220 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 273. 



and its color seems rather disappointing. It can be hardly 

 called a yellow, but is rather a pale primrose, with a dark wine- 

 colored spot at the bottom of the spathe on the inside, The 

 spathe is very solid and waxy in texture and the foliage is 

 spotted with white. 



Among the large Chestnut-trees whose dimensions we have 

 lately seen on record is one in Middle Smithfield township, 

 Pennsylvania, the trunk of which measures nineteen feet in 

 circumference breast-high. The tree looks perfectly sound 

 and bears a fine crop of nuts every year. 



Just now the bud-scales of the Shell-bark Hickory, which 

 grow to a considerable size before they fall away, have a deli- 

 cate color which can scarcely be described in words. The true 

 leaves are just appearing, but these scales in young and thrifty 

 trees are sometimes three or four inches long and nearly half 

 as wide, with a golden tint quite similar to that of some of the 

 Cypripediums, especially those which contain the blood of 

 C. insigne. 



Strawberries are just beginning to come from Maryland to 

 this market, but the abundance of these southern berries has 

 no effect on the price of choice hot-house berries from New 

 Jersey, which are still worth a dollar a small cup. New tam- 

 arinds are selling for twenty cents a pound, and the first limes 

 in the market, some of them hardly half-grown, are twenty- 

 five cents a dozen. The orange known as King of Siam, a 

 beautiful fruit resembling a Tangarine orange in form and 

 quality, but larger, commands a dollar a dozen. Good hot- 

 house peaches are seventy-five cents apiece. 



Central Texas seems to enjoy the honor of possessing the 

 most western forest of Pinus Tseda. Forty years ago the hills 

 ' of Bastrop County were covered with this Pine, and the forest 

 extended to some of the neighboring counties. There was 

 much lumbering carried on there before the war, and large 

 fortunes were founded upon its profits, for the Pine-lumber 

 used at San Antonio and other cities in the south-west part of 

 the state came from this region. Our correspondent, Mr. 

 Plank, writes that the hills of the county are everywhere still 

 covered with Pine-trees, although those large enough for lum- 

 ber have disappeared long ago. The people have been wise 

 in allowing the younger ones to remain. 



A correspondent of the London Garden speaks highly of 

 three comparatively new Daffodils now blooming in Kew Gar- 

 dens. One is Glory of Leyden, with a flower larger even than 

 that of Emperor, and a pale trumpet of rich and decided shade 

 which contrasts well with the soft yellow perianth. Besides 

 this massive flower it has robust foliage and is a free grower. 

 The second is Madame De Graaf, another kind of vigorous 

 growth with pale sulphur-colored trumpet and a white peri- 

 anth. Gloria Mundi is the third, with yellow perianth and a 

 cup flushed with orange-scarlet. These plants are still expen- 

 sive, but they are all vigorous, and it is probable that they will 

 multiply so rapidly that they can soon be found in every col- 

 lection. 



Mr. J. G. Baker writes to the last number of the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle of some of the new plants which have lately come 

 from western Asia, from which region the horticultural world 

 is receiving so many spring-flowering bulbs. The first of these 

 is a Snowdrop (Galanthus Ikariae) with the bright broad green 

 leaves of G. Fosteri and the crisp edges of its inner segments, 

 like G. Elwesii. The next is a new species of Oncocyclus Iris 

 (I. Bismarckiana), which was introduced two or three years 

 ago from the Lebanon country, but which Mr. Baker has just 

 seen in flower. The outer segments are dark brown, with 

 a yellow groundwork, the inner segments very pale, so that 

 there is a great contrast in color between the rows. The third 

 is a new Scilla from the mountains of western Persia which re- 

 sembles some of the Hyacinths of the sub-genus Bellevallia, 

 but the segments of the flower are free down to the base. 

 It is dwarf, with small glaucous leaves and bright purple 

 flowers tipped with green. The last is a new Fritillaria (F. 

 WhittaUi), which closely resembles the English F. Meleagris. 



