November 26, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



579 



district, especially the Oaks, which occur in great abundance and 

 variety; also to provide in the parks as well as on the streets 

 for the landscape effect produced by massing trees of a single 

 species under conditions permitting their full development. 

 A grove of Oaks, Chestnuts, or almost any other kind of tree, 

 in a commanding position, with an abundance of room, is a 

 feature the production of which occasionally is worth the sac- 

 rifice of considerable temporary or local effect. Perhaps more 

 of this will be sought in Washington in planning the new 

 parks recently provided for on Rock Creek. . . ~ 



Washington, D. C. A. A. CrOZier. 



Periodical Literature. 



THE October number of the Kew Bulletin of Useful Infor- 

 mation contains an article on cocoanut butter, a valuable 

 edible fat prepared from the kernel of the cocoanut and re- 

 cently introduced into commerce. It is a white, inodorless, 

 almost tasteless fat, which solidifies at about sixty-five degrees 

 Fahr., becoming above that temperature a pure white oil. 

 Mr. Morris, the editor, says that "if cocoanut butter can be 

 prepared, as is suggested, from the ordinary 'copra' or dried 

 kernel of the cocoanut as shipped from tropical countries, 

 there would be an almost unlimited supply of the raw mate- 

 rial available from various parts of the world." Accord- 

 ing to Dr. Zerner, of the Royal Imperial and General Hospital 

 in Vienna, 



" The cocoanut butter, which, on account of its low melt- 

 ing point, is exported in tins, furnishes a pure white trans- 

 parent mass of the consistence of lard without granular 

 texture, which at a temperature of seventy-nine degrees Fahr. 

 melts to a clear fluid and solidifies again at sixty-seven de- 

 grees Fahr. It has a slight agreeable smell, melts on the 

 tongue, leaving a mild, but in no respect acrid taste behind it. 

 In ether it dissolves completely. If the ether is evaporated 

 over water and distilled water is added to the residue, the 

 solution gives a neutral reaction. I have often repeated this 

 test with cocoanut butter which had remained open for days 

 (fourteen days), also with pharmaceutic preparations eight to 

 fourteen days old, in the preparation of which cocoanut but- 

 ter had been used. The cocoanut butter is therefore free 

 from fatty acids, and even if left open for the space of eight 

 to fourteen days does not turn rancid, with the exception of 

 the top layer, which comes in contact with the air. 



"With regard to its chemical composition, cocoanut butter 

 differs from most other fats, and particularly butter, lard and 

 margarin. In its fatty constituents and the amount of volatile 

 fatty acids, it stands next to butter among solid fats. 



" Cocoanut butter differs from all other vegetable and ani- 

 mal fats by its saponification degree (258.5 according to Rud. 

 Benedikt in Vienna), and on account of this high saponifica- 

 tion degree all adulteration is impossible. 



" Artificial digestion tests seem to show that the cocoanut 

 butter exercises no injurious influence whatever over digestion. 



"The next point was to ascertain how the cocoanut butter 

 stands with regard to micro-organisms. It is well known that 

 in this respect milk butter is very far from perfect, as apart 

 from the numerous germs, which, for the most part, are not 

 pathogenic, that maybe introduced during its preparation, and 

 the microbes already present in the milk itself, this article of 

 food affords an excellent nutrient fluid for a large number of 

 micro-organisms. 



" It follows that, although in any given case other ways and 

 means of infection may be excluded, this may still take place 

 through the agency of milk and butter. The possibility of a 

 transfer to the human consumer of the Tubercle-bacillus, as 

 well as of other micro-organisms, which have got into the 

 milk from animals suffering from infectious diseases, is in 

 the case of cocoanut butter, a vegetable fat, excluded from the 

 first. Cocoanut butter has been proved by our investigations- 

 to be both free from germs and also to be a very bad nutrient 

 medium for micro-organisms. Even when Agar-Agar or Cey- 

 lon Moss (Gracilaria lichenoides) was mixed with the cocoanut 

 butter, and then allowed to remain open, the number of germs 

 was found to be less than in Agar- Agar without the mixture of 

 butter. One more experiment may be mentioned. If ster- 

 ilized milk is added to cow butter and kept at a warm tem- 

 perature the milk coagulates in twenty-four hours, proving the 

 presence of bacteria in the butter. This coagulation does not 

 take place if, instead of milk butter, cocoanut butter is added 

 to the milk. 



