May 21, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



553 



armcena in an exposed border and it is quite as attractive as 

 the type. The flowers of the species and its variety are almost 

 three-quarters of an inch long and the same in width at the 

 mouth. Both succeed satisfactorily when planted in the fall 

 and given the same treatment under which Hyacinths and 

 Tulips thrive. They are well worth a place among the sturdy 

 little flowers of early spring. 



Harvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge, Mass. 



M. Barker. 



Transplanting.— Nearly every vegetable will endure trans- 

 planting without permanent injury, and this practice simplifies 

 garden work and adds much to the area of a small garden. 

 Lettuce can grow a month or more in the seed-bed before the 

 transfer ; Beets sown in the same way can be set out in the 

 garden when the ground is warm, and will be two or three 

 weeks in advance of those planted from seed in the spring, 

 and the roots, if pains is taken in the work, will be of good 

 form ; Peas can be transplanted into moist or well watered soil 

 and will grow thriftily; Beans do best if grown in pots or flats, as 

 many seeds in a place as would be planted in a garden, and, 

 when well up, shifted dirt and all into the out-door hills about 

 the istof June. By this method we get Cucumbers much earlier, 

 and they can be grown to the third leaf before they are set. All 

 forms of Cabbage, Onions and Celery should be transplanted; 

 and melons in this way can be had much earlier. Parsnip, Car- 

 rot, Salsify and roots of that nature are not improved by trans- 

 planting. 



Plants of any kind should be given a permanent home be- 

 fore they are overgrown in the seed-bed. Too large plants 

 are less likely to make perfect vegetables than those set when 

 at the proper size. Seedlings will only attain a certain point 

 of growth in flats, and when this period of stagnation is reached 

 no more growth can be expected without a change of soil or 

 location. If the plants have good roots and are set toward 

 evening in freshly prepared soil they will live. A strong wind 

 is more destructive to young plants than the sun's rays, and if 

 the soil is well prepared and pressed lightly about the roots, 

 most plants will grow even in the sun without shelter. A bath 

 in thin mud is a good preparation for the roots of .some plants 

 when they must be set in a dry time. Watering after or dur- 

 ing the time of transplanting is much practiced, but, unless 

 the weather is very dry, the plant will do as well without if 

 properly set. Cabbages and like plants, if' lifted a day before 

 they are to be set and left in a cellar, will make a new growth 

 of root, so as to gain rather than lose time by the day's delay. 



West Springfield, Mass. W. H. Bull. 



Little Known Vegetables. — As stated by a correspondent on 

 p. 228 of Garden and Forest, several European vegetables 

 deserve to be better known in this country. We have few 

 vegetables of better quality or of easier culture than Celeriac. 

 It possesses plainly enough the delicious celery flavor and yet 

 is sufficiently different from it to be a distinct vegetable. By 

 packing in earth or sand the roots may be preserved in a cool 

 cellar until spring without losing their fine quality. 



I have always started the plants of Celeriac in the hot-bed or 

 cold-frame, but I now think that if sown very early in spring 

 on a nicely prepared bed in the open ground the seed would 

 germinate sufficiently well to produce a good crop. The 

 plants are hardy like those of Celery and endure frost well. 

 They should be given rich ground and be well cultivated, but 

 hilling up is not as essential as it is with Celery. 



Another vegetable that should be more common in our gar- 

 dens is the tuberous-rooted or Hamburg Parsley. This 

 is truly a Parsley with a root the size of a small Parsnip and 

 with a flavor peculiar to itself. The plants should be started 

 in the hot-bed or cold-frame, as the seeds, like those of the 

 common Parsley, are rather slow to germinate. When of 

 sufficient size the plants may be set in a well prepared bed in 

 the garden, in rows two feet apart. The roots are rather slow 

 of growth, becoming fit for use in September or October. 

 Like the Celeriac, they may be preserved through the winter 

 in the cellar by packing in earth or sand. 



To my own taste, both the Celeriac and the Hamburg Parsley 

 are equal to Salsify as contributions to the table. To some, 

 however, their peculiar flavors are less agreeable. I have ob- 

 served that in many persons a taste for the characteristic 

 flavors of vegetables belonging to the Uinbellifcra needs to 

 lie acquired. 



University of Wisconsin. -C.. o. Goff. 



