458 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 455. 



ns a dwarf decorative plant, and especially valuable as an 

 edging for groups ; the drooping habit of the under leaves 

 enabling it to entirely hide the pots in which the plants are 

 grown. Division is probably the easiest and best method of 

 propagation. The plants thrive well in light, moderately rich 

 soil and with ordinary greenhouse treatment. It is of a rapid 

 rooting nature and quickly becomes pot-bound, and should 

 be kept liberally supplied with water. 



Tarry town, N. Y. 



William Scott. 



Carinas. — As soon as the first frost disfigures the foliage of 

 Carinas we lift the roots and lay them to ripen in large clumps, 

 without covering, in pits secure from frost. When Chrysan- 

 themums are gone we divide and repot the Canna roots. In 

 a good, light greenhouse, with a minimum of fifty-eight de- 

 grees, they soon start and give from the end of January 

 onward a grand show of bloom. No plants are more effective 

 for winter decorations. The flowers are larger and not so 

 liable to blemish. Very little water is given until some growth 

 is made, but when well rooted the plants will take an abun- 

 dance of water, and also be benefited by liquid-manure at least 

 once a week. Our plants increase in size and make fine speci- 

 mens by the time they are required for the summer display. 

 If rested for a fortnight or so in May they soon start into 

 growth when planted out, and bloom with scarcely any inter- 

 mission the whole year. Madame Crozy, Florence Vaughan, 

 Charles Henderson, Paul Bruant, Helen Gould and J. D. Cabos 

 make a fine selection. 



Wintering Bananas.— We have specimens of Musa ensete 

 now ten years old. Every season they have been planted in a 

 conspicuous place near the mansion, and have grown into 

 bold plants from ten to fifteen feet high. If planted out it is 

 impossible to get any roots when they are taken up for the 

 winter. We store them as if they were bulbs. A friend had 

 a plant given him bundled up with moss in bagging, and it 

 remained in this condition in a warm loft all winter quite for- 

 gotten. The following May the plant was discovered growing 

 toward the light and was again planted out for the summer. It 

 made good growth and this treatment has been continued. 

 We place our plants in dry soil, and about the end of February 

 put them in half flour barrels and start them enough to make 

 a fair showing at planting time. 



Wellesley, Mass. ■«■ L>. rtlltjield. 



Correspondence. 



Notes from West Virginia. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In planting trees and shrubs for autumnal effects it is 

 well to pay some attention to the fact that all do not attain the 

 greatest beauty and brilliancy of foliage at the same time. The 

 landscape takes on a very different aspect in each of the three 

 fall months. The brilliant Sour Gums, for instance, change 

 from burnished green to rich deep red early in the fall, and 

 are usually denuded of foliage early in October. Walnuts drop 

 their leaves in September, hereabout, while Hickories retain 

 theirs a month later. In late October all the Ashes, Gums, 

 Walnuts and Sugar Maples in this vicinity are stripped bare of 

 foliage. Thus, if one were to plant no other trees than these 

 around his house, his grounds would take on their winter 

 aspect very early in the autumn after a few days of passing 

 splendor. On the contrary, home grounds in which Birches, 

 Beeches and Oaks abound, would be much later in succumb- 

 ing to the frosts of fall. 



A neighbor of mine, living in a well-watered hollow, has 

 many Willows of different varieties planted about his house. 

 Here summer abides long after it has fled from the surround- 

 ing hills. Often the grass is green until covered by the snow, 

 and the Willows, losing their foliage very late in the season, 

 seem to shorten winter by burgeoning into their fresh young 

 leafage long before the forest trees have awakened to a sense 

 of spring. 



There can be little doubt, however, that the most pleasing 

 landscape effects are attained by grouping together a large 

 variety of such trees and shrubs as naturally harmonize in 

 color. We cannot do better than to go to the woods and 

 copses to learn how Nature produces with her careless prodi- 

 gality a rich and satisfying beauty at this season of the year. 

 In many woods the most brilliant coloring is in the under- 

 growth, the Sumachs, Briers, Dogwood and Sassafras bushes 

 forming a low belt of bright reds and orange and yellow hues, 

 which, if carried higher, would dazzle, rather than charm, the 

 eye. The larger trees of our woods, for the most part, take on 

 soberer colors, which are accented here and there by the scar- 



let of a vigorous Virginia Creeper swinging high in air. Thus 

 the color-scheme tones with the lucid blue of the sunny Octo- 

 ber sky. 



