io8 



Garden and Forest 



[Number 262. 



do appear they will not be larger than the Onions, as they 

 usually are when the seed is sown early in the spring. Of 

 course, there is nothing;' absolutely new in this idea, but the 

 ap]:ilication of it to Onions is comptiratively recent. Mr. 

 Greiner goes carefully into the details from the very beginning 

 and talks instructively about the various kinds of fertilizers, 

 the proper tools for the preparation of the soil, the methods of 

 sowing the seed and setting the plants, and all the other details 

 to the curing and preserving of the tubers. The book is pri- 

 marily for market-growers, but its clear statement, coming 

 from practical and thorough knowledge of the subject, makes 

 it entertaining and instructive to every one who has a vegeta- 

 ble-garden. 



Notes. 



Mr. Charles Eliot has become a member of the firm of F. L. 

 Olmsted & Company, landscape-architects, of Brookline, Mas- 

 sachusetts. 



A photograph of a Hop-field, taken at Tacoma, represents 

 the poles at least fifteen feet high and so densely covered 

 that they appear like solid pillars of foliage more than two 

 feet in diameter. 



Mr. Dewar, an occasional correspondent of this journal, and 

 for many years the head of the Hardy Plant Department of the 

 Royal Gardens at Kew, has been appointed curator of the Bo- 

 tanic Garden at Glasgow. 



Rhododendron arboreum, an Indian species, not hardy here, 

 is an excellent greenhouse plant. Kept in buildings in which 

 only enough heat is given to keep out frost, it expands its 

 heads of rich rose-colored flowers in February. 



In a greenhouse in Germantown, Philadelphia, is a specimen 

 of the Cactus, Cereus Peruvianus, planted fifteen years ago, 

 which reaches to the roof, twenty-five feet from the ground. 

 Its large yellow flowers are produced toward the close of 

 June. 



At a meeting of the finance committee of the incorporators 

 of the Botanic Garden of New York City, held last week, Mr. 

 J. Pierpont Morgan reported that $175,000 has been procured 

 of $250,000, the cost of 250 acres of land in Bronx Park, which 

 it is desired to secure for the exclusive use of the Botanic 

 Garden. Mr. Morgan proposes, in addition to $250,000 re- 

 quired by legislative act to establish the Garden, to increase 

 the fund to $1,000,000. 



Correa cardinalis is perhaps the most beautiful shrub of this 

 genus which comes from the southern part of Australia, where 

 it is often called Fuchsia, from a fancied resemblance between 

 the blossoms of the two plants. This is by no means a new plant 

 in gardens, but it is seen more rarely in American greenhouses 

 than it should be. The flowers are handsome and they are 

 borne in great profusion at this season, when just such bright 

 colors as their red and yellow are needed. Correa cardinalis 

 is one of the special attractions of the rich outdoor-gardens of 

 southern Europe. 



The spring exhibition of the New York Florists' Club will 

 be held in the Madison Square Garden during the first week 

 in May. But, meanwhile, smaller free exhibitions have been 

 planned for at the headquarters of the club at 20 West Twen- 

 ty-seventh Street, the first to be held early in March. Admit- 

 tance will be by tickets, which can be obtained from the sec- 

 retary of the club, Mr. John Young, or from any florist who is 

 'a member. Many growers have promised interesting contri- 

 butions for these small displays, and it is expected that prizes 

 will be awarded to the best exhibits. 



The large and beautiful Montreuil peaches, known to all 

 visitors to Paris, are said to date from the reign of Louis 

 Quatorze, and to have been first planted by an officer of mus- 

 keteers named Girardot. The king's approval of an offering 

 of these peaches gave an impulse to peach-growing, and a 

 century later, not only Montreuil, but a whole circle of neigh- 

 boring villages, possessed many Peach-gardens. Some of these 

 villages have been absorbed by the city of Paris, but the re- 

 maining villages supply, during the season of two months and 

 a half, about twenty-five million peaches, or some three hun- 

 dred thousand each day. The finest specimens are often sold 

 in restaurants at sixty cents apiece. They are grown on 

 espaliers trained against sunny walls. 



Signor A. Goiran, who has investigated the influence of 

 recent earthquakes in northern Italy, thinks that they were 

 beneficial to vegetation as promoting a more rapid germina- 

 tion of seeds, a quicker rate of growth in the young plants, a 



distincter greenness in all vegetation, and a greater luxuriance 

 in pastures, arable lands, copses and vineyards. These results 

 he lays to an increased production of carbonic acid, an aug- 

 mented development of electricity, and a completer distribu- 

 tion of fertilizing matters through the shaken soil. If, in 

 certain cases, vegetation seemed to have suffered after an 

 earthquake, Signor Goiran attributes the fact to the prolonged 

 droughts which accompanied them. 



