128 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 264. 



out margins or mats, in gold borders which are much too 

 heavy for such delicate pieces of handiwork, and, impelling the 

 eye to contrast them with the works in oil for which such 

 frames are appropriate, do injustice to the skill with which Mr. 

 Parsons has used his aquarelles. All the examples would 

 look better, and some of them would look much better, 

 had they been mounted in a more appropriate fashion. And, 

 moreover, I think they would appear most entirely successful 

 —alike in color and in handling — if, instead of being seen as 

 they hang on an exhibition wall, they could be drawn one by 

 one from a portfolio for separate and close inspection. 

 New York. M. G. Van Reftsselaer. 



Notes. 



In rural England the blossoming twigs of Willow, which our 

 children call "Pussy-Willows," are often used in churches on 

 Palm-Sunday, as the only available branches which have yet 

 begun to show proofs of returning life. 



In Germany 200,000 families are supported from the care of 

 the forests, upon which about $40,000,000 are expended an- 

 nually, 3,000,000 people more finding employment in the va- 

 rious wood industries of the empire. The forest account 

 shows an annual profit of between $5,000,000 and $6,000,000. 



The largest vineyard in the world, according to a corre- 

 spondent of the Tribune of this city, belongs to Senator Stan- 

 ford, of California. It consists of 3,500 acres of bearing vines. 

 A large warehouse and cellar for the wine and brandy are to be 

 completed at once at Port Costa, near the Mare Island Navy 

 Yard, and at the edge of deep water, to facilitate shipping. 



A correspondent of The Journal of Horticulture says that 

 he has raised seedling potatoes for more than half a century, 

 and has always found those having yellow-colored flesh or 

 skin to be the finest-flavored. In the production of new 

 varieties, too, much attention is usually given to productive- 

 ness and showiness, and too little to flavor and nutritive 

 qualities. 



The total rainfall in the northern counties of California has 

 been this year twenty-five inches, while the fall throughout the 

 entire state has been more than fifteen inches. The recent 

 excessive rains have checked the planting of fruit-trees and will 

 probably lessen the acreage planted. For this reason Navel 

 Orange-trees are now selling for twenty-five cents each, while 

 they were held firmly last month at seventy-five cents each. 



A Horticultural Congress, organized by the Society Nationale 

 d'Horticulture de France, will be held in Paris at the time of 

 the spring horticultural exhibition, from the 24tli to the 29th of 

 May. The following subjects will be discussed : The value of 

 chemical manures in the market-garden and in orchard-cul- 

 ture ; the production and value of hybrids ; the most econom- 

 ical methods of heating greenhouses ; the comparative in- 

 fluence upon the vegetation of greenhouse-plants of the heat 

 of the sun and of the atmosphere ; the different soils used in 

 horticulture ; the comparison between French and foreign 

 horticulture. 



The practice of defacing natural scenery with great adver- 

 tisements is not so prevalent in the United States as it was a 

 generation ago, and public sentiment is steadily growing 

 stronger against it. This practice has recently developed in 

 England to such an extent that lovers of Nature recognize that 

 some definite action must be taken. The Thames valley, the 

 most picturesque mountain spots in Wales and the loveliest 

 corners of Devonshire have been greatly injured by huge ad- 

 vertisements. The well-known architect, Mr. Waterhouse, 

 has proposed that if they cannot actually be prohibited, they 

 should at least be diminished by the imposition of a heavy 

 license-tax. 



At a recent meeting of the Agricultural Society, in Paris, 

 Monsieur Maurice de Vilmorin exhibited a blossoming 

 spray of the new Asiatic Rose, Rosa sericea. Its home is in 

 the Himalayan regions of the Chinese provinces Yunnan, 

 Sz-Tschwan and eastern Kanson. Its seeds were sent home 

 two years ago by the French missionary. Father Delavey. The 

 young plants were kept over their first winter in cold frames 

 and now are vigorous shrubs with a singular appearance. A 

 foreign journal describes them as remarkable on account of 

 the yellow flowers, the calyx and corolla of which have only 

 four segments, while our roses have five ; and also on ac- 

 count of the peculiar character and size of the thorns, of which 

 there are two kinds. One kind are very numerous, long, thin 

 and sharp, but similar to those on our Roses ; the other kind, 

 found at the base of each leaf, are fiat, very long, and bent in 



the middle so that their outline is like that of two bows join- 

 ing in a blunt point. 



