412 



Garden and Forest. 



[August 20, 1890. 



Of the work generally it is enough to say that it fully main- 

 tains its high standard of excellence, and from the long expe- 

 rience which the authors have had in the management of this 

 interesting family, there can be little doubt it will prove invalu- 

 able to cultivators generally. The succeeding part is to include 

 Phalsenopsis, Tirides, Vanda and the allied genera, according 

 to announcement, and will doubtless prove exceptionally 

 interesting. 



Notes. 



A monument is to be erected in Salisbury Cathedral to the 

 memory of Richard Jefferies. 



A statue of Linnseus is to be given to the City of Chicago by 

 its Swedish residents, and will be placed in Lincoln Park. 



"Ten-thousand-times-sprinkled-with-gold " is one of the 

 poetic names which the Japanese are fond of bestowing upon 

 their Chrysanthemums. 



A catalogue of his collection of Orchids, recently distributed 

 by Mr. Van Imschoot, an amateur of Mont St. Amand, Bel- 

 gium, with the view to facilitating exchanges between himself 

 and other amateurs, contains the names of about 800 species 

 and varieties. 



The Superintendent of the Public Gardens at Launceston, 

 Tasmania, writing to The Garden, says : " All our Chrysanthe- 

 mums are grown out-of-doors in the open garden ; the climate 

 here suits them admirably. . . . Mrs. Alpheus Hardy has just 

 flowered here and is attracting a good deal of attention." 



Foreign journals note with approval that the Prefect of Sa- 

 voye has forbidden the gathering of Cyclamen Enropccum in 

 the woods of his province, the beautiful plant being threatened 

 with extermination by collectors who annually send it in enor- 

 mous quantities to the markets of Chambery and Aix-les- 

 Bains. 



At Gooseberry shows in Warwickshire prizes are given for 

 single berries, and the first premium this year in Faleshill, 

 near Coventry, was taken with a red berry weighing an ounce 

 and a quarter, and looking, as The Fruit Trade Journal re- 

 ports, more like a plum than a gooseberry. No exhibits were 

 admitted to this class which did not weigh an ounce or more. 



At the recent great horticultural exhibition in Berlin, visitors 

 were asked to record their opinions as to which was the most 

 beautiful Rhododendron shown. The favorite proved to be 

 the rosy lilac Everestianum, so deservedly popular in this 

 country, for which 12,800 votes were cast, while a variety 

 called Limbatum, having white flowers with a crimson edge, 

 came next, and Viola third on the list. 



An example of the way in which plants seek for nourishment 

 in sterile situations was noticed recently by a correspondent of 

 an English journal, writing from Florida, who says that under 

 groves of dwarf Oaks, where the soil is too poor to bear grass, 

 Cacti (Opuntias) may be found which, although not rising more 

 than six inches above the ground, have roots that extend eight 

 or ten feet horizontally just beneath its surface. 



The highest mountain in the Hartz range, the Brocken, so 

 intimately connected with legends of the Devil and his cohorts, 

 is to be brought into line with the world's general tendency 

 toward scientific rather than superstitious thought. A botanic 

 garden is to be established there, under the control of the Di- 

 rector of the Botanical Garden at Gottingen, for the purpose of 

 cultivating the plants indigenous to the mountain itself and to 

 other lofty places in the neighborhood. 



A correspondent of the American Florist says that while in 

 1874 there were but thirty-three florists in San Francisco there 

 are now seventy-two, and that " all over the state the same 

 proportionate development is manifest. The improvement in 

 public taste," he adds, " during the past five years is still more 

 clearly marked ; quality is more desired and better prices are 

 paid. The Daffodil, for instance, then very rare, has become 

 the prime favorite for a spring flower, and the California wild 

 flowers, which no florist kept for sale five years ago, now fill 

 large windows on the principal streets." 



Many writers in foreign journals are just now calling atten- 

 tion to the great value of the Locust (Robinia Pseudacacia) for 

 planting in situations where it is desired to prevent the shifting 

 of loose soil. One example cited is of very large plantations 

 recently made in Roumania along the borders of the Danube 

 upon banks of sand. " Thanks to the excellent character of 

 the tree," says the Revue Horticole, " which will grow almost 

 anywhere, these plantations have succeeded very well, and 



they have the double advantage of solidifying the shifting 

 dunes and of furnishing an excellent wood, while utilizing sur- 

 faces which hitherto had been wholly unproductive." 