Now that the month nearsitsend the Sassafras and Sumachs 

 are no longer brilliantly conspicuous, and the glowing red of 

 the Virginia Creeper has faded from the landscape. The 

 woods have lost much of their brightness, but the Dogwoods 

 still hold their colors. Striking is the contrast between two 

 large-flowering Dogwoods planted together at Rose Brake. 

 Of these the Red-flowering Dogwood is now a brilliant claret- 

 color, while the White-flowered form has assumed a much 

 duller tint. A fine young Double-flowered Almond of the 

 white variety now has foliage of a beautiful clear light salmon, 

 while its neighbor, the common pink variety of the same 

 plant, contrasts with it finely in a garb of green and lemon- 

 yellow. To-day the most brilliantly tinted shrub, or small 

 tree, in the home grounds is a Japanese Maple, which was 

 green all summer and is now an intense blood-red, making a 

 vivid spot of color on the grass. The red leaved Japanese 

 Maple, known to nurserymen as Sanguineum, on the contrary, 

 has lost the rich uniform red which makes it conspicuous in 

 June, and has assumed a harlequin costume of dull green, 

 mottled with orange, crimson and maroon. Acer Tartaricum, 

 var. Ginnala, conspicuous for its Joseph's coat of many colors 

 a week ago, has now lost all its finery and assumed its winter 

 aspect. 



A very handsome young Chinese Quince has rich red 

 leathery foliage, retained sometimes until the last of Novem- 

 ber, and is effective now, standingout against a background of 

 less brightly colored Peaches and Apricots. Much has been 

 said about the fall beauty of Spiraea prunifolia, but a large 

 bush of another Spiraea, sent to me under the name of S. cra- 

 teegifolia, is even more brilliant in autumn dress. This plant 

 is five feet in height and ten in circumference. Nothing can 

 be more ornamental than its spreading growth and handsome 

 foliage bright with harmonious blending of red and orange 

 hues. Almost as brilliant in effect is Thunberg's Barberry, 

 which will be a conspicuous ornament of the shrubberies all 

 winter, when the bright leaves have fallen and the still brighter 

 berries remain until flowering time comes round again. 



Rose Brake, vv. Va. Danske Dandridge. 



The Preservation of Fruits by Vapor of Alcohol. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — This subject was brought to prominent notice by the 

 experiments of Monsieur Petit, made at the National School 

 of Horticulture at Versailles, France, in the fall and winter of 



1894. A translation of Monsieur Petit's report was forwarded 

 to this country by Mr. Henry P. Du Belief, consul at Rheims, 

 and was published in the Consular Reports, XLIX., No. 180, 

 p. 24, September, 1895. An advance copy of this paper, ex- 

 tracted from the consular publications, was widely circulated 

 among horticulturists in the United States by the Division of 

 Pomology, United States Department of Agriculture. The 

 method tested and favorably reported consists simply in the 

 installation of the fruit in a moderately tight chamber or closet 

 in which a small quantity of alcohol is exposed for evapora- 

 tion. Monsieur Petit's successful experiments were upon 

 grapes. 



The report naturally aroused considerable interest in this 

 country at the time, though little seems to have been done in 

 actual demonstration. Professor Goff, of the Wisconsin Experi- 

 ment Station, was the first, and, so far as I know, has been 

 the only one to report any American experiments with this 

 interesting method ( Wisconsin Experiment Station Reports, 



1895, p. 304). After making tests with several varieties of plums, 

 Professor Goff concluded that "alcoholic vapor is an effec- 

 tual preservative against the common mold or molds in a damp 

 atmosphere ; but the vapor did not prevent, except fora limited 

 time, if at all, other changes within the fruits which destroyed 

 their value." 



During the summer and fall of 1896 we have made a large 

 number of experiments with this method at the Vermont Ex- 

 periment Station, in which we have used strawberries, rasp- 

 berries, currants, peaches, apricots, cherries, plums and 

 grapes. We have also used several forms of apparatus, so 

 that we have been able to sound pretty thoroughly the practi- 

 cabilities of fruit preservation by alcohol vapor. The details 

 of these experiments or descriptions of apparatus would be 

 wearisome, but a brief statement of our conclusions may be 

 of value. 



Thus, according to our experience, vapor of alcohol in a 

 closed space will prevent more or less the growth of the fungi 

 and bacteria which usually hasten decay. To be effective it 



