208 



Garden and Forest. 



[April 23, 1890. 



The death is announced at Lucerne, in his seventieth year, 

 of M. D. Bulan, one of the most successful and most generally 

 employed landscape gardeners of France in recent times. His 

 principal work was the Park of the Tete d'Or at Lyons, where 

 he changed a great unhealthy marsh into one of the finest 

 pleasure grounds of Europe. 



The Massachusetts Horticultural Society has obtained the 

 consent of the Boston city authorities to erect on the Com- 

 mon a mammoth tent for a horticultural exhibition to be held 

 during the sessions of the Society of American Florists at their 

 annual meeting in August next. It is expected that the exhi- 

 bition will be one of notable interest. 



A correspondent of the Tribune from Lakewood, New Jer- 

 sey, states that more than 200 packages of Epigaea and Pyxidan- 

 thera are sent every day from that station by express and mail 

 to distant friends by the sojourners there. Hundreds of the 

 guests at the hotels, it is asserted, make it their daily labor to 

 gather these beautiful little plants. There seems to be an 

 unlimited supply of both species, but they will be practically 

 exterminated from this region if this thoughtless devastation 

 is carried on a few years longer. 



In the "Sixth Annual Report of the Commissioners of the 

 State Reservation at Niagara " the account of their work is 

 carried down to the end of September, 1889. The number of 

 visitors to the Falls is estimated at half a million annually, 

 as many as 5,000 coming sometimes during a single day. 

 The building of good roads in certain parts of the Reserva- 

 tion is the chief improvement now proposed. A map of the 

 Reservation and its neighborhood is given with the report, 

 and a geological appendix prepared by Mr. G. K. Gilbert, 

 which tells the history of the Niagara River. 



In our own country neighborhoods an effort might well be 

 made to follow an example set in France, as recently noted in 

 the American Agriculturist. In many French communes 

 boards are set up bearing the following instructions : " Hedge- 

 hog : Lives upon mice, snails and wire-worms, animals injur- 

 ious to agriculture. Don't kill a hedgehog. Toad : Helps 

 agriculture ; destroys twenty to thirty insects hourly. Don't 

 kill a toad. Cockchafer and its larva? : Deadly enemies to far- 

 mers ; lays 70 to 100 eggs. Kill the cockchafer. Birds : Each 

 department of France loses yearly many millions of francs 

 through the injury done by insects. Don't kill the birds." 



Two weeks ago we published an article by Mr. T. L. Mead, 

 explaining how the various Palms in his collection at Oviedo, 

 Florida, had endured the freezing weather of early March. 

 Mr. Mead adds the following note in reference to the Ferns 

 which were then growing in the open air : Older plants of 

 Cibotium Barometz and Blechnum Brasiliense and young ones 

 of Lomaria ciliata lost all their leaves, but new fronds are 

 already beginning to push. The Maiden-hair Ferns, Adian- 

 tuvi cuneatum and A. Wiegandii, were hardly touched, and 

 a quite extensive assortment of greenhouse Ferns bordering 

 a small pool of water suffered less than many native species, 

 Osmundas, etc., growing close by them. 



Last year the Maple was chosen as the " State-tree " of New 

 York by a vote of those participating in Arbor Day exercises, 

 and it is suggested that this year a "State-flower" shall be 

 selected in the same way. The student in the common schools 

 of this state who presents the best essay, not exceeding 400 

 words in length, on the most profitable manner of observing 

 Arbor Day, will receive a gold medal given by Mr. William A. 

 Wadsworth, of Geneseo'; and prizes of $100 and $50 will be 

 awarded for the best kept district-school grounds in the state. 

 Superintendent Draper announces, furthermore, that due 

 mention in his report for 1891 will be made of the common- 

 school student who, before the first of October next, shall 

 transmit to his office the best collection of bark, wood sections, 

 leaves and fruit of the " State-tree." 



The comparative test between the heating power of steam 

 and hot water, which was carried on a year ago at the Massa- 

 chusetts Agricultural College, and which was reported in this 

 Journal at the time (vol. ii, p. 186), has been repeated this 

 year, and according to the last bulletin from that experiment 

 station, with similar results. The record for the hot water 

 boiler was in brief as follows : Total coal consumed from 

 December 1st, 1889, to March 18th, 1890, 6,598 pounds; average 

 daily temperature for the time, 49.74 degrees. The record of 

 the steam boiler was : Total coal consumed from December 

 1st, 1889, to March 18th, 1890, 9,784 pounds; average daily 

 temperature for the time, 48.39 degrees. That is, the steam 



boiler, with nearly fifty percent, more coal, gave an average tem- 

 perature more than a degree lower for three months and a half. 



