4^ 



Garden and Forest. 



; • fNCMBS* S94. 



Notes. 



The early varieties of Clirysanthemum, like those sent out 

 by Delaux, are later this year than they were last, but they 

 have been on sale for a few days past at comparatively high 

 prices, and are now beginning to take a prominent place in 

 the decoration of the florists' windows. 



One good quality of the Altheas is that they keep their 

 foliage tresh well into autumn, when the leaves of many other 

 shrubs are dried up or blighted by fungus. Most varieties of 

 Althea are blooming this year with exceptional freedom ; the 

 hot dry weather of the last summer seems to suit them better 

 than it does most shrubs. 



All persons who are alive to the importance of preserving 

 our forests should bear in mind the Forestry Convention to be 

 held at Chicago on the i8th and 19th of this month. We have 

 already spoken at length of the plans and purposes of this 

 meeting, and need only repeat that the men who are to con- 

 duct it are earnest and sincere as well as competent and prac- 

 tical. It ought to be fruitful of good results. 



A valuable feature of the Missouri fruit-exhibit at the World's 

 Fair is a collection of peaches, in liquid, to show a commer- 

 cial list of varieties. This collection is made by the famous 

 Olden Fruit Company, of south-west Missouri. Thfe collection, 

 showing peaches ripening from July ist until October ist, 

 comprises the following varieties, in order of ripening : Troth, 

 Mountain Rose, Oldmixon, Elberta, Gold-dust, Crawford, Wil- 

 kins, Salway, Bonanza and Henrietta. 



The earliest flowers of the La France Rose out-of-doors, in 

 June, are apt to be disfigured by the browning of the outer 

 petals, and it can hardly be called a good hot-weather Rose ; 

 but when the cool days of autumn come there are few that 

 equal it. Even now, after quite hard frosts, numbers of flow- 

 ers are opening in this vicinity, and these have few rivals either 

 in beauty or in fragrance. Another hybrid Tea, the Beauty of 

 Stapleford, is also flowering freely, and, of course, the reliable 

 old Gloire de Dijon, the hardiest of all Tea Roses, is now 

 indispensable. 



Last week a correspondent called attention to the flowering 

 of a Horse-chestnut-tree in Central Park. Mr. John DeWolf, 

 superintendent of the parks in Brooklyn, writes that these 

 trees are blooming in some of the parks of that city, while 

 the Japan Quince, Forsythia and Magnolia conspicua have 

 been flowering more or less. A Rhododendron with white 

 flowers, which is one of the first to open in the spring, is 

 blooming quite generally in Prospect Park, and, in one instance, 

 as profusely as in spring, although the clusters and individual 

 flowers are smaller than they are at their regular season. 



There have been few heavy frosts in this section this season 

 so far, and therefore the color of the autumn foliage hereabout 

 promises to be unusually brilliant. Some trees, like the Hick- 

 ories, for example, very rarely show their full beauty in this 

 respect, because the leaves are generally scorched by the cold 

 before they change into the color they assume when they 

 ripen naturally. Many of these Hickories, especially the 

 young ones, are now masses of clear iemon-yellow and pro- 

 duce an effect in the full sunlight which no words can de- 

 scribe. Of course, there is a kindling of color in the Red Ma- 

 ples ; many of the Dogwoods are already in full glow, and the 

 Virginia Creeper has taken on its deepest crimson. Among 

 our cultivated exotic shrubs the best among those which show 

 their color early are the variety Ginnala of the Tartarian Maple 

 and Spiraea prunifolia. 



Many Americans interested in liorticulture visit the com- 

 mercial gardens at Hamburg, from which large quantities of 

 plants and bulbs are annually exported, and which are espe- 

 cially noted for their Lilies-of-the-valley. But probably few 

 of them have delayed long enough to inspect the examples of 

 landscape-gardening which may be seen in the far-extending 

 suburbs where the rich merchants of the city dwell. An arti- 

 cle in a late number of Gartenflora states that Hamburg's 

 villa-gardens are especially remarkable, both for number and 

 for beauty. "Masterpieces of design" can be seen, we are 

 told, in endless succession, in the suburbs of Boseldorf and 

 Har'vestehude, where private gardens follow each other in a 

 park-like arrangement. Still more attractive is the effect of 

 the eastern bank of the Elbe, below the city, where garden 

 after garden and park after park stretch for miles toward 

 Blankenese in a panorama which every one should see who 

 is interested in the art of landscape-gardening. The writer of 

 these statements may be somewhat partial in his judgment, but 

 there can be little doubt that the suburbs of Hamburg offer 



an exceptionally good field for thestudent desirous to acquaint 

 himself with the ideals and processes of the German land- 

 scape-gardener of to-day. 



