436 



Garden and Forest. 



[September 3, 1890. 



It is reported in the Agricultural Department of the Florida 

 Times- Union that experiments in tanning with the Mangrove 

 have proved very successful near Fort Myers. 



The North-western Lumberman for August 2d publishes a 

 sketch of the life of Mr. B. E. Fernow, Chief of the Forestry 

 Division of the Department of Agriculture, with a portrait. 



" At a farm-house in Newchurch-in-Pcndle," says the Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle, " Mushrooms grow in profusion in the 

 various rooms on the ground floor. A gentleman visited the 

 place last Sunday, and he found Mushrooms growing out of 

 the chinks of the floor and also from the walls. He was 

 allowed to take several away, one of which was eight inches 

 across. The Vicar of Newchurch often has a dish from the 

 farm-house." It is interesting, but melancholy, to imagine the 

 bodily condition of the dwellers in such a house, and also the 

 mental condition of a clergyman who can enjoy a dainty 

 originating in such a way. 



The mantel decoration by Mr. David Allen, which took the 

 first prize at the late exhibition of the Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society, was composed throughout of choice plants most 

 tastefully arranged, from the great clusters of White Agapan- 

 thus rising above masses of Maidenhair Ferns at the base, to 

 the exquisite Croton at the summit. The hanging sprays of 

 Lapageria, both rose colored and white, exemplified the best 

 use which can be made of these flowers, which keep solid and 

 fresh so long. Beautiful Orchids and Nepenthes, Cocos Wad- 

 deliana, variegated Alocasias, Adiantum Farleyense and As- 

 paragus plicmosus were the other materials principally used. 



Among certain remarkable trees to be found in the neigh- 

 borhood of Vichy, the Revue Horticole notes a Black Poplar 

 (Topuhis nigra) which stands in the park, and is called "the 

 great tree of Vichy." The trunk measures six and a half feet 

 in diameter at three feet above the ground, and more than 

 thirteen feet where the huge branches diverge to form a head 

 eighty-two feet in diameter, which attains a height of nearly 

 ninety feet. The age of the giant is supposed to be not more 

 than eighty years. A number of other Poplars of various 

 sorts which stand near by, with trunks from twenty-seven to 

 forty-three inches in diameter, and from seventy to eighty feet 

 high, with a spread of from sixty to eighty-five feet, are 

 remarkable specimens of rapid development, as they are 

 known to be only twenty-seven years old. 



Mr. W. R. Smith, of the Botanic Gardens, Washington, says 

 that foreigners call Tecoma radicans and T. grandiflora 

 "Humming Bird vines" from the fact that their flowers are 

 constantly visited by these birds. Indeed, in one of Audu- 

 bon's pictures the humming bird is feeding on the nectar of 

 one of these Trumpet-flowers, while another species of hum- 

 ming bird is given in connection with the other. The flowers 

 of T. radicans bloom so late that its pollen is carried by the 

 birds to the flowers of T. grandiflora, and out of a large num- 

 ber of seedlings raised from this plant by Mr. Smith every one 

 showed traces of the blood of our native plant. Some fine 

 flowers of T. grandiflora, from the Arnold Arboretum, at- 

 tracted much attention at the recent exhibition of the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society'in Boston. 



The Boston Transcript says: "The amount of produce a 

 well-managed garden is capable of yielding is well shown by 

 the following statement recently made by G. W. Hallock & 

 Son concerning their fifty-eight acres of land near Greenpoint, 

 Long Island, during last year : 3,750 bushels of onions and 

 4,500 bushels of carrots ; early cabbages, 5,500 barrels ; early 

 potatoes, 2,500 bushels; strawberries, 11,000 quarts; onions 

 from sets, 2,260 bushels ; white beans, 160 bushels ; carrots, 

 11,000 bushels ; late potatoes, 450 bushels; onions from seed, 

 3,900 bushels ; ears of corn, 2,000 bushels ; Brussels sprouts, 

 500 bushels ; potato onion sets, 10 bushels ; carrot seed, 40 

 pounds ; onion seed, 100 pounds ; Brussels sprout seed, 4 

 pounds; cabbage seed, 2 pounds; Hungarian grass, 3 tons; 

 cabbage plants to carry over, 250,000." 



The famous "Physic Garden" at Chelsea, London, is in 

 danger of destruction. The Society of Apothecaries, who, for 

 more than two centuries, have maintained it, are unwilling 

 longer to bear the expense. In accordance with the terms of 

 the will of Sir Hans Sloane, the ground it occupies must now 

 be offered at the same nominal rent to the Royal Society first, 

 and then to the College of Physicians ; and, if they both refuse 

 the charge, it can then be freely disposed of by the present heir 

 of Sir Hans, Lord Cadogan. Once a tract of small money 

 value, it is a desirable building site, owing to the extension of 

 the city and the construction of the Chelsea Embankment on 

 one side and of Battersea Park on the other. But it is to be 



hoped, if only for sentimental reasons, that a garden of which 

 Evelyn wrote in the seventeenth century, and which must be 

 constantly quoted whenever the history of the introduction of 

 foreign plants into England is touched upon, may be preserved 

 during many generations to come. 



