330 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 284. 



tor wine-making. Rappoltsweiler, in Alsace, is the subject of 

 the next canvas, by the same artists. It is one of the boldest 

 of the lot, although small, for the great crag and castle of Rap- 

 poltstein stand in the foreground. In the distance can be seen 

 Strassburg and the cathedral. Chasselas, Guteder, Riesling, 

 Ortlieber and Black Burgunder are the wine-grapes of this par- 

 ticular region. The vines are trained to stakes six or seven 

 feet high, the arms being three, with the tops recurved in- 

 ward like a hoop. The fifth and last panorama is a scene in 

 Baden, at Miillheim. Here the vines, trained to two or three 

 arms, are tied nearly straight up to short stakes. At this place 

 the leading wine varieties are Krachgutedel, Riesling, Sylva- 

 ner and Black Burgunder. Aside from these striking pano- 

 ramas, the building contains large fresco maps of the wine 

 regions of the Rhine and Mosel and of Alsace-Lorraine. 



The expenses attending the construction of the building 

 and exhibit were divided between exhibitors and the German 

 Government, the latter contributing 25,000 marks. The gene- 

 ral charge of the German wine interest at the Exposition is in the 

 hands of Commissioner H. W. Dahlen, a resident of Geisenheim 

 on the Rhine. The exhibit is one of the most unique and val- 

 uable upon the Fair grounds, and it is a pity that so few peo- 

 ple see it. The panoramas may be likened to inclosed porches. 

 The observer stands in the window and looks outward. The 

 canvas incloses the far side of the porch, while the planted 

 vines occupy the floor. The roof, which is obscured by pro- 

 jecting eaves of vines, is glass, and all the changing shadows 

 of the sky are reflected upon the canvas, giving it the varying 

 expressions of life. .. ^^ „ ., 



Chicago, 111. L. H. Bailey. 



Notes. 



Mr. E. S. Carman finds Mott's Excelsior the best of the early 

 dwarf wrinkled peas, and far ahead of Little Gem and Ameri- 

 can Wonder. Heroine, as an intermediate and a late pea, he 

 considers the best for home use. The vines are prolific, the 

 pods are large, the seeds are large and of choice quality. 



The next meeting of the Australasian Association for the 

 Advancement of Science will be held in Adelaide, South Aus- 

 tralia, in the week commencing September 25th. The asso- 

 ciation, which is now five years old, numbers nearly one 

 thousand members, and the proceedings are of unusual inter- 

 est. To naturahsts this season of the year is especially 

 attractive in south Australia, when the spring is just merging 

 into summer, and visitors will find the months of October and 

 November delightful. 



Professor Massey, of the North Carolina Experiment Station, 

 writes that he can see no reason why the cultivation of vege- 

 tables under glass should not be profitable in the southern 

 states at points where quick transportation northward is possi- 

 ble. If Boston growers can force Cucumbers at a profit by 

 using double sashes and heavy coal bills, why could not this 

 be done better still in North Carolina, with cheaper houses 

 and half the expense for fuel ? If Lettuce is grown at a profit 

 with fire-heat, and sent from Boston to Washington, why 

 should not a man in North Carolina grow it at a profit when he 

 can raise equally good Lettuce in a simple cold frame ? 



Last week the tall panicles of Yucca filamentosa were very 

 beautiful, especially in the light of the moon, when the flowers 

 of this plant always show at their best. In sunlight the tints of 

 green and yellow in the liowers detract somewhat from their 

 appearance, but in the moonlight they are pure white, and 

 there are few objects in the flower-garden at this season that 

 are more beautiful than these stately masses of bell-shaped 

 flowers when relieved against a background of dark green 

 foliage, and especially of conifers. After the flowers are done 

 blooming, the stalk, and, indeed, the whole crown of rigid 

 leaves, from the centre of which it starts, should be cut away, 

 so that the side-shoots which have started may become strong 

 enough to bear a flowering-stalk next year. 



Very attractive is a long row of Nasturtiums, whether of the 

 large variety or the smaller, Tropagolum Lobbianum. Among 

 a lot of named varieties in the trial-garden of Peter Henderson 

 & Co. we noted lately as quite disfinct : Prince Bismarck, 

 which bears profusely, commencing when it is quite a small 

 plant, flowers of an orange-scarlet ; Asa Gray, flowers cream- 

 colored, with dark crimson spots ; Lilli Schmidt, light scarlet; 

 Napoleon III., clear yellow ; Roi de Noirs, dark crimson. 

 Among the large varieties. King Theodore has a very dark 

 flower; Hemisphericum is a light straw color; Scheurianum 

 is cream-colored, with scarlet blotches. The varieties with 

 dark-colored foliage, like Schultzii, are invariably less vigorous 

 growers than those with leaves of clear green. 



