33Q 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 442. 



the forests the growth is much less rapid than what was as- 

 sumed in 1856. . . 

 Bonn, Germany. Dietrich Brandts. 



Notes. 



According to the Pacific Rural Press, another car-load of 

 redwood has just been shipped from California to Nuremburg, 

 Germany, for making lead-pencils, which is another indication 

 that the Cedar forests of Europe, which formerly supplied 

 wood for this purpose, are nearly exhausted. 



The beauty and fragrance of the Sweet Peas make them 

 such general favorites that the Everlasting or Perennial spe- 

 cies, Lathyrus latifolius, is too often overlooked. The white 

 variety is especially desirable at this season. The flowers are 

 borne on long-stemmed racemes, and, although they have no 

 odor, they are unsurpassed in the purity of their color. 



Evaporated apples of the crop of 1896 are already in market, 

 and stock left over from last year is less in demand as the sea- 

 son advances. Dried huckleberries of this season are offered 

 at eight cents a pound by the wholesale dealers, raspberries 

 at fifteen cents, and new southern dried cherries at ten cents a 

 pound in large quantities. Royal apricots, from California, 

 are also here, and cost nine cents a pound. 



Potatoes have been coming into the wholesale markets of 

 this city in more than adequate supply and prices have suf- 

 fered correspondingly, so that seventy-five cents a barrel was 

 an average price last week. Sweet potatoes also are being 

 handled without profit to the grower. Prices declined steadily 

 last week from $1.75 and $2.00 a barrel on Monday until on 

 Friday, when the highest-grade yellow sweet potatoes, from 

 New Jersey, in large barrels, brought as little as $1.00, and red 

 sweet potatoes, from North Carolina, commanded but fifty to 

 sixty-five cents a barrel. 



Plants which have spines and other contrivances for pro- 

 tecting themselves are often used by defenceless plants as 

 shelters. Professor Kerner notes that certain wild Vetches 

 and umbelliferous plants, which would furnish good fodder 

 for grazing animals, are regularly found in the prickly hedges 

 along the roads and under spiny bushes, which form a belt 

 around forests. These bushes not only defend their own 

 foliage, but also the delicate plants which have been estab- 

 lished under their protection. This is no partnership or 

 symbiosis, however, for the advantage is all on the side of the 

 plants protected. The armed bushes receive no profit or re- 

 turn from the plants they defend, and they do not protect them 

 intentionally. 



A correspondent writing of Mrs. Shepherd's garden at Bue- 

 naventura, California, says that she grows two crops of seed 

 from Cosmos every year on the same ground. Seeds of the 

 new strain when sown early follow the customs of California 

 annuals and become more dwarf, while they seem to hurry 

 into bloom earlier every year. New shades of color are said 

 to be coming into the flowers and modifications of habit in 

 various ways, so that a field of the new early Cosmos in full 

 bloom is a beautiful sight. No doubt, this is all true, but so 

 far the new strains as grown here cannot compare with the 

 older kinds in grace of form, although they may equal them 

 in richness of color. A first-rate strain of early-tlowering Cos- 

 mos would be a boon to eastern gardens, for the plants here 

 are always cut down by frost while at the height of their 

 bloom. 



Mr. Joseph Meehan, in a late number of The Country Gen- 

 tleman, gives an account of his way of planting conifers in 

 August. The hole to receive the tree having been dug before- 

 hand, the tree is lifted and placed in its new position and soil 

 is filled in until the ball is about covered. Water is then given 

 in abundance, and it may be stirred about with a stick until it 

 is of the consistency of mush and will settle closely about the 

 roots. No tramping is required, but after soil and water have 

 settled, say in four or five hours, the remaining soil needed is 

 filled in and a mulch is put about the roots. Of course, all 

 conifers do not transplant well at this season, most of the 

 Pines which have not many fibrous roots being exceptions. 

 The reason why this is a safe season for planting is that the 

 soil is warm like that in a propagating-bench, and when the 

 roots are kept moist the tree will throw out new roots like a 

 cutting. If the trees are more than six feet high the tops 

 should be sprinkled with water for a few nights to check too 

 rapid transpiration, until they have become thoroughly estab- 

 lished. 



