450 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 296. 



,^ood quality, and some of them partly colored. The returns 

 i'rom earlier shipments show that the prices realized were 

 equal to $2.60 a box here. The fruit carries well, and as there 

 is now no competition with American apples, since none 

 have yet been exported, practically the only fruit these oranges 

 have to contend with in the Liverpool auction-rooms is the 

 Almeria grape. 



According to the Visalia Times, a vineyardist of that part of 

 California has found that he can fatten a hundred hogs on the 

 second crop of grapes in his fifty-acre vineyard. The grapes 

 are not picked for the swine, but the swine are turned in among 

 them and allowed to pick for themselves, which they do with- 

 out injuring the vines, and in sixty days they gain an average 

 of one hundred pounds each. The approved plan is to fence off a 

 few acres until the swine have picked the grapes in the en- 

 closure, and then to move the fence to another portion of the 

 vineyard. 



The flowers of the new early Chrysanthemum, Mrs. E. G. 

 Hill, which is a seedling from Puritan and Mrs. Alpheus Hardy, 

 were exhibited in good form on the 13th of October by the in- 

 troducers of the plant, E. G. Hill & Co. The flower is of the 

 Japanese incurved type of a delicate pink color, resembling 

 somewhat that of a La France Rose. A medal and diploma 

 was awarded to this plant at the World's Fair, the points con- 

 sidered being earliness, size, form, color and vigor of growth. 

 The flowers are said to be seven or eight inches in diameter. 

 They were shown on stems thirty inches long, covered with 

 good leaves their entire length. 



Among trees which assume brilliant autumn coloring the 

 Oxydendmm of our Alleghany forests should riot be forgotten. 

 The leaves of no other American tree assume a more bril- 

 liant scarlet color in the autumn. The decorative value 

 of this plant, nevertheless, appears to be overlooked in 

 this country, although it has many good qualities. The 

 habit is good, it is hardy as far north as Massachusetts, 

 the leaves are large, bright green and lustrous, and the 

 Andromeda-like flowers are produced in great, flat, one-sided 

 terminal panicles at midsummer, when few other trees are in 

 bloom; in the autumn the foliage is magnificent. The tree, 

 which represents a monotypic genus, is exclusively American. 



A copy of what is, without doubt, the first publication of Asa 

 Gray, has recently been sent to us. It is a Catalogue of Indige- 

 nous Flowering and Filicoid Plants growing within twenty 

 miles of Bridgewater {Oneida County), New York. It consists 

 of nine pages, and is dated January ist, 1833— that is, when the 

 author had just entered his twenty-fourth year. This paper 

 was published in the forty-second annual report of the Regents 

 of the University of New York, and is included in Professor 

 Britton's List of State and Local Floras of the United States 

 and British America, although it is here entered under Onon- 

 daga County instead of Oneida County. This catalogue was 

 omitted from the list of Professor Gray's writings, published 

 soon after his death in the American Journal of Science and 

 Art, and no reference to it appears in the reprint of a selection 

 of his scientific papers published in 1889. . 



No climbing plant, except, perhaps, the Ampelopsis tricuspi- 

 data or Veitchii, of the same country, compares at this time in 

 brilliancy of foliage with the Grape-vine of northern Japan, 

 Vitis Coignetias, a species closely related botanically and of the 

 same general appearance as our native V. Labrusca. In the 

 forests of Yezo, V.Coignetiae climbs into the tops of the tallest 

 trees, filling them with its enormous leaves, which in autumn 

 assurne the most brilliant hues of scarlet. In this country it 

 appears to be perfectly hardy, and promises to present in au- 

 tumn as brilliant a spectacle as it does in its native country. It 

 is, both in the size of its foliage and autumn coloring, a much 

 more desirable ornamental plant than any of our American 

 Grape-vines ; and it can be planted to advantage wherever 

 sufficient space can be given it to climb among tall trees or to 

 cover large arbors or other edifices. The fruit, late in the sea- 

 son, after it has been frozen, is eaten by the Japanese, who find 

 it palatable ; the flavor, however, is not much better than that 

 of our common wild grapes, and it is only as an ornamental 

 plant, or as a stock on which to graft less vigorous species or 

 varieties, that V. Coignetise will be found in our gardens, 

 where it seems destined to play an important role. 



A few plums from California are still coming, the varieties 

 of the latest shipments being mainly Coe's Late Red and Ick- 

 worth, Fellenberg, Gros and Silver prunes. Fresh supplies can- 

 not be'expected much longer, but since the first reached here, on 

 the 23d of June, the season of this delicious fruit has not been 

 short. Red damsons from New York state are seventy-five 

 cents for a ten-pound basket. California peaches have been 



received here in considerable quantity during the past week, 

 among them being Bilyeu's Late October, a variety which, al- 

 though it has been discarded in southern California and along 

 the coast, is particularly adapted to the foot-hill region where it 

 will mature. It is a large greenish white freestone peach, with 

 a red cheek and light-colored flesh. Crawford's Late peaches, 

 from western Pennsylvania and New York, bring one dollar 

 and a quarter a basket. A few California quinces have come, 

 but these seem to have been picked while green, and although 

 they are very large, they are misshapen and unattractive. 

