96 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 261. 



tive need of further legislation by Congress for the preserva- 

 tion and care of our forests, leading to some system by which 

 the trees on certain tracts shall be preserved, and in other 

 places cut down under suitable restrictions. 



My conclusions are : i. That text-books on forestry and kin- 

 dred subjects should be placed in all the army-post libraries. 

 2. That instruction should be given to the non-commissioned 

 officers, wherever possible, in forestry and collateral studies 

 by competent teachers. 3. Forestry and the related sciences 

 should l)e taught at West Point until a national forestry school 

 is established by the United States Government. 



North Audover, Mass. 7- ^' ^- Fre7ich. 



Notes. 



The name of the Cineraria comes from the Latin cinis, 

 cineris, meaning ashes, and refers to the whitish down which 

 covers the leaves of the plant. 



The Morning News, of Wilmington, is authority for the 

 statement that a Spanish Oak was lately cut on the land of Mr. 

 F. T. Warrington, near Georgetown, Delaware, which meas- 

 ured eight feet across the stump and from which he obtained 

 a stick of timber sixty feet long, which squared two feet 

 throughout its entire length. 



One of the least famous monuments in New York is the 

 statue of Washington which stands on the Riverside Drive 

 near the foot of Eighty-eighth Street. Yet it deserves attention 

 more than most of our statues, for it is a copy of the one which 

 was executed by the great French sculptor Houdon, in the 

 year 1785, and now stands in the State House at Richmond, 

 Virginia. 



The Journal of Hortlculticrc shows an interesting picture of 

 Tinnea yEthiopica, a beautiful winter-flowering plant, too little 

 known, and belonging to the Labiatag. Not only is it elegant 

 in habit, and the flowers richly and distinctly colored, but they 

 also possess a delicious fragrance very strongly suggestive of 

 Violets, so that a few specimens in bloom "will agreeably per- 

 fume a moderately large house. The corolla is two-lipped, 

 the lower lip being of a fine maroon color, and the upper one 

 more of a rich crimson hue. The calyx is large, slightly in- 

 flated, and pale green. The flowers are freely produced in 

 axillary clusters at the upper portion of the shoots. 



In bulletin No. 22 of the Mississippi Experiment Station some 

 interesting trials with Grapes, with careful explanations as to 

 the method of cultivating them, are recorded. It seems that 

 the Vine is perfectly at home in that latitude and that it bears 

 well even on rather wet ground. Common Vine diseases are 

 not specially destructive and the much-dreaded Black Rot is 

 not prevalent. Another disease, however, which is called the 

 Ripe Rot, or Bitter Rot (Melanconium fuliginium), is a rather 

 serious enemy which the copper compounds as yet have failed 

 to prevent. July is the season when the grapes ripen in Mis- 

 sissippi, and the wet weather which usually occurs then seems 

 to aggravate the trouble. It continues to develop on the fruit 

 after it is picked. 



From the January issue of the Quarterly Bulletin of the 

 University of Minnesota we learn that the plant collections of the 

 botanical department of the university are united with those 

 of the botanical division of the Geological and Natural History 

 Survey of the State, under the direction of Mr. Conway Mac- 

 Millan, the state botanist. The field-work of the botanical 

 division of the survey was specially directed during 1892 to 

 completing the representation of the flowering plants of 

 Minnesota, the Ferns and Fern allies, Fungag and Algas ; 

 and the collection is now believed to be reasonably com- 

 plete so far as relates to the higher flowering plants, al- 

 though it is said to be still deficient in well-filled series of 

 Mosses, Liverworts, Lichens, Algas and Fungae. 



The abrupt faces of the cliffs which form certain parts of the 

 shore of the Isle of Wight yield a harvest of useful herbs, to be 

 gathered with difficulty and danger. The most important of 

 them is the Samphire (Crithmum maritimum), which has 

 fleshy leaves and pallid, odd-looking flowers. Very dangerous 

 parts'of the cliffs are sometimes scaled to procure it in quanti- 

 ties, the plants as they are picked beingdropped into a boat lying 

 below. Occasionally one man undertakes the work alone, but 

 usually two or three engage in it. The one who is to descend 

 ties around his body a rope which is fastened to a crowbar se- 

 curely planted at the edge of the cli ff, and holds another by means 

 of which he can signal to his fellows above. When he shakes 

 this they haul at the safety-rope, and he assists their efforts by 

 climbing up it, hand-over-hand. The most difficult part of the 



feat is when the top is reached, and he must unfasten the 

 safety-rope in order to pull himself over the slippery verge. 



