March 8, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



115 



air and light is necessary to keep them in sturdy health. After 

 a time roots will form at the base of the stems very freely. 

 The pots being filled only to within an inch of the surface, and 

 the soil would subside about half an inch more, this space 

 may now be tilled in with some rich dressing. This should 

 consist of about equal portions of decayed manure and good 

 fibrous yellow loam. The stem-roots push freely into this and 

 form a perfect mat. When the flowering period is over, and 

 the stems show signs of decay, reduce the water-supply con- 

 siderably, and do not commit the error of putting them out-of- 

 doors to be saturated with the autumn rains. They flower at 

 different periods between Juneand October and cannot all be 

 potted at one time. At the time of repotting turn the plant 

 out and >vith a gentle twist of the stem screw it out from the 

 crown of the bulb. Repot the bulb again in a larger pot with- 

 out disturbing the useful roots which have been produced 

 from the base of the bulb. The above treatment applies 

 especially to Lilium auratum. Nearly all Lilies grown under 

 glass may be treated as I have advised. L. lancifolium is 

 next to L. auratum in usefulness, and the variety amongst 

 them is very charniing. The slender-growing L. tenuifolium 

 is easily managed, and for pot-culture the best varieties of L. 

 tigrinum are very effective, such as the double-flowered 

 variety splendens and Fortune!. L. Hansoniiis also a distinct 

 and stately species. — y. Douglas, in the Gardeners Chronicle. 



Garden Notes. 



Chionodoxa Alleni. — The bulbs of this new variety sent 

 out this season by Mr. Whittall were evidently gathered before 

 maturity, and it -will be impossible with such material to verify 

 the collector's estimate of its value. At present it is showing 

 only single-flowered scapes, and seems to be a white-eyed C. 

 Sardensis. 



Burnt Earth for Seed-pans. — Mr. Orpet's interesting note 

 on slow-germinating seeds reminds me that I find burnt earth 

 a very satisfactory medium in which to plant seeds which are 

 likely to require a long stratification. This is easily prepared 

 by burning clayey soil in a stove or furnace to red-heat, thus 

 ridding it of all humus and impurities which are likely to 

 cause fermentation and sourness. Seed-pans long kept moist 

 are not only apt to contain sour soil, but they usually develop 

 a crop of moss. These conditions are not possible in seed- 

 pans containing burnt earth. 



Cyperus pungens.— This proves to be a very distinct Sedge. 

 The smooth, round, unjointed stems are from three to five 

 feet long and topped with umbellate leaves, in the way of C. 

 alternifolius. Either in the water-garden or in a greenhouse- 

 tank it IS very effective. It is also, when grown into a speci- 

 men in a glazed pot, astrikinganddistinct plantfor conservatory 

 or house decoration. Horticulturally it may be considered a 

 magnified C. alternifolius. My plants have never borne seed, 

 but they can be quickly propagated by the numerous side- 

 shoots and probably by cuttings of the tops. This plant has 

 lately been sent out as C. strictus, I believe in error. 



Elizabeth, N.J. J.N.G. 



Window and Greenhouse Plants. 



WITH reference to your recommendation in a recent num- 

 ber of Garden and Forest, I have grown Cypripedium 

 insigne as a window-plant with entire satisfaction. It does well 

 planted wholly in moss, or in loam, moss and potsherds mixed, 

 with but ordinary attention. On plants in my collection there 

 are flowers which expanded before Christmas, or over two 

 months ago, and these will continue in good condition several 

 weeks longer. 



Nephrolepis tuberosa is one of the best Ferns for the living- 

 room, not bemg affected by the dry air, as many other Ferns 

 are. Watered properly, it seems indifferent to other condi- 

 tions. Duringsum merit may be used as a tub-plant out-of-doors, 

 a position in which few Ferns do well. 



Though the Camellia is no longer a popular florist's flower, 

 it is still in the collection of most amateurs vvdio have green- 

 houses. The proper time to repot it is just after the bloom- 

 ing season, in March or April. It does not do well if over- 

 potted. Good loam, sand and leaf-mold is the best soil, and 

 good drainage is necessary. In summer they need no care 

 other than to be placed in a partially shaded place out-of-doors, 

 the pots partly plunged in asiies. 



Bignonia venusta is decorative in the greenhouse at this 

 season. A thrifty specimen, planted in theground here, is pnmed 

 in closely each year after flowering, thus making vigorous 

 young shoots. These are fastened to the roof, and from them 

 at this time are hanging great clusters of deep orange flowers. 

