March 15, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



127 



pared with weight of seed-material planted, and number of 

 stalks per hill compared with the yield. 



Comparing the number of stalks with the number of eyes, 

 we find the following to be true : "Increasing the number of 

 eyes from one to two, or two to four, upon pieces of uniform 

 weight only increases the number of stalks in the proportion 

 of I to 1.2, but increasing the weight of the pieces from twenty 

 to forty grams, with the number of eyes remaining the same, 

 increases the number of stalks in the proportion of i to 1.5, or 

 doubling the weight by increasing it from forty to eighty grams, 

 and at the same time doubling the number of pieces, with the 

 number of eyes, however, remaining the same, increasesthe 

 number of stalks in the proportion of i to 1.6." Further, it is 

 strikingly shown by figures, that when the tubers are of the 

 same variety and weight, the number of shoots does not per- 

 ceptibly increase with the increase of eyes on the tuber, prob- 

 ably due to the comparatively small amount of nutriment 

 available for each eye. A definite relation is also found to 

 exist between the weight of the tuber and the number of shoots 

 to which it will give rise ; the heavier the whole or partial 

 tuber the more shoots it will send out. Evidence also proves 

 that equally good results may be secured by planting accord- 

 ing to weight of tuber, and entirely ignoring number of eyes to 

 the piece. Comparing the number of stalks per hill with the 

 yield, it was found that there was a uniform increase in the 

 average number of stalks per hill to correspond with the in- 

 creased size of the seed-tuber used. With the increase of the 

 number of stalks per hill there is also a practically uniform 

 increase in weight of product. 



As a result of his research, Dr. Arthur concludes that the 

 number of eyes per piece is immaterial, but that the weight 

 of the piece of tuber is of much significance. Instead of cut- 

 ting to one, two or three eye-pieces, the approximation should 

 be to one, two or three ounce-pieces, or other definite weight. 



Purdue University Agr. Exp. station. C. o. rlumo. 



Recent Publications. 



Johnson's Gardeners' Dictionary. Revised edition by C. H. 

 Wright and D. Dewar. G. Bell & Sons, London. 



The first edition of this work, in one volume, was published 

 in 1847. A second edition appeared in 1856, and a third, with 

 a supplement prepared by Mr. N. E. Brown, was issued in 

 1882. A new and thoroughly revised edition, much larger 

 than the original, has been carefully prepared by Messrs. C. H. 

 Wright and D. Dewar, both of Kew. It is to be issued in eight 

 monthly parts at one shilling each, the first part appearing on 

 March ist. Although not so comprehensive nor so abundantly 

 illustrated as the Dictionary of Gardening, this new edition of 

 Johnson's book is certain to find considerable favor among 

 gardeners and others who require a handy book for constant 

 reference on all matters of garden interest. 



Exhibitions. 

 Mr. Parsons' Pictures of Japan. 



A LARGE collection of water-colors, painted last summer 

 in Japan by the English artist, Alfred Parsons, has recently 

 been on exhibition in this city and is now to be shown in Bos- 

 ton. Every one has been eager to see them, for Japan is per- 

 enniallyattractive, and Mr. Parsons' delightful work in black and 

 white, which is as familiar in this country as in England, seemed 

 to promise that his paintings would be conceived in a different 

 spirit from those of any previous traveler of the brush. 



This promise has been fulfilled. The ninety-three pictures 

 include a number of landscapes pure and simple, among the 

 most interesting being some of those where the great moun- 

 tain, Fujisan, fills the background, and certain views of lake- 

 shores with rainy or misty atmospheric effects. But the most 

 characteristic examples may be described as plant-portraits 

 with landscape backgrounds, similar in conception to many 

 of the delightful portrayals of English meadows and wood- 

 lands which have been frequent in Mr. Parsons' illustrative 

 work for books and magazines. There is a good deal of 

 variety in the paintings of this class. Sometimes the landscape 

 is more important than the foreground plants, which are not 

 distinctly individualized, but appear in striking masses of uni- 

 form or brilliantly varied color. In one exam pie, for instance, 

 we have a whole foreground and middle distance tinted a 

 vivid pink by masses of a plant which the catalogue calls "A 

 Pink Weed," but which the accompanying Japanese name 

 proves to be Dyer's Weed, Polygonum tinctorium — not really 

 a weed therefore, but a crop grown for industrial uses. 



Again, a real weed, a blue-flowered one resembling in general 

 effect our familiar Pickerel-weed, occupies marshy fore- 

 grounds with Rice-fields beyond and distant reaches of water 

 or ranges of hills ; and still again we see a Rape-crop in 

 flower, making wide bright yellow stretches across the whole 

 canvas. 