From the publishers, Messrs. Vilmorin-Andrieux & Cie., of 

 Paris, we have received Les Plantes de Grande Culture-Ce- 

 reales, Plantes Fourageres, IndtistrielLes et Economiques — an 

 enlarged edition of the catalogue of these plants first issued 

 by this house more than thirty years ago. The present work, 

 a volume of two hundred pages, contains carefully prepared 

 descriptions from the pen of the head of the house. Monsieur 

 Henry L. de Vilmorin, of the principal species and varieties of 

 plants employed in agriculture, illustrated with excellent figures 

 reproduced from drawings by Monsieiu" Godard, and accom- 

 panied by cultural notes. As the author points out, in his short 

 introduction, the races and varieties of cultivated plants are 

 changing with such rapidity that many, like most Potatoes, for 

 example, which are now most valued and most generally cul- 

 tivated, were not known fifteen years ago. This necessitates 

 the frequent rewriting of books of this cliaracter, which, to be 

 of any practical value, must be based on careful experiments 

 and close observation ; that the present work is written in this 

 spirit and that its authority is unquestionable no one will doubt 

 who is familiar with the scientific methods and conscientious 

 research which mark Monsieur Vilmorin's previous publi- 

 cations. 



We have, in former numbers, quoted from Mr. Hale's in- 

 structive talks on peach-growing, but we add here a few dis- 

 connected paragraphs from his address at the recent meet- 

 ing of the Western New York Horticultural Society on the 

 subject of which he is so thoroughly a master. Ele- 

 vated lands have returned the most fruit-crops, and the 

 heaviest fertilizing with potash and phosphoric acid, with the 

 least nitrogen, have given the healthiest growth. By severe 

 pruning and high fertilizers he has succeeded in forcing a tree 

 which was attacked with yellows to produce one or two good 

 crops, but afterward the tree would suddenly die. His prac- 

 tice now is to root out such a tree as soon as it shows any symp- 

 toms of the disease. He prunes so as to make a low, broad 

 tree with an open head until it comes to a bearing age. No 

 pruning is done until the buds begin to swell in spring, and if 

 none of these buds have been killed then the tree is pruned 

 with care as to its form. But if many of the buds are killed 

 the aim is to c.it these away and leave the living buds. This 

 practice has resulted in giving some very bad^shaped trees, 

 but very profitable ones. The fruit is always thinned so as to 

 leave no specimen within six inches of another. Experi- 

 ence has shown that a well-developed tree, which will bear six 

 baskets of fruit, will bear just as much if half of the fruit is 

 removed. If two-thirds are removed there is a chance of 

 getting seven or eight baskets of fruit and two or three times 

 as much money for it. The fruit is left on the trees 

 until thoroughly ripe, though not mellow, and then it is sorted 

 into three grades, packed into the cleanest baskets possible, 

 and no defacing is allowed. To judge whether the fruit is 

 ripe enough to pick, a branch is lifted carefully and then the 

 most shaded spot on the peach is examined, and if that has 

 begun to tinge then the peach is fit to gather. The white first 

 varieties seem to be the most hardy, and Mountain Rose and 

 Keyport White are the best of these. Hill's Chili is the best of 

 the yellow varieties, but if it is not well-grown it will be so 

 woolly that it needs shaving before being sent to market. 

 When thoroughly thinned, however, the fruit is admirable, 

 and it is the best of peaches to can. He uses about a ton of 

 fertilizers to the acre, broadcast always, and applied every year 

 from the time the trees are first set out. Two parts of bone 

 to one of potash is about the proportion of his mixture. Stable 

 manure makes too coarse a growth. 



Cataloo-ues Received. 



E. F. Brockway, Ainsworth, la.; Evergreen Seedlings. — D. M. 

 Ferry & Co., Detroit, Mich. ; Illustrated Descriptive Catalogue of 

 Choice Vegetable and Flower Seeds, Fruit Tree, Forest Tree and 

 Hedge Seeds, Grass and Grain Seeds. — IjORD & Burnham, Irvington- 

 on-PIudson, N. Y. ; Large and Handsomely Illustrated Catalogue 

 showing Greenhouse Structures designed and erected by the firm and 

 representing types of houses varying from simple to the most elab- 

 orate. — William Parry, Parry, N. J. ; Small Fruits, Fruit and Orna- 

 mental Trees. — Parsons & Sons Co., Kissena Nurseries, Flushing, 

 .N. Y. ; Deciduous Trees, Shrubs, Vines and Creepers, Evergreen 

 Trees and Shrubs, Hedge Plants, New and Rare Hardy, Plants, etc. — 

 Carl PuRnv, Ukiah, Mendocino County, Cal. ; Wholesale Price List of 

 California Bulbs. — Vilmorin-Andrieux & Cie., 4 Quai de la Megis- 

 seric, Paris ; General Illustrated Catalogue of Grass, Vegetable 

 and Flower Seeds, Catalogue of Cereals, Forage-plants and Plants 

 for Food and Jndustrial Purposes. Beautifully printed and il- 

 lustrated. 



