July 2, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



327 



I must be allowed to mention, however, the curious Mos- 

 quito-plant ( Vincctoxiciim acuminatum) from Japan, which 

 might be useful in some places. This is an Asclepidaccous 

 plant with clusters of small white flowers which secrete a 

 viscid juice. They are attractive to mosquitos, which are en- 

 trapped as they alight on them. At the foot of the hill just 

 within the shade of the Beeches a colony of Cypripedium spec- 

 tabile, finely in bloom, well repaid one for a journey. 



New York. 



The June Exhibition of the Massachusetts Horticul- 



T i 



tural Society. 



G. 



Periodical Literature. 



The June issue of the.Kew Bulletin of Miscellaneous Infor- 

 mation is devoted to articles on compressed or tablet tea, 

 which is manufactured at Hankow from tea-dust, and is now 

 consumed in immense quantities in Russian Siberia. It ap- 

 pears that the volume of the brick tea trade is rapidly increas- 

 ing and that the demand is becoming greater than the supply. 

 To meet this, steam machinery has been introduced for the 

 purpose of pressing the bricks, with the result that the steam- 

 made article is more compact, better finished, and better able 

 to withstand the long, rough journey it is obliged to make be- 

 fore reaching the consumers in Siberia. The following ac- 

 count of this interesting product is extracted from the report 

 of the Commissioner of Customs at Hankow: 



" The first operation is to sift the dust and reject all the sand 

 and rubbish contained in it, usually amounting to about five 

 per cent. It is then placed in a winnowing machine having 

 three different sized sieves, with troughs corresponding, and 

 passed into baskets. The residue, which is too coarse to pass 

 any of the sieves, is taken out and trodden until it is reduced 

 to the proper consistency, when it is placed in iron pans over 

 a charcoal fire until it is sufficiently brittle, when it is again 

 taken to be winnowed, and this operation is repeated until it 

 has all been sifted to the requisite degree of fineness. Three 

 sizes are produced, the coarser ones being employed to consti- 

 tute the brick, while the finest dust is only used as a facing. 

 The dust having been properly sifted, the next step is to pre- 

 pare it for pressing, and this is done by exposing it to the 

 action of steam for three minutes, and it is this steaming that 

 robs brick tea of its scent and flavor, and for which a remedy 

 is eagerly sought. 



" The old-fashioned native apparatus consists of six iron boil- 

 ers heated by charcoal, and having spaces above, which are 

 fitted with rattan covers. When the dust is to be steamed it is 

 spread out on a sheet of cotton cloth placed over the boiler 

 and covered up; but with the improved European apparatus 

 the dust is simply put into iron boxes and the steam then 

 passed through them. After having been sufficiently steamed 

 to make it adhesive, the dust is put into a strong wooden 

 mould, on the movable cover of which the trade mark of the 

 'hong' or firm is engraved (so as to leave the corresponding 

 impression on the brick), and firmly wedged down. It is then 

 pressed and placed on one side for two or three hours to cool. 

 Each brick should weigh one catty (one and a third pounds), 

 and all those that do not come up to the proper standard of 

 weight or are defective in any way are rejected and re-made. 

 For this purpose they are taken to a rotatory mill, constructed of 

 two heavy circular stones moved by a horizontal wooden bar, 

 and working in a channel where the condemned bricks are 

 thrown, and crushed as the wheels pass over them. Having 

 again become dust, the operation already described is in all its 

 details repeated. The hand press turns out sixty baskets a 

 day with twenty-five percent, of failure bricks, while the steam 

 press produces eighty baskets a day, with only five per cent, 

 of bad work, and the saving by the employment of the im- 

 proved machinery amounts to one tael a basket, or, according 

 to the above stated out-turn, eighty taels a day, or about ^20 

 sterling. The bricks found to be correct in weight and free 

 from defects are stored in the drying room for a week, when 

 they are carefully wrapped separately in paper, and packed in 

 Bamboo baskets containing sixty-four bricks each. Green 

 brick tea is made in the same manner, but of leaf, not dust, 

 and the bricks are larger, weighing two and a half pounds 

 each, thirty-six going to a basket when packed for export." 



There is an important article, too, on the timber-trees of the 

 Straits Settlement, in which the botanical identifications of 

 the trees producing the various timbers are given, with descrip- 

 tions of these and their weight. One hundred and fifty differ- 

 ent timbers are described in this list, the value of which is in- 

 creased by the addition of an index of native and scientific 

 names. The issue ends with a mass of correspondence car- 

 ried on by the authorities of Kew with regard to west African 

 cotton, with the view of calling attention to the subject of cot- 

 ton-growing generally in this part of the world. 



