340 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 285. 



modified so that the course is reduced to four years. Of the 

 scientific papers included in this report the longest one is a 

 list of plants collected in the Bahamas, Jamaica and Grand 

 Cayman by A. S. Hitchcock. The total number of species de- 

 termined amount to nearly 1,000, while there remain to be 

 added the varieties and cultivated plants. The list, with the 

 index, covers about 140 pages, and includes several plates. 

 Professor Trelease adds the results of further field studies 

 upon Yuccas and their pollinafion, and this paper is illustrated 

 by several half-tone reproductions from photographs and 

 wash-drawings. 



Notes. 



Rudbeckia purpurea is not a common garden-plant in this 

 country, and it is comparatively rare in cultivation in Europe. 

 Mr. Watson writes that in Kew, both in the borders and the 

 rockery, it is one of the stateliest and most effective of the 

 many noble composites which have been introduced from 

 America. 



We have received from Mr. William Parry, of Parry, New 

 Jersey, a specimen of a newapple which originated in southern 

 New Jersey, and called the Starr. It is a large, smooth, green 

 fruit, not quite ripe when received on the last of July, and 

 therefore a little too strongly acid, although it would have been 

 excellent even then for cooking purposes. Mr. Parry states 

 that the tree begins bearing when it is comparatively young, 

 and that it bears abundantly. It has not yet been placed upon 

 the market. 



On Saturday of last week the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society gave its gold medal to the Honorable Joseph S. Fay, 

 of Wood's HoU, for the superior cultivation of specimen plants 

 of Hydrangea hortensis. Five or six of the plants were ex- 

 hibited in the Society's hall in Boston, and it is safe to say that 

 better examples of cultivation, as applied to the Hydrangea, 

 have never been seen. The plants were faultless, the largest 

 being about ten feet through and seven feet high, and bearing 

 some three hundred well-developed heads of tfowers ; the 

 others were only slightly smaller, and all vs^ere mounds of 

 large, healthy and well-colored foliage almost hidden by the 

 flower-heads. 



The variety of Rhus semi-alata, which is generally known 

 as Osbeck's Sumach, is, at this season, when few other trees 

 are in flower, a very conspicuous object. The round head is 

 covered with numerous large terminal panicles of minute 

 flowers, whose petals are pure white, although the projecting 

 antlers of clear lemon-yellow give a cream-colored effect to 

 the panicles, which show well above its very dark green foli- 

 age. The tree grows very rapidly, and in Japan the foliage 

 turns to brilliant colors in autumn. In this country, however, 

 these autumn colors are not nearly so bright as those of our 

 native species. It is a well-shaped tree, but the absence of 

 leaves from the inner branches detracts from its appearance 

 on near inspection, and it has a disagreeable habit of throwing 

 up root-suckers anywhere within a radius of fifty feet. 



In a report submitted to the German Agricultural Society, 

 Professor Maercher stated that potash-salts when used on 

 sandy soil had a marked effect on the growth of young Pine- 

 trees, and he recommended the extensive use of these salts in 

 forest-culture. Inasmuch as the ashes of wood contain much 

 potash, it looks reasonable that a supply of this mineral in the 

 soil would benefit tree-growth. We know, too, that trees attain 

 large dimensions in situations where the mineral constituents 

 of wood are abundant. Perhaps, however, before the prac- 

 tice of hurrying forward young trees by furnishing potash to 

 their roots is adopted it would be well to ascertain whether this 

 growth would have any prejudicial effect upon the same trees 

 at a later period of their development when these mineral 

 elements could not be obtained in the same abundance, and 

 whether it would pay to confinue this fertilizing process during 

 the endre life of the tree. 



A figure of Crotalaria longirostrata, a Mexican Genista-like 

 sub-fruticose or herbaceous Mexican plant, is published in 

 the July issue of The Botanical Magazine from specimens 

 which flowered last winter at the Royal Gardens at Kew, 

 to which this plant was introduced through the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture of the United States in 1891, from 

 seed gathered by Dr. Palmer at Colema in January of that 

 year. In a note published in The Garden in March, Cro- 

 talaria longirostrata is described as a thoroughly useful 

 plant for flowering in the winter months, the specimens at 



Kew having kept a gay display for over two months in spite 

 of the fogs. At the end of the long slender branches it bears 

 clusters of bright yellow pea-shaped flowers more than an 

 inch long. As this plant is easily propagated by cuttings, and 

 as it remains in bloom, even under the trying conditions af- 

 forded by the London climate, for a long time, it may be ex- 

 pected to become a valuable and popular greenhouse plant. 



