February 12, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



83 



as we have been able to examine it, absolutely free from those 

 annoying typographical errors which it is well nigh impossible 

 to eliminate from a book of this character. 



Botanists who believe in the strict application of the law of 

 priority in matters of nomenclature will not derive much com- 

 fort from Mr. Watson's decisions in such matters, as they ap- 

 pear in this volume ; and they will regret that the fulfillment 

 of their hope for a stable nomenclature for plants, as regards 

 both generic and specific names, must be delayed in this coun- 

 try, at least, by the system adopted in a work which will, of 

 necessity, influence for many years the opinions of the stu- 

 dents of botany in the United States. But the authors of the 

 new Manual, in their decision that the specific name first given 

 to a plant, when referred correctly to its genus, is the correct 

 specific name for it, although it may have had a much earlier 

 one in another genus, have the support of many of the most 

 distinguished naturalists of this and of the last generation. 

 The name, however, is not by any means the most important 

 part of the plant; and the object of the Manual is to enable 

 any one finding a plant growing in wood or meadow to iden- 

 tify it readily, and to learn something of its affinities and his- 

 tory. No book ever published fulfilled this object better than 

 " Gray's Manual," which will gain in usefulness and reputation 

 in this new edition, for which the authors will receive the 

 thanks of every one interested in American plants. 



Mr. Watson acknowledges the assistance of Mr. S. B. Bebb, 

 of Illinois, who has rewritten the genus Salix for this edition ; 

 of Professor L. H. Bailey, who has elaborated the difficult 

 genus Carex, and of Professor D. C. Eaton, who is the author, 

 as he was in some of the previous editions, of the part of the 

 volume devoted to the Ferns and allied orders. The increasing 

 interest taken in this country in the study of cellular Crypto- 

 gams has led to the inclusion of the Hepaticcz, omitted in the 

 last edition, and now described by Professor L. M. Underwood. 

 A glossary of botanical terms is appended to the volume, be- 

 sides a Synopsis of the Natural Families, arranged in their 

 sequence, in order that their characters may be clearly con- 

 trasted and the general principles which determine their ar- 

 rangement showed — a new feature in the Manual, and a most 

 useful one. 



Periodical Literature. 



In Harper's Magazine for January we may read of " The 

 Smyrna Fig Harvest," which, though gathered from a very 

 small district, supplies the world with almost all its dried figs. 

 Classic memories fill the air as one travels by railroad from 

 Smyrna, first to the village, which stands where Ephesus once 

 stood, and then along the valley of the Meander where the 

 bottom lands are covered with the Fig orchards. "The soil 

 of this tract is very deep and has the property of retaining 

 moisture so necessary for the crop. This peculiarity is of 

 special importance, as in cases of drought the Fig-tree does 

 not generally show at the time signs of drooping. The leaves 

 retain their strength and color. It is only afterward, when the 

 fruit should have reached maturity, that its stunted size and 

 diminished yield show the effects of the check." The fig 

 grown for drying is a short pulpy fruit, quite unlike the ordi- 

 nary black eating fig, being bright yellow-green outside, and 

 inside white with a red centre, and, in spite of its abundance 

 of juice, having a poor and rather faint taste. Spring brings 

 no especial beauty to the Fig orchard, as the tiny flowers are 

 borne on the inside of a hollow fleshy receptacle, which later 

 ripens into the fruit. " About the middle of August the figs 

 begin to fall and then all the population of the neighboring 

 villages is poured into the gardens . . . gathering up the fruit and 

 piling it into the baskets. ... At first the gleaning is over the 

 whole garden. The figs lie as they fall, and the sun has 

 ripened only the most forward of them. But by the end of 

 August the heavy ffuit drops so thickly that the pickers will 

 fill a basket with what they gather up from under a single 

 tree," each basket forming a heavy load for a woman. The 

 picturesque appearance of the orchard at this season, with 

 its groups of gaily dressed laborers, is well suggested in the 

 illustrations given. The figs have but a short distance to 

 fall, and "are generally picked up whole. If they lie on the 

 ground for more than twenty-four hours they rapidly spoil. 

