1 90 



Garden and Forest. 



[NUM.6£R>70. 



larly beautiful, as they seemed to be enveloped in a luminous 

 mist. 



A correspondent writes that he has lately sent to a dozen of 

 the leading plantsmen of the country for the single white- 

 flowered Paeony, Pasonia albiflora, and has been unable to get 

 a plant. This is not a new plant, and it ought not to be difficult 

 to obtain. The flowers are of the purest white and of a 

 satiny texture, four or five inches in diameter, rather cup- 

 shaped, and enclosing a cluster of bright yellow stamens. Be- 

 sides being one of the most beautiful of hardy flowers, here, 

 these Pagonies are delightfully fragrant. 



A late number of the London Garden contained a beautiful 

 plate representing several choice varieties of Dendrobium 

 Phalaenopsis, and the beauty of these flowers will make it ap- 

 parent why the lovers of Orchids should be grateful that this 

 species has now been collected in such quantity as to place it 

 within the reacii of every one. The plants grow freely and 

 mature their pseudo-bulbs if kept in a hot moist house dur- 

 ing the summer, where, in the climate of England, they are 

 exposed to full sunshine. Hybridists are already making suc- 

 cessful crosses between this and other species. 



A German horticultural paper calls the attention of tourists 

 to the fact that they may be grievously deceived in thinking 

 that the objects which they buy in Switzerland, decorated with 

 dried blossoms of the Edelweiss, are really mementoes of the 

 Alps. An enterprising horticulturist near Dantiz, on the 

 northern coast of Germany, has, we are told, established an 

 Edelweiss-farm, whence, last year, considerable quantities of 

 the flowers were sent to a tradesman on the other side of the 

 Alps, while this year the amount thus exported will be twice 

 as large. The seeds are sown in tepid fertilized beds at the 

 end of March or beginning of April, and are transplanted once 

 before they are set out in the fields in July, after which it is 

 only needful to weed the ground and loosen the soil around 

 the plants. 



The third edition of Les Maladies de la Vigne, by Professor 

 Pierre Viala, recently appeared at Paris and Montpellier in the 

 series entitled Bibliotheque du Progres Agricole et Viticole. 

 The second edition, which appeared in 1887, was a volume of 

 462 pages, well illustrated with wood-cuts and a few colored 

 plates. The present edition, which was awarded the Desma- 

 zi^rs prize by the French Institute, is a superb volume of nearly 

 600 large octavo pages, beautifully printed and admirably illus- 

 trated. The subject-matter has been entirely remodeled and 

 brought up to date, including the results of researches, some 

 of which were made as late as 1892. There is probably no 

 work relating to the diseases of any cultivated plant which has 

 ever been offered to the public in so attractive a form, and 

 none which furnishes a more complete and scientific account, 

 both of the diseases and the methods of combating them. 

 The author is to be congratulated on the successful publica- 

 tion of a work destined to form one of the classics of vegeta- 

 ble pathology. 



We have received from Mr. T. S. Brandegee, of San Fran- 

 cisco, a specimen of the wood of Populus Mondcola, the fine 

 Poplar-tree which he discovered in Lower California, and 

 which was figured in these columns (vol. iv., p. 329). This 

 specimen, which only shows the sap-wood, is quite unlike the 

 wood of other Poplars ; it is light red, much resembling cherry 

 in color, and is close-grained, moderately hard, and shows a 

 handsome satiny surface. It appears well suited for the inte- 

 rior finish of houses or for the better classes of cabinet-work ; 

 and it is therefore desirable that this tree should be tested for 

 timber in countries with temperate climates. As it grows 

 naturally at a considerable elevation above the sea, where the 

 temperature sometimes falls below freezing-point, Populus 

 Monticola might be expected to thrive in southern California 

 and in all the Mediterranean basin. As it is a tree of large size, 

 and as it will probably grow under favorable conditions as rap- 

 idly as other Poplar-trees, its introduction as a source of 

 timber-supply may prove to be a matter of great economic 

 importance. 



