270 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 278. 



Notes. 



Harper's Magazine for July will contain an illustrated arti- 

 cle by Mr. Charles A. Piatt on the " Formal Gardens of Italy." 



Mr. E. S. Carman states that, after a full trial, the Palmetto 

 Asparagus, which is said to be a new variety, is not different 

 in any respects that he can discover from the old Conover's 

 Colossal. 



Perhaps cut-flowers of the yellow Sweet Sultan have often 

 been on sale in this city, but we never chanced to see any 

 until a fortnight ago, when we observed in some florists' win- 

 dows very well-grown flowers of what seems to be a good 

 strain of Centaurea suaveolens. The flowers are large and full, 

 of clear Dandelion-yellow, with good stiff stems, and they last a 

 long time. This is by no means a new flower, but that it is 

 comparatively rare in cultivation is proved by the admiration 

 and surprise expressed by many persons whose attention has 

 been called to them. 



The Laburnums have been flowering well this year, and the 

 long pendulous racemes of yellow flowers even on small plants 

 well justify the common name of Golden Chain, which is 

 given to this tree. Laburnums. hardly deserve their reputa- 

 tion for being tender. They flourish much better, however, 

 in a dry soil than in a damp situadon, where the stems are lia- 

 ble to be killed in winter. They thrive in partial shade and 

 on the edge of woods, and they do better on the north side of 

 a group of other trees where they are not exposed to the rays 

 of the sun in midwinter. They are short-lived, but so beauti- 

 ful that they deserve all the extra care required to meet their 

 wants. 



A writer in a late number of the American Florist very truly 

 says that many Roses that have been discarded as useless be- 

 cause they fail to grow indoors, are really admirable bedding 

 plants. Wootton seems to succeed very well out-of-doors, 

 and, indeed, it can no longer be called a failure as a forcing 

 Rose. Madame Pernet Ducher, one of last year's introduc- 

 tions, is a good bedding Rose, with pale yellow buds turning 

 to pure white as the flower opens. Triomphe de Pernet also 

 does well, and Marion Dingee is among the best of crimson 

 bedders. The old Bourbon Hermosa and the Polyantha Clo- 

 thilde Soupert are among the best for constant outdoor bloom- 

 ing, and they have the advantage of being hardy. Madame 

 Elie Lambert, which is classed as a pure Tea, survived the 

 winter last year out-of-doors near Philadelphia, while hybrids 

 were dying all about it. This is an excellent bedding Rose, 

 creamy white or flesh-color, and a very finished flower. 



In a bulletin of the Washington Experiment Station, Pro- 

 fessor Lake states that on examining a quantity of Apple-seed- 

 lings for grafting, he observed that a large part of them had 

 twisted and knotted roots, some slightly abnormal, some alto- 

 gether monstrous. Closer examination showed multitudes of 

 little excrescences from the size of a pin-head up to that of a 

 filbert, which were evidently the workof the woolly aphis. Last 

 spring, when planting yearling Apple-trees purchased in the 

 eastern states, the same tell-tale warts were found on several 

 trees. In the north-west this woolly aphis is a most serious 

 pest, being an insidious foe that creeps into the orchard and 

 does its first and most lasting work under cover of earth and 

 in darkness ; that is, it makes its appearance generally on the 

 roots of young trees, especially when they are in old nursery- 

 ground. Undoubtedly the pest is disseminated very largely 

 on the roots of young Apple-trees. 



Among the specialties in the fancy fruit markets last week 

 were greenhouse figs, from New Jersey, of excellent quality 

 and delicious flavor, which sold at a dollar a dozen. Mammee 

 apples, from the West Indies, of doubtful satisfaction to a civ- 

 ilized taste, sold in small quantities to venturesome buyers at 

 twenty cents apiece. The true plantain, which is quite dis- 

 tinct from the banana and is only used for cooking, is rarely 

 found in the New York market. Large fruit of good quality 

 was offered at fifty to seventy-five cents a dozen. Muskmelons, 

 from Florida, are as low as fifteen cents apiece, and water- 

 melons from thirty cents upward. Strawberries are less plenti- 

 ful than when the southern supply was at its height, the dry 

 weatherin this section, from which the fruit now comes, having 

 shortened the crop. Choice strawberries of mammoth size 

 are thirty-five cents a quart ; selected berries eighteen cents, 

 and average berries ten to fifteen cents. Green corn from the 

 south is sixty cents a dozen ears. 