"From what has already been said the conclusion may 

 safely be drawn that the cocoanut butter, from a chemical and 

 bacteriological point of view, meets all the requirements of a 

 food substance. 



"Our further investigations were directed to ascertaining 

 whether cocoanut butter was suitable to healthy and sick 

 people alike. Through a period of four weeks we distributed 

 food to 116 patients in the form of pastry, roast meats and fari- 

 naceous foods, in the preparation of which cocoanut butter 

 was used in the place of fats. 



" On account of this fat being almost free from water, one- 

 quarter less may be taken, both in baking and cooking, than is 

 generally used, if ordinary butter or lard is employed; and for 

 the same reason it is necessary in making pastry to replace the 

 twenty-five per cent, of water, which the cocoanut butter con- 

 tains less than any other fat, by adding from seven to eight 

 tablespoonfuls to about every pound of butter used. 



" A little more salt must be added to the food, and the butter 

 must always be heated before being used for cooking. Foods 

 prepared in this way, as well as pastry, were always found to 

 be eaten without any inconvenience whatever. The taste was 

 undoubtedly pleasanter than in dishes prepared with animal 

 fats. The statement of a colleague, Dr. H., is of particular 

 importance in this respect. After recovering from disorder of 

 the stomach he could not eat pastry without being afterward 

 troubled with pyrosis and cardiac pain. He could eat pastry 

 prepared with cocoanut butter almost without any incon- 

 venience. 



"The experiments with patients proved cocoanut butter to 

 be an easily digested fat that causes no disorders in cases of 

 impaired digestion. Of the 116 patients, amongst whom were 

 individuals affected with every form of dyspepsia, not one 

 complained of any discomfort or of any ill effect after the con- 

 sumption of pastry prepared with cocoanut butter, though 

 pastry, as a rule, is not an easily digested food on account of 

 thefat. In three cases where the pastry was partaken of an hour 

 after vomiting, there were no ill results noticeable ; on the 

 contrary, a fresh supply was desired by the patients. 



"We arrive at the conclnsion that a fat has been found in 

 cocoanut butter which meets all hygienic requirements, and 

 which is far superior to animal fat and butter, as well as to any 

 of their other substitutes. Further, on account of its being 

 easily digested, cocoanut butter is particularly well adapted 

 for the use of patients suffering from impaired digestion." 



Notes. 



The largest Orange grove in the world will be planted this 

 winter in the San Jacinto Valley, San Diego County, California. 

 The largest grove at present is in Pomona and covers 

 400 acres. The new one will contain 700 acres of the best 

 varieties. 



Walpole used a pretty and epigrammatic expression in 

 speaking of Kent, the " fatherof modern landscape-gardening." 

 Dissatisfied with the formal style of gardening previously in 

 vogue, "he leaped a fence," writes his biographer, "and saw 

 that all nature was a garden." 



Very many of the Horse-chestnut-trees which line the Prater 

 and certain streets in the interior of Vienna bloomed profusely 

 toward the end of last September. The phenomenon had 

 often been noted there before on isolated trees, but is said 

 never to have been so widespread as this year. 



Freaks in fence-building are not uncommon in New Eng- 

 land. Not many miles from New Bedford, for instance, is a 

 solid fence with a curiously curved upper line and here and 

 there a number painted upon it in white. On examination it 

 proves to be built of the pew-doors from a dismantled church. 

 And now we read in the Times, of Bath, Maine, an account of 

 a man, attached to the life-saving station at Small Point, who 

 has amassed enough swords of the swordfish to build a picket 

 fence forty feet in length. 



The first Chrysanthemum exhibition held in Newport, 

 Rhode Island, was open on the nth, 12th and 13th of No- 

 vember. The attendance was poor, owing to unfavorable 

 weather, but the display of flowers was satisfactory. The 

 largest contributions came from the gardens of ex-Governor 

 Wetmore and Mr. Louis Lorillard, but there were very credit- 

 able contributions also from Vice-President Morton, Mr. Fair- 

 man Rogers, Mrs. G. F. Jones, Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Mr. 

 D. B. Fearing and a number of others. 



Among the highly successful Chrysanthemum exhibitions 

 of the season was one held in Buffalo under the auspices of 

 the florists' club of that city. Besides the plants and llowers 

 exhibited by the city growers, Messrs. Pitcher & Manda, of 

 New Jersey ; Kimball, of Rochester ; Dreer, of Philadelphia, 

 and W. L. Scott, of Erie, Pennsylvania, contributed noteworthy 



