April 26, 1893.J 



Garden and Forest. 



189 



I should suggest that these three points Be borne in mind : 

 Where continuous passing and frequent houses close to the 

 road (as in village streets) demand shade-trees, there artificial 

 and regular tree-planting, especially of Elms, is appropriate 

 both for use and beauty. That in improving country roads 

 outside of villages, we should remember that improving does 

 not necessarily mean changing in effect, apart from keeping 

 the road in order. That what may be a most charming addi- 

 tion inland may be inharmonious by the sea ; and that in 

 every case we should consider whether we are working for 

 use or for beauty, or for both combined, so that each result 

 may be appropriate. 



Pride's Crossing, Mass. 



L. P. L. 



Pruning Grape-vines. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — By an oversight several Grape-vines on my place were 

 not pruned last autumn or during the winter. I am told that if 

 they are pruned now they will be weakened by much bleeding. 

 What is your advice in the matter ? 



Hartford, Conn. ^- A. 



[Prune the vines at once. They will undoubtedly bleed 

 freely, but we have never seen any evil effects from such 

 a loss of sap. With very vigorous vines this loss might 

 tend to lessen the growth of new cane, but sometimes this 

 would be a desirable result. One who is nervous at the 

 sight of blood and apprehensive of injury will be spared 

 some alarm by simply rubbing off the buds which are not 

 wanted, and then waiting to prune until the remaining buds 

 have expanded into leaves and have made a good growth. 

 The early run of sap will drop almost as soon as the 

 cut is made, but no such loss occurs to growing vines 

 when they are summer-pruned and the leaves are do- 

 ing their work. Some German gardeners defer their 

 pruning until the buds are well started, late in May, and 

 they are successful cultivators of the Grape. Opinions differ 

 among experts as to the best time for pruning. Many in- 

 sist that February is the only proper season for this work, 

 but the preferable practice seems to be to prune in October 

 and November after the leaves fall. However, when this 

 is neglected for any reason, as in the case of our corre- 

 spondent, we should have no hesitation about pruning at 

 the present season. — Ed.] 



Recent Publications. 



Economic Fungi. By A. B. Seymour and F. S. Earle. 



The fifth fascicle of this series of specimens, designed 

 principally to illustrate the fungous diseases of useful and 

 noxious plants, is chiefly concerned with " Uredinese para- 

 site on woody plants, including gymnosporangia, with their 

 ascedial stages." Professors Seymour and Earle, in edit- 

 ing and publishing this work, are doing a valuable service 

 to all who are interested in the subject of mycology, and to 

 vegetable pathologists in particular. While thirteen families 

 of plants are represented among the fungi considered in fas- 

 cicle V. (Nos. 201 to 250), the two orders which take the lead 

 are the Rosacese and Coniferce, the former containing the 

 .(Ecidial and the latter the Teleutosporic forms of the several 

 species of gymnosporangium. 



From the standpoint of the fruit-grower, perhaps, the most in- 

 terestingspecimens are those of Gymnosporangium globosum, 

 Farl., and G. macropus, Lk. The former is common upon the 

 Red Cedar, as small galls, while the latter produces the so- 

 called " Cedar-apples," which often measure an inch in diame- 

 ter and have long orange gelatinous horns during moist 

 weather in spring. From the Cedar the spores are carried to 

 the young apple-leaves and there produce orange patches, 

 which, in the worst cases, are confluent and cover the whole 

 leaf. This collection shows fine specimens of the two species, 

 both upon the Cedar and the Apple. The G. globosum grows 

 upon several species of the Rose family, and specimens are 

 shown upon Crataegus coccinea, C. punctata, Pyrus Americana 

 and P. coronaria. 



Of interest to the mycologist are the specimens of Gym- 

 nosporangium Bermudianum, Earle. This fungus is re- 

 markable in that the two forms are produced in succession 

 upon the same galls upon the Juniper. In other words, the 

 .(Ecidial form precedes the final spores upon the Cedar, and 



no member of the Rosaceae seems necessary in the life his- 

 tory of this rust. The new species of Pine-rust, Coleosporium 

 Pini, by Professor Galloway, on leaves of Pinus inops, is also 

 included, while several species of Peridermium of the Pine 

 group are given. 