Under the Roses.— Beds of hardy Roses are not attractive, 

 either in the early spring, when the leaves are forming, or 

 after the flowering period in June or July. I have found it 

 very advantageous to plant between the bushes the yellow and 

 blue varieties of Viola cornuta. A large Rose-bed in my gar- 



den, thickly planted with Viola cornuta, var. lutea, is now a 

 blaze of brilliant color. The plants reproduce themselves 

 with great facility from seed, and in a few years numbers can 

 be obtained. They also increase by spreading, and soon yield 

 very large clumps. The seedlings varv somewhat in color 

 and form as well as in foliage, but are almost always hand- 

 some, and frequently as large as an average Pansy and hardly 

 less beautiful. They are also faintly, but distinctly, fragrant. 

 They continue in bloom until late in the fall, but the flowers 

 in summer are somewhat smaller, as a rule. Planted near 

 Pansies the two forms hybridize easily, but I have not ob- 

 tained any noteworthy flowers in this way. Two very fine 

 new forms of V. cornuta are sold under the names of Admi- 

 ration and Magnifica. These, perhaps, belong to the class of 

 Tufted Pansies, and are respectively violet-blue and purple- 

 violet. They appear to be not less hardy than the species, 

 standing the winter in the open ground without other protec- 

 tion than the manure thrown upon the Rose-bed in the fall. 

 The plants do very well even in a light loam, but require 

 plenty of water in the summer. 



Newport, R. I. IV. G. 



Iris Gatesii. — Joining Mr. Orpet in his praise of Iris Susiaha, 

 I hope he will allow me to state that now we have a plant 

 which excels it in beauty. I. Gatesii was discovered by Mr. 

 Sintenis in the mountains of southern Kurdistan, and was in- 

 troduced by me to Europe two years ago. The flowers on 

 stalks as thick as a man's finger and twenty-five inches high, 

 show well above the foliage. They are in some cases double 

 the size of those of /. Susiana, and the coloration is not 

 so sombre, but far more delicate and more beautiful. The 

 ground color is creamy white, the very massive standards, as 

 well as the falfs and claws, are dotted over with very minute sil- 

 very gray points and also adorned with a most delicate network 

 of silvery gray lines. The beard is ochraceous yellow, and, seen 

 from a distance, the flower looks yellowish gray. This Iris 

 has the largest flower of any of the genus so far known, and, 

 apart from its size, the flower is striking and of a highly aris- 

 tocratic appearance. There are, moreover, some other novel- 

 ties coming on, one of which resembles I. Susiana, but with 

 markings of a crimson color. 



Baden-Baden. Max Leichtllll. 



Recent Publications. 



Forestry in North America. — III. 



Part II. sets forth the fundamental principles of silviculture. 

 The author maintains, with justice, that the principles of silvi- 

 culture hold good all over the world, but adds that the illus- 

 tration of these principles must be taken from a limited area. 

 For this purpose he has chosen the timber-trees of western 

 Europe on the fiftieth degree of north latitude and the coun- 

 tries immediately to tWe north and south of it — in other words, 

 the forest-trees of England, northern France and the greater 

 part of Germany. These species the author does not attempt 

 to describe; he assumes that his readers are familiar with 

 them. The first chapter dwells upon the external conditions 

 which influence the development of forests. He says : 



"Soil, including subsoil, and atmosphere are the media 

 which act upon forest-vegetation, and they together are in 

 silviculture called the ' locality.' The active agencies, or fac- 

 tors, of the locality depend on the nature of the soil and the 

 climate, the latter being governed by the situation. The sum 

 total of these factors represents the quality or yield-capacity 

 of the locality. The forester requires to he well acquainted 

 with the manner in which soil and climate act on forest-vege- 

 tation, in order to decide in each case which species and 

 method of treatment are best adapted, under a given set of 

 conditions, to yield the most favorable results." 



Every forester knows that, on good soil and under condi- 

 tions otherwise favorable, a timber-crop is heavier than one 

 of equal age grown under less favorable conditions. In the 

 concluding section of this chapter the author shows how we 

 may use this fact in order to assess the quality of a locality. 

 Numerous measurements of woods of different species and 

 ages, grown under different conditions, have been made in 

 Germany on a systematic plan, and from the data thus ob- 

 tained yield-tables have been calculated, showing the volume 

 of timber produced at different ages on a ^iveri area by the 

 principal species on localities of different quality classes. 

 Using the yield-tables published for the Scotch Pine by Wil- 

 hehn Wcisc, now Professor ;it the Forest School of Karlsruhe, 

 the author shows that at the ages of 50 and 100 years the vol- 

 ume per acre of timber only, not including faggots, in localities 



