July 23, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



355 



tion can only be answered by experiment and the committee 

 have no doubt of the result. 



It is encouraging to recall the fact that what is now desired 

 to be accomplished throughout the state by a central board of 

 trustees has already been gained in a suburb of Boston by the 

 Board of Trustees of Harvard University. This board once 

 acquired, by gift from Benjamin Bussey, a large tract of farm 

 and wood land in Roxbury. By virtue of their charter, the 

 Harvard trustees hold this land free of taxes; and when, in 

 pursuance of the will of James Arnold, they established on a part 

 of it a collection of all the trees and shrubs which will live in 

 this climate, they made with the city of Boston the same bar- 

 gain which it is now proposed to enable the suggested board 

 of trustees to make with any town or city in the state. Harvard 

 University opens the Arnold Arboretum to the public in return 

 for police protection and the making of roads and paths. 



Unripe Seed. 



AT this season of the year it may be desirable to call atten- 

 tion to some past work done at the New York Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station, which seems to have been strangely 

 overlooked, important as it maybe in furnishingclues and sug- 

 gestions toward a method of attaining earliness and other 

 changes in our cultivated vegetables. Last summer Professor Ar- 

 thur, of Purdue University, gave me an oral account of the great 

 success attained in earliness from the use of Tomato seed 

 from the strain originated at Geneva from unripe seed, a 

 strain for which we had many applications from practical 

 growers ; and perhaps Professor Goff may be induced to 

 give to the public the results of his continuous work in this 

 field. 



In 1883 it was found that Flint Corn, Sweet Corn and Dent 

 Corn, harvested before glazing, germinated freely, and that 

 Peas planted while at the edible stage vegetated freely. (Re- 

 port of 1883, 39.) 



In 1884 ripe and unripe seeds of the Early Dutch Turnip 

 were planted. Fifteen roots from the green seeds weighed on 

 the average four and a half ounces each; thirty-four roots from 

 the ripe seed averaged six ounces each. (Report of 1884, 199.) 



Very green seeds of Cook's Favorite Tomato yielded ripe 

 fruit in 126 days from planting; ripe seed yielded ripe fruit in 

 146 days from planting. The first ten ripe fruits were gathered 

 in 137'days from the green-seed plants; in 152 days from the 

 ripest-seed plants. For additional particulars the reference may 

 be consulted. (Report of 1884, 224.) 



Trials were made with three varieties of Peas. The first 

 pods were ripe in the Blue Peter in sixty-eight days from both 

 the ripe and unripe seed; in the case of the Eugenia in seventy- 

 seven days from ripe seed, in seventy-two days from green 

 seed ; in the case of William the First in sixty-five days from 

 the ripe seed, in eighty-four days from green seed. The 

 number of pods per 100 plants varied from 629 to 467 between 

 the plants of Blue Peter from ripe and those from green 

 seed; from 706 to 677 for the Eugenia ; from 300 to 1,600 for 

 William the First. (Report of 1884, 232.) 



In 1885 green seed gave heads of Danish Drumhead Cab- 

 bage ninety-seven ounces in weight; ripe seed seventy-five 

 ounces. (Report of 1885, 154.) In Lettuce no difference was 

 observed between green and ripe seed. 



In the Tomato, a gain for the first ten fruits of a week was 

 noted in favor of immature seed, in one case, and with another 

 variety unripe seed produced fruit considerably earlier. 



These references should be enough to turn attention to the 

 experiments. The best results were with the Tomato. Here 

 a gain of fifteen or twenty days in earliness was obtained, and 

 this gain, as Professor Arthur tells me, has been maintained 

 to date. A weakness in the plants has been a serious draw- 

 back, and while green seed seemed unfitted for immediate use 

 by the grower, yet it is by no means certain but that this feeble- 

 ness may be trained out by the experimenter. The trials were 

 too few to attain certainty, but the great value to marketmen 

 of an early strain of seed ought to encourage further tests. 

 Why should not our experiment stations enter upon this inter- 

 esting and promising inquiry ? . 

 South Framingham, Mass. F. Lewis Sturtevant. 



Is the Strawberry Improving ? 



