53^ 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 305. 



therefore, that this species will not disappear, and that the 

 Palms which the Jesuit missionaries saw as they trav- 

 eled from the City of Mexico to the region which they called 

 Upper California, and cultivated about their mission houses, 

 will continue to embellish the gardens of California, of 

 Provence, Algeria and Egypt long centuries after the origi- 

 nal stock has disappeared forever from the desert of the 

 south-west. 



Cultural Department. 



Drops}' of Violets. 



ANEW trouble of Violets has come to me for determina- 

 tion from plants grown in forcing-houses in the vicinity 

 of Spring Valley, New York. The trouble is due to a dropsical 

 swelling of the parenchyma of the leaves at definite points 

 situated upon the smaller anastomosing veinlets. It usually 

 occurs on the under side of the leaf, but sometimes the 

 swelling occurs also on the upper side. Rarely does it occur 

 on the larger veins. The swellings appear as small warts of a 

 variable size, which can usually be determined as such with 

 the unaided eye. At the same time the leaf changes from its 

 normal color, and frequently becomes bluish or purplish, this 

 color extending over quite large areas. This color may not be 

 present in all cases, but was so in all the specimens which 

 came to my hand. Parts of the leaf also become yellowish. 

 Transsections of the leaf show that these swellings do not con- 

 sist of a hypertrophied tissue in the usual sense of that term, 

 for there is no increase of the number of cells. The wart 

 is entirely due to an elongation of the cells concerned. At 

 length, some of the elongated cells become ruptured because 

 their thin walls can no longer stand the strain. This permits 

 the rapid drying of the cells of the wart, and in turn also aids 

 the desiccation of the adjacent tissues. Tliis gradual desicca- 

 tion of parts of the leat, together with the partial loss of 'the 

 physiological functions of this member, finally results in the 

 death of the entire leaf, which then withers and falls. One 

 owner lost all his plants in two houses by this trouble, or, 

 more properly speaking, all of his plants in two houses lost 

 their leaves. 



Dropsical diseases of plants have only recently attracted at- 

 tention in America, the first notice being by the writer, who 

 made quite an extended study of the trouble developed on 

 Tomato-plants in the forcing-house. The result of this study 

 was published in Bulletin No. 53, Cornell University Experi- 

 ment Station {CEdeiiia of the Tomato), May, 1893. It was found 

 that the trouble was induced by the excess ot root absorption 

 over transpiration. By this unequal operation of these two 

 laws of plant physiology the succulent tissues of the plant be- 

 come charged with more water than the plant can take care of 

 either by growth or transpiration, or by both processes to- 

 gether. The result is that certain ot the cellsbecome stretched, 

 their walls becoming thinner thereby, until they are no longer 

 strong enough to hold the form of the cell intact, when it rup- 

 tures. Certain conditions of the forcing-house, as well as the 

 season of the year when such houses are most frequently 

 brought into requisition, favor the lack of harmony between 

 these two processes in the plant. The temperature of the soil 

 is likely to be very near that of the air, or, at least, not far below 

 it, so that root-activity is almost constant. The confined air of 

 the forcing-house, the obstructed light, and especially the short 

 days in winter, compared with the long days of the summer 

 season, greatly lessen transpiration. The injury can probably 

 be prevented, or at least lessened, by selecting well-lighted 

 parts of the house for the plants, by preventing an excess of 

 water in the soil, and by obtaining a temperature of the air 

 considerably higher than that of the soil. 



Cornell University. George F. AtkinsOtt. 



Early Cauliflower. 



T^ARLY vegetables are always appreciated, and there is 

 -*--' little difficulty in having Cauliflower as early as the first 

 week in April without elaborate preparation or appliances. 

