360 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 287. 



Fair, he is disappoinled in Hading so little devoted to science 

 and education in horticulture, such meagre exhibits in garden 

 vegetables and nursery products, and the entire absence of 

 seasonal displays of special fruits and other perishable 

 products which were made a feature of international exhibi- 

 tions, even so long ago as the Paris Exposition of 1867. He 

 thinks that floral decorations about the various buildings 

 should have been prominent, and suggests that in future fairs 

 the exhibitors' plants be used for such decorative purposes. 

 He also dislikes the single-judge system of awards. The Fair 

 has introduced an admirable principle in the erecting of green- 

 houses for growing and carmgfor the plants of exhibitors, and 

 if this feature is enlarged upon in future expositions it will 

 greatly tend to make them widely cosmopolitan. Each nation 

 should plant its building in a garden showing the national 

 characteristics, as the Japanese have done here ; and some 

 future exposition should attempt to reconstruct some of the 

 history and evolution of gardening. 



Of the leading papers read, it is enough to say at present 

 that the Seedsmen's session was devoted very largely to a dis- 

 cussion, led by an admirable paper by Monsieur Vilmorin, of 

 the principles and methods of the origination of varieties ; the 

 Florists continued the consideration of the uses of color in 

 landscape-gardening ; while the Nurserymen and Pomologists 

 attempted some review of the growth of their respective voca- 

 tions. None of the sessions were well attended, although the 

 interest was good and the papers were excellent. Owing to 

 the many diverting attractions of the Exposition, horticultur- 

 ists generally did not quickly comprehend the scope and 

 needs of the congress, and it can scarcely be called a great suc- 

 cess ; yet the character of the men who were present, and the 

 papers which were read, make the occasion a very important 

 one, particularly in view of the fact that this is the first gather- 

 ing in the country which has attempted to represent every 

 branch of American horticulture. 



Notes. 



A correspondent writes that the fruit of a young Pear orchard 

 near Pine City, Georgia, consisting of three acres, was re- 

 cently sold on" the trees for $475. 



At the closing exercises of the Convention of American 

 Florists a gold watch and chain were presented by the society 

 to President Smith, and a silver drinking-service to ex-Presi- 

 dent Jordan. 



The Trumpet-creepers, our native Tecoma radicans, which 

 have been in bloom here for more than a month, and the 

 Japanese T. grandiflora, which will continue to bloom for a 

 month longer, are to be commended not only for their vigor- 

 ous growth and bold flowers, but because they invariably at- 

 tract humming-birds, which are as beautiful as any ffovi^er. 

 These birds promptly appear at the opening of the first 

 Tecoma flower, even though they have not been noticed 

 before in the neighborhood, and, so long as the plant con- 

 tinues in bloom, there is not an hour of the day when there is 

 not a bird hovering among the flowers. 



In spite of the dry weather we observe that the Hybrid 

 Noisette Roses, Coquette des Blanches and Coquette des 

 Alpes, have been blooming when most other varieties show 

 no signs of a flower. Mr. EUwanger says that the origin of 

 this class of Roses is uncertain, but they seem mostly to come 

 from crosses between the Bourbon and Noisette Roses. The 

 varieties mentioned, however, are less delicate than Madame 

 Noman and Eliza Boelle, and they seem to have more of the 

 hardiness of the Noisette parent. The freedom with which 

 they bloom late in the season gives them an especial value, 

 although their white full flowers, sometimes tinged with blush, 

 make them desirable at any time. 



The value of Sophora Japonica as an ornamental tree here 

 is hardly appreciated. It is the only tree which produces flow- 

 ers in this climate as late as the middle of August. It is very 

 hardy, of good habit, free from the attacks of insects and fungal 

 diseases, and the leaves are of a beautiful dark glossy green. 

 The yellowish white pea-shaped flowers are produced in great 

 terminal clusters, and well-established trees flower freely 

 during two or three weeks. This Sophora is certainly one of 

 the best of the medium-sized exotic trees which we can plant 

 in the northern and middle states. Large specimens are not 

 common in this country, although S. Japonica was one of the 

 first of the eastern Asiatic trees introduced into European gar- 

 dens, where it was sent by Thunberg, who found it cultivated 

 iu Japan more than a century ago, and who mistook it for a 

 Japanese tree. 



