316 



Garden and Forest. 



[June 25, 1890. 



Notes. 



Peaches, green apples, blackberries and huckleberries are 

 coming into market from the Carolinas, and the first Wild 

 Goose plums from California. 



It is stated in The Agitator, published in Wellsboro, Tioga 

 County, Pennsylvania, that a giant Hemlock was recently felled 

 in Union Township, of that county, from which forty-nine 

 four-foot lengths of bark were peeled. 



The last part of Hooker's Icones Plantarum (xxi., Part 1) to 

 reach us contains plates 2oot to 2025 inclusive, and is entirely 

 devoted to the illustration and description of Indian Orchids 

 of various genera, none of them of ornamental or horticul- 

 tural importance. 



Lonicerafragrantissima, which the past mild season brought 

 into bloom in January in this vicinity, is named in an Austrian 

 journal as a true winter-blooming species, the flowers of which 

 are as fragrant during the snowy months as those of other 

 Honeysuckles in summer. 



A bark laden with 580 sticks of spar-timber from Oregon 

 recently arrived in Boston. The cargo was valued at $150,000, 

 and a portion of it was at once purchased by a shipbuilder of 

 Bath, Maine — a fact which shows how grievously the Maine 

 forests have been denuded of their finest products. 



A correspondent in eastern Massachusetts informs us that 

 the Sycamore-trees in that region are all suffering from the 

 disease described in our issue of last week ; and that it is 

 many years since they have been in such a deplorable condi- 

 tion as they are at present, although years ago they suffered to 

 almost the same extent from apparently the same cause. 



The California Fruit-Grower contains a colored plate of the 

 new Rose, Rainbow, which was originated by John Sievers, of 

 San Francisco. It is a sport from Papa Gontier. It is a pink 

 rose splashed with the deeper color of Papa Gontier. It is said 

 to be larger, firmer and more fragrant than its parent, and, 

 besides being more productive, it is superior in its forcing 

 qualities. 



Le Journal des Orchidees, of which the sixth issue has now 

 reached us, more than sustains the promise of the earlier 

 numbers. It contains a large amount of practical instruction 

 about Orchids and their cultivation of a character which ama- 

 teur gowers of these plants find most difficult to obtain, and 

 which is conveyed through its columns in a plain and most 

 satisfactory manner. 



An ingenious berry-picking box is described by a writer in 

 the Orange Judd Farmer as in use on a fruit farm in Wiscon- 

 sin. It consists of a tin box just large enough to hold the 

 quart box in which berries are sent to market. The lid is 

 hinged, and in its centre is a small funnel through which the 

 berries are slipped without injury or loss. A strap attached to 

 the box fastens it to the body, leaving both the picker's hands 

 free. 



Just as this paper is ready for the press comes the sad an- 

 nouncement of the death of Patrick Barry, of the firm of EU- 

 wanger & Barry, Rochester, New York. Occasion will be 

 taken later to give some account of his eminent services to 

 pomology and horticulture, but we cannot forbear in the mo- 

 ment we have at command to express our feeling of bereave- 

 ment at the loss of this broad-minded and public-spirited 

 man. 



Mr. Alma-Tadema is known to pride himself almost as 

 much upon the archaeological accuracy as upon the beauty of 

 his pictures of ancient Roman life. It is no wonder, therefore, 

 that English journals are making merry over the fact that he 

 recently introduced into one of them a representation of Cle- 

 matis Jackmanni, as this now familiar plant is a hybrid va- 

 riety produced about thirty years ago by Mr. C. Jackmann, of 

 Woking, in Surrey. 



The Ninth Annual Meeting of the American Forestry Asso- 

 ciation will be held in Quebec from the 2d to the 5th of Sep- 

 tember. All those who attend the meeting should procure 

 receipts from the ticket-agents at the point of departure. Re- 

 duced return fares can be secured over roads connected with 

 the Trunk-line Association, provided at least fifty receipts 

 are presented at the meeting for endorsement. Further infor- 

 mation can be obtained from Dr. H. M. Fisher, 919 Walnut 

 Street, Philadelphia. 



A machine for budding has been invented by Mr. W. M. 

 Rovvell, a young man living in Fort Meade, Florida. Mr. 

 Rowell's budder, being "loaded" with a bud, plows under the 

 bark, a pull on the trigger drives the bud in, and it is left in 



proper position for binding. Mr. Rowell claims that 12,000 

 buds can be inserted in a day with his budder and that a child 

 can learn the use of it in fifteen minutes. This implement is 

 in some respects like a seed-dropper. The part that holds and 

 inserts the bud is made of different sizes or numbers, adapted 

 to different sizes of buds and stocks. By changing the points 

 it may be used on stocks ranging from an inch down to nearly 

 one-eighth of an inch in diameter. 



