ii8 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 263, 



increases in the United States, tlian it has ever been. The 

 Coffee-leaf disease has almost exterminated the cultivation of 

 Coffee in the east, so tliat the world, which is every year con- 

 suming a larger quantity of the berry, must rely upon America 

 for its supply. The cultivation of Cocoa has increased largely 

 of late years in the West Indies and Central America, and ap- 

 parently the demand is only limited by the supply. Spices, 

 like nutmegs and cloves, can be grown apparently as success- 

 fully in the West Indies as in their home in the east. Of 

 bananas, cocoanuts, pineapples and oranges, the United States 

 consumes at fair prices all that are sent here. The market, 

 therefore, for the crops of tropical American plantations is not 

 wanting. That the people are making a serious effort to im- 

 prove their opportunities the appearance of a second edition 

 of a practical book of this character seems to indicate. 



Notes. 



In England toads are valued as destroyers of insects and are 

 offered for sale at a shilling apiece, it is said, in the London 

 markets, being bought by market-gardeners. 



A special course of practical instruction in botany is an- 

 nounced by the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, to 

 begin March 17th. The course is under the direction of Dr. 

 Tliomas Morong, of Columbia College, and will comprise fif- 

 teen illustrated lectures and ten field-meetings. 



A Belgian horticultural journal, referring to Professor L. H. 

 Bailey's Annals of Horticidture for the year 1891, notes its 

 assertion that, of the ten thousand plants indigenous to the 

 temperate regions of America, more than 2,400 are in present 

 cultivation, and adds: "This seems to show that Americans 

 do not despise their native flora as people do elsewhere, in 

 favor of foreign species, which are often less valuable and in 

 no way adapted to their climate." 



The ability to identify trees in winter by the appearance of 

 their buds and the markings of the so-called bare twigs adds 

 greatly to the pleasure to be derived from them and by awaken- 

 ing a new interest in these daily associates of our lives, adds a 

 new charm to the winter landscape. In Boston and in several 

 of the neighboring towns, Miss Frances Prince, who has made 

 a careful and critical study of the subject, has been delivering, 

 during the past two winters, a series of lectures on the winter 

 aspects of trees, which liave been attended by large and in- 

 terested classes and have met with marked success. 



An Irishman might certainly be expected to know what the 

 Shamrock is. It appears, however, from a paper recently 

 printed by Mr. Nathaniel Colgan, in The Irish Naturalist, that 

 all Irishmen are not agreed as to the identity of their national 

 flower. Mr. Colgan, in order to investigate the matter, ob- 

 tained what was professed to be the genuine Shamrock from 

 eleven counties. The specimens were planted and carefully 

 labeled with the places of origin, and when they flowered 

 two months later the plants from eight counties proved to be 

 Trifolium minus, and those from five counties Trifolium re- 

 pens, while two coundes, Armagh and Carnow, each of which 

 contributed two specimens, were divided on the question, one 

 district in each sending Trifolium repens and the other Tri- 

 folium minus. It is noted that in North Down Trifolium minus 

 is always regarded as the true Shamrock, although a vigorous 

 specimen or one in flower is usually regarded as an impostor. 



Among noteworthy new Carnations shown at the recent 

 meeting of the American Carnation Society, in Pittsburgh, was 

 a white flower which it is proposed to name for Mr. John 

 Thorpe, exhibited by Mr. Frederick Dorner. The form and 

 size were good and the petals nicely disposed, but the stem 

 was hardly stout enough. The judges recommended certifi- 

 cates ofj merit to Richmond, Madame Diaz Alberhna, Edna 

 Craig and William Scott ; the last two were the best light pink 

 varieties on exhibition, Thomas Cartledge being the best dark 

 pink. Variedes reported as doing well on the Pacific coast in- 

 clude Anna Webb, Thomas Cartledge and President Degraw. 

 For spring pot-cultivation, Mr. Thomas Cartledge recom- 

 mended Century for deep pink ; Robert Craig for scarlet ; 

 Lizzie McGowan or Peter Henderson for white ; Buttercup for 

 yellow ; Sunrise and American Flag for variegated. Carna 

 tion diseases and proposed remedies were among the most 

 important subjects considered. The comfiiittee on nomen- 

 clature request growers to have the names of meritorious 

 seedlings registered promptly, as a matter of record and to 

 prevent duplication. Since the organization of the society in 

 1 891 the membership has grown to nearly one hundred and 

 fifty, under the retiring President, Mr. Edwin Lonsdale. The 



next annual meeting will be held in Indianapolis, with Mr. E. G. 

 Hill as the presiding officer. 