In a recent number of the Revue Horticole, Monsieur Dela- 

 barriere described the great Rose-garden which he hascreated 

 in the royal park at Laeken, and which is one of the most re- 

 markable in the world. This roseraie is at once a garden to 

 please the eye, and a school for the study of the plants, which 

 already number more than 13,000. It forms a vast circle 430 

 feet in diameter, where sixteen circular beds are separated by 

 as many pathways bordered by low, ornamental plants of 

 other sorts, the beds being ten feet and the paths one and a 

 half feet wide. In each bed there are three rows of Roses, so 

 arranged with regard to their height and the color of their 

 flowers that the general effect shall be agreeable to the eye. 

 Four carriage-ways run from the circumference of the circle 

 in curving lines to the centre, where they meet in a small open 

 area. The ground slopes a little so that the plants are pro- 

 tected from the north wind, and, being commanded by higher 

 portions of the park, the garden forms a delightful scene even 

 from a distance, whence the beauty of the individual Roses 

 cannot be appreciated. 



Last winter there were many complaints of a failure of the crop 

 of Spinach in New Jersey, and from what appeared to be a 

 Fungus disease, and Professor Halsted in a recent bulletin from 

 the experiment station of that state gives some account of his 

 investigation of these diseases. Four species of parasitic 

 Fungi were met with, a mildew, an anthracnose, a leaf blight 

 and a white smut. Of these parasites the Anthracnose (Col- 

 letotrichum Spinacea:) and the White Smut (Enlyloma Ellisii) 

 seem to be little known, and the former is probably the most 

 destructive of all, being very contagious and so rapid in its 

 development that healthy leaves showed newly developed 

 disease-spots in six days after inoculation. Inasmuch as the 

 whole Spinach-plant is prepared for the table it is difficult to 

 apply remedies. Of course it is good practice to burn all. 

 affected parts of plants and not allow the refuse of the bed to 

 get to the manure heap, and it would be also a good measure 

 to change the location and soil of the beds, growing other 

 crops in the old place for a few years. Perhaps it would be 

 well if the soil were treated with the mixture of flowers' of sul- 

 phur and air-slacked lime, and copper sulphate might be used 

 upon the plants when young. 



A correspondent of the Gardeners' Chronicle says with re- 

 gard to Chrysanthemum carinatum recently exhibited at Chis- 

 wick by the Messrs. Hurst: " Some curious facts may be noted 

 as to the form, color and movements of the florets. The out- 

 ermost series are arranged in two or three rows of strap-shaped 

 female florets. Within these come two or three rows of pur- 

 ple florets, half the length of the yellow ones and intermediate 

 in form as in position between the true ray-florets and those of 

 the disc, less regularly tubular than the one, less irregularly 

 ligular than the other and female. The disc is made up, as 

 usual, of very numerous purple, regularly tubular, hermaph- 

 rodite flowers. The fruits are deeply winged in all cases, 

 whence the name, but while those of the two outer series 

 have the two wdngs unequal in size, the wings of the inner- 

 most series of disc-florets are regular or nearly so. But these 

 structural peculiarities are not so conspicuous or so interesting 

 as the movements of the yellow ray-florets. In full sunshine 

 these spread horizontally, so that the purple disc is shown sur- 

 rounded by a golden aureole. As the sun goes down, down 

 go the yellow florets too ; the consequence is that the purple 

 disc alone is visible and the yellow florets are hardly to be 

 seen unless specially looked for. This happens when the 

 flowers are cut and placed in water. We have had some on 

 our study table, and have been interested to see in the morn- 

 ing one flower, in the evening apparently another." 



Mr. Henry Bennet, widely known as the producer of seedling 

 Roses, died on the 12th of August, at Shepperton, England. 

 Mr. Bennet was engaged in agriculture during his early years, 

 and in his farm practice he brought into use the same scientific 

 precision and clear perception which he afterward employed 

 in raising Roses. He exercised great care in selecting 

 varieties for crossing, kept accurate records, and used a system 

 in interbreeding which produced such fine varieties as Mrs. 

 John Laing-, Her Majesty, Princess Beatrice, Puritan, Captain 

 Hayward and many others. There is little doubt that many 

 other seedlings of his rearing will yet be heard from. Mr. 

 Bennet was justly esteemed for the unassuming frankness of 

 his disposition. 