 The next step is to dry them. A bank of earth is raised some 

 six inches high and strewn with rushes, and here the figs are 

 laid out in single layers, touching one another. The contact 

 does not last long. The September sun is so hot that in a 

 week the fruit is all shriveled up, and when the figs are but 

 half their original size, the time has come for storing and 

 packing them away in bags." The best are called "Eleme" 

 figs, and these, whether of first, second or third quality, are 



exported, while the fourth quality is used at home as food for 

 cattle, and in the manufacture of a cheap spirit, the refuse 

 serving as manure. It is curious to learn, however, that the 

 seeds of this quality are employed in London in the making 

 of what is called strawberry jam. All the fruit is sent to 

 Smyrna and thence distributed, the fig market in a narrow 

 street offering one of the most animated sights in the city, 

 and large fleets of steamers often lying in the harbor awaiting 

 their cargo of dried fruit. The fruit is sorted in large ware- 

 houses, exclusively by women, but the "pulling" and packing 

 is done by men. In pulling, "the fig is drawn between finger 

 and thumb, flattened and split at the stalk, so as to take the 

 form which it preserves when it ultimately is found on the 

 dinner-table. Through the middle and end of August, and 

 through September, the work is carried on, though in the last 

 weeks of this month the supply of figs falls off and only the 

 best pullers and packers are kept. By the second week in 

 October the fig harvest for the year is at an end." About a 

 quarter of a million of pounds of dried figs are annually ex- 

 ported, in addition to the large quantity of inferior fruit that is 

 used at home. 



The writer mentions the practice of hanging wild figs on the 

 cultivated trees when these are in bloom, but misses the sig- 

 nificance of the operation. This use of the wild fig is a very 

 old custom known technically as "caprification " and its ob- 

 ject is to secure the fertilization of the cultivated fruit through 

 the visits of certain hymenopterous insects (Blastophaga and 

 Sycophaga) which frequent the wild Fig-tree. These insects 

 being thus brought near the cultivated trees, enter the minute 

 orifice of the receptacle of their flowers for the purpose of 

 depositing their eggs, and in doing this convey the pollen of 

 the rare male flowers to the stigmas of the females, which are 

 usually much more numerous in the fig. All this is well 

 known, but the curious part of the matter is how the custom, 

 which has been practiced apparently from an early period, 

 first originated. That its utility and even necessity is fully 

 recognized now appears in the fact stated by our author, that 

 in seasons when the crop of wild figs is light as much as four 

 cents apiece are paid for the wild fruit, and that the profits of 

 the cultivated crop are swallowed up by this outlay. What 

 cunning oriental precursor of Sprengel and of Darwin pene- 

 trated the secrets of cross-fertilization? — for without some cor- 

 rect idea of the relation of the visiting insects to the ripening 

 of the fruit, it hardly seems possible that a custom so trouble- 

 some and so expensive could have been developed. 



The fact that the soil of the valley of the Meander has the 

 property of retaining moisture for a long period makes it the 

 great centre of the fig cultivation in the east, and it is only 

 where similar conditions exist that the culture of the plant can 

 be hopefully attempted. "Some years ago," writes our 

 author, " Mr. West discovered in California a tract of soil which 

 he believed to be almost identical. The climate also was 

 similar. Mr. West took back with him some 300 roots. These 

 Fig-trees have done well. They have made good growth and 

 yielded fair crops, but a sufficient time has not elapsed for the 

 tree to reach such maturity as should test the value of its fruit 

 for preserving. It is only when the trees are from five to 

 seven years old that they begin to bear fruit useful for com- 

 mercial purposes ; but once that age is attained, the tree will 

 yield its annual crop for sixty or seventy, or, with careful prun- 

 ing, for eighty years." 



Orchids at Short Hills, New Jersey. 



THE remarkable collection of Orchids in flower at the 

 United States Nurseries is attracting large numbers of vis- 

 itors this week. The Cypripediums alone present a spectacle 

 that would repay the beholder for a long journey. Indeed, in 

 a journey around the world, one could find no collection su- 

 perior to this in richness, for it contains more than 400 species, 

 varieties and hybrids. Of these, 212 are now in flower, includ- 

 ing many of the rarest and most beautiful in cultivation. The 

 only plant of C. pavoiiinum in the country is blooming here for 

 the first time, and with it such choice hybrids as C. Godseffia- 

 7ium, C. Savageanum, C. Sallierii Hyeanum, C. Fitcheanum, C. 

 micro chilum, C. calurum Rougieri, C. concinnum, C. Bergrinia- 

 .num, C. Williamsi, C. regale and C. nitens superbum, besides 

 C. villosum giganteiim, C. apiculatum, C. Lawrenceanum pleio- 

 leucum, C. Mrs. Canham and many more. Altogether there 

 are 525 plants of Cypripedium in bloom, representing 212 

 varieties. 



Of course this genus forms but a portion of the bewildering 

 display of more than 1,000 Orchids which Messrs. Pitcher & 

 Manda have in flower. There is a long list of varieties of Cat- 

 tleya Triancz, including the variety Smithaa, with dark sepals 



