February 5, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



69 



liberal treatment, and should not be planted out until the 

 ground gets warm. It is always advisable to plant them in a 

 somewhat sheltered location, for when exposed to the full 

 force of the wind the foliage becomes so torn as to sadly mar 

 its beauty. 



Among the toughest of plants, both for bedding in summer 

 and also for conservatory decoration in the winter, are the 

 Strelitzias, the leaves being so strong in texture that they are 

 seldom injured by storms. The best known variety, Strelitzia 

 Regime, produces its odd-shaped and brilliantly colored Howers 

 quite freely, and invariably attracts much attention, the com- 

 bination of colors, bright orange and blue, being an infrequent 

 one. Strelitzia augnsta is a stronger grower than the preced- 

 ing, and larger in all its parts, the leaves being borne on long 

 petioles and having some resemblance to those of the so-called 

 "Traveler's Joy" {Ravenala Madagascariensis). Both of the 

 above-mentioned Strelitzias are natives of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, and may be propagated from seeds, when these are to 

 be had, or by division of the plants. 



The improved Carinas of recent introduction have deservedly 

 attracted much notice during the past season, and will doubt- 

 less be planted in large quantities for the coining summer. 

 The Carinas are unquestionably at the head of the list of large 

 bedding plants, and when they combine, as in the above-men- 

 tioned improved race of varieties, large and highly colored 

 Mowers with handsome foliage and comparatively dwarf habit 

 of growth, they become doubly desirable. ; ,_ _ 



Holmesburg. W. H. Tapllll. 



Cannas as Annuals. — While Carinas for many years have 

 been among the most ornamental of garden plants, the recent 

 addition of the French hybrids, with their brilliant Mowers, 

 has added much to their value and attractiveness. Many 

 named kinds with large Mowers ; brilliant reds of various 

 shades, and yellows, some of them spotted with red, are now 

 offered. But Cannas are so readilv and soon to be had from 

 seed that unless some special color is desired in quantity it 

 seems scarcely worth while to bother with wintering old 

 roots. Seeds of Crozy's Cannas, to be had of the seedsmen, 

 will produce many of the named kinds exactly and give a 

 good range of colors. Now is the proper time to sow them in 

 order to secure fine plants in May. The seeds should be 

 lightly filed through the hard outer coating, which should be 

 softened by soaking in tepid water for twenty-four hours, 

 after which they may be sown in moist soil, and kept in brisk 

 heat until germination, which soon takes place. I have had 

 good success by sowing seed in a pot which was placed inside 

 a larger one, this being plugged to retain moisture, and the 

 space between pots being filled with sand, and all covered 

 with a glass and placed on the pipes. After germination the 

 plants should be potted into good soil, well supplied with 

 moisture (after the roots commence to run, of course), and 

 they soon make great headway. Stocky plants two feet high 

 may be had in late May. I do not find this strain of Cannas to 

 be dwarf, however, as under fair culture only they will grow 

 to the height of five or six feet. 



Elizabeth, N.J. G. 



Correspondence. 



An Example in Tree Planting. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — For some years during my connection with the Michi- 

 gan Horticultural Society, forestry topics were sandwiched in 

 among the other subjects upon the programmes of conven- 

 tions upon the theory that the continuous success of horticul- 

 ture in our state was intimately connected with the conserva- 

 tion of our timber areas. The discussions seemed to be 

 fraught with little good, because the papers were either looked 

 upon as simply interesting' or stigmatized as "hypothetical 

 nonsense, with no foundation in practical affairs of rural life." 

 And worst of all, in the discussions the severe utilitarians 

 seemed usually to have the best of it. That is, the men who 

 argued from figures that more income could be derived from 

 the cleared land than would furnish all the wood products the 

 area of timber could produce, carried more weight than the 

 tree-lovers, whose argument always touched upon a longer 

 foresight, somewhat ignoring the immediate turning of a 

 penny. 



I became a good deal discouraged about awakening an in- 

 terest in the subject ; and although I could see disastrous 

 effects from the clearing away of the timber in southern Michi- 

 gan, I could not convince others. 



Circumstances gave me an opportunity in 1878 to sow sev- 

 eral rows in the garden west of my house with the seeds of 



three varieties of Maple, two of Ash, two of Elm and one of 

 Alder. I also planted seedlings of Norway Spruce, Aus- 

 trian Pine, Arbor-vita; and European Larch in parallel 

 rows alongside. I cultivated them, and they grew thriftily. 

