October 25, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



447 



autumn. Together with the later flowers ripe black fruits may 

 also be seen in abundance. This is altogether one of the most 

 satisfactory of twining Honeysuckles as well as of constant 

 bloomers. Its strongly and sweetly fragrant flowers are at first 

 white, but change to a light yellowish color as they grow old. 

 The plant is quite hardy in the climate of Boston, and the 

 leaves persist on the stems and maintain a bright evergreen 

 appearance until well into the winter. It is curious that what 

 is considered as the type of the species does not show any ten- 

 dency to blossom at any other than the usual time. 



The little Saint Dabeoc's Heath, Daboecia polifolia, is another 

 plant which, in this climate at least, persists in blossoming in 

 more or less profusion throughout the summer and autumn. 

 It is rather too delicate and tender to be recommended for 

 general cultivation here, but plants in the Arboretum have 

 stood in the open ground for several years by having a good 

 covering of leaves and branches in winter. It has slender, low- 

 spreading stems, scarcely rising over a foot in height, and dark 

 little evergreen narrow leaves, which, on the lower surface, 

 are usually of a very pure white color. The flowers of different 

 forms are white, purple or rose-colored. They are somewhat 

 barrel-shaped, from a third to half an inch long, and are borne 

 in ascending, loose terminal racemes, each blossom on a short 

 separate stalk or pedicel. It is indigenous in south-western 

 Europe and the Azores, and is also found wild in Mayo and 

 Connemara, in southern Ireland. 



The large flowering St. Johnswort, known as Hypericum cal- 

 cinum, at first sight seems more like an herbaceous plant than 

 one which is truly woody, but an examination of the lower 

 parts of the stems at once shows their ligneous character. This 

 pretty golden-yellow blossomed plant scarcely rises more than 

 a foot in height here, and although it never at any season 

 bears a profusion of flowers, a few scattering specimens may 

 almost invariably be found from midsummer until frost. 

 Except yellow Roses, these St. Johnswort flowers are about 

 the largest of any flowers of that color borne on outdoor woody 

 plants which are hardy in this latitude. This Hypericum is 

 not as hardy as could be desired, and unless it has the pro- 

 tection of a covering, such as dry leaves, in winter, it is liable 

 to be much winter-killed, and its dark, persistent foliage is de- 

 stroyed. There are two or three (Jther species of foreign St. 

 Johnsworts which also continue to bear a few flowers until 

 frost overtakes them, the most noticeable being Hypericum 

 multiflorum and H. hircinum ; and, among native species, 

 young plants of H. galioides and H. densiflorum bear a few 

 straggling flowers. 



Besides St. Dabeoc's Heath, too, there are one or two others 

 of the same family which have hardly finished their belated 

 flowering as yet. Erica Tetralix still bears a good many fresh 

 heads of its pretty rosy-red flowers, and the uppermost buds 

 in some spikes of the Cornish Heath, Erica vagans, have not 

 yet expanded and shown their pinkish white corollas and dark 

 purplish anthers. 



Clethra tomentosa, which by many botanists is considered as 

 simply a southern form of our northern and earlier-blooming 

 C. alnifolia, has hardly passed out of its legitimate flowering 

 when it is overtaken by trost. Where the sweet C. alnifolia is 

 grown in gardens, C. tomentosa is worth planting for its suc- 

 cession and continuance of bloom when the first has long 

 faded. Among other plants noted in mid-October at the Ar- 

 boretum as producing late blooms the following may also be 

 mentioned : Daphne Cneorum, with a few clusters of flowers, 

 just as fragrant as those borne in June ; Rosa rugosa and its 

 pretty white variety, with very large single blossoms on stray 

 new shoots, and incurring less liability to have their petals 

 marred by the bites of insects ; Bladder Senna, Colutea arbo- 

 rescens, and Weigelas, or Diervillas, bearing good blooms on 

 young shoots. Among the Spiraeas some of the forms belong- 

 ing to the group known as S. Japonica or S. callosa still pro- 

 duce blossoms, a white-flowered form, and the red-flowered 

 one, known in nurseries as S. Bumalda, showing them most 

 plentifully. 



Unfortunately, none of the Pacific-coast species of Ceano- 

 thus havmg colored flowers are really hardy in this cli- 

 mate ; but for the past two seasons roots of the form of C. 

 azureus, known as Gloire de Versailles, have survived in a 

 sheltered situation, and throughout the autumn have borne 

 numerous large handsome panicles of small azure-blue flow- 

 ers on vigorous new stems. 



Arnold Arboretum. J. G. yack. 



Notes from the Home Vineyard. 