In contrast with such pictures as these are others where the 

 plants near at hand are carefully defined and elaborated in 

 leaf, petal and stamen— as in the very characteristic " Lotus 

 Patch at Kawasaki," where a big clump of the huge blue-green 

 leaves and pink blossoms rises from a Rice-field — not accident- 

 ally occurring, and not grownfor the sake of beauty, but for the 

 sake of the edible roots. Naturally, Mr. Parsons very often shows 

 us the Lotus, but seldom twice in similar situations. Here it 

 occupies half the picture, filling a pond by a temple in Tokio, 

 with a bridge and a part of the temple completing the compo- 

 sition. Then we see it growing rampant in the "Old Moat at 

 Akasi Castle," with groves of Bamboo beyond it ; and this is 

 one of the most charming of all the pictures. And, once more, 

 we have a "Study of White Lotus" on a larger scale, in 

 which the very blue leaves of this variety and its great snowy 

 blossoms are explained with especial care and skill. 



Almost as numerous as what I may call the Lotus land- 

 scapes are those where the chief role is played by great masses 

 of Lycoris Japonica. These plants Mr. Parsons calls "Autumn 

 Lilies," but they belong, not to the Lily, but to the Amaryllis, 

 family. Their flowers are not very large, but are borne, many 

 together, on the top of naked stems late in the summer after 

 the leaves have withered ; and, being of the brightest scarlet, 

 they are extremely effective in the mass as well as very charm- 

 ing in form when individually examined. Mr. Parsons shows 

 us in what varied situations they may grow — now encircling a 

 little graveyard huddled full of gray head-stones, on an ap- 

 parently dry site; now edging a cultivated field, just under 

 the edge of the slightly raised road, bordered by plantations of 

 Pine-trees, which is such a characteristic feature in Japan ; and 

 now (in one of the most charming of all the pictures) forming 

 irregular clumps amid tall grass near an evergreen grove be- 

 yond which lies a placid bit of water. I am not aware that this 

 scarlet Lycoris has yet been cultivated in our country ; but Mr. 

 Parsons' revelation of its beauty ought at once to bring it into 

 high favor. 



Japanese Lilies of many kinds we already know and value ; 

 and, consequently, it is interesting to see how the Japanese 

 behold them. On the shore of Lake Chusenji Mr. Parsons 

 shows us orange-colored ones growing wild and grouped with 

 tall bushes of white Rosa multiflora ; on a moor near Nikko, 

 white ones (L. auratum) mingle effectively with the tall flower- 

 ing-stems of Bocconia Japonica ; in a Bamboo-grove at Ten- 

 nenji (the multitudinous details of which Mr. Parsons has most 

 delightfully worked out) grows Rosa multiflora again with 

 Lilium Krameri ; and in the picture called " A Field of Lilies " 

 we have L. auratum once more, but grown as a crop. Tiie 

 bulbs of this plant are in such demand for exportation that 

 fields much more extensive than Mr. Parsons has printed are 

 devoted to its cultivation ; and I remember a photograph 

 in which wide masses of it covered the ground between 

 the small tree-trunks in a young fruit-orchard. 



Of fruit-trees in blossom Mr, Parsons naturally shows us 

 many examples — ^Plums, Cherries and Peaches in all shades of 

 white and pink and red. But Azaleas are perhaps more pro- 

 fusely explained to us than any other plant, and it is hard to 

 say where we admire them most — in foregrounds beyond 

 which show stretches of sea-shore or lake-shore, in temple 

 gardens, or on hill-sides where small stone Buddhas stand 

 amid their gay masses. 



Of course, these are not all the flowers of Japan which our 

 artist celebrates, but I have space to speak only of one or two 

 more pictures which especially appealed to me. Among these 

 is the "Sacred Palm-tree, Ryugeji," a faithful portrait of what 

 is supposed to be the oldest Cycad in Japan, with a huge short 

 trunk and a spreading head, supported, in its old age, by many 

 props ; the large " Edge of Kasuga Park, Nara," interesting by its 

 contrast with the more wholly naturalistic scenes ; the studies 

 of purple Wistaria clambering over trees in this park just as it 

 does in our own Central Park; the "Peonies by the Temple 

 Steps, Hasodera," which is especially brilliant in color ; the 

 "Single Camellia, Corner of Hotel Garden, Hara," which 

 seemed to me the most perfect bit of color in the whole col- 

 lection ; the " Iris Pond near Osaka," filled with masses of Iris 

 hevigata or Kaempferi ; and the "Foot of Nantaizan," where 

 we see, growing in wild profusion. Irises of another and a 

 smaller sort. 



It should be added, in conclusion, that Mr. Parsons' pic- 

 tures are unfortunately framed. They are enclosed with- 



