28o 



Garden and Forest. 



[June 4, 1890. 



large quantities of. infected vines having been discovered in 

 the province of Kutais. Radical measures are to be used to 

 stamp out the pest, but the enormous extent to which it has 

 already spread will render them difficult of application, and 

 the government has arranged that experiments shall at once 

 be made with American Vines. 



Monsieur Croux, the French nurseryman, exhibited, accord- 

 ing to a report published in a late issue of the Revue Horticole, 

 an interesting collection of Magnolias before the National So- 

 ciety of Horticulture of France. The collection contained, 

 besides the varieties of the Chinese Magnolias ordinarily culti- 

 vated, Magnolia spectabilis, with small white flowers flushed 

 with pink; M. hybridia speciosa, described as similar to M. 

 Soulangeana, although later in blooming; M. Norbcrtinia, the 

 latest flowered of all the Magnolias derived from M. conspicuaj 

 M. rosa grandiflora, a seedling raised by M. Lenne", with large, 

 handsome rose and white flowers and one of the best varieties, 

 and M. odoratissima, a hybrid between M. conspicua and M. 

 Lenne with large, rose-white, fragrant flowers. 



In an article recently published in the Fortniglitly Review 

 Mr. Beatty-Kingston names 10,000,000,000 francs as the 

 amount of the loss suffered in wine-growing France between 

 the years 1875 anu " 1887 by the ravages of the phylloxera and 

 fungoid pests. Now, however, they seem to have been defi- 

 nitely vanquished. In the Medoc district the vines have re- 

 covered themselves since 1882, when the ground around them 

 was saturated with a solution destructive to the phylloxera; and 

 the yield for the three past years has greatly exceeded the pre- 

 vious average, and, indeed, has prophesied a future yield of un- 

 paralleled richness. Last year the vineyards of Chateau Lafitte 

 alone produced 1,200 hogsheads of wine, and 66,000,000 gal- 

 lons were produced in the Gironde district. 



The Annual Administration Report of the Forest Depart- 

 ment (Southern and Northern Circles) of the Madras Presi- 

 dency for the financial year 1888-1889 has reached us, and con- 

 tains a large amount of technical information with regard to 

 the workings of the department, with notes upon various 

 plants cultivated on a larger or smaller scale by the forest- 

 department. It appears that three hundred and ninety-eight 

 square miles of reserved forests and one hundred and forty- 

 five square miles of reserved lands have been added during 

 the year to the areas under the immediate control of the de- 

 partment. The financial results of the year show a hand- 

 some balance in spite of numerous extraordinary expenses, 

 and demonstrate the success of forest-administration in India. 



In the last number of the Revjie Horticole which has reached 

 us the attention of cultivators of the Lilac is directed to the 

 fact that the regular blooming of the Lilacs in the public gar- 

 dens of Paris is obtained by an annual pruning, which serves 

 also to keep the plants in shape and within reasonable bounds. 

 Every year, after the flowers have passed, the flowering 

 branch is cut back to the bud at its base. By this means all 

 the strength of the plant is thrown into the branches which 

 have not flowered. These branches then grow vigorously, 

 and are thus able to develop the terminal buds which assure 

 the flowers of the following year. The practice is one which 

 might be more generally observed' than it is, especially as 

 Lilacs, unless they are pruned, occasionally grow beyond or- 

 dinary limits and do not always flower regularly every season. 



Among the rare Orchids now in flower in the collection of 

 Mr. F. L. Ames, North Easton, Massachusetts, are three va- 

 rieties of Cattleya Reineckiana, one of the specimens with 

 twenty and the other with sixteen flowers; C. Wagneri ; six 

 fine plants of C. Warneri ; C. Mendelii grandiflora ; C. imbri- 

 cata ; C. Mossice aurea and C. Mossier Peeler si ; Oncidium Kra- 

 ineri lutea ; Coelogyne Dayana (seven spikes) ; C. tomentosa ; 

 Eriopsis rutidobidbon; Epidendrum O'Brieni; Maxillaria San- 

 derianaj Dendrobium polyphlebium ; Cypripedium Master si j 

 C. Eur y ale; C. Curtisi j C. leucorrhodum j Odontoglossum 

 excellens; Masdevallia ignea Goorei ; M. Harryana regalis in 

 variety; M. Geleniana ; Dendrobium Falconeri giganteum and 

 half a dozen of the best varieties of Lcelia purpurata, all superb 

 plants. Here, too, is a specimen of Cattleya Skinneri, which 

 is more than six feet in diameter, and bearing forty spikes, with 

 some 400 flowers altogether. 



