448 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 296. 



all parts of the vineyard ; but the difference in the spread of 

 these diseases between the treated and untreated parts was a 

 subject of comment all during the latter part of the season, 

 and was truly remarkable. In the treated rows, with the ex- 

 ception of Delaware and Moyer, which were more seriously 

 affected by downy mildew on the foliage only, the vines have 

 retained healthy leaves to the last, and only few plants show 

 slight touches of rot on the berries. In the untreated rows 

 only very lew moderately healthy vines can be found. The 

 majority have had much of their fruit spoiled by black rot, and 

 a number of them have been entirely defoliated by downy 

 mildew. This is an object-lesson well worth remembering. 

 The sulphate of iron solution is cheap, easily applied, and if 

 used with thoroughness, preferably in two applications every 

 year, will surely give good results in banishing the dreaded 

 grape diseases. I have no doubt that a similar course of treat- 

 ment would work well for the various blights of fruit-trees, 

 especially Apple-scab. We can make short work with the 

 comparatively few spores which have found lodgment on the 

 dormant wood, by spraying the comparatively small surface 

 with solutions far too strong to be used safely on the well-de- 

 veloped foliage, and on a much greater surface. In short, a 

 thorough use of strong iron sulphate solutions will enable us 

 to dispense, perhaps, entirely with Bordeaux mixture and the 

 various other fungicides. _, _ . 



La Salle, N. Y. T. Greiner. 



Correspondence. 



The Common Names of Wild Plants. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Knowing that you and your readers are interested in 

 the common names for wild plants, which vary so greatly in 

 different parts of our country, I am tempted to note that the 

 name "Biscuit-leaf," or "Biscuit-plant," which, in an article 

 called " Nibblings and Browsings," in the September Atlantic, 

 Mrs. Bergen gives as familiar in eastern New England for 

 Smilax rotundifolia, is quite unfamiliar in the eastern part of 

 Connecticut, There we called it Bread-and-butter Vine as 

 well as Cat-brier and Bull-brier. Mrs. Bergen says, again, 

 that the Oxalis and the little Rumex are both "generally 

 known to children as Sorrel, though in Pennsylvania, I hear, 

 they call the Dxalis Sour-grass." Sour-grass was our only 

 name for the little yellow-flowered Oxalis in Connecticut ; only 

 the Rumex was called Sorrel. Our only name for what Mrs. 

 Bergen describes as " the keenly biting Smartweed" was Pep- 

 per-grass, a term she does not cite. 



New York. H. I, r. 



Canada Thistles. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — A note in your paper on the destruction of weeds 

 reminds me of a controversy I once had with Canada Thistles. 

 I had some three acres of neglected land that had been turned 

 to pasture. It had formerly been neglected and used for 

 burning brush-piles, so that Canada Thistles took possession, 

 as they always do on burned land, and that after it was 

 planted with Corn or Potatoes, so that two years ago it was 

 literally covered with a rank growth of these weeds. As an 

 experiment I took a clod-crusher, made of two-inch plank, 

 loaded it with as much stone as the horses could draw and 

 broke the thistles down flat and then plowed them deeply 

 under. The plan succeeded perfectly. It seems that their 

 entire vigor, vitality and substance was then in their tops, as 

 they were ready for scattering the seeds. They were entirely 

 destroyed, and a market-gardener raised vegetables on the 

 land the next season. Not a sign of a Canada Thistle has been 

 seen on the ground to this day. 



Waukegan, 111. Robert Douglas. 



Why Dahlias Fail to Bloom. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Having seen in your issue of October 4th a complaint 

 that Dahlias had failed to flower, I venture to report my own 

 experience. For a few years past I have attempted to get 

 Dahlias to flower, but all efforts have proved useless. I tried 

 many varieties, but, as regards flowering, they all proved much 

 alike. 



At first my impression was that they needed a soil somewhat 

 richer in order to mature their flower-buds, but that produced 

 no better results, and I then tried the opposite plan, thinking 

 that, perhaps, I could starve them into bloom. The result was 



much the same as in the first experiment, with the exception 

 that in the rich soil the plants made stronger growth and more 

 and larger tubers. I then kept close watch to see if they were 

 preyed upon by some minute insect, and was at last disagree- 

 ably surprised to find, busyat work, the same insect, Lyguslineo- 

 laris, which preys upon the Chrysanthemum. To explain how 

 it works would only be repeating what has often been told 

 already, and I fear that nearly all Horists are only too well ac- 

 quainted with this little pest. As in the case of the Chrysan- 

 themum, I find that the Hower-buds, as well as the leaves, fall 

 a prey to this insect, and when once stung they never seem to 

 develop. Sometimes a bud may not be so much affected as to 

 prevent its opening, but when this is the case the petals on one 

 side of the flower will be found wanting. There may be other 

 reasons for the failure of Dahlias to flower satisfactorily, but 

 this one is more than sufficient to cause great disappointment, 

 and the only one I have so far been able to detect. 

