126 



Garden and Forest. 



[March g, 1890. 



reference to this plant is made again in his letter on page 

 1 12 of this issue. 



Next to the Washingtonia, P/uvitix Canariensis seems to be 

 the most satisfactory Palm in the gardens of the Riviera, where 

 it grows very rapidly and soon forms a magnificent head. 

 Agaves, Furcraeas, Beaucarneas, and other so-called succu- 

 lent plants Honrish in these gardens, where Yuccas are seen in 

 greater variety and beauty probably than anywhere else. 

 There is a specimen of Yucca filifera (see Garden AND For- 

 est, i. 78.) in the gardens of the Villa Valetta with a stem three 

 feet in diameter at the base, and several other species or varie- 

 ties are represented by large individuals. 



Notes. 



Theodore Frcebel, the founder'and head of the well known 

 nursery establishment of Frcebel & Cie., of Zurich, retires 

 from active business, and is succeeded by his son and partner, 

 Otto Frcebel, in whose name the business will now be 

 conducted. 



Aralia Sieboldii variegata is attracting attention as a hand- 

 some and serviceable plant for house decoration, its tough 

 leaves being well adapted to such use. The variegation 

 appears, however, to be somewhat fickle, and possibly may 

 be much improved by proper selection. 



Experiments in Olive culture, made by the University of 

 California, are of great value to all growers in that region. 

 Twelve imported varieties have been grown at the agricultural 

 stations, and the result shows that between the Mission and 

 Picholine, varieties mostly grown in California, the Mission is 

 far superior in amount of meat and yield of oil. 



The hybrid perpetual Rose, Ulrich Brunner, has been forced 

 quite early in the season in a number of the large Rose estab- 

 lishments, and has proved the finest bright red Rose for this 

 purpose. It is of large size and particularly lively in color. 

 As an offset to this, however, it is claimed by some growers 

 that this Rose is hardly productive enough to become a very 

 profitable variety for forcing. 



Another reminder of the prevailing mildness of the present 

 season was seen at the recent meeting of the Pennsylvania 

 Horticultural Society in the form of flowers of the Cape Pond 

 Weed {Aponogeton distachyo7i) from out-doors. The exhibit 

 in which this was seen was from the garden of a lady living- 

 near Philadelphia, and included cut blooms of about a dozen 

 other species of flowering plants, most of which looked 

 strangely out of season in February. 



Dr. Harris states that the seeds of imported Watermelons do 

 not change in form, size or color by being grown here, as 

 those of the Cantaloupe do, except under hybridization. The 

 number that is produced by one fruit is occasionally very large, 

 as high as 1,160 perfect seeds, of a weight of five ounces, having 

 been taken from a melon of forty-nine pounds. Such pro- 

 ductiveness is rare, as the number rarely exceeds 600; that of 

 the Calabash reaching the same, the Cantaloupe 500 or more, 

 and the Cucumber 450. 



At the February meeting of the Pennsylvania Horticultural 

 Society, held in Philadelphia, an attempt was made to test the 

 relative popularity of the hybrid perpetual Roses, Madame 

 Gabriel Luizet and Mrs. John Laing; the choice was made by 

 ballot, and resulted in a majority of twenty-seven votes in 

 favor of Madame Gabriel Luizet in a total vote of about ninety. 

 A similar contest between La France and the Duchess of 

 Albany resulted in a majority for the first-named. It would 

 seem that these two varieties (Madame Gabriel Luizet and La 

 France) are securely fixed in the affections of the Philadelphia 

 horticulturists, and may not easily be displaced by the newer 

 varieties, even though these are Roses of the very first rank. 



Orange culture at Jaffa, according to Consul Gilman, 

 has become an industry of great value. Of the 9,000 acres of 

 cultivable land pertaining to the community, 3,000 acres are 

 covered by Orange groves and gardens ; and these are all 

 under irrigation. Among the other fruits produced are the 

 lemon, lime, citron, date, peach, apricot, grape, fig, pome- 

 granate, plum and melon, as well as the olive. All the ordi- 

 nary garden vegetables are also grown here of good quality 

 and in abundance. Of late, the Vine, especially, is receiving 

 increased attention and care ; extensive vineyards are being 

 planted; and as here the Vine is free from the diseases and insect 

 pests of other countries, and the soil and climate are pecu- 

 liarly adapted to it, this should be one of the most flourishing 

 wine-producing countries in the world. The Olive does best 

 in the hill country, and generously responds with abundant 

 crops to the slightest care. 



