t^o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number a6^. 



them ; in the painstaking way in which their history had 

 been studied, and in the instructive notes on their value for 

 various purposes. 



In his preface to the book Mr. Ellwanger stated that no manual 

 of Roses can ever be final, because not only new varieties, but 

 new classes and types of Roses, are constantly being produced 

 by the introduction of new blood. A noteworthy example of 

 this is seen in the recent hybridizing of the Sweet Brier with 

 well-known Hybrid Perpetual and other garden Roses. Of 

 course, new diseases and new insect enemies, which must be 

 met and controlled, make their appearance almost every year, 

 and even in the cultivation of the Hower which has been grown 

 for centuries, new methods, or modification of old methods, 

 are always on trial, and these will always furnish original mat- 

 ter for a new treatise. These considerations will suffice to 

 justify the revised edition of this work which has just been 

 published. In addition to the original matter, the book con- 

 tains an appendix, which was written by Mr. Ellwanger for 

 T/ie Century Magazine ; it contains also an introduction by the 

 brother of the author, Mr. George H. Ellwanger ; while the 

 catalogue of varieties, which is brought down to last year, con- 

 tains one hundred and thirty-two more names than the origi- 

 nal, making i,o86all told. Altogether, this is a book which can 

 be heartily commended, and which no grower or lover of 

 Roses can afford to be without. 



Notes. 



Galanthus Imperati is an Italian Snowdrop, in great favor for 

 its well-shaped pointed buds. It is one of the most robust and 

 largest-flowering of the family. Several forms have been dis- 

 tinguished in cultivation. A specimen of the still rare and ex- 

 pensive Atkins' variety, recently brought to this office by Mr. 

 Gerard, showed a bold flower, with the perianth about 

 an inch and a half long, and borne on a scape nearly a foot 

 tall. 



Among the hardy plants wintered in cold frames at the nur- 

 series of Messrs. Pitcher & Manda, we found, on a recent visit 

 to Short Hills, Ins cristata, Bird's-foot Violets, Columbines, 

 Doronicums and many more in admirable flowering condition. 

 But the most interesting of all was the Iris Germanica, which 

 seems to delight especially in this treatment. Masses of these 

 plants placed in large pots last autumn and set in frames are 

 now very effective. 



The comparatively new Azalea vervsenikna brought much 

 better prices in this city than any other variety in the market 

 which was sold for Easter decoration. The plant was shown for 

 the first time in this country, we believe, by James Dean, at the 

 spring flower-show at Philadelphia, in 1891, when we spoke of 

 it as a very promising variety with double flowers, richly varie- 

 gated from white to deep crimson. It is very floriferous, and 

 small plants were entirely covered with blooms. 



The English horticultural journals are speaking in praise of 

 the interesting appearance which a mass of many varieties of 

 Dog-tooth Violets are now making at Kew. There is no rea- 

 son why the various species and varieties, which are always 

 beautiful in form and many of them exquisite in color, should 

 not be more frequently seen in American gardens. They like 

 a little shade and a good peaty soil. The border of a Rhodo- 

 dendron bed is just such a situation as they desire. 



The advantages of pruning fruit-trees low, so as to bring the 

 heads near the ground, are summarized as follows, by Profes- 

 sor Rane, in a late bulletin of the West Virginia Experiment 

 Station. Low trees can be more easily pruned and their fruit 

 more easily gathered. They can be more conveniently sprayed, 

 and thus protected against insects and fungi, and are not so 

 liable to break down. The vigor which is required to build 

 up a trunk in a high-headed tree can be used to advantage by 

 the branches and fruit of a low-headed one. 



Colonel A. W. Pearson, of Vineland, New Jersey, has grafted 

 on stocks of his Ironclad Grape about one thousand scions of 

 Black Hamburg, Muscat of Alexandria and other varieties of 

 the European Grape. He has not done this with the view of 

 improving the Ironclad, which he still considers the most val- 

 uable wine-grape for his purposes, but he uses it as a founda- 

 tion for the scions of Vitis vinifera, because it is proof against 

 phylloxera, and he has perfect confidence that the European 

 Grapes can be grown to advantage if the copper compounds 

 are used to prevent mildew. The Ironclad is a very vigorous 

 vine, and Colonel Pearson thinks that other vines grafted upon 

 this stock will improve in size and the time of their ripening 

 will be hastened. 