 Whitinsville, Mass. Charles Strachan, 



The Columbian Exposition. 



The Greenhouse Exhibits. 



'X*HE greenhouse displays at the World's Fair are disposed, 

 ■^ for the most part, upon the lawn in the rear of the Horti- 

 cultural Building, although three of them are inside the build- 

 ing. The exhibits are not numerous, but they represent the 

 recent improvements in construction, and they may be taken, 

 as they stand, to indicate the present stage of our progress 

 in greenhouse-building. One familiar with the houses of 

 twenty years ago sees great changes. Large glass, exceed- 

 ingly light frame-work, the free use of iron in the construction 

 and the abandonment of the old point-and-putty system of 

 glazing are the chief innovations ; and one might add, also, 

 the construction of portable houses. The fears attending the 

 use of iron for greenhouse construction have now subsided, or 

 have been overcome. Rafters, only a half-inch thick and three 

 inches wide, are strong enough to hold a roof thirty feet high, 

 without a post. Glass is both lapped and butted in the various 

 houses, alttiough the lapped is more used. Except in some 

 patent systems of glazing, wooden sash-bars are still used. 



The two most comprehensive displays are those of Hitchings 

 & Co. and Lord & Burnham, immediately back of the Horticul- 

 tural dome. The former show an admirable fancy Palm-house, 

 34 x 50 feet, and 30 feet high, which is free from all posts and 

 troublesome braces. A greenhouse wing, 19x35 feet, is at- 

 tached at the rear. The entire plant, with slate and tile 

 benches, heated, can be built for $8,500. The construction 

 of this house is exceedingly light. Lord & Burnham show 

 a nest of three houses and a connecting work-room. The 

 largest house, of which the centre is a Lily-tank, is 25 x 50 

 feet. The greenhouse wing is 20 x 1V/2 f^et, and the Rose- 

 house i8>^ X 33 feet. This plant complete, heated, can be 

 built for $6,000. Two other houses are also shown by Lord 

 & Burnham, one a curvilinear greenhouse, 15 x 30 feet, costing 

 $900 ; the other, a portable house 10 x 20, costing $400. Hitchings 

 & Co. also show two sections of a portable iron-frame green- 

 house in the dome-gallery of the Horticultural Building. A 

 villa conservatory is shown upon the lawn by Thomas W. 

 Weathered's Sons, and a portable wood-and-iron frame-house 

 is shown by the same firm in the south floral curtain of the 

 Horticultural Building. This latter house is 11 x 27, and can 

 be built, complete, for $575. The glass is set in light sashes, 

 which are bolted and screwed to the frame-work. John C. 

 Moninger, of Chicago, has a small house, 20 x 30 feet, upon 

 the lawn, to show the use of Cypress lumber in the construc- 

 tion of a house ; and in this house Mr. J. D. Carmody, of 

 Evansville, Indiana, displays his sectional boiler for hot water, 

 and his New Departure ventilating appliance. The Hellemell 

 system of glazing is shown in a small portable house upon the 

 lawn, built by Mr. H. B. Hardt, of Chicago. This system, 

 which is an English patent, and not in use in this country, is a 

 zinc sash-bar and cap, the cap being screwed down into the 

 bar in much the same manner as our common wood sash-bar 

 and cap for butted glass are used. This system allows of 

 either lapped or butted glass. In the north floral curtain of the 

 Horticultural Building, A. Edgecumbe, Rendle & Co. show 

 their two patent systems of glazing, the "Acme" and the 

 " Paradigm." These systems consist in the use of metal sash- 

 bars, fitted in such shape that the glass slides into them, and is 

 held secure without resort to putty. The sash-bars are quite 

 independent of the structural frame-work of the house. The 

 system can be used either upon wood or iron frame houses, 

 and it is particularly adapted to heavy skylights. The Rendle 



