256 



Garden and Forest. 



[May 21, 1890. 



florets whose edges are handsomely fimbriated. This is a 

 new brealc in these plants, and such a margin will help to 

 relieve the Mower of any formality. 



A German journal names Gladiolus Snow White as de- 

 cidedly the best white variety of the flower and recommends 

 it to the attention of its readers as an important American 

 novelty. 



The description of the Celtis or Nettle-tree, published some 

 months ago in Garden and Forest, has attracted much atten- 

 tion in Europe, and a long abstract of it was recently published 

 in Gartenflora. 



It is said that this summer will be an exceptionally good 

 time to visit the Yosemite Valley, as the snow-falls of the past 

 winter were the heaviest on record and the volume of water 

 in the falls will therefore be unusually great. 



The proposed alteration of the tariff, by which a duty of 

 twenty per cent, will be imposed on plants, was discussed at a 

 recent meeting of the Philadelphia Florists' Club and a reso- 

 lution protesting against the proposed duty was passed. It is 

 claimed, however, that this resolution does not represent the 

 true condition of opinion among the members of the craft in 

 Philadelphia, as the resolution was passed by a bare majority 

 in a vote comprising about one-fifth of the membership of the 

 Club, and the question will probably be called up at another 

 meeting. 



The Illustrirte Gartenzeitung, of Vienna, says that Primula 

 obconica was brought to notice in Germany by descriptions 

 and an illustration, which, in 1886, it reproduced from an 

 American journal. At a horticultural congress held two years 

 later it was agreed that the plant "did not fulfill the expectations 

 that it had excited," but, the writer continues, later experience has 

 been different, as admirable plants of P. obconica were shown 

 during the winter just past by all the florists of Vienna. Now 

 he doubts, however, whether it will preserve its popularity, 

 owing to the alleged poisonous character with which it is cred- 

 ited by American florists. 



One of the large specimens of Livistonia Sinensis in Horti- 

 cultural Hall, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, has recently per- 

 fected its first crop of seeds. The plant is about twenty-five 

 feet in height and it bore three large spikes of flowers which 

 were followed by a liberal quantity of seeds, the latter setting 

 in the spring of 1889 and ripening in April of the present sea- 

 son. As an instance of the readiness with which this species 

 germinates, it may be added that some of the seeds that fell 

 from the plant before the crop was gathered were found to 

 have germinated while lying on the ground beneath, which 

 was carpeted with Selaginella. 



German horticulturists complain rather bitterly that it is dif- 

 ficult for them to compete with the firms which import flowers 

 during the winter from southern Europe, and especially from 

 the districts about Nice. They envy in this respect their brethren 

 in our northern towns, where as yet all the flowers used in 

 winter are grown under glass near home. They say that to 

 grow Roses, for instance, as American florists grow them, in 

 immense quantities for the mid-winter trade, would be a 

 ruinous undertaking, their only profit coming from late 

 blooming sorts which are in request after the end of Feb- 

 ruary, when the southern supply falls off. 



Columbines are now in the first flush of their bloom and 

 beauty. Among the forms in flower are Aquilegia Olympica, 

 A. glandulosa jucunda, -A. Canadensis, A. alba grandiflora 

 and A. Sibirica, with hybrids in great variety, double and 

 single, long-spurred, short-spurred and no-spurred. The 

 Columbines, ranging through reds, blues and yellows, seem to 

 disprove the oft-quoted theory that these three colors are never 

 found in the same genus of plants. Other hardy flowers which 

 have bloomed during the week are Scilla campanulata, Ger- 

 man Iris, Anemone sylvestris, the hybrid Violets known as 

 " Tufted Pansies," and Daphne Cneorum. 



California correspondents speak of the great success which 

 has attended the " colony system " recently introduced in the 

 southern part of the state. Tracts of land are laid out in 

 small holdings and apportioned among a body of immigrants, 

 who, upon their arrival, find everything ready for work. A 

 body of colonists from Holland who arrived not long ago 

 at Merced, found houses built and gardens and orchards ar- 

 ranged, more than two thousand acres having been planted 

 with fruit-trees and vines; and fifteen English families were 

 established a few weeks ago at Bakersfield, in Kern County, 

 each receiving a forty-acre holding similarly prepared. 