Writing in the April Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, 

 Mr. Arthur HoUick describes the recent discovery, in a creta- 

 ceous formation at Glen Cove, Long Island, of the leaf of a 

 hitherto unknown fossil Palm which he has called Serenopsis 

 Kempii. "The significance of this discovery, from the geo- 

 logical standpoint," he says, "need not here receive more 

 than brief mention. ... It is sufficient to say that the other 

 fossil leaves associated with it show the geological horizorr to 

 be the equivalent of the Amboy clays of New Jersey and other 

 middle cretaceous strata in America and Europe, from none of 



which have Palms been definitely recorded. The specimen in 

 question evidently belongs with the tribe Coryphese, and its 

 nearest living allies are to be looked for in the genera Trithri- 

 nax, Copernicia, Thrinax or Serensea (Sabal). The imperfect 

 condition of our specimen does not admit of accurate com- 

 parison, but there seems to be but little doubt that it is allied 

 to this group, and as we find associated with it leaves of trees 

 which demonstrate that they were the ancestors of our living 

 Liriodendron, Platanus, Sassafras, etc., we are certainly within 

 the bounds of reason when we infer that we have here one of 

 the ancestors of our southern Palmetto, as I have indicated in 

 the generic name. The specific name has been adopted in 

 honor of Professor James F. Kemp, of Columbia College, to 

 whom the credit for finding the specimen is due." Two pic- 

 tures of the leaf accompany Mr. HoUick's article. 



A recent bulletin of the California Experiment Station gives 

 a chemical analysis of several California fruits in order to show 

 their richness in the different elements, and also to show which 

 of the soil ingredients are most drawn upon by an ordinary 

 crop. In flesh-forming ingredients — ^that is, in albuminoid 

 contents — the figs rate first, with little choice between apri- 

 cots and plums for the second, and prunes and oranges nearly 

 equal for the third place. Apparenfly, the nectarine falls short 

 of the above fruits in these ingredients, but it still ranges 

 higher than apples and pears, if European data are accepted as 

 correct regarding the latter fruits. In the analysis of some of 

 the food constituents of cured fruits — that is, of dried com- 

 mercial prunes, apricots, grapes and figs — it seems that the 

 grape contains twenty per cent, more sugar than the apricot or 

 apple, and twelve per cent, more than the French prune. In 

 the quantity of mineral matter withdrawn from the soil it is 

 found that the European estimates cannot be safely used for 

 California fruit. Grapes take the lead in this particular, but 

 oranges do not stand in the second place, as they do in Europe. 

 The fig follows close after the grape, with the orange third, 

 and the prune, apricot and plum in the fourth place. Among 

 pitted fruits in CaUfornia the apricot leads in its demand upon 

 the soil for nitrogen, and therefore this should be liberally ap- 

 plied, especially in southern California soils, which are not 

 rich in their natural supply of this element. Phosphoric acid, 

 too, is only found in limited quantities in California soils, and 

 therefore orchards of Prunes, Oranges and Apricots will re- 

 quire phosphoric fertilizers among the first. Potash is the 

 leading ash ingredient, making fully three-fifths of the ash in 

 the case of prunes and apricots, and one-half of the ash in 

 the orange. California lands, however, are naturally so well 

 stocked with available potash that the supply will probably be 

 adequate for many years. 



In a recent issue of The Garden, Professor Michael Foster, 

 whose knowledge of Irises and of their cultivation is unri- 

 valed, contributes an exhausfive and most interesting paper 

 upon the Oncocyclus group of the genus, of which the well- 

 known Mourning Iris (I. Susiana) is the type. The paper is too 

 long to reproduce entirely, but, as Max Leichtlin and Professor 

 Foster himself have raised several hybrids from this group, 

 his views upon their fertility are interesting to cultivators who 

 may wish to experiment in raising seedlings or hybrids. 

 "The striking features," he says, "of an Oncocyclus Iris, 

 the large flower, so out of proportion to the scanty foliage, 

 the conspicuous coloration, the boldness of the marking, as 

 seen, for instance, in the intense color of the 'signal' patch on 

 the fall, the manner in which the anther is covered over and 

 hidden by the curved style, all these and other features tell us 

 very clearly that the flower needs the intervenfion of some in- 

 sect to secure fertilization. From the frequent occurrence of 

 seed-pods on imported rhizomes, I am led to infer that in its 

 native home an Oncocyclus Iris goes to seed freely ; and fur- 

 ther, from the condifion of imported roots, strengthened by 

 the behavior of the plants cultivated in this country, I am also 

 inclined to believe that the life of an individual rhizome is not 

 a very long one, and that the race is largely continued by seed- 

 ing. Here in this country plants left to themselves do not seed 

 freely. But this is due not to the coldness of our climate, but 

 to the absence of the proper fertilizing insects. Our bees, ac- 

 customed to more sober flowers, appear frightened at the 

 strange aspect of an Oncocyclus Iris ; at least I have never, so 

 far as I remember, seen one of these Irises visited by a bee or 

 other insect. On the other hand, if the flower be artificially 

 fertilized, it goes to seed with great readiness. I think I may 

 say that I am more sure of getting seed from an Oncocyclus 

 Iris than from almost any of the ordinary bearded Irises. They 

 cross readily with each other, and hybrids may be without any 

 great difficulty obtained between them and the ordinary 

 bearded Irises." 