 Germantown, Pa. . Joseph Meekan. 



Al rHILE the Carnation will succeed in ordinary soil, from a 

 ^^ light sandy loam to fineclay, different varieties require dif- 

 ferent soils to produce the best results. The best average 

 success is attained in a soil composed of well-rotted turf, with 

 one-fourth its bulk of old manure, adding one bushel of air- 

 slaked lime and one bushel oi hardwood ashes to two loads of 

 the mixture. 



Acacias make the greenhouse gay during the winter and 

 early spring months with their golden flowers. A. armata, A. 

 cultriformis, A. Drummondii, A. longifolia and A. pubescens 

 are among the best for general utility. They bloom freely, 

 and a temperature of forty degrees is not too low for them. 

 Their cultural requirements are simple, and any ordinary soil 

 will suit them. In summer they may be placed out-of-doors 

 to make new growth. 



The large trumpet-shaped flowers of Solandera grandiflo^a 

 are conspicuous in the greenhouse at this season. The plant 

 is a shrab of somewhat straggling habit, requiring a minimum 

 temperature of fifty-five degrees. It is easy of cultivation and 

 is worth growing for its strikmg blossoms, which are a dull 

 yellow color. "The branches must, however, be trained to 

 wires or similar supports, and they flower most profuselv 

 when fully exposed to sunshine. 



Cambridge, Mass. M. Barker. 



Correspondence. 

 The Protection of Road-sides. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — No service your paper can perform is more needed, I 

 think, than the awakening of our rural communities to a sense 

 of the beauty of properly treated road-sides, and a feeling that 

 this beauty has its useful side in making their localities attrac- 

 tive to summer visitors. You have named and rightiv found 

 fault with road-side devastators of various kinds. But there is 

 one whom, as yet, I do not think you have held up to public 

 condenmation. "This is the lineman, who is perpetually 

 stretching or re-stretching his wires between even our remo- 

 test villages. If he works in other districts as barbarically as 

 he worked near Buzzard's Bay last summer, he is not the least 

 harmful of our rural vandals. 



Last summer the telegraph lines were repaired between the 

 village of Marion, where I live, and the towns of Wareham, 

 four miles away in one direction, and of Mattapoisett, five 

 miles away in another. And there was not an eighth of a mile 

 in this nine-mile stretch where wreck and ruin had not been 

 wrought. Of course, the big, new poles shone out a ghastly 

 yellow against the background of foliage which largely 

 borders these nine miles of highway. But one did not com- 

 plain of that, for it was felt to be inevitable, and, moreover, 

 one knew that under Nature's treatment during a single winter 

 they would weather to a more peaceful gray. But the new 

 poles were a good deal taller than the old ones, although to the 

 non-professional eye there seemed no reason why they should 

 be ; and in planting them not the slighest care ha'd been taken 

 to do the work in even a rationally conservative spirit. Here, 

 a big Pine-tree had been ruthlessly cut down to give place to 

 a pole which, one felt, might just as well have been set on a 

 neighboring spot where no tree chanced to stand. There, the 

 splendid branches which partially shaded the road had been 

 lopped off as roughly as though by stone hatchets, to admit 

 the free passage of the lifted wires ; and almost always more 

 had been thus lopped than the position of the wires demanded. 

 Moreover, shrubbery and smaller trees had been recklessly 

 cleared for the greater convenience of the workmen, and all 

 the dfc^bris of big boughs and withered foliage had been left to 

 spoil the beauty of the road-side during the entire summer. 

 Of course, the damage was greater in some spots than in 

 others ; but it was so great in many that the aspect of a stretch 

 of road which, before, had been beautifully natural and bowery, 

 was changed into a resemblance with the aspect of the edge 

 of some rude settler's clearing. 



Wc do not pride ourselves greatly on our trees near Marion, 

 but we do pride ourselves on our shrubs and creepers and 

 flowers. The luxuriance with which they grow is surprising, 

 and the borders they make, not only along our wood-roads 

 but along our high-roads too, are of wonderful and very varied 

 beauty. Almost everywhere, on the high-roads, there is a 

 wide strip of waste land between the road proper (or improper 

 — for many of the road-beds are extremely bad) and tiie rough 

 stone fences which enclose the fields. And this waste land is 

 apt to be thickly overgrown with shrubs and young trees along 

 the fences, and with lower flowering vegetation near the road- 

 bed, forming natural hedges as beautiful as those in any 

 English lane. 



