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Garden and Forest 



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Connecticut Experiment Station Come reports of mixtures pre- 

 pared by farmers themselves, where the actual cost was greatly 

 reduced by a number of farmers who clubbed together and 

 gave cash orders for chemicals by the car-load. Altogether, 

 the book can be commended as a successful effort to classify 

 some of the facts in chemical science as it is related to agricul- 

 ture, and to help the farmer make a practical use of these facts. 



Notes. 



A statue to Bernard de Jussieu was recently erected in Lyons 

 on a small square near the Lafayette Bridge, and the square 

 itself was given the name of the famous botanist. 



This is the season when the hot-bed deserves close care. It 

 is essential that air should be given to young plants under 

 sashes every day, but it is equally essential that they should 

 receive no chill, for when vegetables like the Egg-plant, for 

 example, receive a check in their growth they never recover 

 their wonted vigor. When open to the air the soil dries out 

 very rapidly, and, therefore, watering must be frequent. But 

 here, too, caution should be given never to let the ground be- 

 come water-soaked. 



Mr. Gerard sends us a flower of the beautiful Iris Suwarowi, 

 which belongs to the sub-genus Regelia, established by Pro- 

 fessor Fpster. It is not a showy flower, but both sets of its 

 pale green perianth-segments are veined all over with a net- 

 work of claret-purple, and the falls have a beard of violet-blue, 

 while the anthers are a light sky-blue. Altogether it has a 

 grace of outline and delicacy of color which make it singularly 

 attractive. Like several other Irises of this section, it comes 

 from Turkestan, where it was discovered in 1885. 



In the Gardeners' Chronicle for the first of April, Mr. Baker 

 describes Iris atrofusca, a distinct new species of the Oncocy- 

 clus section, which has been imported from that part of Pales- 

 tine which lies east of the river Jordan. The plant is as tall 

 as Iris Susiana, but the outer segments of the perianth are 

 much shorter and of a brown-black, while the inner ones are 

 longer and broader and of a mottled dark claret-brown with 

 black veins. It is probable that many more species of this 

 beautiful group of Iris remain to be discovered in the little- 

 known regions of western Asia. 



From a recent Dublin newspaper we learn that Mr. Baylor 

 Hartland, of the Ard Cairn Nurseries, near Cork, has received 

 from Lady Aberdeen an order to supply a thousand pots of 

 Shamrock for the Irish village in Chicago. The first consign- 

 ment will be sent out on the i6th of April, and the plants will 

 be carried on the deck of the steamer, a rather dangerous 

 place, one would suppose, since irrigation with salt-water is 

 usually injurious to plant-life. So far as we know it is a rare 

 thing to send living market-plants of Shamrock from Ireland 

 to America, and if they will endure the voyage well this may 

 be the beginning of a thriving industry. If it should become 

 the fashion among the Irish families in America to cultivate 

 Shamrocks straight from the old sod there would be no limit 

 to the demand. 



The first shrub to brighten the thickets of Central Park with 

 its blossoms is the Cornelian Cherry (Cornus mascula). Its 

 precocious flowers are very small, but they are produced in 

 such abundance that they wreath the leafless branches with 

 yellow, and just now they make one wonder why the plant is 

 not more often used in American shrubberies. There are oc- 

 casional plants of our native Leatherwood (Dirca palustris) in 

 the Ramble, and these are also in bloom, but the flowers are 

 not nearly as bright as those of the Cornus. Daphne Mezereum 

 would also be showing its pink-purple flowers if it had an op- 

 portunity, but it has never been planted here in any quantity. 

 The attractiveness of these early-flowering shrubs ought to en- 

 courage the propagation of Corylopsis pauciflora, which is one 

 of the most useful of this class of plants. 



In reply to a Canadian subscriber we would say that the 

 American Wonder long ago took its place as a Pea of estab- 

 lished merit. We should add that in some soils it is not satis- 

 factory in quality or in abundance of yield. Of course, the 

 earliest Peas should be planted as soon as the ground can be 

 worked. For home use it is good practice to plant Alpha for 

 the earliest crop, then some ten days or a fortnight later to 

 plant at the same time Alpha, Premium Gem. McLean's Ad- 

 vancer and Champion of England. These Peas follow each 

 other so closely in the order named that they will afford a con- 

 stant supply for three or four weeks. Additional plantings of 

 Champion of England or other good late varieties may be 

 made at intervals after the second planting. The varieties 



here named may not be absolutely the best, but they are all 

 good, and experience has proved that they can be trusted to 

 come into bearing in such regular succession as to make the 

 supply continuous. Some of the most recent introductions 

 have been improved in quality until they are toosweet, that is, 

 they contain too much sugar to suit the taste of many persons. 