A considerable quantity of fine vegetables come to this city 

 from Europe during the winter, such as Brussels Sprouts, with 



Endive and other salad plants. Romaine Lettuce is now com- 

 ing in from Long Island, but an occasional lot still comes from 

 France. The imported Lettuce is very large and fine flavored 

 and sells for $2.50 per dozen. A few Globe Artichokes still 

 arrive and sell for $20 per hundred. The very finest heads 

 are said to be raised in Algeria, whence they are shipped to 

 France and are brought here in boxes of ice which are fur- 

 nished by the importers. Last week a few of the melon-shaped 

 fruits of the Pawpaw-tree (Carica Papaya) came into market 

 from the West Indies and a few Cantaloupes from Cuba. 



Mr. T. Laxton, well known as the originator of so many 

 varieties of the best Peas, says that if all the advances in earli- 

 ness claimed for new varieties within the past twenty-five 

 years were added together, Peas could now be had before 

 New Year's. And yet the claims of originators have not been 

 very wide of the truth. For some reason, very early Peas 

 tend to come later year after year. This may be because the 

 earliest peas to ripen are lost before the crop is gathered for 

 seed, and this constant rejection of the earliest seed tends to 

 fix the habit of later ripening. It happens, too, that very often the 

 earliest peas to ripen are used for the table and this helps on 

 the selection for seed of the peas which ripen latest. This 

 constant loss necessitates the production of new varieties by 

 the careful selector or hybridizer. A similar process goes on 

 in regard to the height of Peas, as the dwarfer plants get lost or 

 left in harvesting and the tendency to revert to old forms as- 

 serts itself. In this way the so-called dwarf varieties come at 

 last to be tall. Again, quality may deteriorate by cross-fertili- 

 zation, so that these persistent tendencies can only be coun- 

 teracted by constant watchfulness and the production of new 

 forms. 



Michigan is one of the states in which a bounty is paid for 

 the extermination of the English sparrow. But according to 

 a late bulletin from the Experiment Station of that state the 

 bounty too often helps forward the destructive work of the 

 sparrows by killing other insectivorous birds. Too many of the 

 county clerks cannot distinguish the head of an English spar- 

 row from that of a linnet or a thrush, and money is actually 

 paid for the destruction of such valuable birds as the song 

 sparrow, the red-polled linnet and the evening grosbeak — ■ 

 birds which are protected by the state, under a law which 

 makes their slaughter a misdemeanor to which a penalty of 

 five dollars is attached. The bulletin gives such illustrations 

 and descriptions as will enable the officers to distinguish be- 

 tween the native birds and the foreign nuisances. Neverthe- 

 less the law should be amended so as to make it the duty of 

 county clerks to inform themselves and to collect a fine for 

 every native bird offered for a bounty. It is to be remem- 

 bered that the English sparrows destroy fruit, grain and vege- 

 tables. They attack blossoms, young fruit and grain at har- 

 vest-time. They eat some insects, but they protect more than 

 they feed upon by driving away native insectivorous birds. 

 Wrens, martins, swallows, blue-birds and even robins and wild 

 pigeons suffer from these marauders, who destroy nests, young 

 birds and eggs for no other apparent purpose than to drive 

 these birds out of the neighborhood. 



It is interesting to find in the shrubberies near Mount Mor- 

 ris, in Central Park, a number of large well established plants 

 of the old white Indian Azalea, Phoenicia, unharmed by the 

 winter, and in full flower. The excellent condition of these 

 plants testifies to the fact that the Indian Azalea, or some of 

 its varieties, at least, can be grown in much more severe cli- 

 mates than these plants have been supposed capable of flow- 

 ering in. Only a faint idea of the beauty of the Indian Azalea 

 in flower is obtained by seeing it grown as a pot plant, as the 

 flowers quite hide the foliage, and the real charm of their deli- 

 cate colors can only be appreciated when the plants are 

 brought into immediate contact with the bright green of the 

 vernal turf or the dark green of some broad-leaved evergreen 

 plant. Several varieties of these Azaleas could be grown, no 

 doubt, in this climate if a little care was taken in selectingshel- 

 tered positions for them and in furnishing a slight winter pro- 

 tection ; and the experiment is certainly worth making. 

 Azaleas in cultivation are all derived from plants cultivated 

 originally by the Chinese in the southern part of the empire, 

 or from the gardens of central and southern Japan. The so- 

 called Indian Azalea, or some of its forms, grows far north in 

 Japan in a climate as severe as that of New England. It is 

 improbable that these northern forms have ever been intro- 

 duced into our gardens, where they are possibly destined to 

 give birth to a new race of garden Azaleas, which, there is 

 every reason to believe, will prove as hardy and satisfactory 

 here as have many other plants from the same region, 



