October 25, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



449 



Co. also has two iron skeleton houses upon the lawn to show 

 the method of building iron frames. 



The most novel of the various greenhouse exhibits are the 

 two curious structures made of the Falconnier glass bricks. 

 These bricks are essentially bottles without an opening, and 

 blown in such shapes that they fit well into the designs of the 

 builder. As a rule, the interior hollow is about large enough 

 to hold a quart of liquid. The bricks are generally flattened, 

 but the two broad sides are usually raised into a cone-like 

 shape, in order to present various surfaces to the incident rays 

 of the sun and to break the force of hail and shocks. The nar- 

 rower sides are two or three inches wide and are trough- 

 shaped to hold the cement or mortar with which the bricks are 

 joined. The bricks are laid by a mason in much the same 

 manner as ordinary bricks are laid, and the entire arch of the 

 greenhouse-roof supports itself without posts, rafters or 

 braces. The roof and sides are, therefore, a continuous 

 sheet of glass. These bricks have been well tested in parts 

 of Europe, and they are found to conserve heat one-half, to 

 render the temperature of the houses uniform and to prevent 

 all scalding of the plants. Considering the fact that no frame- 

 work is required, a house can be built of this material about 

 as cheaply as in the common fashion. Most greenhouse-men 

 who have seen the two little exhibition-houses at Chicago will, 

 no doubt, feel that they are too dark lor the growing of Roses 

 and the forcing of vegetables ; but the exhibitors say that for 

 such houses the bricks are made of clear bright glass, while 

 these are made of bottle glass. It is the desire of the inventor 

 to manufacture the bricks in this country. They recommend 

 them for sky-lights, porch-roofs, photographers' studios, propa- 

 gating-pits, and the like. These bricks are the invention of 

 Mr. Falconnier, of Nyon, Switzerland. The prices quoted in 

 France last year were twenty-four francs per 100, and about 

 fifty are required for a square metre. 



BREVITIES. 



Pecans are the subjects of four small, but very interesting, 

 exhibits in the gallery of the north pavilion of the Horticultural 

 Building. The Stuart Pecan Company, of Ocean Springs, Mis- 

 sissippi, in which W. R. Stuart, author of The Pecan, and How 

 to Grow It, is a leading spirit, shows a collection of varieties 

 in jars. These varieties are Stuart, Van Deman, Columbia, 

 Jewett and Beauty. B. M. Young, Morgan City, Louisiana, 

 shows an interesting series of photographs of trees, flowers 

 and nuts, and- also specimens of the following varieties : 

 Pabst, St. Martin, Miller, Vermilion, Frotscher, and many 

 seedlings. E. E. Risien, San Saba, Texas, shows a number of 

 large and very fine varieties, which, however, are unnamed. 

 He also has interesting photographs showing the top-grafting 

 of large wild trees. The trees are "topped" twenty or thirty 

 feet high in March, and buds are set the middle of June. Tlie 

 Swinden Pecan Orchard, of Brownwood, Texas, shows a pic- 

 ture of its Pecan orchard of 16,000 trees, together with a collec- 

 tion of nuts and confections, and oiland soap made from them. 



Probably the most perfect single specimen of tub Fern 

 shown at the Exposition is a plant of Cibotium Schiedei, in the 

 collection of Pitcher & Manda. The crown of the plant is ele- 

 vated to the height of six feet, yet the great leaves sweep the 

 ground in a circle over twelve feet in diameter. 



Zamia latifrons is one of the rare plants now shown at the 

 World's Fair. Its wide few-toothed pinnae distinguish it from 

 its congeners. It is shown by the Allegheny City Parks. 



Chicago, 111. L. H. Bailey. 



Recent Publications. 



The Shrubs of North-eastern America. By Charles 8. 

 Newhall. New York : G.P.Putnam's Sons. 1893. 