Concerning the plant Aristolochia Goldieana, which has 

 been flowering at Kew and which has been described in these 

 columns by our London correspondent, the Journal of Hor- 

 ticulture, speaking of the beauty of the flower and its gro- 

 tesque disproportion to the plant which produced it, says : 

 "The plant might have been crumpled up into a man's 

 hand, but the one flower it produced could not have been 



perfectly concealed in a peck measure. The tube was ivory 

 white,' the spreading limb formed a huge goblet, on the outer 

 side dull green, lined and veined with dull purple ; on the 

 inner side superbly colored with bold lines and arabesque 

 markings of a deep purplish chocolate on a rich ground of 

 old gold. The penciling in the throat was even more beautiful 

 than in the cup, and the translucent texture added an indefin- 

 able charm, as though the material were of a kind hitherto 

 unknown in the vegetable kingdom." 



Monsieur E. Gilbert, discussing in the Moniteur d' Horticul- 

 ture the early days of horticulture (L'Horticulture dans ses 

 origines sacre'es ete profanes), tells us that in the Middle Ages 

 medlars held the first place among cidtivated fruits. It was 

 the medlar, it seems, which was used as the foundation of the 

 preserves of Orleans known as Cotignac, which were so fa- 

 mous that when a French sovereign entered the town a box 

 of Cotignac was always offered to him, and it was a box of 

 these preserved medlars which was the first present made by 

 the people of Orleans to Joan of Arc when she led her troops 

 to the assistance of the beleaguered city. The medlar was used 

 as a preserve as well as to season meats, just as cresses are 

 used now. The introduction of the Bon Cretien Pear, which is 

 the sameas the American Bartlett, dates, Monsieur Gilbert tells 

 us, from the reign of Louis XL, during which the venerable 

 Francois de Paule brought it from Spain and introduced it 

 into the royal gardens. During his fatal sickness the King 

 asked for this fruit to quench his thirst, calling it " the pear of 

 the good Christian," in honor of the holy man who had brought 

 it to France. And the pear Louise-Bonne owes its name, it 

 appears, too, to Louise of Savoy, the mother of Francis I., who 

 first cultivated it in France. 



The death is announced of Monsieur Alphonse Du Breuil 

 in his eighty-fifth year. Monsieur Du Breuil was one of the 

 most popular and best known authors and lecturers on the 

 management of fruit-trees in France. He was born at Rouen 

 in 181 1, in the botanical garden of which his father was the 

 head gardener. He commenced his career as a lecturer in the 

 Normal School and in the School of Agriculture of his na- 

 tive town, where, later, he established in the Botanic Garden 

 a remarkable collection of fruit-trees. Called to Paris, he first 

 became conspicuously known by a course of lectures on the 

 cultivation of fruit-trees delivered in the Conservatoire des 

 Arts et Mettiers. In 1853 the French Minister of Agriculture 

 employed him to travel over France for the purpose of giving 

 instruction in the cultivation of fruit-trees. This duty he per- 

 formed during many years, traveling during six months in all 

 the departments, where he trained many local instructors. 

 Monsieur Du Breuil is best known to the general public by his 

 "Cours d'Arboriculture," published in 1846, a work which had 

 much success and ran through several editions and of which 

 a resume" was published for the use of gardeners. Monsieur 

 Du Breuil's influence must have been very great in his day, 

 and the effects of his instruction are seen not only in the excel- 

 lence of the French methods of cultivating fruit-trees, but 

 purely ornamental trees as well, to which he devoted much 

 attention. 



The most conspicuous of the shrubs now in flower in Cen- 

 tral. Park are the various Weigelas, which are blooming 

 in remarkable profusion. The masses of Deutzia gracilis are 

 also strikingly beautiful. There are many good specimens of 

 the Virginia Fringe-tree, a particularly fine one being on the 

 borders of the lake near the Webster statue. The old- 

 fashioned Snowball, with its flowers hanging in great clusters 

 from the ends of arched branches, is still at its best, and it has 

 no superior among later introductions. The Japanese Snow- 

 ball (Viburnum plicahim) makes a compact bush, and is very 

 effective for a mass of bloom, but it lacks the grace of the 

 older plant, and can never supersede it. The white Crataegus 

 pyracantha shows now to best advantage, a mass of it near the 

 Bolivar statue being especially worthy of mention. The early 

 flowering Tamarisks, too, wherever they were subjected to a 

 severe pruning last year, have been uncommonly floriferous. 

 One of the most interesting spots in the park for lovers of 

 flowers is the great irregular mass of Rosa rugosa near the 

 conservatory lake. A group of the real Scotch Broom (Cytisus 

 scoparius) near the Terrace is much admired for the abundant 

 yellow flowers, which can be seen at a great distance. An 

 excellent place to see many of the best shrubs in bloom is 

 along the new branch of the bridle path bordering the pool 

 near Seventy-seventh Street ; and besides the shrubbery one 

 can here see a fine effect of the Japanese Ampelopsis on the 

 boundary wall. Only a portion of the stone is covered, and 

 the proper character of both stone and vine and their true 

 relation have been retained. 