According to Gartenfiora, about fifty German horticulturists 

 have now signified their intenfion to exhibit at Chicago. The 

 Dresden Association of Florists will make a particularly im- 

 portant display, having asked for 100 square metres of covered 

 space for Camellias, and 300 for Azalea Indica, with 300 square 

 metres of outdoor space for Roses. One Dresden grower will 

 contribute 500 blossoming Azaleas, and Herr Barth, of Porae- 

 rania, will send a fine collecfion of Caladiums. Altogether, 

 Germany promises to rank third among the nations exhibiting, 

 as regards quantity, and it seems to be well content with the 

 spaces assigned, which include 100 square metres under the 

 great dome of the Horticultural Building. 



One of the largest fruit-farms this side of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, according to a recent bulletin of the West Virginia Ex- 

 periment Station, is to be found on the foot-hills of the Blue 

 Ridge in Jefferson County, of that state. In 1887 Becker 

 Brothers set out 33,000 Peach-trees, since which time eight 

 adjoining tracts have been added, until the fruit-farm com- 

 prises 2,400 acres in one body. The planters have not stopped 

 with Peaches alone, but they have a large area in Grapes, 

 Quinces and Cherries, besides American and Japanese Plums, 

 Apricots, Japan Persimmons, Nectarines, English Walnuts, 

 Italian Chestnuts and Paper-shell Almonds. It will be inter- 

 esting to learn how well the soil and climate of West Virginia 

 is adapted to some of these fruits. 



For more than a week there have been reports of forest-fires 

 in various parts of New Jersey, and a large area of the sandy 

 plains in which the Pitch Pine predominates has been burned 

 over. There is little good timber on these lands except the 

 White Cedar, in the swamps, and much of the so-called forest 

 is merely brush-land or charred Pine-tree stumps. Neverthe- 

 less, these lands are capable of yielding a good forest-growth. 

 The annual fires, however, come with such certainty that the 

 owners of such land have little encouragement to devote them 

 to forestry. These fires in New Jersey, as elsewhere, do much 

 damage besides the destruction of timber. They render tim- 

 ber-growing so uncertain that forward-looking men are de- 

 terred from venturing upon it, even as an experiment. 



In an interesting article in the April number of the Overland 

 Monthly ii is stated that Pampas Grass was first introduced into 

 the United States in 1848 from South America, where the area 

 covered by this Grass amounts to i , 500,000 square miles. The 

 plumes have been grown for market in California only since 

 1872. From one tract of twenty-eight acres in that state, and 

 managed by a woman, 260,000 plumes were sold in 1890. The 

 soil and cultural requirements are similar to those of Corn, but 

 as the female plants produce the best plumes, it is customary 

 to propagate by division of roots in order to secure these. No 

 plumes are borne the first year ; the second year one plant will 

 bear twenty-five plumes, the third year seventy-five, and for 

 three years following a hundred or more, when the plant de- 

 teriorates. In California the Grass grows to a height of twenty 

 feet, and a single stool attains an equal diameter. The prin- 

 cipal market for the plumes is in London and Hamburg. Of 

 three leading varieties Hayward is the largest. The standard 

 retail price for a long time was fifty cents a plume ; they now 

 retail for from ten to twenty cents each, the grower receiving 

 one cent for small plumes and two cents for the larger 

 ones. 



During the Tulip mania which raged in Holland in the 

 seventeenth century, special marts for the sale of the 

 bulbs were opened in the mercantile exchanges of the 

 various cities. Speculators here bought them, in expec- 

 tation of a sudden rise or fall in prices, just as they buy 

 railroad stocks to-day ; and some were enriched to a de- 

 gree which now seems hardly credible when we consider 

 the character of their wares. Many persons converted 

 their whole property into cash for the sake of buying Tulips, 

 believing that the mania was destined to last forever, and to 

 spread all over the world ; and there was scarcely any one, how- 

 ever prudent and serious, who did not now and then take 

 what would to-day be called a "flyer," in Tulips. For a time 

 foreigners were wholly bitten by the Dutch craze, and to such 

 an extent that money flowed into Holland in unprecedented 

 streams. Indeed, in Paris and London, special marts, like 

 those of Holland, were established, and when Tulip-bulbs were 

 quoted in London at $1,000 each, Dutch cultivators naturally 

 felt rich and began to indulge in many unaccustomed splen- 

 dors of living. When the mania gradually died out the reac- 

 tion was, of course, correspondingly great ; and truly it may 

 be said that never, before or since, has a commodity of such 

 small intrinsic value disturbed, to anything like the same de- 

 gree, the economic condition of a whole nation. 