In an article recently published in the Popular Science 

 Monthly it is stated that, inasmuch as the food of the garter- 

 snake consists largely of frogs and toads, it is probably harm- 

 ful to vegetation. The argument to establish this theory runs 

 as follows : " The greatest enemies of the leaves are the in- 

 sects ; frogs and toads depend upon insects for their food, and 

 snakes, in their turn, feed upon frogs and toads. So that the 

 more snakes the more insects, and the fewer perfect leaves." 

 Such generalizations, however, are dangerous, for although 

 the snakes will eat frogs and toads as well as anything else in 

 the line of small animals that they can master, they also eat a 

 great many insects, and they could not, under any circum- 

 stances, in jusfice, be called protectors of insects. 



Dr. J. T. Rothrock is now to devote his whole time to the 

 interests of the Pennsylvania Forestry Association, as its gen- 

 eral secretary, and those objects which the Association was 

 formed to foster are to be pressed with vigor. He will deliver 

 illustrated lectures in various parts of the state and incident- 

 ally contribute an illustrated article to each number of Forest 

 Leaves, the organ of the Association, that in the February 

 issue being devoted to an account of the Buttonwood(Platanus 

 occidentalis), with a portrait of a remarkable specimen grow- 

 ing in Chester County, Pennsylvania, with a short trunk divided, 

 not far above the surface of the ground, into three enormous 

 primary divisions. In speaking of the value of the wood of 

 the Buttonwood, Dr. Rothrock overlooks the fact that in recent 

 years it has been used in considerable quantities in our north- 

 ern cities in the interior finish of houses. It is well suited for 

 this purpose and its popularity is increasing. It is used in the 

 natural color or stained to the color of mahogany. 



In the United States Buckleya, of which a figure was pub- 

 lished in an earlier issue of this journal (vol. iii., p. 237), is one 

 of the rarest of all our shrubs, being found only on one small 

 rocky cliff near the boundary line between North Carolina and 

 Tennessee. In Japan, however, where the genus is repre- 

 sented by a species very similar to its American prototype, 

 Buckleya, although not very abundant, is rather widely dis- 

 tributed through the interior of the main island between 2,000 

 and 3,000 feet above the sea, where it grows in the neighbor- 

 hood of streams and forms a tall graceful shrub. Indeed, it is 

 so common in some parts of the country that the fruit, which 

 is gathered when about two-thirds grown, having been sub- 

 jected to some pickling or preserving process, is sold as a con- 

 diment, packed in small, neat wooden boxes. Nikko is the head- 

 quarters of the industry, and in late autumn the fruit of 

 Buckleya is displayed in many of the shops which hne the 

 street leading through the straggling village up to the burial- 

 place of the founder of the dynasty of the Tokugawa Shoguns. 

 To appreciate the flavor of Buckleya, the culture and refine- 

 ment of the Japanese palate is essential. 



In the autumn of 1891 the Chrysanthemums at the Geneva 

 Experiment Station were troubled with a leaf-spot, which was 

 pronounced by Dr. Halsted identical with the fungus referred 

 to in an article of his entitled "Fungous Troubles in the Cut- 

 ting-beds," and published in Garden and Forest (vol. v., p. 

 91). During the last year investigation has been made at the 

 station of the work of this fungus, which belongs to the genus 

 Septoria, and it has been found that the disease can be practi- 

 cally controlled even if infected plants are used for cuttings. 

 The removal of spotted leaves, however, is a reasonable pre- 

 caution, and since such foliage is full of disease germs it is 

 always best to burn it. The remaming foliage is sprayed 

 through a Vermorel nozzle with Bordeaux mixture five or six 

 times during the season. If soap is dissolved in the mixture 

 it causes a thin fi.lm to spread over the entire leaf-surface. The 

 fungicide applied in this way adheres so well to the foliage that 

 it is not necessary to make another application until there is 

 sufficient new growth unprotected to require another treat- 

 ment. Since the Bordeaux mixtm-e is quite noticeable on the 

 foliage, an ammoniacal solution of copper carbonate is almost 

 as effective, and it can be substituted for the last application 

 before the plants come into flower. This solution is made of 

 five ounces of copper carbonate dissolved in three pints of 

 ammonia, twenty-six degrees, and diluted to fifty gallons with 

 water, enough soap being added to form suds. 