Cherries, from California, seem as beautiful and abundant 

 as they were two months ago. The varieties. Royal Anne and 

 Black Republican, are the popular favorites. Congress pears 

 are coming from the same state and cost a little more than 

 the Bartletts and Howells. Crawfordsand Hale's Early are (he 

 principal varieties of peaches which are now coming from the 

 Pacific coast. Plums are still abundant and cheap. From the 

 southern states Le Conte pears are coming of rather lower 

 than ordinary quality. Peaches from the far southern points 

 are becoming rare, and those from Maryland and Delaware 

 are taking their places, and are of fair quality for early varie- 

 ties. Raspberries are practically out of the market. Astra- 

 chan and Sweet Bough apples are $1.75 a barrel. Pocono 

 Mountain huckleberries are twelve cents a quart. Good goose- 

 berries are worth $2 a bushel. Florida continues to send Del- 

 aware grapes and some choice Grape-fruit. 



A very effective machine for watering lawns and gardens, 

 where a hose under considerable pressure can be used, is the 

 one known as Hoyt's Lawn Sprinkler, manufactured at St. 

 Claire, Minnesota. The nozzle of the hose in this implement 

 can be set at any angle, and then a small overshot-wheel keeps 

 slowly revolving, and in this way turns the nozzle around in a 

 horizontal circle. If the water is directed in a single stream 

 this will water a space in the form of a ring, and as the machine 

 can be made to revolve as slowly as need be, this circular strip 

 can be watered thoroughly at one revolution, or the water can 

 be applied as many times as needed. The nozzle can then be 

 lifted so as to water a ring inside of this, and so on in concen- 

 tric circles until the whole area of the large circle is thoroughly 

 wet. There is also an arrangement for breaking the water into 

 spray by which the machine can be set and left for a longtime 

 to sprinkle the whole area of the circle evenly. Besides doing 

 good work, it is an interesting little piece of mechanism which 

 every one will stop to notice when he first sees it. 



Mr. W. F. Bassett, of Hammonton, New Jersey, sends us 

 several plants of Euphorbia Ipecacuanhas to show the great 

 diversity of form and color in the foliage. Some of the leaves 

 are of an exceptionally bright crimson, and some deep maroon, 

 while there are intermediate gradations of every shade between 

 these colors and plain green, while in form the leaves of the same 

 plant vary from linear to nearly round. Mr. Bassett writes 

 that the plants vary to a marked degree in habit, and he ob- 

 serves that those which have large and broad leaves have a 

 tendency to a rounded and almost hemispherical outline, often 

 as regular as if they had been repeatedly sheared, while those 

 with narrow foliage vary more in habit, and often assume 

 open and irregular forms. The plant is most abundant in 

 sandy places, where little other vegetation interferes with its 

 chance to display its individual character, and Mr. Bassett 

 suggests that some forms of it have decided claims to beauty, 

 and in certain places it might be used to good effect in land- 

 scape-work. Its roots are thick and brittle, extending 

 deeply into the ground. There is little doubt but that it 

 would grow from pieces of the root just as Euphorbia corollata 

 does. 



In an enumeration of the valuable new plants which Herr 

 Spath is ready to send out from his nurseries at Rixdorf, near 

 Berlin, we notice descriptions of Crataegus rivularis and C. apii- 

 folia, and of Ilex decidua, all originally obtained from the 

 Arnold Arboretum. With regard to Populus Euphratica 

 Oliv. the writer says: "Examples obtained through the late 

 Herr Laucher from Turkestan in the year 1881, unfortunately 

 perished. But through the kindness of General Korolkow, 

 I am now enabled again to introduce this tree, as remarkable 

 historically as it is botanically. Turkestan was likewise the 

 home of this new importation, so we have reason to expect 

 that it will permanently establish itself in our gardens, for one 

 specimen of the former importation survived our winters un- 

 hurt in a sheltered corner of the Horticultural School at Pots- 

 dam and perished only a few years ago from some unknown 

 cause. According to recent investigafions this Poplar is the 

 'Arab ' of the Bible, the so-called Willow upon which the ex- 

 iled children of Israel hung up their harps, and which was 

 formerly supposed to be Salix Babylonica, our well-known 

 Weeping Willow. Its interest for the botanist resides in the 

 surprising differences exhibited by its foliage. One might call 

 it a Willow-leaved Poplar if he considered only the narrow 

 gray-green leaves of the young plants. But these show only 

 one extreme of the marvelously changing series of forms 

 which reaches at the other extreme, the broad kidney-shape 

 characteristic of the leaves of Cercis. As regards soil this tree 

 makes the most modest possible demands. In its home it in- 

 habits dry sandy steppes, while, according to some observers, 

 it also delights in the vicinity of water." 



