12 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 254. 



out on all sides and sometimes pendulous. The effect on the 

 landsca])e of the bright pink flowers against the huge, succu- 

 lent gray l)ranches is wonderfully striking. 



A California dispatch to the Tribune of this city says that 

 the pickled olives of Pomona, in that state, have proved so 

 acceptable that a grocer in this city, last week, sent out an order 

 for 20,000 gallons of them. This order has given a stimulus to 

 the olive industry in that neighborhood, and several thousand 

 acres will be planted with the tree. 



On the last day of the year Mr. Gerard sent to this office 

 a perfect (lower of the beautiful and fragrant Iris stylosa 

 speciosa. This is the natural season for the blooming of this 

 species, and as the weather is inclement in this latitude the 

 protection of a cool house or frame is necessary to secure 

 tiowers. It is an excellent subject for pot-culture. 



A California paper, in speaking of the richness of the color 

 of the Japanese Persimmons, states that after the leaves of the 

 tree fall the branches seem to fairly blaze with the ripening 

 fruits. This Persimmon is too tender to bear transportation, 

 and it is only had in perfection where it matures. When dead 

 ripe it is of the consistency of custard, and when "placed in a 

 silver cup stem down, the blossom end cut off with a sharp, 

 thin knife and served with a dainty spoon to match the cup, it 

 is an offering fit for the queen of the fairies." 



Mr. George F. Wilson writes to the Gardeners' Chronicle of 

 his famous Lilies, that his mode of cultivating them in the 

 open groimd in sunken casks, from which the bottoms have 

 been taken away, has proved more advantageous than ever 

 this year. In one cask there were twenty-one stems of For- 

 tune's Tiger Lily, the tallest of which was eight feet six inches 

 high. When grown as close as these, the top soil needs re- 

 newing every year. The tops of the cask should not be 

 sunken much below the surface of the surrounding soil, for 

 if they are, the roots of shrubs will come in over the top of the 

 cask and rob the Lilies of their share of the food. 



The gardeners of Kew, past and present, are desirous of 

 forming themselves into a guild, and propose to publish 

 annually a journal in which will be recorded the present Kew 

 staff, from the director to the gardeners, a list of all old 

 attaches, with the date of their leaving Kew and their present 

 positions and addresses, together with notes of interest from 

 the gardens and correspondence from various members of 

 the guild. The journal will consist of about fifty pages, to 

 cover the expense of which, with postage, an annual sub- 

 scription of one shilling will be necessary. It will be pub- 

 lished on May ist. All persons who have at any time worked 

 as gardeners at Kew are requested to send their names, with 

 date of leaving Kew, present position and address, to the 

 Secretary, J. Aikman, Whitestile Road, Brentford. There are 

 probably 500 Kew men distributed all over the world, but o,f 

 the whereabouts of all except a small proportion there is at 

 present no record. 



A few years ago seeds of Eucalyptus globulus were sent to 

 Kew Gardens, which had been collected from trees growing at 

 such a high altitude in Tasmania that theywere accustomed to 

 severe frosts. It was hoped that plants from these seeds 

 might endure the rigors of an English winter, but the exper- 

 iments were disappointing, and the first hard frost so severely 

 checked the seedlings, that, notwithstanding the protection 

 received later from a canvas screen, they all died before the 

 winter was over. In fact, at Kew, these seedlings from Blue 

 Gum trees, which had been accustomed to frost, were, if any- 

 thing, not so hardy as those from the ordinary forms of Euca- 

 lyptus globulus, and later experiments with plants raised from 

 Eucalyptus coccifera from trees which were coated with 

 icicles a foot long, seem: to corroborate these results. After 

 all, this only means that there are a great many conditions 

 which affect what we call hardiness in trees, for there is no 

 doubt that, as a rule, seeds taken from the northern limit of a 

 species will produce hardier trees than seeds of the same 

 species from trees which grow in warmer latitudes. 