Dr. C. C. Parry died at his home in Davenport, Iowa, on the 

 20th of last month, from pneumonia, which followed an attack 

 of influenza, contracted in the east. He paid a long visit to 

 botanical friends in the autumn and early winter, and while 

 here was busy investigating various matters connected with 

 the California flora. He was then in perfect health apparently, 

 active and alert in mind and body, and full of plans for new 

 work. He was enthusiastic in discussing new expeditions 

 in the far west, and full of reminiscences of travel and adven- 

 ture. Though sixty-six years of age, we little thought then 

 that our friend's wanderings were so near an end. 



Charles C. Parry was born in Admington, England, on 

 August 28th, 1823. His family emigrated to America nine 

 years later, and settled on a farm in Washington County, New 

 York. Dr. Parry was educated at Union College, and then 

 studied medicine. Pie was interested, however, in botany 

 even at this period of his life, and although he practiced his 

 profession for a short time in Davenport, where his 

 family removed in 1846, he soon abandoned it for the more 

 congenial pursuit of natural history. He had devoted much 

 attention to collecting the plants of New York before he moved 

 to Iowa, and these studies secured for him the acquaintance 

 of Dr. John Torrey and Dr. Asa Gray. Their acquaintance 

 confirmed his taste for botanical exploration and exerted a 

 powerful influence upon the remainder of his life. 



Dr. Parry's real work as an explorer began in 1849, when he 

 was attached to David Dale Owen's survey of Wisconsin, and 

 made a collection of plants in the valleys of the St. Croix and 

 St. Peter Rivers. The next year he joined the botanical staff 

 of the Mexican Boundary Survey, and crossed the California 

 desert from San Diego to the mouth of the Gila River. This 

 journey and the subsequent ones which he made as a mem- 

 ber of the survey, and which extended through two or three 

 years and carried him overland from the Pacific Ocean to the 

 Gulf of Mexico, were rich in botanical discoveries of the most 

 interesting character. These are found recorded in the 

 " Report of the Mexican Boundary Survey," published in 1852. 

 Persons who cross these deserts now in Pullman palace cars 

 can form a very slight idea of the sufferings and hardships of 

 these early explorers, who passed months in traveling dis- 

 tances now covered in as many days. 



Dr. Parry's next conspicuous service to American botany was 

 performed in 1861, when he began his examination of the 

 flora of the central Rocky Mountains. This work, undertaken 

 mainly at his own expense, occupied him several years. The 

 Colorado mountains were at that time a fresh field, practically, 

 their flora being known only by the scant material brought 

 back many years before by the naturalist of Major Long's ex- 

 pedition, and Dr. Parry was able to reap a rich harvest from 

 the plants which extend to the summits of the alpine peaks, 

 which he was the first botanist to reach. He made, too, at 

 this time, valuable meteorological and topographical observa- 

 tions, afterward elaborated by Dr. Engelmann. Dr. Parry was 

 appointed in 1869 as Botanist of the Agricultural Department 

 at Washington, and occupied this position for two years. He 

 was, however, an explorer by temperament and by habit, and 

 he had little liking for the restraints of an office position. 

 This taste for travel he was able to gratify for the last twenty 

 years, during which he was more or less continuously in the 

 field, either in Nevada and Utah, where he made many dis- 

 coveries, or in Mexico and California, where much of the last 

 part of his life was passed. He always kept his home, how- 

 ever, at Davenport, in whose Academy of Natural Sciences he 

 was deeply interested. This he made, several years ago, the 

 depository of his herbarium, which was, of course, exceed- 

 ingly rich in western plants, and which, besides his own col- 

 lections, contained those of many correspondents. 



Dr. Parry discovered hundreds of new plants afterward de- 

 scribed by Dr. Gray and by Dr. Engelmann, and his name is 

 so firmly fixed in this way in the history of American botany 

 that, although he published very little, it will be remembered 

 as long as the plants of western America continue to interest 

 the students of botany. Horticulturists will not forget that it 

 was Dr. Parry who discovered Picea pungens, the beautiful 

 Blue Spruce of our gardens ; Pinns Engelmanni, Pinus Tor- 

 rey ana, Pinus Parry ana and Pimts aristata; nor that it was 

 through his zeal and enterprise that many plants now familiar 

 to us were first cultivated. With Dr. Parry there passes away 

 the last, with a single exception, of the remarkable group of 

 men who became prominent as botanical explorers soon after 

 the great addition to the territory of the United States which 

 followed the close of the Mexican War, and who, fired by the 

 enthusiasm of Asa Gray, opened to the world under his guid- 

 ance the botanical treasures of the western and south-western 

 parts of this country. 