How to Know the Wild Flowers. By Mrs. William Starr Dana. 

 Illustrated by Marion Satterlee. New York: Charles Scribner& 

 Sons. 



The purpose of this book is well set forth in its sub-title, 

 where it is described as a guide to the names, haunts and 

 habits of our common wild flowers. This is practically the 

 purpose which an ordinary manual of botany serves, but the 

 author, as is explained in the preface, imagines that learners 

 have a dread of technical terms and scientific classification. 

 The plants described are, therefore, not arranged in natural 

 orders, but are grouped by colors in accordance with a sug- 

 gestion once made by Mr. John Burroughs. On this plan 

 about a hundred pages are devoted to white flowers and their 

 description, fifty more to yellow flowers, and so on through 

 pink, red, blue, purple and miscellaneous to the end. The 

 - flowers of each color are then arranged as far as possible to con- 

 form with their time of blooming, so that the learner will find 

 flowers succeeding each other in the same order as that in 

 which they appear by brook-side and road-side. The book 

 does not attempt to furnish a complete list of plants. Butter- 

 cups, Wild Roses, Thistles and other species which everybody 

 is supposed to know are ruled out. Plants with inconspicuous 

 flowers, among which are mentioned Ragweed and Plantain, 

 are also excluded, as well as the rarer plants and escapes from 

 gardens. Each plant has a brief description with the common 

 and scientific name and the English name of the family to 

 which it belongs. There are illustrations of rather more than 

 a hundred of the flowers described, and in choosing the sub- 

 jects those which are prominent for their beauty or for their 

 special interest have been usually selected. The pictures are 

 gracefully drawn, but since they have been prepared for the 

 special purpose of identification, it would have been better if 

 less study had been given to mere artistic effect and more 

 pains taken to show sharply the distinctive characters of the 

 subjects. Careful reproductions of outline drawings would 

 have been more useful than the text as a popular aid to deter- 

 mining species, but one might be thoroughly familiar with 

 some of the plants figured here and yet be unable to identify 

 their portraits ; still the pictures are generally helpful as well as 

 pretty. Their usefulness would have been increased if the scale 

 on which they are drawn had been indicated in every case. 



All efforts to familiarize people with our native plants and 

 flowers are praiseworthy, and we trust that this book will stimu- 

 late many readers to investigate our native flora. There may 

 be persons who like its poetical quotations and the chatty 

 talk of its descriptions better than the more exact and com- 

 plete statements in botanical handbooks, although we appre- 

 hend that it is a mistake to suppose tliat detailed botanical 

 descriptions are dry to any one who has a real desire to study 

 flowers. 



Potash in Agriculture is a little pamphlet which has real 

 value, although it is issued from the office of the German Kali 

 Works in this city as an advertisement of the potash salts 

 which they have to sell. The quotations from the experiment- 

 station bulletins, in which are recorded the results of using 

 potash as a fertilizer, make an interesting body of experience. 

 Years ago the use of plaster was universal in many farming 

 regions where it now shows no good results. We have some- 

 times thought that this was because the plaster had helped the 

 plants to exhaust the potash-supply in the soil. At all events, 

 we have observed that the use of potash on such lands has 

 generally proved immediately efficacious. 



Notes. 



A man, now living in Bushkill, Pennsylvania, who is sixty- 

 seven years of age, planted a White Pine-tree near a spring on 

 his father's farm when he was a boy some twelve years old. 

 The circumference of that tree is now ten feet and seven 

 inches. 



We have often invited attention to the beauty of the leaves 

 of forest-trees in spring, and have ventured to assert that for 

 variety and delicacy of color they are not excelled even by the 

 display of rich color which makes our woods famous in au- 

 tumn. In this latitude there are few trees showing leaf as yet, 

 but last week the light yellow-green leaves of the Willows just 

 began to appear, and in bright sunshine the trees were singu- 