 In the meantime, to the westward of me for miles, the timber 

 gradually disappeared, until the wind now has a sweep for a 

 long distance, with nothing to break its force. It was not later 

 than 1883 that neighbors began to inquire if I would sell some 

 of those ornamental trees. I had none for sale, but gradually 

 began thinning out the plantation andgiving plants to my neigh- 

 bors. The school-ground was planted with some of the surplus; 

 numbers found their way to the cemetery ; rows of them were 

 planted along the highway. It seemed marvelous how many 

 could be spared and still how many remained. The grovehas 

 thickened and made a complete barrier. Many of the trees are 

 twenty feet in height ; and weekly, almost daily, in the winter 

 season, I hear the remark, " What a complete protection the 

 grove makes for your buildings from the force of the prevailing 

 winds." 



Shrubs and tender plants are grown under the lee of this 

 grove that will not withstand the severity of the open blast. 

 My coal bill is lessened, my general happiness and that of my 

 friends admirably subserved. I have been enabled to con- 

 tribute to the especial wants of my neighbors in a delightful 

 way. Others have appreciated the argument and have fol- 

 lowed my example. The logic of deeds has been more con- 

 vincing than the argument of words. 



Grand Rapids, Mich. " Charles W. Garfield. 



Worms in Violet Roots. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — The report of Professor Comstock's paper before the 

 Western New York Horticultural Society upon the Clematis 

 Disease has particularly interested me, for my investigations 

 have led me to ascribe a part, at least, of the Violet disease to 

 the same or a similar cause. Several fungi, as for example 

 Ascochyta Viola, Sacc, Cercospora Violce, Sacc, and a Pero- 

 nospora, have been found ; but these did not account for all 

 the trouble. For example, in some beds dwarfed arid sickly 

 plants would be found that did not show the presence of any 

 fungus. Such plants, however, when pulled from the sod 

 showed peculiar enlargements upon the roots, and these galls, 

 when sliced and placed under the microscope, exhibited all 

 stages of what seems to be a species of Heteroderma. Since 

 this location of the trouble of such sickly plants in the roots 

 where the Nematodes breed and rob the Violets of their vital 

 juices, I have visited a number of Violet growers, all of whom 

 had the sick plants, and in every case the worms have been 

 found in the roots. Other growers have been reached through 

 the mail with a request to examine the roots of any sick plants, 

 and they report the finding of the root-galls. 



It therefore seems clear that to the Clematis, as determined 

 by Professor Comstock, and the Peach, Orange, and a long 

 list of other cultivated plants, as worked out or reported upon 

 by Dr. Neal,*of the Florida Experiment Station, and Professor 

 Geo. F. Atkinson, fof the Alabama Experiment Station, the cul- 

 tivated Violet must be added as a plant liable to attacks from 

 these eel-worms. The two large and fully illustrated bulletins, 

 just at hand from the south, and the paper by Professor Corn- 

 stock, make it evident that there is a large field for the eco- 

 nomic helminthologist. 



N. J. Experiment Station, January 31st, 1890. Byron D. Halstcd. 



A Rare Buttonwood. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — Usually we expect to find our native Buttonwood-tree 

 in ground which is at least damp. Much more frequently it 

 is seen hanging lovingly over some stream of fresh water, or 

 shading a country spring-house while the roots dip into the 

 spring itself. Very rarely, however, do we see it on the tip- 

 top of a high (and from all external signs), dry hill. If we 

 should observe one in such a position we should expect to 

 find it small for its age, and giving plain indications that the 

 site was not the one best suited to its needs. 



Recently, however, in Chester County, Pennsylvania, I 

 measured one, which was growing in high, dry ground, 

 which was, at two feet from the ground (just below its first 

 limbs), twenty-one feet and eight inches around. One limb 

 was ten feet and four inches around, and another eleven feet 

 and five inches. The spread of the branches was something 

 over ninety feet. Its height was about eighty feet. 



*"The Root-knot Disease of the Peach, Orange, and Other Plants." liulletin 

 No. 2o, Division of Entomology, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1GS9. 

 t "Nematode Root-Galls," December, 1889. 



