35o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 444. 



difficulty I had foreseen, and had associated with them a band 

 of Red Karens, hardy, but most unruly, mountaineers, whom 

 I had attached to me personally, who had been my most faith- 

 ful followers and had enabled me to explore the forests rap- 

 idly and thoroughly. The Coringa blasters were Hindus, very 

 skillful, intelligent and exceedingly cautious. With them no 

 accident had ever occurred. The Red Karens, on the other 

 hand, were impulsive, bold, but exceedingly careless, and 

 severe accidents became numerous. However, the work went 

 on, and is being continued year by year to this day, gunpow- 

 der having been replaced by dynamite. The number of these 

 rocky obstructions was very large, but gradually they are all 

 disappearing. 



Bonn, Geiinany. 



Dietrich Brandt's. 



Notes. 



The Royal Gardens of Kew were visited by seventy-three 

 thousand persons on the August bank holiday this year. 



A plant of the Mammee Apple is now flowering for the first 

 time in the economic house at Kew. The plant is ten feet 

 high and in a large pot, and some of the flowers have set for 

 fruits. Some of these immense fruits, which come from the 

 West Indies, are now to be seen in our fancy-fruit stores. 



According to The Orchid Review, Mr. H. T. Clinkaberry, 

 gardener of C. G. Roebling, Esq., of Trenton, New Jersey, has 

 succeeded in raising some hybrid Vandas from seed. V. tri- 

 color was taken as the seed parent and it was fertilized with 

 pollen of V. Sanderiana. It is to be hoped that the plants will 

 live to produce flowers. 



The Gardeners' Chronicle speaks in high terms of the new 

 hybrid Tea Rose, Marjorie, which strikingly resembles in color 

 Margaret Dickson. The flower, however, is not so large, but 

 has the advantage of being fuller in the centre and more com- 

 pact, while the plant is of dwarfer habit and produces flowers at 

 the end of every shoot. It was raised by Mr. Alexander Dick- 

 son, Newtownards. 



At the recent Florists' Convention Mr. James Dean said that 

 the new type of Canna, popularly called the Orchid Canna, of 

 which Austria, Italia and Burbank were examples, had grown 

 well with him when planted out, and, although they had 

 burned some in the sun, he thought that under certain condi- 

 tions they might succeed. As greenhouse plants, of course, 

 they are magnificent. 



Meehans' Monthly states that if Radish seed is sown in late 

 September in a frame where the temperature is kept as much 

 as ten or twelve degrees above the freezing point the roots 

 will be large enough for use soon after Christmas. Of course, 

 frost will not hurt them, but they will not grow unless the tem- 

 perature is above the freezing point, and with care good, 

 fresh radishes can be had in this way until spring. 



Mr. Joseph Meehan calls attention to the fact that our native 

 Asters, many of which are admirable plants for the autumn 

 garden, will grow readHy from seed. Gather the seeds from 

 the plants of good species and varieties when they are ripe in 

 the autumn and sow them at once, covering the bed with a 

 light layer of forest leaves. Transplant the young seedlings 

 next spring when they are large enough, and they will blossom 

 the same year. 



The ripened fruits of the Sassafras are not often seen upon 

 the tree, for they are borne very sparingly as a rule, and eaten 

 off by the birds. In particular years and places this fruit is 

 very abundant, and when ripe at this season they are highly 

 ornamental. In one of the parks above the Harlem in this 

 city there is a fine tree, and the blue fruits, borne on fleshy pedi- 

 cels, and thick calyx lobes of a deep rose color in abundant 

 clusters are strikingly handsome as they appear among the 

 rich green leaves. 



Last week the receipts of California fruit were larger than 

 they have ever been in this market for the same length of 

 time, ninety-seven car-loads having been sold at auction. The 

 weather has been favorable so that the fruit has not been hur- 

 ried to its ripening, and the desirable varieties of prunes, 

 plums, peaches and pears have brought fair prices. Wor- 

 den and Niagara grapes of fair quality are now coming 

 from the Hudson River Valley district, and among the apples 

 from near-by points Alexander and Gravenstein are bringing 

 the highest prices. Nectarines in the fancy-fruit stores are 

 handsomer than usual and readily command $1.00 a dozen. 