THE history of the cultivated Strawberry, though short as 

 compared with that of most of our fruits, is of especial in- 

 terest as bearing upon fruit improvement. We have here a 

 fruit that possesses such rare dessert qualities that it is a uni- 

 versal favorite, a fruit of which seedlings are grown with the 

 utmost ease, and come very quickly into bearing, and of 

 which several botanical species hybridize very readily, produc- 



ing abundantly fertile offspring. All these facts have tended 

 to concentrate the attention of amateur horticulturists upon 

 the Strawberry, and it is not improbable that more seedlings 

 of this fruit have been grown during the last half century than 

 of all other fruits combined. 



What has been the result ? Has the Strawberry shown a 

 continuous improvement during this period ? Hovey's Seed- 

 ling was introduced about 1834, and through its sterling merit 

 soon became a standard. The last report of the American 

 Pomological Society shows that this old favorite is still grown 

 in sixteen states, and in only eight of the fifty-three tabulated 

 varieties is it excelled in the number of its stars. The first 

 supplanter of Hovey's Seedling in public estimation was the 

 Wilson, of which the date of introduction seems to be lost. 

 From the report just cited it appears that this variety is still 

 grown in thirty-eight states, and the number of its stars sur- 

 passes that of the next highest by nearly 100 per cent. In 1872 

 Downing described 260 varieties of Strawberries, of which only 

 eight were named in the last report of the American Pomo- 

 logical Society. The question which naturally follows is : 

 Have any varieties developed since the last meeting of the 

 American Pomological Society that are likely to surpass the 

 Wilson in public esteem ? It is true that this old standard is 

 suffering seriously from disease in many localities, but where 

 maintained free from disease it certainly has not yet been sup- 

 planted. Unwilling as we may be to admit it, these cold facts 

 declare that since the appearance of the Wilson not one of the 

 millions of seedlings that have been grown has surpassed it in 

 excellence, all points considered. 



Do these facts imply that further attempts at improving the 

 Strawberry are useless ? Not necessarily. It is much to be 

 regretted that we do not know more of the history of our cul- 

 tivated Strawberry. The common opinion of horticulturists 

 and botanists appears to be that it is the result of a hybrid be- 

 tween our native Fragaria Virginiana and the F. grandijiora 

 of South America. But by whom the importations of the lat- 

 ter were made or by whom the hybridizations were effected is 

 not definitely known. If all the amateur Strawberry work of 

 the past half century has been confined to the posterity of one 

 or a few hybridizations between the two parental species, it is 

 not strange if the limits of variation have been reached. Un- 

 less we accept the hypothesis that hybridization tends to repro- 

 duce all past variations within the parental families, it is 

 possible that by securing new hybrids between the species that 

 are the parents of our cultivated Strawberry, selecting speci- 

 mens that show marked characteristics, the scope of variation 

 might be very much extended. It is hardly probable that the 

 original parents were selected with any great degree of care or 

 wisdom, but the results have proved infinitely valuable. Pos- 

 sibly a more careful selection of parental types might give rise 

 to much greater improvements. 



The importance that the Strawberry has assumed as a com- 

 mercial fruit is certainly sufficient to warrant a systematic se- 

 ries of experiments looking toward its further improvement, 

 and in these days of experiment stations, why should not this 

 be undertaken ? 



University of Wisconsin, Madison. F. o. CjOJJ. 



Notes on North American Trees. — XX. 

 Description of the Wood of Certain Species. 



Terminalia Bticeras. Wood exceedingly heavy and hard, 

 compact and close-grained, containing numerous minute 

 evenly distributed open ducts; layers of annual growth 

 hardly distinguishable; medullary rays thin, very obscure; 

 color light yellow-brown, sometimes slightly streaked with 

 orange, the sap-wood clear pale yellow; specific gravity, 

 1.0490, 1.0322, average 1.0406; ash, 4-93, 4.84, average 

 4.89; weight per cubic foot, 64.85 pounds; fuel value, 0.9868. 

 Collected by A. H. Curtiss and C. S. Sargent on Elliott's 

 Key, Florida. 



Quercus tomenlel/a. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained, 

 compact, satiny, containing broad bamls of open ducts 

 parallel with the broad, conspicuous medullary rays; color 

 pale yellow-brown, that of the sap-wood rather lighter; 

 specific gravity, 0.7187, 0.7240, average 0.7214; ash, 1 10, 

 0.90, average 1.00; weight per cubic foot, 44.95 pounds; 

 fuel value, 0.7142. 



Cupressus MacNabiana. Wood light, soft, very close- 

 grained, compact, bands of small summer cells narrow, 

 dark colored, conspicuous ; medullary rays thin, obscure ; 

 color light brown, the sap-wood nearly white ; specific 