Professor F. A. Waugh has lately prepared for the Vermont 

 Experiment Station a bulletin on the pollination of Plums, a 

 matter which has been the subject of much investigation dur- 

 ing recent years. It is well known that Plums are uncertain 

 about setting fruit, and a part of this uncertainty seems due to 

 the fact that the blossoms do not fertilize themselves. Pro- 

 fessor Waugh explains how cross-pollination is provided for 

 by the defectiveness of the flower parts and by other natural 

 adaptations. There is a general agreement among horticul- 

 turists and botanists that cross-fertilization is desirable, and it 

 seems that since the American varieties of cultivated Plums 

 have been derived from several distinct species they can 

 best be made fruitful by crossing with varieties that are closely 

 related to each other botanically. The bulletin is instructively 

 illustrated, and in addition to Professor Waugh's own obser- 

 vations it contains the quoted opinions of many eminent horti- 

 culturists. We have acquired considerable knowledge as to 

 the pollination of Plums, but there are many questions of 

 practical bearing and theoretical interest that invite investiga- 

 tion. The hope is expressed that this bulletin will direct 

 attention to some of these unanswered questions and encour- 

 age others to make observations in this line. The bulletin 

 closes by suggesting several subjects for inquiry, and many 

 more will occur to the investigator who takes hold of the sub- 

 ject in earnest. 



The importationsof lemons during July in this city amounted 

 to 222,975 boxes, 235,600 boxes having been received lastyearin 

 the same month, and 358,350 during the same term in 1894. 

 Prices have advanced rapidly with the hot weather. Last Fri- 

 day the cargo of the steamship Karamania realized $1.12*4 to 

 $4.75 a box for Palermo lemons, while the Sorrento fruit 

 brought $3.25 to $5.62^, and Majori lemons commanded 

 $3.50 to $6.12^. At the same sale Rodi and Sorrento oranges 

 brought $2.62^ to $5.i2j< a box. During July 387,680 bunches 

 of bananas came into this port, against 535,475 bunches received 

 in the same month in 1895. The supply of cocoanuts has been 

 very large, 827,800 bags having been received here last month, 

 while but 194,000 bags constituted the supply in July, 1895. 

 Seventy-five car-loads of California fruits were sold here 

 during last week. Owing to the large quantity received and 

 the intensely hot weather prices declined steadily, and 

 Bartlett pears sold for $1.10 to $1.50 a box. At these prices 

 nothing whatever is returned to the grower, since the cost for 

 freight alone is something more than $1.00 a box, besides 

 expenses for commissions, boxes, paper, nails, packing, etc. 

 California peaches are of good size and color, and some of the 

 best ever seen in eastern markets, as the Decker, are now 

 coming from that state. Owing to the heavy receipts of this 

 fruit from Delaware and other near-by states, prices have been 

 low, and Crawfords from the Pacific coast sold last week for 

 fifty-five to eighty cents, exceptionally fine lots bringing Si. 00 

 a box. Plums and prunes are offered in large variety and 

 moderate quantity, prices ranging from Si. 10 to Si. 50 a box at 

 wholesale. 



Last year the English papers made protest against the rob- 

 bing of country lanes and woods of Ferns, to be sold in the 

 cities, and just now they are raising what seems to be a justi- 

 fiable cry of alarm against the spoliation of all kinds of green- 

 ery which beautify the country landscape. The Gardeners' 

 Magazine, for instance, declares that the heaths and open 

 places about London are rapidly being stripped of everything 

 green except grass and such well-armed plants as Brambles 

 which can protect themselves against the dwellers of the town, 

 who, on their incursions into the country, tear to pieces and 

 carry away everything green unless it is defended by thorns. 

 Of course, it is natural that the residents of towns should 

 admire things green, and the desire may be natural to deck 

 their homes with souvenirs of their rural outings. But as the 

 excursionists increase in number with improved facilities for 

 travel, the indulgence of this desire means the annihilation of 

 the vegetation concerned. These people should be taught to 

 confine their admiration to the plants and flowers when grow- 

 ing in beauty in their native habitats, instead of carrying their 

 draggled fragments home until they are quite exterminated. 

 Any one who has noticed the trolley cars and excursion trains 

 on their return to this city must have observed how large a 

 proportion of these excursionists carry armfuls of wilted Ferns, 

 laranches of shrubs and herbaceous plants. Of course, these 

 fragments of vegetation will have no beauty by the time they 

 reach their destination. Their native haunts are left desolate 

 for the time, and since no vegetation can endure such pluck- 

 ing year after year many of the beautiful plants within picnic 

 distance of the city will be practically exterminated, unless 

 some measures are taken to protect them. 