Two gentlemen, one of whom is Senator Evarts, recently 

 joined in building a charming stone bridge for the benefit of 

 their fellow-citizens in Cornish, New Hampshire. "Such an 

 act," says the Boston Herald very justly, " is not a great affair, 

 but it is one of the many ways in which our New England 

 towns may be put on a par with the villages in old England, 

 where the bridges, built across the different streams, are often 

 the most picturesque attractions in the landscape, and give it 

 a distinction that could be gained in no other way. Next to a 

 good road in a country village is the finely arched stone bridge 

 that spans some tiny stream, and wherever you find the good 

 road and the picturesque bridge people of refinement and 

 education are apt to locate their homes. Though a small 

 thing in itself, it may be believed that no single investment 

 can be made in many of our New England villages to yield 

 richer returns than the tasteful bridges which are constructed 

 over its waterways. Here is an unoccupied field where men 

 of wealth can show their taste and give distinction to their 

 native towns, and be sure to have their names handed down 

 to posterity in grateful remembrance." 



Experiments conducted by Professor Goff at the Wisconsin 

 Station last year indicate that a solution of carbonate of cop- 

 per is a certain remedy for the Apple-scab. The solution is 

 composed of one ounce of carbonate of copper dissolved in 

 one quart of aqua-ammonia (strength twenty-two Baume), 

 diluted with 100 quarts of water. One and a half gallons of 

 the diluted solution are sufficient to thoroughly spray a tree of 

 medium size, and two gallons for one of large size. It follows, 

 therefore, that four ounces of carbonate of copper and one 

 gallon of ammonia will make 100 gallons of the diluted solu- 

 tion, which is sufficient to spray fifty large or about seventy- 

 five medium trees once. The ammonia should be kept tightly 

 corked with a rubber stopper. To this the precipitated car- 

 bonate of copper should be added at the rate of one ounce to 

 one quart of ammonia, in which it dissolves, forming a very 

 clear, deep blue liquid. When ready to commence the appli- 

 cation, add this solution to the water used for spraying at the 

 rate of one quart to twenty-five gallons of water. The bottle 

 containing the solution should be kept tightly corked. Three 

 or four applications are advised, and it is probable that one 

 made just after the leaves expand and before the flowers have 

 opened would add to the efficiency of the treatment, as the 

 fungus commences its growth quite early in the season. The 

 liquid is applied with a force pump fitted with some kind of 

 a spraying nozzle. 



A correspondent of The Garden writes that the wild garden 

 at Kew is just now very attractive with bulbs of various kinds 

 in full flower and apparently quite at home amongst the long 

 coarse grass. One slope is a sheet of gold with the Dutch 

 Crocus. Besides the yellow variety, there are large purple 

 and white forms and a host of rare species which seem to 

 grow perfectly here. The Glory of the Snow (Chionodoxa 

 Lucilice) has also made a home here, and from its scattered 

 condition the bulbs seem to have produced seed freely. 

 Should this prove correct we have here a splendid subject for 

 naturalizing in the uncultivated portions of our gardens. It 

 is perfectly hardy, taking good care of itself, and is withal 

 one of the most beautiful of our early spring flowers. 

 Near by are the Squills, S. Siberica and S. bifolia. Narcissi 

 are also here by the hundred thousand, we are told. The 

 higher parts of the mound are at present white with N. fial- 

 lidus pracox, and should it become established here, which 

 seems likely, so far as one can judge, it will be beautiful in the 

 years to come. On the lower ground Triteleia uniflora is 

 coming up strongly, and so are Primroses of all kinds, and 

 on the sunny side are innumerable Tulips, Hyacinths, Ane- 

 mone fulgens, Hepaticas and various Daffodils, prominent 

 amongst them being the double Telamonius, which has 

 already formed quite a sea of glaucous green foliage. Nearly 

 all these bulbs would be equally at home in our own gardens 

 and they all bloom at a season when flowers are especially 

 charming. 



Catalogues Received. 



P. IT. Foster, Babylon, Long Island, N. Y. ; Deciduous Trees 

 Evergreens, Roses, etc. — H. B. May, Dyson's Lane Nurseries, Upper 

 Edmonton, England ; Ferns and Fine Foliage Plants. — Lewis Roesch, 

 Fredonia, N. Y. ; Grape Vines, Small Fruit Plants, etc. — T. C. Thur- 

 low, Cherry Hill Nursery, West Newbury, Mass.; Deciduous Trees, 

 Evergreens, Fruit Trees, etc. — J. H. Tryon, Willoughby, O.; Grapes. 