Mr. C. R. Orcutt writes that the manufacture of syrup from 

 the fruit of the Opuntia may at no far distant day became an 

 important industry in southern California. Opuntia Ficus- 

 Indica, or Indian Fig, 0. Tuna and O. Tuna-manse have be- 

 come naturalized around the old Californian missions. They 

 are natives of Mexico and make rank and rapid growth. The 

 juice of the fruit, which these plants produce in great abund- 

 ance, may be extracted in a cider press like the juice from 

 apples, and boiled down to a fruity syrup indistinguisha- 

 ble from that manufactured from the watermelon. Excellent 

 vinegar may also be made from the juice. In Mexico these 

 Cacti are extensively cultivated for their fruit. 



So few places in the Central Park are disfigured by inappro- 

 priately placed formal flower-beds that the one near the Min- 

 eral Spring, to the north of the large sheep-meadow, is a sur- 

 prising sight. A long, low rock lies here, beyond a narrow 

 stretch of lawn, partly covered with Virginia Creeper and 

 other vines and overhung by tall Sumachs, a Chestnut of shrub- 

 like habit, and a Wild Cherry. No rock on the borders of a 

 New England pasture could look more natural, yet close in 

 front of it, following its outline, now lies a great bed set with 

 Scarlet Geraniums, Coleus and Vincas, arranged in formal 

 patterns. Fortunately, it is invisible except to those who 

 pass along the somewhat unfrequented path, and one can only 

 hope that it is not a prophecy of more numerous errors to 

 come. 



At the recent great horticultural exhibition in Berlin the 

 prize for the finest Orchid grown in Germany was given to 

 Herr Bouche, of Endenich, for a plant of Cymbidium Lowia- 

 num. But it is said that his success was owing to the rapid 

 fading of a Phajus tuberculosus exhibited by Herr Lackner, of 

 Steglitz. This species had bloomed but three times before in 

 England, and never on the Continent, and the plant in ques- 

 tion was greatly admired in the brief period during which its 

 flowers remained in good condition. One of the most remark- 

 able exhibits was a collection of 250 species of Cactus shown 

 by Herr Gruson, an amateur of Magdeburg-Buckau, which 

 received the "prize of honor," a large silver medal given by 

 the state. There were 634 exhibitors in the different depart- 

 ments of the display. 



We learn from the Pacific Rural Press that the state of Cali- 

 fornia has received from Mr. Abbot Kinney, of Lamanda Park, 

 a donation of many thousand young forest-trees, reared at 

 that gentleman's expense. In making this presentation he has 

 selected the State Board of Forestry as the proper channel for 

 the direction of them to the best uses. Such of these trees as 

 are not required to perfect their own plantations will be dis- 

 tributed during the coming season to such applicants as will 

 conform to the Board's request to furnish the customary re- 

 ports as to locality planted, growth made, conditions observed, 

 etc. In selecting the State Board as the medium for the dis- 

 semination of these trees, Mr. Kinney was doubtless influ- 

 enced by the knowledge that the intelligent direction of the 

 chairman of the Board, Hon. Walter S. Moore, to promote the 

 cause of forest-planting would be fully exercised to insure such 

 disposition of this gift as would result in the greatest benefit 

 to the people of the whole state. 



A few weeks ago one of the most interesting old houses in 

 New York State was destroyed by fire. This was the Hoge- 

 boom homestead, at Claverack, near Hudson, known to recent 

 generations as the "Watson Webb House." It was built by 

 Jacobus Hogeboom in 1727 on a tract of land which his father, 

 Kiliaen, had purchased from Chancelor Livingston. Its facade 

 measured sixty-three feet and was adorned by a deep porch, 

 while an immense Ivy had nearly covered both porch and 

 wall. The interior was treated in the characteristic Dutch 

 way, with carved and tiled mantels, and, it is said, mural paint- 

 ings. Before the Revolutionary War broke out the house had 

 come into the possession of General Watson Webb, who had 

 married a grand-daughter of its founder. During a visit made 

 by Lafayette he scratched his name and the date on a window- 

 pane, which, of course, was thereafter guarded as a precious 

 relic. And every child in America should regret the destruc- 

 tion of the mansion, since under its roof Moore wrote " 'Twas 

 the night before Christmas." 



