May 2i, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



255 



right method in each case. The art of treating the American 

 forests to the best advantage must grow up as the result of 

 practical work on a large scale. The development of syste- 

 matic forestry in America, however, will be greatly aided by 

 the experience gained in other countries, and Dr. Schlich's 

 Manual will doubtless give a powerful impetus to systematic 

 forest-management in the United States. 



Bonn, Germany. _£). Braildis. 



Correspondence. 

 Grapes for Home Use. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — Mr. Powell's criticism of my list of Grapes for family 

 use in Garden and Forest for April 30th, coming from an 

 experience in a different latitude and soil, is valuable. This 

 fact should be borne in mind by the reader, and it should be 

 remembered, too, that the original information was given to 

 a novice living in my latitude and having a soil differing from 

 my own only in being more sandy. I concur in Mr. Powell's 

 estimate of the quality of the Worden. I have been insisting 

 on its superiority to the Concord in this respect for the last ten 

 years, and yet we often hear it asserted that the Concord is 

 the best Grape grown, and that Worden is only another name 

 for it. I wish I could endorse the claim of Mr. Powell that 

 the Worden keeps better and does not break (crack) so easily 

 as the Concord. These have been its chief faults with me ; 

 but, after all, I am not certain that its resistive force in this 

 respect is feebler than that of the Concord under the same 

 conditions. A cross of Worden and Herbert would be desir- 

 able if it resulted in a " swapping of jackets." 



I did not mention the Massasoit for the simple reason that 

 it is a poor setter. El Dorado has the same defect. I have 

 never yet been able to get a perfect cluster from either of 

 them. Now, I should be grateful to Mr. Powell if he will 

 teach me how to secure perfect clusters on these two varieties. 

 Other growers accomplish this, and what is lacking in my soil 

 or treatment I never could discover. The Lindley is also sub- 

 ject to the same defect with me, and so are many others of 

 Rogers' hybrids. Herbert leads them all, as far as I have 

 tested them, in size of berry ; but Wilder exceeds it in size of 

 clusters, which often weigh a pound and more, while half that 

 weight would be heavy for a cluster of Herberts. 



The quality of the Duchess is beyond question, but it is the 

 first to show symptoms of black rot, and bagging the clusters 

 before blooming has not entirely excluded the fungus. It is 

 strictly a variety for amateurs in this locality, and requires 

 much coddling for success. 



I am glad to hear good words for Diamond and Hayes from 

 disinterested sources, but these are comparatively new, and 

 have not yet, with me, reached the five-year probation fixed 

 by Downing as necessary for determining the proper position 

 of a new Grape. 



The time has passed when it was only necessary to plant the 

 vines and allow them to take care of themselves. Success 

 with this fruit, as well as others, in these days of insects and 

 fungi, is only gained by constant and intelligent care. The 

 hardiest disease-resisting kinds are the only ones fit for indif- 

 ferent and careless cultivators to plant. They can, if they will, 

 learn valuable lessons from these, and be better able to care 

 for the better and more civilized kinds. 



Montciair, N. J. E. Williams. 



Durability of Fence-Posts. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir. — -I am told, though not- authoritatively, that a fence-post 

 will last much longer if put in the ground upside down. Can 

 _ you let me have either a confirmation or refutation of this ? 



Mount Airy, Philadelphia. £_ 



[Some years ago Dr. W. J. Beal, of the Michigan Agri- 

 cultural College, selected sticks of thirteen different kinds of 

 timber. Each stick was cut in two in the middle, and 

 each of these was split, making four sticks from each one. 

 One set was placed in sandy land, and the other in clay- 

 land; in each place putting near each other a stick "top 

 end up," and its mate "bottom end up." In some cases 

 those with top down lasted best ; in some the reverse was 

 true, while in others there was no perceptible difference. 

 The conclusion reached was that, so far as durability goes, 

 it made no difference which end of the post was set in the 

 ground. — Ed.] 



