4»4 



Garden and Forest. 



[October i, 1890. 



Notes. 



The eleven parks in the City of Philadelphia are estimated to 



contain 2,884 '_, acres of ground. 



General Bidwell has added 700 acres to his orchard in Chico, 

 California, so that it now covers 2,200 acres. 



Mr. Carl W. Hartmann, of Sweden, is the botanist of the 

 Lumholtz Mexican Exploring Expedition, which started from 

 .Arizona on August 30th, and hopes to return in the autumn 

 of 1892. 



English journals say that the custom of tree-planting by 

 school children on a certain day in each year has been im- 

 ported from America into Australia, in accordance with the 

 illusion of the Minister for Public Instruction. There, as 

 here, the day will be known as Arbor Day. 



A garden of Pampas Grass ten acres in extent is one of the 

 objects of interest to tourists who visit Anaheim, California. 

 This year about 40,000 plumes will be harvested, and the yield 

 after the plants become fully established will average 100,000 

 plumes. These plumes bring about five cents apiece. 



As the fragrance, if not the savor, of strawberries is injured 

 by washing, the Revue Horticole recommends that, when it is 

 desired to free them from sand, they should be gently bounced 

 in a piece of damp muslin. The sand will remain attached to 

 the muslin and the delicacy of the fruit will not be impaired. 



Mr. E. S. Miller, writing from Floral Park, Long Island, in 

 reference to Mr. Orpet's method of propagating Achilleas from 

 underground stolons, says that his way of getting a stock of 

 these plants is to store the old ones in a shed until January, 

 then plant them in a bench and take cuttings from the young- 

 wood from that time on until May. Plants struck as late as 

 May, if planted out, make very strong roots and give an abun- 

 dance of flowers. 



The Garden says of Lilium Henryi : " The species is a new 

 one, and was discovered in western China by Dr. Henry, who 

 sent a few bulbs of it to Kew last year. The habit of the plant 

 is that of L. lancifotium, but taller ; the flowers are in loose 

 corymbs, specimens showing as many as eight flowers on 

 each stem ; they are rettexed as in L. lancifolium, three inches 

 across, and colored rich orange-yellow, with a few tiny dots 

 of purple. As a decorative plant this species will take rank 

 with L. tigrinum and L. superbum." 



The Garden recently noticed a new Peony as both " curious 

 and beautiful." It is called Paonia Wittmanniana, and "when 

 the leaves first appear their bright, pale, golden green color 

 must strike any grower of plants accustomed only to the 

 deep toned leaves of the better known herbaceous kinds. 

 But the picture is complete when the flower appears, of a 

 beautiful and delicate color that may best be described as 

 strong primrose with a dash of lemon. The texture of the 

 petalsTis so firm as to remind one of a Magnolia, and the seed- 

 pod is a bold and handsome object." 



The Gardeners' Chronicle for August 18th described at length 

 American methods of evaporating fruit, prompted by the fact 

 that the subject had been discussed at a recent meeting of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society. It seems that the industry is as 

 yet'unknown in England, but, it is believed, might profitably 

 be developed there, although the fruit production of the 

 country is on a scale so much smaller than our own. The 

 best way of introducing it, one speaker at the meeting had 

 said, would be for some land-owner to "set up one of these 

 American evaporators, so as to give his tenants and neighbors 

 an opportunity of testing its value." 



Under the title of Varietes Bibliographiques Monsieur 

 Rolland, a Parisian bookseller, is now publishing an interest- 

 ing, popular flora, which is to include as many vernacular 

 names for each plant as can be discovered, and also all the 

 stories, superstitions, proverbs and customs relating to the 

 plants and Mowers of all parts of the world. As an extreme 

 example of the perplexing number of common names which 

 may be borne by a well known plant a foreign reviewer cites 

 from this book the case of Clematis vitalba, for which more 

 than 200 such names are recorded, not, of course, in French 

 alone, but in the different languages included in the scope of 

 the encyclopedia. 



Boston journals announce the closing, after a most success- 

 ful third season, of the seventeen summer play-grounds for 

 little children established by the Massachusetts Emergency 



and Hygiene Association. Almost all of them were public 

 school-yards, and although in only one was it possible to form 

 a flower-garden, the open spaces, filled with heaps of sand, 

 supplied by charitable individuals with toys, cut flowers and 

 sea-shells, and superintended by a matron, have given health 

 and happiness to a multitude of indigent children who other- 

 wise could have found recreation only in the gutter. The 

 average attendance for the whole summer was ninety children 

 daily at each of the yards. At some of them the daily total 

 occasionally rose to as many as 200. 



