370 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 288. 



immature Egg-plant fruits are prepared by the Japanese by 

 boiling, witli sugar, when the flesh breaks down, forming a 

 popular dish. 



There are also dri-ed fig-like persimmons, dried mush- 

 rooms and chestnuts in the display. Gaudy artificial flowers, 

 showing cheiTies, pteonies and chrysanthemums, wall-charts 

 and drawings of flowers, and a unique collection of orna- 

 mental flower-pots in terra cotta and in colors fill- out the 

 tables of this exhibition. 



The Japanese wine exhibit is small and is confined to a sin- 

 gle variety of red wine. The display also shows preserved 

 truffles in small tin cans. ^ ^^ „ ., 



Chicago. III. L. H. Bailey. 



Notes. 



Mr. Charles Moore, the venerable director of the Botanic 

 Garden at Sydney, New South Wales, has recently published 

 a useful handbook of the flora of that country on the general 

 plan of the colonial Floras published at the Royal Gardens of 

 Kew. 



At a social meeting of the American Pomological Society, 

 held in connecfion with the Congress on Horticulture, August 

 17th, it was decided to hold the next regular meeting in San 

 Francisco during the winterof 1894-5, and to ask all American 

 horficultural societies to join in a grand excursion to the Pacific 

 coast. 



Just now many swamps and wet meadows in this region are 

 purple with the bloom of the Spiked Loosestrife, Lythrum 

 Salicaria. The bright color made by masses of this plant at 

 this season suggests that it could be more abundantly used 

 in parks and large grounds on the borders of lakes and similar 

 situations. 



The first part of Professor Trimen's Handbook to the Flora 

 of Ceylon, from Ranunculaceae to Anacardiacea?, inclusive, 

 has appeared. The work follows the line of Hooker's Flora of 

 British India, the description of plants being in English. 

 Synonyms are given with references to the literature of the 

 subject and to the general and local distribution of Ceylon 

 plants. 



The grounds about the Horticultural Building at the World's 

 Fair are now resplendent with bloom. One of the most at- 

 tractive features is the old-fashioned garden in the rear of the 

 building, shown by New York. Although it lacks the careless 

 and provincial aspect of our grandmothers' gardens, it shows 

 many of the plants which the older visitors knew as children, 

 and it excites considerable happy comment. 



We have in former years called attendon to the value of 

 Ceratostigma plumbaginoides, or, as it is generally called. Lady 

 Larpent's Plumbago, as a low-growing, hardy plant for this 

 climate. It has already been blooming for some time, and 

 it will confinue to show its deep blue flowers until frost, 

 and its autumn foliage turns to rich carmine and crimson. 

 It should not be neglected in rockeries or in other places where 

 semi-prostrate and late-flowering hardy plants are needed. 



A writer in the Revue Horticole announces the fact that 

 Prunus Davidiana has produced fruit this season in the Jardin 

 des Plantes, in Paris, where this beautiful flowering tree was 

 introduced in 1865 by the Abb6 David, who found it on the 

 hills which surround the Imperial palace of Gehol, in Mongolia, 

 and also in the neighborhood of Pekin. In this country this 

 tree is one of the earliest of all the Peach tribe to flower. No 

 plant of its class is hardier or more beaufifiil, but, although it 

 flowers freely every spring, it is not known to have produced 

 fruit here. The fruit is described as small, nearly spherical, 

 covered with down, and, when fully ripe, of a yellowish color. 

 The flesh, which is very thin, is easily separated fi'om the 

 nearly spherical deeply pitted nut. 



We find in the Jourttal of Horticulture an interesting ac- 

 count of a Black Hamburg Grape-vine at Silwood Park, Ascot, 

 which deserves to rank with the often-described giant vines at 

 Speddoch, Manresa and Cumberland Lodge. The Silwood 

 vine occupies a house 128 feet long and twelve feet wide, the 

 endre roof being covered with rods and lateral stems. Its 

 main trunk is over six feet high, with a girth of three feet and 

 two inches, and it forks into two large limbs. The rods on 

 which the fruidng branches run have a total length of 1,112 

 feet, and the number of fruit-clusters it now bears is 830, and 

 they range from half a pound to three pounds in weight, 

 amounting, at a fair estimate, to nearly 1,100 pounds in all. 

 The age of the plant is not known with precision, but it is 

 between 100 and no years old. It is a very vigorous vine still. 



with leaves of unusual size and berries also exceptionally 

 large. 



Clematis flammula is still covered with its clusters of white 

 and fragrant flowers, and it seems to be an almost indispen- 

 sable plant for late August. Our common wild Clematis, C. 