We have received a preliminary catalogue of the flora of 

 West Virginia, by Professor C. F. Millspaugh, one of the in- 

 teresting regions, botanically, in eastern America, and almost 

 a virgin field, as few botanists have ever explored it systemat- 

 ically, although a few partial lists of West Virginia plants have 

 been published in recent years. Professor Millspaugh's cata- 

 logue will be of great service, therefore, to students of Vir- 

 ginia botany, and will enable them to aid the author in com- 

 pleting his work, which, he tells us, does not cover "all that 

 unexplored and fascinating region lining the south of the 

 great Kanawha River — a region that, as far as I can learn, the 

 toot of the naturalist has never trod." In the nomenclature, 

 the principle of priority and the double-credit system is 

 adopted. 



A remarkable dwarf Cedar, known to be three hundred years 

 old, was sent some time ago to the Chicago Fair by the Em- 

 peror of Japan. It seems strange to learn that it was prepared 

 for transportation by being taken from its pot and wrapped in 

 paper ; and not at all strange that when it reached Jackson 

 Park it should have been nearly dead. Every effort was used to 

 resuscitate it, but a few days ago it died.' Nevertheless, its 

 defunct form will be carefully set in a pot and exhibited in the 

 Horticultural Building. It is described as a remarkable exam- 

 ple of the skiU of the Japanese in retarding the growth of trees 

 and yet preserving, in miniature, the aspect of an ancient, 

 weather-worn specimen. It is larger than the most interesting 

 of these dwarfs which were shown at the Paris Exhibition, 

 being about three feet in height. 



A writer in a recent issue of American Gardening describes 

 a cheap and effective tree-guard made by driving three stout 

 stakes in a circle about the tree, equally distant from one 

 another. Fence wire is then stapled to one of the stakes close 

 to the ground and wound around the stakes close enough to 

 prevent animals from getting their heads between the spaces 

 until the top of the stakes is reached. A few staples driven in 

 at intervals hold the wire in place. It is evident that a tree- 

 guard made in this way is better than one made of wood, as 

 It excludes little sun from the tree and does not afford shelter 

 to insects ; it protects the trees from workmen that are care- 

 less with plow or cultivator, and when the trees are large 

 enough no longer to need protection the stakes can be drawn 

 out, the wire unwound and used elsewhere. 



On the African as well as on the European coast of the west- 

 ern part of the Mediterranean Sea, flowers are largely grown 

 for the purpose of making perfumes. A favorite plant is the 

 Rose Geranium, and one farm has been described where the 

 plantations of it cover seventy acres. This area is divided into 

 four parts, which are occupied, respectively, by plants one, 

 two, three and four years old. Those which have attained the 

 age of four years are gathered wholesale for the distillery, the 

 ground they leave bare being immediately reset with slips. 

 The collected plants, which average fully two feet in height, 

 are carried by cart-loads to the distillery, where, in great copper 

 vats, they are subjected to the action of steam. This extracts 

 their oil, and, in a cooler connected by pipes with the vat, the 

 oU gradually separates from the water which condenses from 

 the steam, and is then ready to be bottled for the market. The 

 copper vats are then raised and placed on tram-cars, which are 

 run out into the fields, where their contents are emptied on the 

 soil to fertilize it. Sweet Alyssum is one of the weeds which 

 most seriously trouble the cultivators of these Geranium-fields. 



Cuba is now furnishing string beans at twenty cents a quart, 

 peppers at thirty cents a dozen, okra at forty cents a hundred, 

 and for twenty-five cents a dozen small egg-plant fruits, some 

 four inches long and two inches in diameter. Florida is send- 

 ing to our markets lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, squashes and 

 beets. New Florida potatoes are said to be superior to those 

 from either Cuba or the Bermudas, and sell at from sixty to 

 eighty cents a peck. They are grown on newly cleared land as 

 a preparatory crop for pineapples and bananas, and are of 

 especially fine flavor, and cook dry. Long Island mushrooms 

 bring from fifty cents to a dollar a pound, according to quality, 

 and rhubarb is ten cents a bunch. The northern hot-house 

 lettuce is the best in the market, crisp and white, and sells for 

 fifty cents a dozen. Other northern hot-house products are 

 carrots at fifty cents a dozen, radishes at five cents a bunch, 

 large egg-plants from twenty to fifty cents each, and dandelion 

 at fifteen cents a quart. 13oston cucumbers are twenty-five 

 cents each. A large flesh-colored squash from the Sandwich 

 Islands, resembling the Boston Marrow, is selling for fifteen 

 and twenty-five cents. Shallots sell readily to French buyers 

 at thirty cents a dozen. 