In spite of the unfavorable year the horticultural exhibit at 

 the New Jersey State Fair at Waverly last week, and especially 

 the display of apples and pears, was unexpectedly fine, al- 

 though not as large as usual, while the grapes were fully up to 

 previous exhibits, and potatoes were abundant and superior in 

 size and smoothness. The most tempting of the pears were 

 from cold storage ; the Bartletts, Boussocks and other early 

 varieties being especially attractive. The greater part of the 

 grape display came from Montclair, and finer clusters of 

 Brighton, Cottage, Concord, Worden and Niagara were never 

 seen anywhere. Samples of the new white grape, Colerain, 

 were on exhibition. The clusters and berries were of medium 

 size, but the quality was pronounced excellent by all. 



The Evening Transcript, of Boston, recently gave, on the 

 authority of the Westborough Chronotypc, an account of a great 

 Elm-tree which stands in the westerly part of Framingham, 

 Massachusetts. It was transplanted from the woods by one 

 Jonathan Rugg in the year 1774, and set in rich, moist ground 

 to shelter a little house which had been built justseventy years 

 earlier. At one foot from the ground it now measures twenty- 

 eight feet six inches in circumference, while the girth of its 

 largest limb is ten feet three inches. The circumference of 

 its noon-tide shadow is 295 feet, an area, we are told, "that 

 would readily accommodate two thousand people." Under 

 one huge branch stands a two-storied farm-house and a flight 

 of steps ascends the trunk and follows another limb to the 

 place of its forking, where a capacious summer-house has 

 been built. The giant tree is still healthy and vigorous. 



French journals lament that unfavorable weather has almost 

 altogether deprived the country of fruit this year. A disas- 

 trous amount of rain has so afflicted the central, northern, 

 western and south-western districts that the markets have 

 been almost bare of fruit except such as had come from the 

 south. One correspondent, writing from the Department of 

 the Seine-et-Marne,says: "We have had neither cherries nor 

 apricots nor plums; apples have been greatly injured by hail; 

 pears have suffered less ; but our grapes will not ripen." And 

 another, writing from Brittany, says that there the pears are 

 all spoiled, apples are lacking in many localities, and almost 

 all the plums had perished ; that peaches are everywhere 

 non-existent; that gooseberries and raspberries had been rela- 

 tively scanty, and that, although strawberries had been quite 

 plentiful, they "had only the form of the fruit with the taste 

 of water." Meanwhile, complaints of excessive drought have 

 been coming in frorii the south, where, we are told, even in 

 carefully watered gardens, the trees and shrubs had faded and 

 withered. Near the coast the moist sea-breezes "assure the 

 abundance of the grape crop," but further north grape-grow- 

 ers are reported to be in despair over the persistent dryness. 



We are accustomed to hearing the Ailanthus condemned as 

 an avenue-tree, because of the irritating effect of its pollen on 

 the bronchial tubes and its consequent offense to those who 

 are afflicted with " hay fever." But, according to one of the 

 editors of the Revue Horticole, the Plane-tree is equally unde- 

 sirable, by reason of the fine hairs which cover the lower sur- 

 faces of the leaves, the buds, and even the young fruits. 

 " These hairs, being extremely light, spread through the air, 

 and, introducing themselves into the respiratory tubes, irri- 

 tate the mucous membrane to such an extent that workmen in 

 nurseries are obliged to cease their labor during the heat of 

 the day. These facts are so well known, that when the graft- 

 ing of Planes or even the clearing of the soil where they grow 

 is in question, care is taken to have the work stopped when 

 the sun rises and the dew disappears, because then the hairs 

 detach themselves and cause an irritating cough, which some- 

 times even produces hemorrhage. The danger is said to be 

 much smaller in streets than in nurseries, for the trees are 

 then lifted well above the ground and the wind carries off 

 most of the injurious hairs ; nevertheless, the writer pro- 

 nounces it a genuine danger even under these conditions, and 

 calls to it the attention of those who superintend the planting 

 of Parisian streets." 