V HE first of the principal summer exhibitions of the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society is devoted primarily to 

 Roses and Strawberries, although it serves to bring together 

 always large collections of the other flowers, fruits and vege- 

 tables of the season. This exhibition was held in Boston last 

 week and attracted the usual number of people which the 

 queen of flowers always brings together in that horticultural 

 centre. As far as the roses were concerned, the exhibition 

 must be considered an average one only. Much better roses 

 than those which were shown last week have been seen in 

 Boston, and there have been many years when the flowers fell 

 far below those of this season in quality and in numbers. As 

 usual, the roses were well shown in the English fashion, in flat 

 boxes, the tin cups holding the flowers being hidden by a cov- 

 ering of moss, which makes the best possible setting for the 

 individual flowers. The roses, as a whole, were distinguished 

 by a remarkable evenness of excellence which must have 

 made judging a difficult matter, by good foliage and by flowers 

 well colored but lacking something of substance, and certainly 

 not of such enormous size as these shows have sometimes 

 called out. 



The Lyman plate for the best twenty-four named varieties 

 of Hardy Perpetuals went to John B. Moore & Son, the second 

 and third prizes in this class going to J. S. Fay of Woods Holl, 

 a new exhibitor of roses, and to Warren Hustis & Son, of Bel- 

 mont. President Spooner's special prize for the best twelve 

 blooms of Ulrich Brunner went to Mrs. F. B. Hayes, of Lex- 

 ington, for twelve very perfect flowers. In the class of twenty- 

 eight distinct named varieties, Mr. John L. Gardner, of 

 Brookline, carried off the highest honors. Very fine specimens 

 of the American Beauty were staged by President Spooner, 

 who also secured the first prize for the best eighteen varieties. 



The following is a list of the varieties of Hybrid Perpetual 

 Roses that appeared on the first-prize stands, the figure after 

 some of the names referring to the frequency of their occur- 

 rence in different exhibits : Abel Carriere (3), Alfred Colomb 

 (5), Antoine Mouton, Baroness Nathaniel de Rothschild, Bar- 

 oness Rothschild (5), Beauty of Waltham, Boieldieu (3), 

 Camille Bernardin (3), Catherine Soupert, Charles Darwin, 

 Charles Lefebvre (4), Comte de Paris, Comte de Raimbaud, 

 Comtesse de Chabrillant, Countess of Oxford (4), Devienne 

 Lamy, Dr. Sewell, Duchess of Bedford, Duchesse de Bra- 

 gance, Duchesse de Vallombrosa, Duke of Edinburgh (3), 

 Dupuy Jamain, Earl of Dufferin, Eclair, Edouard Morren, 

 Emily Saxton, Etienne Levet (4), Eugenie Verdier (2), Fisher 

 Holmes, General Appert, General Jacqueminot, Gloire Lyon- 

 naise (2), Glory of Cheshunt, Heinrich Schultbeis (2), Madame 

 Alfred Rougemont, Mabel Morrison, Madame Boll, Madame 

 Boutin, Madame Clemence Joigneaux, Madame Eugene Ver- 

 dier, Madame Gabriel Luizet (7), Madame Julie Daran, Madame 

 Marius Cote, Madame Montet, Madame Victor Verdier, Mile. 

 Emilie Verdier, Marchioness of Exeter, Marechal Vaillant, 

 Marguerite de St. Amand, Marie Baumann, Marie Finger, Mar- 

 quise de Castellane (2), Maurice Bernardin (2), Merveille de 

 Lyon (3), Miss Hassard, Mons. Boncenne (3), Mons. E. Y. 

 Teas, Mrs. Turner, Mrs. John Laing (2), Oxonian, Paul Neyron, 

 Penelope Mayo, Princess Louise (2), Prosper Langier, R. Dud- 

 ley Baxter (new), Richard Wallace (2), Rosieriste Jacobs, Sir 

 Garnet Wolseley, Thomas Mills (2), Ulrich Brunner (3), Victor 

 Verdier (2), and White Baroness. 



A collection of single Roses exhibited by the Arnold Arbor- 

 etum attracted a good deal of attention, and the beauty of 

 these flowers, judging by the amount of space given up to an 

 account of them in the Boston papers, must have been a sur- 

 prise to many people. 



A few Orchids were shown by Mr. N. T. Kidder, of Milton, 

 Mr. John L. Gardner, of Brookline, and Mr. E. W. Gilmore, of 

 North Easton. Flowering Plants other than Orchids were not 

 of first quality, and it is a commentary on the present state of 

 horticulture in this country when a common scarlet Geranium 

 makes its appearance on the exhibition stage in a class of 

 greenhouse flowering plants. 



Among Strawberries, Jewell, a light colored, well shaped 

 berry which many people in the neighborhood of Boston have 

 thought the best Strawberry of the season, won the highest 

 honors, Mr. Samuel Barnett carrying off the Lyman plate with 

 a basket of splendid fruit. Belmont was considered only second 

 to Jewell. Mr. Benjamin F. Smith, of Cambridge, received the 

 Society's silver medal for the best seedling, never having taken 

 a prize, with Beverly. The exhibition of strawberries was, on 

 the whole, very fair; and the size and beauty of the fruit has not 

 been surpassed for many years. Strawberries, however, in 



