470 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 298. 



Notes. 



We are pleased to know that Miss Frances Prince is about 

 to resume her classes in Boston for the study of trees and 

 ferns. We wish that similar classes under competent guid- 

 ance could be established in many other cities of the country. 



The choice collection of plants once the property of the late 

 A. J. Drexel, of Philadelphia, is to be disposed of at private 

 sale. In this collection are included many rare species of 

 Palms in specimens of moderate size, and a considerable num- 

 ber of fine specimen Ferns, among which are the noble Glei- 

 chenias, so often commended at the exhibition of the Pennsyl- 

 vania Horticultural Society, 



The grape yield of the Chautauqua vineyards is estimated 

 this year at 11,200,000 baskets, or about 3,500 car-loads. Nine 

 per cent, of the grapes are Concords, and the remainder are 

 chiefly Worden, Pocklington, Martha, Delaware and Niagara. 

 As the grapes now command only fourteen cents for a nine- 

 pound basket, and as nearly three cents of this goes into the 

 cost of the basket, one cent more for packing and two cents 

 for picking and carting, the fruit nets less than a cent a pound. 

 Many growers are putting theirgrapes into cold-storage houses 

 of their own, in the hope of securing better prices during the 

 holidays. 



The Winter Cherry, Physalis Alkakengi, an old inhabitant of 

 European gardens, but not very common here, although it has 

 escaped from cultivation and established itself in some parts 

 of this country, is rather a cheerful plant in late October. It 

 has a weedy look in summer while in bloom, and its flowers 

 have little beauty, but when covered with its pendent inflated 

 calyces, which surround the globular orange-red fruits, it has 

 some decorative value at a season when the frosts have left 

 the garden dull and cheerless. The plants look well in jars 

 and vases, and in water they keep their color and form for a 

 long time. 



The forestry exhibit from Michigan at the Columbian Expo- 

 sition showed trunk specimens of sixty-five different species 

 three feet six inches in length, cut to show the bark, and to 

 give transverse, radial and tangential views of the grain. Be- 

 sides this, there were specimens of manufactured woods, 

 panels, wainscoting and the material known as "excelsior." 

 There was an exhibit of maple shoe-last blocks, of which the 

 state ships a million and a half every year. Wooden shoes 

 were also exhibited, since their manufacture has become an 

 industry of some magnitude. They are mostly sent to Nor- 

 wegians in the north-west, while large quantities of basswood 

 timber are shipped to the same place to be made into shoes. 



In a recent address to the ArboriculturalClub of Belgium, its 

 secretary. Monsieur Emile Rodigan, calls particular attention 

 to the danger which threatens local fruit-growers in the in- 

 creasing rivalry of foreigners. He recommends that energetic 

 action be taken to develop the great natural possibilities of Bel- 

 gium in this direction, and cites as examples of what may be 

 accomplished within a short space of time, by vigorous and 

 concerted action, the success of the colonists of Riverside, in 

 California, as described in Garden and Forest, and that of 

 the apple-growers of the north-western part of Canada. With 

 such success on the one hand in a region requiring artificial 

 irrigation, and on the other in a region of excessive winter 

 cold. Monsieur Rodigan concludes that it ought not to be 

 difficult to make the fertile soil and temperate climate of his 

 own country yield similarly good results. 



The preservation of flowers in their natural shape is not a 

 new thing, and the owners of Orchids who wish to compare 

 the flowers of an early-blooming species with those that bloom 

 late in the season, dry them in a way that preserves, not only 

 their shape, but the markings and colors fairly well. The 

 process, as explained in The Orchid Review, is to cut off 

 the ovary to facilitate drying and place the flower in a box on 

 a layer of sand half an inch deep, the box being gradually filled 

 to a depth of at least two inches, so as to prevent shriveling. 

 The sand must be gently filtered in so as not to disturb the 

 shape of the flower. The box is then set in a warm and dry 

 place for a few days, and when the operation is complete the 

 sand is filtered out again and the flowers are arranged in shal- 

 low cabinet-drawers. Fleshy flowers, like those of Lycastes, 

 lose their colors as in ordinary methods of drying, the advan- 

 tage being that the parts are not broken, as is unavoidable 

 when they are pressed between sheets of paper. 



A few Kelsey plums, probably from cold storage, but of lus- 

 cious appearance and large size, were sold by retail fruiterers 

 this week at a dollar a dozen. King apples bring as high as 



seventy-five cents a dozen for the choicest, and Snow and 

 Wine-sap nearly as much. Kumquats candied in sugar are 

 sold under the misleading name of sweet Japanese limes. 