With the advance of the Lenten season there is less demand 

 for cut flowers in general. Choice stock, however, continues 

 to sell freely, the best American Beauty, Magna Charta and 

 Ulrich Brunner Roses bringing eighteen dollars a dozen in 

 this city. Violets are from one to two dollars a bunch, and a 

 dozen stems of Lily-of-the-valley cost one dollar. Mignonette 

 is in popular favor, specially fine sprays selling as high as 

 twenty-five and fifty cents each. A variety of early vegetables 

 is to be had, notwithstanding the prolonged cold weather has 

 retarded hot-house crops in the north and seriously affected 

 field crops in Florida. Malaga grapes are offered at from 

 thirty to sixty cents, and the best Gros Colman, from England, 

 for three dollars and fifty cents a pound. Hot-house cucumbers 

 from Long Island maybe had for forty cents each ; strawberries 

 from Florida for one dollar and seventy-five cents a quart, 

 and a smaller and better berry from Hackensack, New Jersey, 

 is one dollar for a cup box. The finest Navel oranges are one 

 to two dollars a dozen, and grape-fruits cost almost as much. 

 Large pineapples may be had as low as fifty cents. Among 

 pears. Winter Nelis are one dollar and twenty-five cents and 

 Easter Burr^ two dollars a dozen. Northern Spies and Spitz- 

 enberg are the best apples in the market now, and, assorted, 

 cost sixty cents a dozen. The crop of tomatoes due from the 

 northern hot-houses is delayed by the weather, and the small 

 supply which has come from Florida sells at thirty-five cents 

 a pound. The experiments in shipping fruits from Africa and 

 Australia to England last year are recalled by the arrival here, a 

 week ago, of two dozen peaches, said to have come from the 

 Cape of Good Hope. These sold for as much as three dol- 

 lars apiece, the last one being offered yesterday for one dollar. 



Jacob Weidenmann, the well-known landscape-gardener, died 

 at his residence in Brooklyn, on the 6th of February. Born 

 in Switzerland in 1829, Mr. Weidenmann studied architecture 

 in Munich, and then, having traveled extensively in Europe, 

 came to America. Here he first found employment as an 

 engineer on the Panama Railroad, and later visited Peru, where 

 he practiced his profession during two years. After a short 

 stay in Europe, he came to this country and adopted the 

 profession of landscape-gardening, which he continued to 

 practice during thirty-seven years, until his death. He lived 

 in Hartford, Connecticut, for many years, as superintendent of 

 the public parks, and laid out Cedar Hill Cemetery in that 

 city. At one time he was associated with Mr. Frederick Law 

 Olmsted, with whom he was engaged on a number of impor- 

 tant works, such as the grounds of the Schuylkill Reservoir, 

 in Philadelphia, and Congress Spring Park, Saratoga. He was 

 employed upon the Hot Springs Reservation, in Arkansas, the 

 grounds of the Iowa State Hospital for the Insane, and of the 

 St. Lawrence State Hospital, in this state, and upon many pub- 

 lic and private works. At the time of his death Mr. Weiden- 

 mann was engaged in laying out Mr. A. A. Pope's Cottage 

 Park, in Hartford. Mr. Weidenmann was an accomplished 

 and gifted man, and after sixty years of study and practical ex- 

 perience he was full of vigor and energy in his work. His 

 death is a loss to a profession in which the laborers are few 

 and the demands made upon them are heavy and exacting. 



Catalogues Received. 



C. S. Curtice Co., Portland, N. Y. ; Illustrated Catalogue of Roses, 

 Vines, Fruit and Ornamental Trees, Descriptive Catalogue of Grape- 

 vines and Small Fruit Plants. — T. J. Dwyer, Cornwall-on-Hudson, 

 N. Y. ; Vegetable Plants, Small Fruits, Vines, Shrubs, Fruit and Orna- 

 mental Trees.— J.Wilkinson Elliott, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Cannas, Irises, 

 Gladioli and Hardy Plants. — Edward Gillett, Southwick, Mass.; 

 Bulbs, Native Shrubs, Wild Flowers and Ferns.— Peter Henderson 

 & Co., 35 and 37 Cortiandt Street, New York, " Manual of Everything 

 for the Garden," Descriptive Illustrated Catalogue, 25c. — Hitchings 

 & Co., 233 Mercer St., New York; liot Water Boilers and Heaters, 

 Pipes and Pipe Fittings for Greenhouses, Conservatories and Graperies, 

 Illustrated Catalogue of Greenhouse Construction. — ^Jacob W. Man- 

 ning, Reading, Mass.; Recently Introduced Trees, Shrubs, Vines and 

 Hardy Herbaceous Perennials.— John R. & A. Murdoch, Pittsburgh, 

 Pa. ; Flower and Vegetable Seeds, Greenhouse, Stove and Hardy 

 Plants, Bulbs, Fruit and Ornamental Trees. — Phcenix Nursery Com. 

 pany, Bloomington, III. ; Wholesale Catalogue of Trees, Plants, Shrubs, 

 Roses and Bulbs. — Pitcher & Manda, The United States Nurseries, 

 Short Hills, N. J.; Descriptive Catalogue of Selected Novelties in 

 Chrysanthemums. — A. M. Purdy, Palmyra, N. Y.; Flower and Vege- 

 table Seeds, Small Fruits and Fruit Trees. — Stark Bros., Louisiana, 

 Mo. ; Wholesale Price List of Fruit Trees.— J. H. Tryon, Willoughby, 

 O. ; Descriptions of Small Fruits and Fruit Trees, A Treatise on 

 Grape Culture. 