To one of the early reports of the Wisconsin Experiment 

 Station Professor Trelease contributed the following interest- 

 ing note relating to the falling of leaves in autumn : " With 

 respect to the fall of the leaves, it has been noticed that three 

 more or less distinct periods are observable. The first, occur- 

 ring, on an average, a week earlier than the main fall, is 

 marked by the loss of the leaves of weakly twigs. The second 

 comprises the main defoliation. The third embraces the pe- 

 riod during which straggling leaves, mostly on branches which 

 have been shaded during the growing season, successively 

 disappear ; this period is often limited only by the beginning 

 of growth the next spring. It is well known that most leaves 

 fall in consequence of the formation of a distinct joint, usually 

 at the base of the leaf-stalk. It is interesting to note that in 

 very many of our trees the weakened twigs also are annually 

 cast off by a similar process. This is especially observable in 

 several Willows, which are often spoken of as having 'brittle' 

 branches, although their wood is tough except where the joints 

 referred to occur. The Cottonwood and White Elm show the 

 same peculiarity well, the joints being formed at the com- 

 mencement of the year's growth, so that the growth of from 

 one to seven or eight years is often pruned off by a gale in 

 autumn ; and, as has been said, it is observable on Oaks and 

 many other trees. There seem to be two reasons for this pro- 

 vision. The fallen twigs of species which grow in wet places 

 have been observed to strike root, thus serving as natural cut- 

 tings for the propagation of the species ; on the other hand, it 

 is clearly an advantage to the tree to lose weak branches that 

 would make at best but a poor growth, while shading and 

 otherwise interfering with the development of the stronger 

 shoots." 



Nearly a dozen car-loads of grapes, averaging five thousand 

 baskets to a car, are now coming into the city daily from New 

 York state, except on Tuesdays, there being none shipped on 

 Sundays. Grapes also constitute a large part of the forty-five 

 car-loads of fruit which were received from California last 

 week ; nevertheless, choice grapes are firm at good prices. 

 Among the later arrivals from California are remarkably fine 

 Tokay grapes, from the Natoma Vineyards, Black Prince, the 

 large Purple Damascus, Black Morocco and Emperor. A few 

 small importations of Almeria grapes have come to this port 

 by way of England, but the first direct shipment from Spain 

 was sold on Monday. More than 1 3,000 barrels brought at auc- 

 tion an average price thirty per cent, lower than the earliest 

 importations of last year. The New Jersey peach season is 

 about closed, the Hudson River district now supplying the 

 market, and the best quality commands $1.25 a basket. The 

 Salway peach continues to come from California, and the same 

 state is sending Levy's Late, sometimes known as Henrietta, 

 George's Late and Heath, the Maryland peach which Down- 

 ing held to be the most delicious of all clingstones. Roman 

 Beauty apples, from California, and Baldwin apples of high 

 grade are seen in the fancy fruit-stores, and bring sixty cents 

 a dozen. Gravensteins are coming from as far north as Nova 

 Scotia, and the best of these, with the Snow and King apples, 

 are worth three dollars and fifty cents a barrel wholesale. 

 Sheldon and Seckel pears from this state are stiU here in good 

 quality, and a few Keiffer pears are selling at $4.50 a barrel. 

 Much of the California stock of pears is held here in cold stor- 

 age, among the varieties received during the week being 

 Winter Nelis, Duchess, Bosc, P. Barry, Clairgeau, Forella and 

 Cornice, the last of which brings the highest prices. Pome- 

 granates from California sell at a dollar and fifty cents for a box 

 of fifty fruits, and choice Jamaica pomelos are seventy-five 

 cents to a dollar a dozen. The tuna, or prickly pear, from the 

 West Indies, is now selling in some of the fancy fruit-stores at 

 forty cents a dozen, and inexperienced buyers who handle 

 them carelessly soon find their hands smarting from the al- 

 most invisible spines which occur in tufts on the surface of the 

 fruit. If these spines are first rubbed off with a cloth and the 

 skin removed, the deep crimson pulp looks quite tempting. 

 Travelers tell us that this is an excellent breakfast-table fruit, 

 with the flavor of watermelon reinforced by that of a straw- 

 berry. Specimens sold here, however, more closely resemble 

 in flavor an insipid blackberry. Alligator pears are still seen 

 occasionally, and they are much relished as a salad by persons 

 of cosmopolitan tastes. Chestnuts, which brought twelve dol- 

 lars a bushel ten days ago, have already begun to decline. 

 Hickory nuts are only three dollars a bushel and sell slowly at 

 that, and something like a novelty is the Paradise nut, from 

 Brazil, which is rarely seen in this market. 