A private letter from Monsieur Naudin informs us that 

 Fourcroya Roezlii is flowering in the garden of the Villa 

 Thuret, at Antibes, for the first time. The plant is thirty-two 

 years old, with a stem some eight feet high, as thick as a man's 

 thigh, and crowned with an enormous tuft of glaucous un- 

 armed leaves. The flowering kills the plant, absorbing the 

 juices of the leaves, which, after the development of the enor- 

 mous flower-cluster, hang inert. The panicle is terminal, 

 nearly twenty-five feet tall, with numerous spreading branches 

 which bear more than a thousand white flowers, succeeded by 

 numerous hanging ovoid fruits the size of a small hen's-egg, 

 and filled with flat black seeds. It also produces upon the 

 branches of the panicle thousands of bulblets, in this way pro- 

 viding for its reproduction. This remarkable Mexican plant is 

 sometimes known in gardens as Beschorneria Parmentieri ; it 

 also is sometimes called Roezlia regia, R. bulbifera. Yucca 

 Parmentieri, Y. Toneliana and Y. argyrophylla. 



The first volume of the Dictionnaire Pratique d' Horticulture 

 ct de Jardlnage is completed with the sixteenth part, Vhich 

 has just reached us, the last entry being "Compose." This, it 

 will be remembered, is a French edition of Nicholson's useful 

 Dictionary of Gardening, considerably enlarged by the French 

 editor. Monsieur Mottet, assisted by some of the principal 

 botanists and horticulturists of France. Plants which have 

 been described since the appearance of the original work are 

 included in this edition, in which, too, the definition of botani- 

 cal and horticultural terms has been amplified, as have many 

 of the descriptions of genera and families. The addition 

 of the names of the authors of genera and species increases 

 the value of the work, which will be of invaluable assistance 

 to every student of garden-plants and every intelligent gar- 

 dener. The French edition is dedicated to Messrs. Vilmorin, 

 Andrieux & Co., who have rendered the editor invaluable ser- 

 vice, he tells us, in his serious imdertaking. 



The useful Biographical Index of British and Irish Botan- 

 ists, including also many gardeners and others more or less 

 directly interested in plants, compiled by James Britten and 

 G. S. Bulger, and first published in the pages of the Journal 

 of Botany, has now been issued in a handsome volume of a 

 hundred and eighty-eight pages, by West, Newman & Company, 

 of London. The following extract will give an idea of the na- 

 ture of the information to be found in its pages: "Parry, 

 Charles Christopher (1823-90), b. Admington, Worcestershire, 

 28 Aug., 1823; d. Davenport, Iowa, 20 Feb., 1890. Went to 

 America, 1832. M. D. Botanical explorer and collector. On 

 Mexican Boundary Survey, 1850; in Rocky Mountains, 1861. 

 Botanist to Agric. Dept., Wasliington, 1869-71. Chorisanthe, 

 1884, 1889, and various hot. papers. Friend of Torrey and 

 Gray. Herb, at Davenport Acad. Nat. Sciences. Jacks. 589 ; 

 R. S. C. iv. 767 ; viii. 565 ; Garden and Forest, iii. 120; Bull. 

 Torrey Bot. Chib, March, 1890 ; Western Naturalist, June, 

 1890 (portr.) Parryella, Torr. & Gray." 



The fruit-stores and the side-walk fruit-stands have never 

 shown so great a variety of beautiful fruits as they now do. 

 The California plums now principally offered are the Peach 

 plum (the variety known as Prune peche in France), a large 

 brownish red fruit; the German prune, an oval, deep purple 

 fruit ; the Tragedy prune, a Pacific coast variety which has 

 been in market ever since June, larger than the German 

 prune and of a lighter color, and handsomest of all the fruit 

 sold as the Grosse prune, but the true name of which is 

 English Pond's Seedling. This is the largest prune in the 

 market, of a beautiful violet-red, with a deUcate bloom. It is 

 rather coarse in flesh, but sweet. The Yellow Egg plum is 

 next in size, being large and oval, of a light yellow color and 

 a thin white bloom. The Columbia is a large plum with very 

 rich, sweet orange-colored flesh, but is not attractive in 

 the color of its skin, which is a dull reddish-brown with 

 fawn-colored dots and copious bloom. The Green Gage 

 is small and globular, with pale green flesh. It is juicy, 

 exceedingly rich and of excellent flavor. The choicest of these 

 plums sell at from twenty-five to thirty-five cents a dozen. 

 California peaches are scarce, although dealers like to handle 

 them because they last longer, even after a journey across 

 the continent, than fruit from New Jersey. Crawford's Early 

 and Mountain Rose, the best Delaware varieties in market, 

 bring a dollar and a half a basket when of the first quality. 

 Kieffer pears are now coming from the southern states, while 

 the apples which bring the highest price are Gravensteins from 

 the Hudson River valley. During the week large Japanese 

 persimmons of a rich yellow color have appeared in abun- 

 dance and sell readily for ten cents each. They come fron: 

 Florida. 