This is a companion book to the one entitled The Trees 

 of North-eastern America, by the same author, which was 

 published two or three years ago, and it is in many respects 

 a more careful compilation than its predecessor. It aims 

 to describe all the shrubs, not inchiding the woo'dy vines, 

 which are found native in Canada, and in the United States 

 east of the Mississippi River and north of the latitude of 

 southern Pennsylvania, together with a few foreign shrubs 

 which have become, to some extent, naturalized in this 

 country. The principal value of the book is found in 'the 

 illustrations, which, although they are rather coarsely done, 

 are fairly accurate, and will serve a good purpose in help- 

 ing beginners in botany to identify the various shrubs 

 which they encounter. These illustrations, which are out- 



lines of the forms of leaves, fruit and flowers, are accom- 

 panied by three keys or guides, which are prepared to 

 assist the learner in tracing any given specimen to its 

 proper family. In one of these guides the flowers are used, 

 in another the leaves, and in the third the fruits. Besides 

 this, there are brief botanical descriptions of each plant in 

 which an attempt is made to translate technical language 

 into the vernacular. Brief notes are added to these de- 

 scriptions, and these might have been made a most useful 

 part of the book, but the author does not seem to have that 

 faculty of clear-seeing which enables trained observers to 

 select the most important characters of a given plant, or 

 the interesting facts of its history, or to make the most ap- 

 propriate suggestions as to its value for various purposes. 

 Sometimes the statements made in these notes are careless, 

 they are rarely helpful, and occasionally they are not in the 

 best taste. It is hardly worth while, for example, in a 

 manual of this sort, to assure the student that although the 

 Red Root is a very common shrub, it was late before the 

 author learned to know it. 



Recreations i7i Botaiiy. By Caroline A. Creevey. New 

 York : Harper & Bros. 



The title of this book fairly indicates its purpose. It is 

 one of that rapidly growing class of publications intended 

 to arouse the interest of readers who are not likely to un- 

 dertake the serious and systematic study of botany as a 

 science, but who, it is hoped, may be allured into taking it 

 up as a pastime, if it can be treated as an outdoor sport. 

 The neat volume consists of a sheaf of sketches on various 

 topics which cover a wide range, all of which are in some 

 way botanical in their character. The Fertilization of Plants, 

 The Compositse, Ferns, Seeds and Fruits, Aquatic Plants, 

 The Movements of Plaiits are the titles of half a dozen of the 

 chapters, none of which occupy as much as a dozen pages, 

 and the remaining chapters, more than twenty in all, are on 

 subjects no less disconnected than these, each of them be- 

 ing a little monograph, which can be read without any 

 reference to the rest. Of course, the information on each 

 subject is limited, but what there is of it is fairly accurate, 

 and, what is better, it is presented in a pleasing way, and 

 the book will serve a good purpose if it suggests to casual 

 readers the benefits of more sysfematic study. As is truly ■ 

 stated in the introduction, children grow up among natural 

 objects without paying any heed to them, and anything 

 that will encourage these young people or their parents to 

 investigate for themselves the wonders of plant-life is dis- 

 tinctly useful. It is true, also, that the study of any natural 

 science can be made pleasant, and the knowledge gained 

 will be no less useful if it is acquired as a part of the regu- 

 lar summer recreation. We are inclined to think, however, 

 that the apprehension of the classified truths of any science 

 can only be obtained by serious, persistent and systematic 

 application, and that students who are honest in this mat- 

 ter will not get on very fast or very far if they depend to 

 any extent upon such desultory essays. Of course, a 

 knowledge of botany is only acquired by the study of 

 plants. And, in our view, the best aids to such studies are 

 the regular treatises. A good purpose, however, can be 

 subserved by this little book and others of a similar charac- 

 ter if they induce those who may read them to settle down 

 to steady work with some such aids as are afforded by the 

 text-books which have been prepared by Dr. Gray. The 

 book is very prettily printed, and the illustrations are really 

 helpful to an understanding of the text. 



Notes. 



Flowers of the hybrid Cosmos are selling in great abundance 

 in the streets of New York and Philadelphia. They now range 

 in color from pure white to a deep crimson, and as they last a 

 long time in water, tliey are a very useful addition to the flow- 

 ers for cutting at this season. 



Last week the agents of the Florida Fruit Exchange in this 

 city shipped to England 3,600 boxes of Florida oranges, of 



