9 o 



Garden and Forest. 



[February 19, 1890. 



Land Culture Commission, in November last year, recom- 

 mended a grant for a horticultural school, as well as the estab- 

 lishment of a branch for horticultural art in one of the high 

 schools of Dresden. The establishment of a horticultural 

 academy similar to the agricultural academies is merely a 

 question of time, but more necessary now than all this seems 

 the establishment of a horticultural experiment station. The 

 questions to be solved are so numerous that opportunities for 

 usefulness would at once present themselves. 



An event of the first importance will be the great Interna- 

 tional Horticultural Exhibition which is to be held in Berlin from 

 the 25th of April to the 5th of May. Hitherto such exhibitions 

 have been great plant-shows where the public could see the 

 progress of horticulture in well grown specimens. Now and 

 then there was a space for garden-plans, or a carpet-bed 

 attracted attention. Sometimes, also, arrangements of cut 

 flowers were to be seen ; but this exhibition will have some 

 entirely different features. Exhibitors will have opportunity 

 to show the public how plants can be used for decoration on 

 different occasions. Two large banquet halls — each one 

 sixty-two and a half feet wide by eighty feet long — will be pro- 

 vided, and these, with the tables, are to be decorated in com- 

 petition. Then there will be a chapel to show decorations 

 for nuptial ceremonies, baptisms, etc., and besides these, ten 

 rooms, each twenty-three feet long and twenty feet eight 

 inches wide, to be considered as parlors, dining-rooms, etc. 

 This will give opportunity to show how different rooms can 

 best be decorated for different occasions. There will be two 

 yards connected with houses, one furnished with porticoes 

 and the other with balconies, both of which are subjects for 

 competitive decoration, not to mention windows, pergolas, 

 pavilions and the like. The entire exhibition palace will be 

 625 feet in length and 295 feet in breadth, with a hall for meet- 

 ings, one for exhibitions, and one for landscape-gardening 

 and horticultural literature. 



Other space will be divided as follows : For the decorative 

 display, 4,200 square feet; for stove and greenhouse, plants, 

 14,000 square feet; for Roses, forced flowering shrubs, peren- 

 nial plants and bulbs, each 3,150 square feet; for nursery pro- 

 ducts, 7,200 square feet; for cut flowers, grasses, etc., 2,650 

 square feet; for vegetables and fruits, 650 square feet. 



Besides these there will be hot-houses, greenhouses, etc., 

 usually in full operation, so that Orchids and other stove 

 plants will find comfortable quarters in a hot-house constructed 

 within the exhibition limits. The houses are all to be entered 

 in competition, as will be the boilers and other methods of 

 heating. A large hall in connection with the exhibition palace 

 will be devoted to garden implements and machinery. 



This exhibition, international as it is, will show phases of 

 gardening quite different from those seen in the older ones. • 

 The number of medals and prizes is enormous. The Em- 

 peror himself has offered a large gold medal as the highest 

 prize. It would add greatly to the attractiveness and value of 

 the show if American gardeners would offer examples of their 

 art, so that their styles of decoration could be compared with 

 those which prevail here. That foreigners can compete here 

 with success was proved at the last Chrysanthemum show in 

 November, when two English gardeners received the first 

 prize, the gold medal. Large collections are already in prepa- 

 ration in the Riviera for this exhibition. One nurseryman 

 alone is preparing to send four railway cars full of Palms, Cro- 

 tons and the like. 



Palm culture in the open air is making some headway in 

 Germany. In the Berlin botanical gardens this winter, which 

 so far has been very mild, an experiment has been made with 

 Chamarops excelsa. In Altenburg, Thuringia, a Mr. Kohler 

 has succeeded, it is said, in growing Phcenix, Pritchardia, 

 Chamserops, Cocos Wedelliana and Cycas revoluta out-of-doors. 



In the flower shops now Azalea hidica is the prevailing 

 plant. Besides these, forced Roses of remarkable merit 

 abound, and though the prices are very high there is a great 

 demand for them. Udo Daminer. 



Berlin. "~ ~ ~ ~~ ^^~^^~~ 



Cultural Department. 



Fern Notes. 

 HP HE remarks of Mr. Watson in his London Letter of a few 

 *■ weeks since to the effect that popular interest in Fern col- 

 lections in England seems to have fallen to a low ebb of late 

 years, reminds us that a very similar state of affairs prevails 

 on this side of the ocean, for while attention is frequently 

 called to the rapid increase in numbers and varieties contained 

 in the various collections of Orchids in the United States, in 

 both private and commercial establishments, yet the Fern col- 

 lections in the same wide territory, that are worthy of special 



mention, may perhaps be counted on the fingers of one hand. 