 Clairgeau, Duchess, Lawrence, Vicar of Wakefield and Anjou 

 pears are the chief ones in the market, and sell at from three to 

 four dollars a barrel. Some large and beautiful Japanese per- 

 simmons are herefrom Florida, but the sales are so slow that 

 wholesale dealers refuse to handle them. At the fancy-fruit 

 stores they sell at from five to ten cents apiece. Bananas are 

 abundant and cheap, those from Aspinwall and Port Limon 

 bringing a dollar to a dollar and a quarter a bunch on the 

 steamers, the more northern-grown fruit selling at twelve 

 cents a bunch less for the same grade. 



The last number of the Pacific Rural Press, ^'\\\(^\ has come 

 to hand, contains a picture of a La Marque Rose in Santa Clara, 

 California, which is thirty-two years old and has a trunk forty- 

 four inches in circumference. In the notice of this plant it is 

 stated that, although this La Marque is one of the most popu- 

 lar climbing Roses, it is by no means the only one which 

 reaches great dimensions. The Cloth of Gold attains as great 

 a size and wonderful perfection of bloom, while superb speci- 

 mens of Mar^chal Niel, Gloire de Dijon, Rayon d'Or and Wil- 

 liam Allen Richardson, not to speak of the Banksians and 

 Cherokees, are found everywhere. Indeed, California seems 

 to be a land where climbing Roses attain their greatest perfec- 

 tion. They were among the earliest plants taken to that state. 

 The Forty-niners cherished and preserved cuttings in their 

 perilous journey across the plains, and the new plants found 

 in the warm foot-hill soil just the opportunity for develop- 

 ment that they needed, and very soon they embowered the 

 miners' cabins and strayed off among the surrounding trees. 

 In a land where the tenderest Rose-shoot is safe in December 

 and January, and where the flowers begin to bloom before the 

 winter is fairly over, it is little wonder that these plants are 

 popular, and have become so common that there is hardly any 

 old place where some fine specimen is not the constant 

 joy of its owner and the wonder of every tourist. But, besides 

 these old varieties, those of comparatively recent origin are 

 largely growing in favor. The Climbing Devoniensis is rival- 

 ing the La Marque, while the Climbing Niphelos, Climbing 

 Perle des Jardins, Elie Beauvillain andseveral others are grow- 

 ing in favor. 



The summer's work of the New York Flower and Fruit 

 Mission, which ended last Thursday, has been steadily carried 

 on two days of each week since the 19th of May. The absence 

 of heavy frosts contributed to an abundant supply of garden- 

 flowers to the last, and nearly one hundred and fifty packages 

 were received on the closing day. Since the first spring dis- 

 tribution, made up largely of Violets, Buttercups, Saxifrages, 

 Solomon's-seal, Apple-blossoms, Lilacs, Tulips and Paeonies, 

 the tables of the Flower Mission have been heaped with wild 

 and cultivated flowers in their succession, ending now with 

 Asters, Dahlias, Zinnias, Nasturtiums and Cosmos, while 

 Mignonette, Geraniums, Ferns and Pansies contributed a 

 large share of fragrance and brightness throughout the en- 

 tire season. The primary object from the beginning, twenty- 

 two years ago, has been to distribute flowers among the very 

 sick of the free hospitals. Under the well-organized efforts of 

 this association, 135 insfitutions have been visited regularly 

 during the last five months, and about one hundred and twenty 

 thousand bouquets have been distributed. Fifty city mission- 

 aries have carried cut flowers, and lately slips and potted plants, 

 into the tenement districts, where window-gardens will be 

 made up from cuttings sent by gardeners of country places. 

 Contributors, as a rule, send their best flowers, summer resi- 

 dents in the Oranges, and as far away as eastern Long Island 

 and Massachusetts, forwarding regularly. The express com- 

 panies have repeated their liberality of foriner years in carry- 

 ing free all packages addressed to the Mission weighing not 

 over twenty pounds. Fruits, vegetables, fresh eggs and nuts 

 come in considerable quantity with the flowers, and there have 

 been many gifts of home-made jellies and preserves. The 

 regular work of the society will not be resumed until spring, 

 but the rooms at 104 East Twentieth Street will be open for a 

 week beginning 19th December for Christmas gifts of greens 

 and other materials which will help to brighten hospital- 

 wards and the homes of the needy. 