In writing of various Japanese plants, Mr. P. J. Berckmans, 

 in a private letter, informs us that Rhus succedanea, the 

 'Japanese Wax-tree, is often injured at Augusta, Georgia, by 

 spring frosts, although if seedlings escape for two or three 

 years the plants prove perfectly hardy, making handsome, 

 bushy shrubs. Rhus succedanea is a native of southern Japan, 

 where it grows into a handsome small tree twenty-tlve or 

 thirty feet in heiglit, and in late autumn is particularly beauti- 

 ful from the brilliant scarlet color the foliage assumes at that 

 season of the year. It is still sometimes cultivated in southern 

 Japan for the wax which surrounds the seeds, and which at 



one time was largely manufactured into candles, which, how- 

 ever, are now rarely used in Japan, owing to the general in- 

 troduction of petroleum oil. In the latitude of Tokyo, Rhus 

 succedanea is perfectly hardy, ripening its seeds and attaining 

 tree-like proportions. It might, therefore, be expected to 

 flourish anywhere in the coast region of the United States 

 south of the Delaware peninsula, or possibly even farther 

 north. Of Broussonetia, another inhabitant of the southern 

 islands of Japan, Mr. Berckmans writes : " I have a tree thirty- 

 three years old which produces male flowers only. The young 

 shoots are covered with purple bark, and the leaves, as they 

 first appear in the spring, are also purple, changing to dark 

 green during the summer. The objection to this tree is its 

 tendency to throw up numerous suckers, which appear some- 

 times at a distance of thirty to forty feet from the parent tree, 

 but otherwise it is a very handsome shade-tree." 



Professor Rothrock writes to Science to suggest that many 

 leagues of what is apparent desert, west of the Mississippi, 

 might be put to some productive use. In the first place, some 

 of the vegetation there, especially some species of the Cheno- 

 podiaceae, may develop possible value. This family already 

 furnishes the Beet, the Mangel Wurzel and some other species 

 whose seeds the Indians use as food. Eurotia lanata is a valued 

 forage-plant in some of the drier regions of the west, and it 

 would seem to be worth inquiring what other plants of the 

 order can be used as food, what each one promises in the way 

 of improvement under long-continued cultivation, and whether 

 there is any way of treating the seeds of any of the plants of 

 the order which contain nutritive qualities so as to render them 

 fit for food. Inasmuch as it would take a long time and care- 

 fully conducted experiments to find satisfactory answers to 

 these queries, Professor Rothrock suggests that the government 

 or the agricultural colleges of the states in which these plants 

 grdw might make the tests. Among plants of the Mint family 

 the seeds of Salvia Columbariae have been used by the abo- 

 rigines, and was an article of food among the Aztecs. They still 

 hold a place on the diet list of the California Indians. Besides 

 this search after new plants it may be worth while to inquire 

 whether we' get the largest use from our rainfall, for this barren 

 ground is only barren for lack of water. The question of water 

 storage and supply is complicated by state lines since, for 

 example, much of the water which might be used in Kansas, 

 Nebraska and Utah comes from the mountain-slopes of Colo- 

 rado. These questions are not immediately urgent, but when 

 our population becomes sufficient to press upon our available 

 food-supply they will demand attention. 



In the December issue of The Botanical Gazette there is a 

 figure reproduced from one of Mr. Faxon's drawings of a 

 species of Tabebuia, a native of Mexico and central America, 

 which Professor Rose, of the Department of Agriculture, de- 

 scribes as a new species, and which he dedicates to Mr. John 

 Donnell Smith, of Baltimore, its discoverer. It is said to be 

 a tree fifty to seventy-five feet in height, with a trunk often 

 four feet in diameter, palmately compound leaves on long 

 petioles, and ample terminal panicles of flowers with bright 

 yellow tubular five-lobed corollas, and followed by Catalpa- 

 like pods twelve inches or more in length. This fine tree was 

 collected by Mr. Smith at Cuyuta, in the Department of Es- 

 cuintla, inGuatemala, atan altitudeof two hundred feet,in April, 

 1890, and a year later by Dr. Edward Palmer, at Colema, in 

 Mexico, where it is common on the neighboring mountains, 

 and where it is often cultivated. It is said to be one of the most 

 beautiful trees in Mexico, and is called " Primavera." The 

 flowers, which are a beautiful golden yellow, are produced in 

 great abundance and usually appear before the imfolding of 

 the leaves. The trees are cut into logs about twelve feet in 

 length and shipped from Manzanillo, in the state of Colema, 

 to the United States, principally to Cincinnati and San Fran- 

 cisco, where they are used a great deal for cabinet-work and 

 veneering. The tree is very common in the lower part of the 

 Department of Escuinfla. It is tall and slender, usually leaf- 

 less, and with profuse delicate yellow flowers standing out 

 against the sky like golden clouds. For the last twelve or fif- 

 teen years a handsome light-colored wood has been imported 

 into the market of San Francisco from the west coast of 

 Mexico, and is said to have been produced by a tree called 

 " Primavera." This wood, of late years, has been quite ex- 

 tensively brought into the eastern markets under the name of 

 "white mahogany," and is now considered here one of the 

 most valuable and useful of all cabinet-woods. Its origin has 

 long remained unknown, and although there may be still 

 some doubt as to the identity of white mahogany with the 

 Primavera of Manzanillo, Professor Rose's note gives the in- 

 dication of the direction in which further investigations of the 

 origin and source of supply of this wood should be made. 



