3iO 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 282. 



Tliere seems to be an unwritten law that citrous fruits should 

 be shown in profusion and in bold designs in order to express 

 exhibitive merit, while apples and all other fruits should be 

 arranged on plates in definite numbers. In many respects this 

 method of displaying citrous fruits is unfortunate. It results in 

 a mere display, which is largely devoid of educational interest. 

 One could scarcely learn from the profuse exhibitions of Cal- 

 ifornia oranges and lemons what are the best varieties, or 

 what their peculiarities or adaptabilities. The importance of 

 varieties and methods of treatment is obscured by the merely 

 decorative features of the display. New South Wales, alone, 

 shows all its citrous fruits on plates, although California has 

 plate fruit in srhall amount on some of the tables. It is true 

 that the decorative displays add greatly to the surface attrac- 

 tions of exposition, but it is doubtful if they are in all ways 



the best. t u -d -, 



Chicago, III. -^- H. batley. 



Notes. 



A correspondent of the Gardener s Chronicle recently re- 

 commended that, Avhen flowers are to travel in wooden boxes, 

 the boxes be steeped in water for an hour before they are 

 packed. If the box is quite dry it will quickly absorb from the 

 flowers the greater part of their moisture. 



Mr. J. J. Thomas replies to a correspondent who asks about 

 pruning Blackberries, that the growth of this year furnishes 

 the bearing shoots for the next. Therefore, after the old canes 

 have ceased growing after the fruiting season they are to be 

 cut out and removed, except a portion of them which may be 

 retained to protect the new canes in exposed places, or where 

 they may be of use in sheltering from snow-storms. When 

 the old canes are cut before, while they are still growing, a 

 check will be given to the roots, and hence it is necessary to be 

 cautious about cutting them away too early. 



The cold-storage warehouse at the Columbian Exposition 

 which burned on the afternoon of July loth, with such terrible 

 fury and tragic loss of life, contained large quantities of fruits 

 and wines, as well as meats and dairy products, v/hich were all 

 a total loss, of course. The exhibits were replenished from 

 this warehouse from day to day, and the loss of the fruits 

 especially will be seriously felt. All the New York winter fruit 

 which was left, comprising some seventy-flve barrels, was in 

 this building. Some of the foreign exhibitors of wines will 

 probably be obhged to import stock again to keep the exhibits 

 full and furnish samples to the judges. 



We are glad to announce that Professor Michael Foster has 

 republished in an extended form the lecture which he deliv- 

 ered some months ago before the Royal Horticultural Society 

 on Bulbous Irises. Professor Foster has a wider knowledge 

 of these Irises, and, indeed, of all other Irises, than any 

 other man, and every lover of these beautiful plants will 

 desire to have this publicadon. It is illustrated with wood-cuts, 

 has a descriptive list of the species and an artificial key to fa- 

 cilitate their determination. The price to persons who are not 

 fellows of the society is five shillings, and it can be had at the 

 office of the society, 117 Victoria Street, London, S. W. 



The Chestnut-trees, which are the latest of our forest-trees 

 to flower, are now in full bloom and make conspicuous objects 

 in the landscape. This year the flowers seem unusually 

 abundant and the dome-like head of a Chestnut-tree, which 

 has grown in the open ground where it has had a chance to 

 spread to its full dimensions, is now an object of singular 

 beauty, as the tassels of white or very light yellow flowers 

 are seen among its glossy leaves. Some idea of the produc- 

 tive vigor of the tree can be had when it is considered that 

 these flowers will be replaced by huge burs filled with ripened 

 nuts by the time the first frost arrives, and this is hardly two 

 months and a half away. The first of October usually finds 

 chestnuts fairly ripe in this latitude. 



Very rarely do the fruit-stores of New York show such a 

 variety as they have done for a week past. Good California figs 

 have been selling on the sidewalks for five cents each, while 

 shaddock of the largest size and of good quality, with mangoes 

 of fair flavor from Cuba, are no longer noveUies. Peaches of 

 the first quality have been coming in from the south, some of 

 the very best of them from Mississippi. South Carolina sends 

 Delaware grapes and Astrakhan apples. Georgia sends Le 

 Conte and Clapp's Favorite pears, while Bartlett pears from 

 California, of excellent quality, are offered at fair prices. The 

 cherry crop from California sfiU holds out, and plums from the 

 same state were never seen here in such plenty. Of the nu- 

 merous varieties in market. Abundance, a Japanese plum, and 



the Tragedy prune are the most popular. The Abundance is a 

 beautiful fruit, its yellow skin deeply tinted with carmine, while 

 the Tragedy, a California seedling, is oblong and purple. Both 

 are delicious. Raspberries from the Hudson River valley are 

 sdll to be had, and so are Wilson and Harvest blackberries 

 from New Jersey and Delaware. The best huckleberries are 

 now coming from the Shawangunk Mountains, and Beach 

 plums, which are beginning to arrive from Maryland and 

 Delaware, bring from four to six cents a quart. 



