34o 



Garden and Forest. 



[July 9, 1890. 



Notes. 



Remarkably fine Nectarines from Jobstown, New Jersey, 

 have been selling in this city at from four to six dollars a dozen. 



Local journals state that Pecan-nuts have recently come for 

 the first time into the markets of Vienna. They were called 

 by their introducers " Indian nuts," but, their origin being un- 

 known to the public, the term has quickly become corrupted 

 into " India nuts." 



Within the past ten years the park area of this city has in- 

 creased from 1,094 to 5,000 acres. Of course, most of the 

 increase is included in the so-called "annexed district," where 

 the parks, although containing beautiful passages of natural 

 scenery, have not yet been definitely treated by the landscape- 

 gardener. 



The large Japanese Lilac, Syringa Japonica, never flowered 

 as well as it has this year, which seems to indicate that the 

 tree will improve in its flowering qualities as it grows older. 

 The creamy white inflorescence is so large that it makes a 

 good show at a distance above the deep green leaves, and this 

 fact also adds to its value. 



According to the Revue Horticole the best new Rose of the 

 year which has appeared in Paris is the variety on which has 

 been bestowed the somewhat cumbersome name of La France 

 de 1889. It is a seedling from La France with flowers equal in 

 size to those of Paul Neyron. The color of the flowers is de- 

 scribed as a soft rose-magenta, and they reach even on the 

 young plants a diameter of six inches. 



In o.ur London letter, on another page, Mr. Watson has a 

 good word for the Foxglove as a garden plant in England. It 

 is strange that this flower is not more generally used in 

 American gardens. Nothing can be more effective than the 

 tall spikes of the Foxglove at a little distance when scattered 

 singly or in small groups with a background of shrubbery or 

 dark foliage. A close inspection, too, will show that the indi- 

 vidual flowers are not only beautiful in form, but exquisitely 

 delicate in their color markings. 



The "bent wood" furniture exported in such quantities 

 from Austria is manufactured from the wood of the Beech, 

 which, after being sawed into long strips, is turned into round 

 rods. These, on exposure to the action of superheated steam 

 in an air-tight case, become so pliable that they can be bent by 

 hand to the iron patterns. The drying occupies several days, 

 after which but little labor is needed to combine the pieces into 

 articles of furniture. Almost the only rocking-chairs one ever 

 sees in Europe are made of this " bent wood. ' 



No Azalea is more beautiful than Rhododendron {Azalea) 

 arborescens, which is at home along the smaller streams 

 among the foot-hills of the North Carolina mountains, and 

 which has been figured already in this journal (i. 140, fig. 64). 

 The pure white flowers are not viscid like those of our Swamp 

 Honeysuckle (R. viscosum), and the bright scarlet stamens 

 and pistil add much to their attractiveness. Their fragrance, 

 too, is delightful, and the leaves when drying exhale the per- 

 fume of new-mown hay. The plant comes into bloom later 

 than other Azaleas, and this year the flowers in the neighbor- 

 hood of this city lasted until the 4th of July. 



The principal illustration of the Revue Horticole of the 16th 

 of June is devoted to a group of single Chrysanthemums to the 

 beauty of which Monsieur Andr6 calls especial attention. 

 These charming flowers, which possess ornamental qualities 

 of the highest class, have been very much neglected in this 

 country in the rage for the double-flowered varieties which 

 have become so fashionable of late years. A single Chrysan- 

 themum flower cannot, of course, be compared in any way 

 with one of the great double flowers. They are very beautiful, 

 however, and add so much to the variety of a collection that it 

 is surprising they are not more frequently cultivated. 



We have more than once spoken of Fraxinella (Dictamnus 

 Fraxinella) as an old-fashioned garden plant, now almost for- 

 gotten, which should again become popular on account of the 

 delicious fragrance of its flowers and their property of emitting 

 a volatile oil in such quantities that it may sometimes be 

 ignited by a match even if held at a little distance. The Illus- 

 trirte Garten Zeitung, of Vienna, recently called attention to 

 the same facts, saying that the plant had actually been re- 

 garded by some in former times as the "burning bush" of 

 Moses. It grows wild in the Austrian Alps, where in rocky 

 woodland nooks it attains a height of more than three feet; 

 and the writer in question takes it as a text to plead the cause 

 of the many indigenous plants which, it seems, in Europe as 

 Avell as in America, are ignored in favor of foreigners no whit 

 more beautiful than they. 