Many French horticultural societies have petitioned the 

 Government during recent years to substitute fruit for forest 

 trees in the plantations made along railway routes. To these 

 petitions the Ministry of Public Works has now replied by say- 

 ing that, some twelve years ago, it recommended the employ- 

 ment of fruit-trees for the purpose named, that extensive ex- 

 periments had since been made, and that these experiments 

 had shown the inferiority of fruit-trees to forest-trees. Either 

 the fruit-trees had not flourished or they had been pillaged and 



mutilated by marauders ; and, moreover, they cast too heavy 

 a shade, thus causing dampness and deterioration in road-beds 

 near which they stood. " It is needful," says the explanatory 

 circular, " that trees planted along tracks shall be capable of 

 developing in isolation into tall slenderforms.so that excessive 

 shade may be avoided ; and this requirement is best fulfilled 

 by forest-trees. Therefore the administration has renounced 

 the attempt to popularize the plantation of fruit-trees except in 

 one or two departments, where a single species of nut-bearing 

 trees will henceforth be admissible." In Belgium the case is 

 about the same, and, indeed, a member of Parliament re- 

 marked, when the question was recently under discussion, 

 that the only trees which should be planted along railway- 

 tracks were telegraph-poles. 



Professor J. P. Stelle, agricultural editor of the Mobile 

 Register, feeling assured that the pecan-nuts grown in the city 

 of Mobile were of remarkably good quality, invited persons 

 with trees in bearing to send him some samples. He received 

 nearly a hundred responses, and early in the year he pub- 

 lished a classified description of twenty-two of these nuts, 

 grading them according to (i) size of nut, (2) thinness of shell, 

 (3) fullness of interior, (4) firmness of kernel, and (5) excel- 

 lence of flavor. Being judged in this way, some of the largest 

 and most beautiful nuts were classified below the smaller ones 

 which had reached a higher development in other particulars 

 than size and appearance. The nut which headed the list was 

 slightly conical in shape, about one and three-quarter inches 

 in length and one inch in diameter. The second nut was two 

 and one-eighth inches long and seven-eighths of an inch in 

 diameter, blunt at each end, regular and with a firm kernel of 

 exceedingly fine flavor. The tree which bore this is now fifty 

 feet high, and came from a nut planted thirty years ago, and 

 bears from six to seven bushels of nuts annually. The third was 

 one and three-quarter inches in length and one inch in diame- 

 ter, slightly conical and sloping toward the beak from one- 

 quarter of the length of the base. From the twenty-two de- 

 scriptions given, it is plain that the nuts were sufficiently 

 distinct to warrant their division into separate classes. They 

 differed widely in many particulars, but the shells of all were 

 so thin that any of them could have been crushed in the hand 

 by pressing two of them together. Judging from the recorded 

 yields of the trees which bear many of these nuts, it is not sur- 

 prising that one of Professor Stelle's correspondents should 

 state that a bearing Pecan-grove was worth more to its owner 

 than an Orange-orchard, or, indeed, than any other kind of an 

 orchard. 



At a sub-station of the Michigan Experiment Station trials 

 have been carried on for some years with a view to discover- 

 ing plants adapted to the sandy soil of the Jack Pine Barrens 

 in the northern part of that state. There is very little vegetable- 

 mold in this soil. The winters are long and cold, there is 

 always danger of untimely frosts in late spring and early au- 

 tumn, and, although the entire rainfall of the year is not short 

 of the average for the region, a long summer drought is usual, 

 when the sun beats on the sand and scorches all vegetation 

 which has not extraordinary powers of endurance. The Eu- 

 ropean plant known as Spurry (Spergula arvensis), a member 

 of the Pink family, has been tried now for some years, and 

 both the officers of the station and the farmers who have tested 

 it have found it a good plant for plowing under to fertilize 

 the land as well as an excellent forage crop for cattle and 

 sheep. The seed germinates very quickly, and a field will be 

 green on the third day from sowing. In six weeks it can be 

 mowed for hay and the seed will be ripe in eight weeks. It is 

 in the best condition for pasturage from four to six weeks 

 after sowing, though, if necessary, animals can be turned into 

 the field much sooner. One farmer writes, that with proper 

 care fifteen or twenty bushels of the seed, which is smaller 

 than clover-seed, can be raised to the acre. But since Spurry 

 dies after seeding, the experimenters are lookingfor a perennial 

 plant which has value, both for forage and for green manure, 

 and which will endure pretty severe frost, and roots so deeply 

 as not to be injured by severe drought. Experiments are now 

 in progress in the Michigan Barrens with the so-called Flat Pea, 

 Lathyrussilvestris, a plant long known to botanists in Europe, 

 and which, in its wild state, contains elements unpalatable 

 and unhealthful to animals. It is claimed that Herr Wagner, 

 of Wurtemburg, has bred out these undesirable qualities, and 

 seed of this strain is under trial. The experimenters do not 

 care to make positive assertions about the value of this plant 

 as yet, but so far it promises to endure considerable frost, 

 to winter well and to make good growth on this soil. It does 

 not seed until the second year, but cattle eat the green forage 

 readily. 