 The delicate flavor of Cauliflower at this time of the year is not 

 equaled at any other season, excepting, perhaps, late in au- 

 tumn. During hot weather the flavor is usually strong, so that 

 it is advisable to make an effort to have this vegetable when at its 

 best. There are many strains of Cauliflower now that are all 

 equally good when obtained from reliable seedsmen, but pref- 

 erence should be given to the dwarf-growing kinds for early 

 crops, as they take up less space and produce nice heads to 

 each plant, with not more than five per cent, of failure to head 



up. The first sowing should be made in the greenhouse on the 

 first of January, and as soon as the seeds are germinating they 

 must be placed close up to the glass in a house kept at about fifty 

 degrees at night. By the last of the month these will be ready 

 to pot up singly in two-inch pots, and a second pinch of seed 

 should then be sowed; in three weeks the earliest will be 

 ready to put in four-inch pots, and the last sown ready to pot 

 off, and by the tenth of March the largest may be put into six- 

 inch pots, as their growth is very rapid at this season. About 

 this time we begin to get the cold frames empty, to fill again 

 as hot-beds ; many of the Violets may be spared, and other 

 winter occupants, such as bulbous plants and Roses, will all 

 have been taken into the greenhouse, so that considerable 

 space is available. The hot-beds are generally finished and 

 ready for planting by the 20th of March, and a warm day is 

 chosen to move the Cauliflower from the greenhouse to the 

 frames, and they are taken out of the pots and planted. A good 

 watering with tepid water is given at the time, as drought at 

 any period is liable to make tliem head up prematurely. In 

 preparing the hot-beds, two feet of fermenting material is suf- 

 ficient ; half of this is composed of leaves that have been placed 

 round the cold-frames in winter, so that one load of manure 

 goes a long way, and the heat being less violent itconsequently 

 lasts longer when the leaves are mixed in. 



About six or eight inches of loam is used to plant in, and if 

 the material of a spent Mushroom-bed is available there is 

 nothing better than this for mixing with the loam, for it not 

 only lightens up the soil and makes it porous, but very often 

 another crop ot Mushrooms will appear in a few weeks after 

 planting in Cauliflower, the fermenting material giving the 

 spawn a stimulus that will start it again into activity. The 

 second and third sowings of Cauliflower are potted and treated 

 like the first, except that they are planted in frames out of 

 four-inch pots, the principal point being to take care that the 

 young plants never receive a check, from want of room or 

 water. Later sowings are made at intervals of three weeks, 

 for the home table demands not so much a large supply 

 as a regular one until the outdoor crops begin to ma- 

 ture. These later sowings are planted in the open ground 

 and protected, if cold nights prevail, as they sometimes do, 

 even late in May, in this section. 



It is pretty well known, but will bear repetifion, that the 

 Cauliflower will repay any extra attention, and is one of the 

 few vegetables that quickly respond to watering with fertil- 

 izers even in the open ground. This was evident last autumn, 

 when a large patch of the plants were at a standstill owing to 

 dry weather, and it was extremely doubtful whether they 

 would head before frost came. Nevertheless a good soaking 

 of weak manure- water brought them along rapidly, and 

 scarcely one failed, as the later ones were taken up and the 

 roots laid in a trench with the heads close together, and at 

 night straw was thrown over them to protect them from frost. 

 For earliest sowings we use Early Dwarf Erfurt pot-grown 

 seed ; for the later sowings. Snowball, Danish and Krouk's 

 Perfection are good varieties. ■ 



South Lancaster, Mass. E. O. Orpet. 



Winter-flowering Greenhouse Plants. 



A MONG the many good winter-blooming plants few make 

 ■^"^ so effective a display as Reinwardtia tetragyna and R. tri- 

 gyna, shrubby members of the Flax family from the East In- 

 dies, and for a long time known under the generic title of 

 Linum. The flowers are widely campanulate, yellow, and 

 appear in December. They are particularly valuable on ac- 

 count of the scarcity of these colors at this season. Propaga- 

 tion is from seeds or cuttings, and young plants are planted 

 out for the summer and lifted in the autumn. 



Few winter-blooming Cape bulbs are so useful as the Lach- 

 enalias. As their culture is easy, and their multiplication 

 comparatively rapid, it is a wonder they are not more gen- 

 erally grown. The kinds most common are varieties, or hy- 

 brid forms, of L. tricolor. The flowers of L. Nelsoni are golden 

 yellow, campanulate, pendulous, arranged in long racemes, 

 and last a long time in perfection. Their cultivation consists 

 in starfing the bulbs, five in a six-inch pot, in October, and 

 growing them in a cool-house, with plenty of light. They 

 need an abundance of water, but the drainage must be good. 

 After the blooming season, good light, air and water must still 

 be afforded the plants. These conditions should be continued 

 until the leaves commence to turn yellow and show signs of 

 the approach of the resting period, when they may have less 

 and less water, until finally dried off, when they should be put 

 away in a cool dry place until the following October. In shak- 

 ing the bulbs out, preparatory to repotting, it will be found 