 Virginiana, also continues to bloom in almost the same abun- 

 dance, and, aUhough its flowers are hardly as delicate as those 

 of C. flammula, it is perhaps the most interesting of our native 

 plants in bloom at this dme except the Clethra. Its airy fruit- 

 clusters, with their feathery tails, which appear later, add 

 much to its value. The purple and fragrant solitary flowers 

 of C. crispa are still appearing as they have been since 

 June, though in no great abundance. They will continue, 

 however, until frost. Besides its long flowering season, this 

 Clematis is to be commended for the beauty of its variable 

 foliage. The foliage of Clematis coccinea is more thin and 

 open, so that it does not serve a good purpose where a thick 

 screen is wanted, but its scarlet flowers are interesting, and, 

 like those of C. crispa, they are produced throughout the 

 entire season. 



Something more than a year ago we gave some account of 

 a crimson-flowered Cluster Rose which had been obtained in- 

 directly from Japan by Messrs. Turner & Sons, of Slough, Eng- 

 land, and which had been certificated in 1890 by the Royal 

 Horticultural Society under the name of Engineer. In our de- 

 scription the Rose was said to bloom very freely, its long 

 sturdy branches being covered with huge bouquets of com- 

 pact blood-red flowers, and, altogether, it seemed one of the 

 best of the many forms of Rosa multiflora which are repre- 

 sented in English gardens. In last week's Gardeners' Chronicle 

 there is a picture of this Rose, which indicates that it is a very 

 attractive plant. It was shown in the Horticultural Exposition 

 at Paris as well as in the Temple Show and other English ex- 

 hibitions, in all of which its merits were recognized, and it was 

 pronounced the most beautiful hardy Rose of its kind which 

 has been introduced for many years. The illustration shows 

 it as a pillar Rose, but it is said to be equally beautiful for bed- 

 *ding when pegged down. We should be pleased to hear of 

 any experience with it in this country. 



Peaches of ordinary quality are abundant and cheap, but 

 large fruit is somewhat scarce and high. California is sending 

 Orange Cling peaches, wliich are very attractive in appear- 

 ance, but altogether disappointing to the eater. These peaches 

 do not rot or break down as the eastern peaches do, but their 

 flesh seems to toughen into a leathery consistency. They last 

 longer in the market here than fruit from orchards fifty miles 

 away, and their appearance sells them at five csnts each on the 

 fruit-stands. Plums still continue abundant from California, 

 the principal varieties being Grosse Prunes, Comedy Prunes, 

 German Prunes, Bradshaw, Columbia and Duane's Purple. 

 The California grapes now chiefly sold here are White Mus- 

 cats, White Malagas, Rose of Peru and Chasselas de Fontaine- 

 bleau, which is often sold as Sweetwater. Strawberry Pippins, 

 Nyack Pippins and Orange Pippins are coming from the Hud- 

 son fruit region in abundance, but the Gravensteins still bring 

 the highest prices among apples. The buyer can have a se- 

 lection of Concord, Delaware, Niagara, Ives, Moore's Early, 

 Champion and Hartford grapes. The best oranges are still 

 those from Rodi, Italy, some 5,000 boxes having arrived last 

 week, and they sell from $3.50 to $5.00 a box. 



Immediately following the Congress on Horticulture at 

 Chicago a movement was instituted to organize a General Hor- 

 ticultural Society to promote correspondence, the exchange of 

 plants, seeds, books and other articles, and the general exten- 

 sion of fellowship among the horticulturists of the world. The 

 organization of this body was practically completed at a meet- 

 ing held in,Mr. Samuels' office on August 25th. The scheme 

 provides for three officers-at-large — president, first vice-presi- 

 dent and secretary-treasurer. Each country is entitled to a 

 vice-president and secretary-treasurer. The three general 

 officers, together with the secretary-treasurer of the country in 

 which the president resides, constitute a Committee on By- 

 laws and also on Finance, while all the officers constitute an 

 Executive Committee. The m.embership of the society con- 

 sists of horticultural societies, which pay an annual fee of five 

 dollars, and of individuals, who pay an initial fee of two dol- 

 lars and a subsequent annual fee of one dollar. Only the three 

 general officers are yet determined. These are P. J. Berck- 

 mans, Georgia, President ; Henri L. de Vilmorin, Paris, First 

 Vice-President ; George Nicholson, Kew, England, Secretary- 

 Treasurer. It is expected that one-third of all moneys col- 

 lected in each country is to be retained in that country for the 

 expenses of its own branch of the work, the remainder going 

 into the hands of the Secretary-Treasurer. 