 Now this is not intended to imply that the Orchids are not 

 worthy of all the publicity that has been given them, but 

 merely as a statement of fact, and though fine Ferns are seen 

 at some of the exhibitions, yet it must be conceded that they 

 are somewhat scattered. 



While there is no doubt that the use of small Ferns in floral 

 arrangements has very largely increased during a few years 

 past, and that in consequence they have been grown by 

 thousands in a number of commercial places, yet the species 

 and varieties so grown are very few, being limited to some of 

 those easily-propagated and rapid-growing sorts that require 

 but little special attention. In fact, a list of a dozen to fifteen 

 names would comprise those most used in this way, and 

 might read as follows : Adiantum cuneatum, A. pubescens,' A. 

 gracillimiim, and in smaller quantities A. Farleyense, Pteris 

 serrulata and P. serrnlata cristata, P. Cretica and its varieties, 

 P. argyraa, P. tremula, Onychiian Japonicum, Davallia tenui- 

 folia stricta, Aspleninm Belangeri, Doryopteris palmata arid 

 Nephrodium Sieboldii. Occasionally a batch of Lygodium 

 J aponicum is seen grown on the same plan as Myrsiphyllum 

 asparagoides (that is, on strings for wreathing), but this is 

 usually in limited quantities. 



It would, however.be quite an easy task for any Fern-lover to 

 compile quite a long catalogue of distinct species that may 

 readily be grown in cool-house temperature (about forty- 

 five degrees at night) and in a house so located as not to be 

 entirely satisfactory for the cultivation of flowering plants. In 

 such a house may be grown a number of different types, from 

 moderately developed tree-ferns down to such charming min- 

 iature ferns as Davallia parvula and D. alpina. 



Among the larger growing species specially adapted to cool- 

 house culture may be mentioned some of the Alsophilas, as 

 A. australis, A. excelsa and A. Capensis, all of these being 

 noble species and of vigorous growth. Dicksonia antarctica 

 is an indispensable sort for this purpose, being highly orna- 

 mental either in a small plant, or when it has attained its full 

 development and presents a massive trunk twenty feet or more 

 in height and possibly one foot in diameter. Dicksonia squar- 

 rosa and D. Youngice are also admirable species and some- 

 what smaller-growing than the foregoing. Dicksonia Barometz 

 is another valuable fern of strong growth, though not arbor- 

 escent in habit. This plant throws up its dark green bipinnate 

 fronds to a height of five to six feet, the fronds being freely 

 produced from a very hairy decumbent rhizome. 



In this genus is also to be found one of the handsomest 

 large Ferns in cultivation, Dicksonia Schiedei, with long 

 pendulous fronds which sometimes attain a length of twelve 

 to fifteen feet. The fronds are bipinnate, light green in color 

 and glaucous on the under side, and the stipes and crown of 

 the plant being densely covered with silky hairs adds much to 

 its attractiveness. Brainea insignis, the only member of its 

 genus and a native of China, is also a valuable addition to 

 any cool-house collection. It is of moderate growth, the 

 fronds averaging from two to three feet in length, and is said 

 to develop a trunk four or five feet high, though there are 

 probably but few of that size in cultivation, its growth of trunk 

 being very slow. Woodwardia radicans and W, orientalis are 

 very easily-grown cool-house species, the former being 

 especially graceful in habit, its long pendulous fronds hanging 

 down like a delicate green drapery, and in a good specimen 

 frequently attain a length of six to eight feet. Another inter- 

 esting point in connection with this Fern is the proliferous 

 habit of its fronds, the young plants being produced in quantity 

 on the upper surface of the frond. A number of the Pteris 

 and Aspleniums are also suited to this purpose, prominent 

 among the former being Pteris scaberula, an excellent Fern 

 either as a specimen or for cutting, though it has one draw- 

 back in being partly deciduous in the winter. 



The well known Pteris argyrcea and P. serrulata in its many 

 forms are too widely distributed to need further recommen- 

 dation at this time. It may be added that the large-growing 

 Ferns to which attention has been invited will also be found of 

 great utility as out-door ornaments in summer, providing they 

 are placed in a somewhat sheltered and shaded position and 

 well supplied with water. 



Holmesburg, Pa. W. H. Taplm. 



Protection Against the Striped Cucumber Beetle. 



T^HE striped Cucumber Beetle (Diabrotica vittata, Fabr.), 

 *- is a most malignant enemy to battle where it has once 

 gained possession of the field. The oft-printed formulas that 

 abound in our horticultural journals generally prove signal 

 failures when put to the test in anything like a severe attack. 

 At best, applications to the foliage are expensive and more or 