 These come in boxes containing about two dozen and a half of 

 the fruit and sell for thirty-five cents. Handsome Cornice pears 

 bring a dollar a dozen. Grapes have advanced considerably 

 in price, five-pound baskets of Niagaras commanding twenty 

 cents, and Concords are a third higher than a week ago, sell- 

 ing at thirty cents for a ten -pound basket. Cornichon grapes, 

 from California, are gaining in favor and sell at wholesale at 

 prices as high as the Flame Tokays. The last shipments of 

 Almeria grapes from Spain are said to be nowon the way here. 

 These grapes this year, while the crop is rather below the 

 average, are of a fair quality. , The clusters, owing to a dry 

 season, are not large, but the fruit has good keeping qualities. 



It is hardly worth while to continue further the argument to 

 the possibility of the successful culture of bulbs in North Caro- 

 lina. If this industry can be made a profitable one the truth 

 will be discovered in due time. Professor Massey, however, 

 invites attention to the fact that it might have been said a few 

 years ago that we could not compete with Italians in raising 

 Tuberose-bulbs, yet no one buys Italian Tuberoses now, and 

 bulbs are even exported from this country. The advantage of 

 growing bulbs of Liiium candidum in North Carolina would be 

 not only that they would attain a large size, and that they would 

 be saved from the dangers of an ocean voyage, but that they 

 would be ripe and dormant before the ist of July, and they 

 could be in pots, with their resting-leaves formed, before any 

 Italian bulbs could be here. Roman Hyacinths are now quoted 

 to the trade at $25.00 a thousand for five and one-eighth inch 

 bulbs, which is the largest size quoted in ordinary trade-lists. 

 These plants grow like weeds in North Carolina, and bulbs 

 eight inches in circumference can be grown as cheaply as those 

 of the Tuberose. 



A recent letter from Europe states that the most striking of 

 the many Begonias now in flower at Kew, and one of the finest 

 hybrids ever raised, is President Carnot. It has bamboo-like 

 shoots from two to three feet high, the upper part clothed with 

 soft green, slightly spotted leaves, and each shoot bearing a 

 long pendent cluster of large rose-colored flowers nearly a foot 

 across. These are all female, and therefore they last several 

 weeks. This variety and B. coccinea deserve a place in every 

 garden, and where the temperature will permit them to grow 

 out-of-doors in summer, they make excellent plants for group- 

 ing in beds. When not liberally treated, B. President Carnot 

 is an inferior little Begonia, with few flowers in a raceme ; but 

 grown in a ten-inch pot, in rich soil, it makes the fine speci- 

 men described above. B. Haageana is inferior to this plant 

 alone. It forms a leafy bush and bears enormous clusters of 

 blush-white flowers. It has metallic-green leaves, with red- 

 dish nerves and tinged with purple on the under side. The 

 flowers are carried on long stout stalks, and they are covered 

 with red hairs on the lower part of the outer segments of the 

 flowers. B. Scharffiana, which is often sold for the true B^ 

 Haageana, has leaves of olive-green and crimson on the under 

 side. 



According to a recent article in the YontKs Companion, a 

 group of five small keys lying off the extreme southern point 

 of Florida is now the principal Pineapple producing district of 

 the world. Less than seven hundred acres altogether are 

 here devoted to the cultivation of this fruit, but from this area 

 4,500,000 pineapples have been shipped to New York in a sin- 

 gle year. The plant is propagated from suckers or slips, and 

 10,000 may be planted to the acre, two-thirds of which will bear 

 fruit, so that if a dollar a dozen could be realized the crop 

 would be a lucrative one. The most common variety is the 

 Scarlet or Spanish, the one ordinarily seen in the north, on 

 account of its good shipping qualifies. Next in abundance is 

 the Sugar-loaf, a sweeter fruit, but more delicate, and, there- 

 fore, more difficult to handle. Egyptian Queen, a large juicy 

 fruit, is harder still to transport, and best of all is the Puerto 

 Rico, a fruit weighing ten pounds, but so mellow that it is 

 rarely seen more than two hundred miles from the place 

 where it is grown. A field of Pineapples, raised from slips, 

 will bear for five years, though after the second year the 

 yield steadily decreases. A field planted with suckers only 

 yields for two years. After this the land seems exhausted, 

 and its strength must be renewed with fertilizers, and by grow- 

 ing other crops, while plantations of Pineapples are made in 

 another field. The fruit which is allowed to ripen in the field 

 is altogether superior in meldng quality, rich flavor and whole- 

 someness to the hard, sour and indigestible specimens which 

 must be picked while they are solid and green, so that they 

 can endure a journey to northern cities. 