A correspondent inquires where the Red-flowered Horse- 

 chestnut, ^sculus rubicunda, originally came from. Its origin 

 is uncertain, but it is supposed to be a hybrid of yEsculus 

 Pavia and the common Horse-chestnut ^sculus Hippocas- 

 tanum. ./Esculus Pavia is a species of the coast-region of the 

 southern states, a slender, shrubby plant which often flowers 

 when it is only a foot or two high, and sometimes grows to ten 

 or twelve feet high. It produces bright scarlet flowers, and 

 when in bloom is one of the most beautiful of all the Horse- 

 chestnuts. yE. rubicunda has the dark green leaves and 

 spiney fruit of the common Horse-chestnut, and its flowers 

 have four red petals like those of the southern shrub. In 

 stature it is intermediate between the two. 



On the Fourth of July at Vernon Park, in Philadelphia, the 

 citizens of that city presented to Mr. Thomas Meehan a hand- 

 some silver plaque as a testimonial of their appreciation of his 

 services in establishing small parks in various sections of the 

 city. The plaque is of solid silver, ninteen inches by twenty- 

 four in size and framed in carved mahogany, set in a polished 

 mahogany shadow-box and covered with plate-glass. It is 

 etched with oxidized shading to represent the original parch- 

 ment granted to William Penn. In the central part of the 

 top of the plaque is the following apt quotation from Penn's 

 letter to his commissioners, dated September 30th, 1681 : 

 " That it may be a green country town and always whole- 

 some." We have more than once called attention to the sin- 

 gular value of Mr. Meehan's work, and we are glad to know 

 that he is one of the prophets who is not without honor in his 

 own country. One of the speakers at the presentation called 

 attention to the extraordinary spectacle of a man elected 

 and re-elected to the City Council for a decade of years by the 

 commonconsent,and,infact,by theurgentdesire of the leaders 

 of all parties and all factions simply because he has pursued 

 steadily the work for which he was fitted by his own good judg- 

 ment and training. It is rare, indeed, that anyone man is able 

 to do so much good in a civic position ; rare, too, that he can 

 command the confidence of his fellow-citizens so generally, 

 and rarer still that they manifest such a grateful appreciation 

 of unselfish work. 



Last Saturday an exhibition of Sweet Peas was held at 

 Springfield, Massachusetts, under the auspices of the Hamp- 

 den County Horticultural Society. Seventy-five varieties yN&re 

 shown, andan admirable opportunity was offered for studying 

 and comparing the different varieties, old and new. We add a 

 short list of the best and most distinct in the various colors : 

 Firefly, a new carmine, is the brightest of that color which has 

 yet been produced. Another new variety, Venus, is of the 

 rare shade sometimes called chamoise-rose or a light salmon, 

 suffused with rose color. The Countess of Radnor is a pure 

 light lavender, and Dorothy Tennant, a comparatively recent 

 production, is a true heliotrope color. Lady Penzance, a new 

 flower, is carmine-rose, tinted with orange ; it is rather darker 

 than the Orange Prince, and an improvement on that flower in 

 size and form. The old Captain of the Blues remains the best 

 of its color ; the wings of this flower are a blue, shaded with 

 purple, the standard is a deep blue, the effect of the whole be- 

 ing very rich and pure. Senator has a white ground striped 

 and splashed with deep purple-maroon. No better pink was 

 exhibited than Mrs. Gladstone, which was brought out three or 

 four years ago ; this flower is a soft shade of pale pink 

 throughout, and the flower is unusually large. Primrose 

 really deserves its name, for it has a decided shade of yellow. 

 Purple Prince has wings of a purple-maroon, and the standard 

 of pure purple, and is the best of that general color. Boreat- 

 ton is the best dark maroon, and being an unusually strong 

 grower and very floriferous, it will be hard to supplant. The 

 old variety known as Scarlet Striped continues to be the best of 

 its class, and so does Butterfly, a white flower edged with lav- 

 ender-blue. Emily Henderson is undoubtedly the best white, 

 being superior to Mrs. Sankey in habit and form. Rev. W. T. 

 Hutchins showed some interesting seedlings, one of them 

 named Watered Scarlet being white, with a tracery of car- 

 mine, while another called Watered Purple was variegated in 

 the same way with purple. 