Varieties and hybrids of Helianthemum vulgare, the true Rock 

 Rose, have attractive flowers, which range in color from white 

 through shades of red and yellow. At the Arnold Arboretum 



these plants make a low shrubby growth, spreading over the 

 ground in a dense mat of foliage, on which the flowers are 

 now appearing. The separate flowers do not last long, but 

 they keep opening all summer, and Mr. Dawson, the propa- 

 gator at the Arboretum, thinks a great deal of them. Last 

 week Ceanothus ovatus was also in bloom, although the com- 

 moner species, well known as New Jersey Tea, had not begun 

 to show any flowers. This species is rare in the east, although 

 it is common in the west and south-west. It is a low shrub, 

 some two or three feet high, and its compact habit, good 

 foliage and handsome white flowers, which come after most 

 of the spring shrubs have flowered, make it very useful, 

 although it is rarely seen in cultivation. Another rarely culti- 

 vated plant in flower is Vaccinium stamineum, the Squaw 

 Huckleberry, a low-branching shrub, which is now covered 

 with its graceful, campanulate, greenish white flowers. 



In a bulletin of the Division of Entomology some experi- 

 ments in planting Sweet Clover (Melilotus alba) for honey are 

 given in detail. The experiments were made at the Michigan 

 Agricultural College, where three acres of Sweet Clover were 

 sown, which began to bloom on the 8th of July and continued 

 in flower until the 20th of September. The crop made a rank 

 growth with abundance of flowers, and yet, while it was in full 

 bloom and the bees were continually busy on it, with all 

 other natural sources of nectar absent, no appreciable 

 amount of honey was gathered, and the hive lost weight. This 

 is a repetition of former experience, and Mr. Larrabee, in 

 charge of the work, states that no results have been obtained 

 with any plants sown or planted for honey that would warrant 

 a bee-keeper in expending money and labor in this direction. 

 His advice to keepers is to cease efforts of this sort and turn 

 their attention more persistently to extending the area of wild 

 honey-producing plants, and he urges upon them the supe- 

 riority of Alsike Clover and Japanse Buckwheat as farm crops, 

 and the Linden as a shade-tree. 



In a recent number of the American Agriculturist it is 

 stated that a large percentage of the garden-seeds now used 

 in the United States are grown in Santa Clara County, Califor- 

 nia, where this industry was begun in a small way fifteen years 

 ago. The climate there is peculiarly favorable tor this work, 

 as rain seldom falls during the summer months, when seeds 

 are being harvested and stored. Onion-seeds are raised in 

 large quantities, four growers in the Santa Clara Valley having 

 this season planted 1.200 acres. The onions used for produc- 

 ing seeds are grown from seed the previous year. After having 

 been harvested in the autumn they are usually left in sacks in 

 the field until they are set out in January and February. The 

 soil is low, moist and fertile, and no irrigation is needed, as 

 there is where onions are raised from seed, since the winter 

 and spring rains provide sufficient moisture for the crop. The 

 seed is harvested in August. As much as 500 pounds are ob- 

 tained from an acre, a short crop reaching not more than half 

 that quantity. According to the supply and demand, sixty 

 cents, and even a dollar, a pound is obtained. From forty to 

 sixty sacks of onions, containing nearly a hundred pounds 

 each, are required to plant an acre. 



Bulletin No. 2>1>< from the South Dakota Experiment Station, 

 is devoted to some plants injurious to stock. It includes a 

 description of four species of Astragalus, together with Oxy- 

 tropis Lamberti, all leguminous plants and all classed as Loco- 

 weeds. The descripfions and plates of these weeds are given 

 to help stock-raisers in recognizing them, and the methods of 

 destroying them are also given, together with some notes on 

 the treatment of the diseases which they are supposed to pro- 

 duce. Besides these Loco-weeds, there is an elaborate note 

 on the Rattlebox (Crotalaria sagittaHs), which is said to cause 

 the disease among horses known as Crotalism. Since this 

 last weed grows to a greater or less extent throughout most 

 of the United States east of the Missouri valley, it is remark- 

 able that the disease which it is said to engender is confined 

 to the west. It should be said, however, that the plant is very 

 abundant in the bottom-lands of the Missouri River, and is 

 exceedingly common in the hay cut there. In South Dakota, 

 the Wheat Grasses (Agropyrum species) and the Wild Ryes 

 (Elymus) are subject to the disease known as ergot, and the 

 fungus which causes it (Claviceps purpurea) attacks also the Blue 

 Joint Grass, Reed Canary Grass, Kentucky Blue Grass, Canada 

 Blue Grass, and of course common cultivated Rye. In other 

 states, Red Top and Timothy are occasionally affected by it. 

 Domestic animals fed on plants affected by ergot contract the 

 disease known as ergotism, and the advice given in the bulle- 

 tin is to cut the grasses liable to attacks of this fungus early, 

 for since the ergot is formed late in the summer or in the fall 

 early cut hay will not be infected. 