Plant Problems. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



.Sir.— Two or three years ago a certain neglected meadow in 

 this neighborhood was entirely covered with Blephilia ciliata, 

 only a plant here and there of any other species being discern- 

 ible, presenting in full bloom, as may be imagined, a scene of 

 rare beauty — a vivid reflection of the sky's own blue. Next 

 year the prevailing plants were Lobelia spicata (largely pre- 

 dominating), Achillea Millefolium and Rudbeckia hirta, con- 

 spicuously interspersed with Lilium Canadense and L. super- 

 bum, and only an occasional plant of Blephilia among them 

 all. The last season, the third in order, I counted over a 

 dozen conspicuous flowering plants all blooming at one time 

 in charming prodigality and confusion — a veritable flower- 

 garden of eight or ten acres in extent, and of Nature's own or- 

 dering — and the Blephilia still more rare, having practically 

 disappeared. The plant in question being a perennial, what 

 became of it the two previous years, and why, at least, could 

 it not hold its own with some of the plants referred to ? 



In the late summer of last year the beautiful American Cen- 

 taury (Sabbatia angularis) was here one of the most common 

 of plants — freely distributed over neglected fields and waste 

 places. For tile five years previous, or since the season of 

 1884, when it was equally abundant, scarcely a plant was to be 

 seen. During my ten years' residence here these are the only 

 instances where I have known it to bloom thus generally. Why 

 has a biennial plant grown and flowered at such rare intervals, 

 and simultaneously over an extended area ? 



Fairview, W. Va. W. E. Hill. 



Recent Plant Portraits. 



Botanical Magazine, May : 



Eremurus aurantiacus, t. 71 13; a noble Asphodel from 

 the Caucasus, and, like its congeners, a most desirable hardy 

 rock-plant, although rather difficult to manage and requiring 

 careful drainage to prevent the thick root-stalks from rotting 

 during winter. 



Abies brachyphylla, t. 71 14 ; a beautiful hardy Japanese 

 Fir, with broad, dark green, distichous leaves, quite white on 

 the lower surface from the broad bands of stomatae, and one 

 of the group of Japanese trees of which A. firma should 

 perhaps be considered the type. As the editor, Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, points out, "no one but a botanist traversing the 

 islands of Japan, with an eye especially directed to its Silver 

 Firs, can determine whether species or varieties or synonyms 

 are represented under the above names" (A. brachyphylla, 

 A. homolepsis, A. Veitchii, A. firma, etc.) 



Passiflora Miersii, t. 7115; a graceful Passion-flower from 

 Brazil, belonging to the section Grenadilla; a slender glabrous 

 climber, with rather small flowers with white petals and pur- 

 ple corona. 



Berberis virescens, t. 71 16; under this name Sir Joseph 

 Hooker proposes a new species for a Himalaya Barberry, first 

 detected by him in Sikkim in 1849, and recently introduced 

 into cultivation. The flowers are small, a third of an inch in 

 diameter, in fascicles or short racemes, and are sulphurous or 

 greenish yellow. The fruit is oblong or narrowed upward, 

 compressed, scarlet or black, and one-seeded. As this Bar- 

 berry grows naturally at an elevation of 9,000 feet or more 

 above the sea, it may be expected to survive the winters in our 

 Northern States. 



PRliMULlNA sinensis, /. 71 17; a very remarkable Gesne- 

 riaceous plant, with the habit and foliage of a Primula, a native 

 of southern China. The lobes of the spreading corolla are 

 white, with broad violet-purple borders. This botanical cu- 

 riosity was introduced into England from the Hong-Kong 

 Botanical Garden in 1887, and flowered last summer at Kew 

 for the first time. 



Notes. 



The sixteenth edition of Dr. A. Garcke's " Flora of Ger- 

 many" has just been published by Pare}- in Berlin. 



The Garden reports that Shortia galacifolia has flowered at 

 Kew, and " judging from its health and vigor, is likely to be- 

 come popular " in England. 



The corner-stone of the Washington Memorial Arch in this 

 city will be laid on Decoration Day with appropriate services 

 of a religious and military character. 



The Gardeti (London) speaks of a seedling Tuberous Be- 

 gonia, at the nurseries of the Messrs. Laing & Sons, in which 

 the semi-double blooms of large size and rich self crimson have 



