorough system of irrigation 

 from artesian wells, and the water is run between the rows in 

 dry weather. Irrigation is considered a necessity for this crop 

 in Florida. Commercial fertilizers have been used exclusively 

 for the past eight years, about three tons to the acre, at a cost 

 of $75.00 an acre each year, and the ground is very fertile. 

 The sales on the farm for the last five years have averaged 

 $1,000 to the acre, the crops, besides Celery, being Potatoes, 

 Cabbage, Lettuce, Spinach, Beets, Carrots, Radishes, and some 

 Squashes, Cucumbers and Tomatoes, but the soil is too rich 

 for the latter crop. On eight acres of Celery, comprising last 

 year's sowing, $1,500 was netted ; the expenses were about 

 $500 an acre. This success has only been achieved after ex- 

 periments and losses, and six acres of the variety Giant Pascal 

 planted three years ago proved an entire failure. The 

 Golden Self-Blanching variety is the only kind now grown. It 

 is intended, however, to try several other varieties this year, 

 as it is difficult to grow plants of Golden Self-Blanching in the 

 hot weather of summer and autumn. 