A. L. Goldsborough, in The Strawberry Culturist, contends 

 that the best time for transplanting Strawberries in his latitude 

 is between August 15th and October 15th. The main expense 



in Strawberry-culture is in weeding, and when planted in late 

 summer or early autumn the ground can be entirely rid of 

 these pests before the plants are set, whereas when they are 

 set in spring it would be almost impossible to keep the weeds 

 down. In a small garden two feet apart is wide enough for 

 the rows. Any time after a rain young plants can be taken up 

 and every portion of soil should be shaken from the roots to 

 get rid of weed seeds and the eggs of insects. The ball of 

 earth is a delusion. In straight rows, where plants have light and 

 root-space without limit on two sides, four inches apart is ample. 



Sometimes when the grade of streets or grounds is to be 

 raised it is desirable to elevate the trees at the same time. 

 Near Philadelphia, according to Meehans' A/onth/y, trees fifty 

 feet high and with trunks eighteen inches in diameter are lifted 

 with very little check to their growth in the following way : 

 A trench is dug around a tree so as to leave a ball of earth, 

 and when it is dug to the proper depth the earth is spaded 

 from under the ball on one side and a block set under the 

 roots as a fulcrum. Two guy ropes are then attached to the 

 tree, one on the side where the block is set and the other 

 opposite it. When the rope toward the block is drawn the 

 tree is tilted and the mass of roots is lifted up on the opposite 

 side. Earth is then packed under the elevated roots and then 

 the rope on the side is drawn. This lifts the roots on the block 

 side and more earth is placed there. In this way the tree by 

 being swayed backward and forward, having earth thrust 

 under it at each tilt, is soon elevated as many feet as is needed 

 and stands on the summit of a firm mound of earth. 



The forests of Russia, exclusive of those of central Asia, 

 Caucasia and Finland, extend over a space of 478,000,000 

 acres, or about forty per cent, of the total area of the empire 

 in Europe. This amounts to about five acres to each inhab- 

 itant, which might suffice to meet the requirements of the 

 country in this respect if the ratio of the forest to the popula- 

 tion were uniform. But in reality in the densely populated 

 regions of southern Russia woodlands are scarce, while in the 

 four most northern provinces there are nearly seventy acres of 

 forest to each inhabitant. The disadvantages of this unequal 

 disposition of the forest are aggravated by the immense dis- 

 tances which separate the thinly wooded districts of the south 

 from the rich forests of the north, by the lack of water com- 

 munication and the cost of carriage by rail. Plans for refor- 

 esting parts of the denuded area are therefore under consid- 

 eration by the Government, and since private owners cannot 

 be trusted to look forward to future supplies there is no doubt 

 that the empire will assume the guardianship and administra- 

 tion of these forests. 



In 18S3 a disastrous eruption desolated the island of Krakatoa 

 and left it covered with a layer of cinder and pumice-stone to 

 a depth of three to one hundred and fifty feet, and this was so 

 intensely hot that it destroyed all animal and vegetable life. 

 Three years after the eruption the place was visited by Dr. 

 Treub, whose observations are interesting, since they show 

 how absolutely a barren island may become covered with 

 vegetation. In writing of this incident, Mr. W. Botting Hems- 

 ley says in Knowledge that the island is about three miles 

 across, with an altitude of 2,500 feet, one side presenting an 

 almost perpendicular wall to the sea and the other sloping 

 steeply. It is twenty miles from Sumatra, twenty-one from 

 Java, and the nearest point where there is any vegetation is an 

 island ten miles away. Cinders and pumice-stone are not fer- 

 tile, but moisture and chemical action are helpful, and one 

 class of plants prepared the way for higher ones. The first 

 spores to germinate were those of filamentous algae carried bv 

 the wind and sea, and caused a certain amount of disintegra- 

 tion. Individually the plants are microscopic, but they multi- 

 ply enormously and form a green film-like tissue over the 

 surfaces where they grow. The action of these organisms and 

 their own decay form the medium in which the spores of 

 Ferns brought by the wind germinated and developed, and 

 Dr. Treub found eleven species of Fern, some of them 

 already common. These prepared the soil for plants of a still 

 more complex organization, and, although they were as yet 

 rare, Dr. Treub found that fifteen species of flowering plants 

 had already established themselves. These were partly sea- 

 side plants whose seed had floated to the island, partly plants 

 whose seed were dropped by birds or carried by the wind, 

 since eight species were found on the mountainous interior of 

 the island. Last year Dr. Treub visited Europe, and on his 

 homeward voyage he passed within view of the island, which 

 was then covered with vegetation. This is a most instructive 

 lesson in the natural distribution of plants on account of its 

 being the result of actual observation. 