A MONO the advantages of an experimental vineyard con- 



-^^- sisting of a hundred or more varieties, over the purely 



commercial grapery, is the perfect pollen-transfer which this 



massing of varieties secures. The reputation which some 

 varieties have of being "shy bearers," or of giving only loose 

 clusters, is mostly the direct result of a failure in self-pollina- 

 tion and consequent partial fruit-setting. Whenever a large 

 number of varieties are crowded together side by side, free 

 fructification is sure to follow. 



Brighton, one of the best varieties for both home use and 

 market, for example, is usually described as bearing loose 

 clusters. Ever since it came into bearing in our experimental 

 vineyard, three years ago, this variety has produced as much 

 fruit on each vine as Concord or Niagara, and in finer clusters, 

 being the largest and handsomest among all our varieties ; 

 some clusters weighed a pound, and few less than half a 

 pound apiece. 



Eldorado, a great favorite with us for its pure flavor and 

 generally superior quality, bears, under our vineyard condi- 

 tions, a moderate amount of reasonably fair clusters, which, 

 however, are none too compact. In its first bearing season, 

 two years ago, the Eldorado gave as much fruit as the most 

 prolific varieties, and in good clusters. Last year it was some- 

 what of a failure, owing chiefly to rot. This year it has again 

 borne well, but the vine seems to be more subject to disease 

 than any of its near neighbors. 



The Best Grape. The Concord is the choice of most peo- 

 ple when there is room for one vine only. I should unhesitat- 

 ingly select the Green Mountain (Winchell, of Ellwanger & 

 Barry). A vine of this variety may not yield as many pounds 

 as a Concord or Niagara, but it gives clusters of luscious 

 fruit at a time when grapes are scarce, and seem to be 

 most appreciated, as they are worth ten or fifteen cents a 

 pound, while Concords can be had at one-fifth that price in 

 their season. Whoever appreciates extra quality, and is will- 

 ing, as all should be, to incur some slight trouble and expense 

 for it, may bag part or all of the clusters, not only on the 

 Green Mountain, but on other good sorts as well, thus 

 keeping the bunches free from dirt, chemicals, and especially 

 from spiders and insects (one of the greatest objections to the 

 average grape of our markets), all the bloom intact, and the 

 berries reasonably safe from mildew, rot and frost. 



Pruning and Training. — There is no occasion for even the 

 novice to be afraid of the pruning and training of Grape-vines. 

 To insure a tidy and attractive appearance, the horizontal-arm 

 system and a four-wire trellis can be recommended, although 

 prompt attention is necessary in the tying. When fruit is the 

 chief or only consideration, a trellis of one or two wires can be 

 made to answer, and the labor of training reduced to a mini- 

 mum. The amateur seldom realizes the necessity of severe 

 pruning. Usually too much wood is left, and the vine sets 

 more fruit than it is able to bring to perfection. Late sour 

 grapes and often lasting injury to the vitality and endurance of 

 the plant are the results. I have often had to cut a large part 

 of the clusters away when half-grown, and later in the season 

 have found that far too many had yet been left on for the good 

 of the crop and the vines. Close pruning will prevent over- 

 bearing. With the exception of four short arms of new wood, 

 two for the lower and two for the upper wire, we cut all wood 

 awaycleartothemainstem or stems, of which there are usually 

 two, and then tie the arms as required. This is all the labor of 

 this kind done in the vineyard until August, when we go 

 through once more to arrange tiie new growth about the vines 

 and clear out the tangles. This is not the most thorough way, 

 but it has given us an abundance of good fruit at little labor 

 and expense. 



Spraying for Disease — Until the first bearing season of 

 the vineyard, and during that season, the vines were entirely 

 free from disease. But after the strain endured by the vines 

 in bearing a very large crop, diseases seemed to find an easy 

 hold, and last season probably over one-half of the clusters 

 were ruined, no preventive measures having been used. The 

 whole vineyard is now thoroughly and evenly infected with 

 anthracnose, black-rot and downy mildew. Earlier experience 

 had shown me that the treatment of the dormant vines in early 

 spring with strong solutions of sulphate of iron, ordinary green 

 copperas, is of far greater potency than later treatments with 

 Bordeaux mixture or any other of the well-tested fungicides, 

 and that these applications, if persisted in year after year, 

 will alone suffice to clear out every trace of these vine 

 diseases. Usually I have made two applications, one while 

 the vines were perfectly dormant, the other when the buds 

 were ready to break. An almost saturated solution of the 

 drug was used and the spray thrown upon the wood, the wires, 

 the posts and the ground almost to the point of soaking. This 

 year only one application was made, four rows of the vineyard 

 being left without treatment. Although fungus has not been 

 general this year, there are slight traces of mildew and rot in 