On the great Daffodil farm of James Walker, at Ham, where 

 the plants are grown to perfection under the very smoke of 

 London, only the varieties which are best for the market are 

 cultivated on a large scale. These kinds must be of vigorous 

 growth, they must increase well and bear freely bold flowers 

 of fine color. It does not pay to cultivate the feeble varieties, 

 or those which have pale-colored flowers. Mr. Walker con- 

 siders Empress the best variety, and Horsfieldi almost as good. 

 Broad areas are also planted with the varieties Grandis, J. D. 

 Camm, the early-flowering Golden Spur, Countess of Annesley, 

 Aid Righ and Henry Irving. Narcissus obvallaris, usually 

 called the Tenby Daffodil, is also very popular, since its flowers 

 are of perfect shape and a clear self-yellow color. As a rule, the 

 flowers coming from the Cernuus type are not good market- 

 flowers. The bulbs are fastidious, and the white or pale sul- 

 phur color is against them, but the forms of N. Cernuus, 

 known as Pulcher, and Mrs. F. W. Burbidge are cultivated in 

 considerable quantity. Sir Watkin, which belongs to the In- 

 comparabilis section, with its bold, pleasing flgwerand strong 

 constitution, is in much favor, and so are Gloria mundi, Stella 

 and Princess Mary. But after Sir Watkin and Empress the 

 varieties of the Poet's Daffodil are grown more largely than any 

 others. Of these varieties, Ornatus is cultivated by thouands, 

 and so are Grandiflorus, Poetarum and Recurvus. Another 

 large Daffodil nursery is that of Mr. Baylor Hartland, near 

 Cork, Ireland, where eight acres of these plants contain 

 something like two millions of bulbs. A recent letter from 

 there states that more than two tons of cut flowers had already 

 been sold, while the later varieties were just coming into 

 bloom. 



A cable dispatch announces the death, at his home in Ge- 

 neva, of the venerable Alphonse de Candolle, one of the wisest 

 and most respected of the men who have devoted their lives 

 to the study of plants, and the second member of a family 

 whose name, it is safe to predict, wiU be remembered as long 

 as science lasts. The studies of the youhger Candolle, who 

 was born in Paris in 1806, before the estabUshment of his father 

 as professor of botany at Montpellier, have been chiefly de- 

 voted to the classification of flowering plants and to geograph- 

 ical botany. He worked almost entirely in the herbarium and 

 library, and it is doubtful if his journeys ever took him fur- 

 ther from Geneva than Paris and London. In 1830, when only 

 twenty-four years old, Alphonse de Candolle published a mon- 

 ograph of the CampanulacecE, a classical production which has 

 been considered a good model for works of this character, 

 and from that time until a few years ago hardly a year has 

 passed without the appearance of some important contribu- 

 tion in systematic botany from his pen. In 1824 the elder 

 Candolle began the publication of the Frodromus, a synoptical 

 flora of the flowering plants of the world, and at his death, in 

 1841, seven volumes had been published. The son continued 

 the work, and as editor and, in part, author brought it down to 

 the end of the seventeenth volume, published in 1873, when, 

 with the completion of the dicotyledonous plants it was discon- 

 tinued, although later, under a somewhat different form, a work 

 of a similar scope was begun and has been carried through 

 seven volumes by Alphonse de Candolle and by his son, who 

 worthily continues the labors and upholds the fame of the 

 family. The Prodromus is the great work of the Candofles. 

 For them this monument of learning and industry has earned 

 the gratitude and respect of every botanist in every country, 

 and no individual or family has ever produced a work of de- 

 scriptive science which has a better promise of long life and 

 universal recognition. The name of the younger Candolle ■ 

 will also be associated with the science of the geography of 

 plants ; and his Giographie Botanique, published in 1855, is 

 the great repository of facts relating to this subject. Of a sim- 

 ilar character, but of more general interest, is his later work on 

 the origin of cultivated plants. In 1867 Candolle presided over 

 the Congress of Botanists, held in Paris, and drew up a set of 

 rules for botanical nomenclature, which have been very gener- 

 ally adopted. 



The family of De Candolle, with its hundred years of con- 

 tinuous labor in one field, has made an immense contribution 

 to human knowledge ; it has added new lustre to its native 

 land and has set an example to the world of industry, patience, 

 uprightness and public spirit. The record is a noble one. 