An obscure disease of cattle, known as the Rickets, has 

 been prevalent for some time in New South Wales,- and an 

 article in the last number of the Agricultural Gazette, pub- 

 lished in Sydney, states that it is very probable that the disease 

 comes from eating the fruit of the so-called Zamia Palm, Mac- 

 rozamia Miquellii. The nuts of some species of Macrozamia 

 have, for a long time, formed an important article of food of 

 the aborigines of that region, and yet they seemed to have 

 been well aware that in their raw state these nuts were poison- 

 ous. Analysis of the nuts has been made several times, but 

 the poison has never been satisfactorily identified. The noxious 

 principle, whatever it may be, seems to be made inert, or it is 

 expelled by heat. Cattle do not, as a rule, eat the nuts or other 

 parts of this plant, but it is stated that when a taste for it is 

 once acquired the Zamia-eater teaches other cattle in the same 

 herd the same habit. The chief symptom of the disease is a 

 loss of proper control over the movements of the hind limbs, 

 and affected animals seem never to recover completely. They 

 are capable, however, of being fattened if placed on good 

 food, and the flesh of those in good condition appears to be 

 quite sound. 



An Enumeration of the Plants collected by Dr. Thomas Mo- 

 rong in Paraguay, i888-go,\\di.^ recently been published. It 

 is the work of Dr. Morong and Dr. Britton, assisted by Miss 

 Anna Murray Vail, and forms a volume of 235 pages. During 

 Dr. Morong's two years' stay in Paraguay he thoroughly ex- 

 amined all the region within a hundred miles of Asuncion and 

 the uninhabited portions of the Gran Chaco wilderness for 400 

 miles up the little-known Pilcomayo River ; and his collec- 

 tion, including Mosses, contains very nearly 1,000 species, 

 representing 106 genera, almost one-tenth of them being new. 

 All the new species have been carefully described after com- 

 parisons made in the herbaria of Columbia College and of 

 Kew, with the assistance of a number of distinguished Euro- 

 pean botanists. In commenting upon the book the Bulletin 

 of the Torrey Botanical Club says that it is worthy of record 

 that "after a voyage of seventy days across the Atlantic, and 

 after a sojourn of two years, much of it spent in a remote 

 wilderness inhabited only by roving Indians and wild animals, 

 with not a mishap or a single day's illness to detract from his 

 good fortune, the collector circumnavigates the South Amer- 

 ican continent and returns in perfect health. Of the 12,000 or 

 more specimens collected not one is lost ; and within three 

 years from the time of his return the whole collection is col- 

 lated, enumerated and published." 



We have often suggested that an index should be made of 

 the various reports of the meetings of the agricultural and hor- 

 ticultural societies of the different states. While there is very 

 much in these volumes which never should have been printed, 

 and much that has no permanent value whatever, there is hardly 

 one of them which does not contain essays that are important,and 

 that will be of advantage to the student of the history of agricul- 

 tural and horticultural progress in this country. We are glad, 

 therefore, to know that an index of this character has already 

 been made for the agricultural literature of the state of Maine, 

 and that with this in hand the student need not be compelled 

 to search through forty volumes to find out what he wants. 

 This index is a part of an interesting book called The Agricul- 

 tural Bibliogrciphy of the State of Maine, which has been pre- 

 pared by Samuel L. Boardman as a contribution to the "Agri- 

 cultural Literature and Statistics Exhibit" of the Columbian 

 Exposition. From the historical sketch with which the book 

 opens we learn that Maine was the third state in the Union to 

 establish a society for the improvement of agriculture, Penn- 

 sylvania setting the example in 1785, South Carolina following 

 the same year, Maine organizing her society in 1787, and Mas- 

 sachusetts in 1792. In the Bibliography we find many names 

 which will surprise many of our readers as belonging to Maine. 

 For example, H, D. Thoreau, Dr. A. S. Packard, Dr. E. L. Sturte- 

 vant. Professor G. L. Goodale, Dr. C. H. Hitchcock and many 

 more. The biographical sketch of some of the pioneers in 

 agricultural literature, like the Vaughan Brothers at Hallowell, 

 Ezekiel Holmes, whose portrait is the frontispiece of the 

 volume, and many others, are singularly interesting, and the 

 whole volume does credit to its compiler and to the state of 

 Maine. 



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