According to a note in the June issue of the Revue de V Hor- 

 ticulture Beige ct Etrangere, there is in the gardens of the 

 palace at Versailles an Orange-tree more than 450 years old. 

 It is said to have been the first introduced into France, and is 

 known as the "Grand Conne"table." The seeds from which it 

 grew were sown at Pampehme about 1416 by Eleonor of Cas- 

 tile, wife of Charles the Third, King in Navarre. Later the 

 tree was brought to Chantilly, then to Fontainebleau, and 

 finally, in 1684, was added to the collection of Versailles. The 

 handsomest Orange-trees, grown in tubs in France, are those 

 in this collection and in those of the gardens of the Tuileries, 

 and of the Luxembourg Palace in Paris. The gardens of the 

 Palace of Compiegne still contain fifty large specimens, brought 

 there during the reign of Napoleon I. There are also collec- 

 tions of these curious old Orange-trees supposed to be several 

 centuries old in a number of private gardens belonging to 

 various French chateaus. They are always carefully tended, and 

 produce year after year surprising crops of flowers and a good 

 deal of fruit, considering how long their roots have been 

 cramped within narrow quarters. 



Mr. Barr Ferree, writing in the American Architect and 

 Building News, describes an interesting bit of Aztec construc- 

 tion, the dome of a building called the Sondorhuasi, at Azan- 

 garo, in Peru. An ancient Spanish historian, writing of such 

 roofs, says they "are of straw, but so artfully laid on that, un- 

 less destroyed by fire, they will last many ages." This verdict 

 is certainly justified by the roof in question, which is still in 

 good condition, although known to have stood for more than 

 300 years. It " is formed of Bamboos of equal size and taper, 

 the larger end resting on the top of the walls. They are bent 

 to a central point over a series of graduated hoops also of 

 Bamboo. At the points of intersection the vertical and hori- 

 zontal Bamboos are bound by fine cords of delicately braided 

 grass. On this skeleton is a fine mat of the braided epidermis 

 of Bamboo or rattan without seams, which may have been 

 braided in position. It is worked in colors and panels con- 

 forming with the spaces between the framework, which is 

 itself painted. An open and coarse matting fastened with a 

 fleece of finest icllu, depending like a heavy fringe outside the 

 walls, is placed over this. Then comes a transverse layer of 

 coarse grass or reeds, then ichu and so on, die whole forming 

 a slightly flattened cone. The projecting ends of the ichu 

 layers were cut off sharply and regularly, producing the effect 

 of overlapping tiles." 



The answer recently given in the Boston Transcript to a 

 correspondent who had asked, "What are the legal rights of 

 owners of trees abutting streets and sidewalks ? " may be of 

 interest to others, as there is a general belief that these rights 

 are narrower than is actually the case. According to the 

 Transcript, in the state of Massachusetts at least, " a street is 

 simply a strip of land set aside for the common good — a high- 

 way over which every one has a right to pass. But the public 

 does not own it ; it has simply the right of way over it. The 

 fee usually belongs to the owners of the abutting land, who 

 have a right to make any use of the land within the limits of 

 the street which does not interfere with the public's right of 

 way ; for instance, the owner of the fee may cut the grass 

 growing by the roadside, gather the fruit growing upon trees 

 within the limits of the highway — the trees are his property. 

 For public convenience towns and cities are required to keep 

 all public highways within their limits in a condition that shall 

 insure the safety and convenience of people lawfully traveling 

 thereon. Cities and towns have no further rights or authority 

 in the streets and highways than simply to discharge the duty 

 imposed upon them by law to make and keep in repair the 

 surface of the street and to remove anything which obstructs 

 travel or renders it unsafe." A passage from the public 

 statutes is then cited which declares that municipal officers 

 may grant permission to retain or to plant trees on the high- 

 ways in proper positions, that they shall be considered the pri- 

 vate property of those who plant them, but that if complained 

 of and proved to be nuisances their removal at the owner's 

 expense may be ordered. In 1867 a suit was brought against 

 a superintendent of streets in Bristol County for allowing the 

 branches of a tree on the highway abutting the plaintiffs land 

 to be cut to permit the moving of an engine-house. The ver- 

 dict was given for the plaintiff, and the Court remarked, 

 "This enactment has limited in an important manner the 

 powers of highway surveyors. Shade trees are no longer lia- 

 ble to be treated as a nuisance and lopped or cut down at the 

 discretion of every such officer. They are private property, to 

 the ornament and shelter of which the owner of an adjacent 

 estate is entitled, and they cannot be interfered with except 

 upon due process of law, as marked out in the statute." 