In an address before the Columbus, Ohio, Horticultural So- 

 ciety, Professor W.. J. Green said that it was now easier to 

 grow Plums and Pears than formerly, and of late these 

 fruits have been among the most profitable fruit crops. In 

 planting, a heavy, tenacious, wet soil should especially be 

 avoided. No manure should be applied to Pear-trees. They 

 will not stand forcing, as blight sets in when they grow too 

 rapidly. A steady, slow growth is safest. Only a few varieties 

 should be planted as dwarfs, and in general it is better to plant 

 standards. The only safe dwarfs are Clapp's Favorite and 

 Duchess d'Angouleme. These are also good as standards. 



At a recent meeting of the California Academy of Sciences, 

 Doctor Gustav Eisen spoke of the Sequoia forests in Tulare 

 County, which have lately been surrendered to lumbermen by 

 the Land Department. Doctor Eisen says that the destruction 

 has begun in earnest already. On the Tule River he examined 

 the stump of one tree which was forty-one and a half feet in 

 diameter. These trees are so conspicuous as individuals that 

 each one has a name of its own. The one mentioned above 

 was called "Philadelphia," another is called the Centennial, 

 and a third, known as the "California Stump," is thirty-three 

 feet in diameter, and 60,000 shakes were made from the tree. 

 After Doctor Eisen had explained the shamefully wasteful 

 methods of lumbering in these forests a committee was ap- 

 pointed to memorialize Congress for the protection of the only 

 remaining grove of these giant trees. 



Mr. Plorsford's mention of Sabbatia chloroides recalls the 

 fact that great masses of this beautiful wild flower often form 

 a conspicuous feature of the August exhibitions of the Massa- 

 chusetts Plorticultural Society, and it is sometimes offered for 

 sale by the florists of Boston. At the summer resorts along 

 the New Jersey coast great quantities are brought in by boys 

 from the moist, sandy barrens, where it grows in great abund- 

 ance, and a ready market is found for it. A mass of these 

 delicate pink flowers loosely set in a vase is very ornamental. 

 The flowers remain in good condition long after being cut and 

 the unexpanded flower buds continue to open for many days. 

 The delightful fragrance of the Sabbatia gives it an additional 

 charm, and it is no wonder that large and increasing orders for 

 the seed of this plant are coming over from Europe every 

 year. 



The Crescent has hitherto been considered the best market 

 Strawberry in central Ohio, but the comparatively new varie- 

 ties, Bubach, Haverlandand Warfield, are all so good that it is 

 difficult to determine which of the four deserves the prece- 

 dence. At the Ohio Experiment Station they easily excel all 

 other varieties in productiveness, and they all have imper- 

 fect or pistillate flowers. "And why should we not expect 

 this?" asks Dr. Lazenby, in The Country Gentleman. "The 

 production of pollen is an exhaustive process. If the vital en- 

 ergies of the plant are expended in this way, certainly we can- 

 not expect as good a result in developed fruit as we can where 

 no pollen is produced. We must remember, however, that in 

 order to get the best results, these imperfect varieties must be 

 well fertilized. Whether it is better to use a productive per- 

 fect variety as a fertilizer, or to use one known to produce a large 

 quantity of pollen, and that at the right time, without refer- 

 ence to its fruit, is an open question." 



We have received by mail from Mr. P. J. Berckmans, of 

 Augusta, Georgia, a flowering branch of Leticophyllum Texa- 

 num a shrub which has rarely if ever been seen here in 

 cultivation. Mr. Berckmans writes that he tried for years to 

 propagate this species with living plants, cuttings and seeds ; 

 but he never succeeded until some five years ago, when two 

 plants were started. These are now four feet high, and with 

 their ashy white foliage and abundant purple flowers, they are 

 very conspicuous. They endure the warmest and driest 

 weather well, since their large roots penetrate the soil to a 

 great depth. The foliage, which is evergreen in its native 

 habitat, stands without injury a temperature which does not 

 fall below fifteen degrees Fahrenheit, and these plants have 

 lived through a freeze of five degrees above zero. In writing 

 of the forest-vegetation of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Mr. 

 C. G. Pringle speaks of this plant (see vol. ii., p. 394) as the 

 most striking shrub of the region, and calls it " surpassingly 

 lovely, with a profusion of purplish bloom surmounting the 

 velvety white foliage." No doubt it will prove a great addition 

 to our list of shrubs for latitudes south of Washington, and it 

 may survive winters much farther north if slight protection is 

 sriven to it. 



