640 



Garden and Forest. 



[December 31, 1890. 



To the question, Does it pay to prune Plum-trees ? Mr. 

 Willard answered that for some years he had been in the habit 

 of cutting off from one-half to one-third of the season's growth 

 during the mild weather in the winter when the wood was not 

 frozen hard, and he was well satisfied that it was profitable. 

 On varieties which make a long, rampant growth there is 

 much breakage when the limbs are set full of fruit. By cut- 

 ting back, short branches are forced out, which gives more 

 fruiting surface and a stronger tree. He does not prune after 

 the trees have begun to grow. 



Notes. 



The Eschscholtzia has been chosen as California's state 

 flower. 



The Proceedings of the eleventh annual meeting of the 

 Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science, held at In- 

 dianapolis, make a pamphlet of 125 pages. By the constitu- 

 tion of this association the number of its members can never 

 exceed fifty, but these are the leading investigators in this 

 country in the various sciences related to agriculture. This re- 

 port contains the latest fruits of study and experiment in this 

 wide field. 



Secretary Woolverton, of the Ontario Fruit-Growers' As- 

 sociation, reported at the late meeting of that body that Mr. 

 E. D. Arnaud, of Annapolis, had sent him samples of the fruit 

 of a Cherry-tree which had been picked in September. The 

 fruit is about the size and shape of the Kentish, and of a deep red 

 color when ripe. It has firm flesh and agreeable flavor and bears 

 transportation well. We should be glad to know more of this 

 late-blooming Cherry, which is called the Clark. 



Mr. Felix Oswald, writing of southern Mexico in the Open 

 Court, says that "on the markets of Vera Cruz and Tampico 

 vegetable products sufficient to support a family of five per- 

 sons for a day can be bought for one real (twelve cents)." As 

 meat, food and warm clothing are not required in that climate, 

 and as "from the coast up to an elevation of 4,000 feet fuel for 

 the purposes of house warming can be dispensed with for 

 eleven months in the year," it is easy to understand that 

 laborers can support a family on wages which, in northern lands, 

 would not suffice to keep them individually from starvation. 



The Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club for December, 

 1890, says : "After an absence of two years in South America, 

 during which time he has collected a very large and valuable 

 representation of the plants of that region, Dr. Morong has 

 returned in health and safety. All botanists will bid him 

 cordial welcome, both on his safe return and his entry upon a 

 new sphere of usefulness and activity. The trustees of 

 Columbia College have appointed him to be Curator of their 

 herbarium, a position which has not been occupied since the 

 death of Mr. P. V. LeRoy. In this appointment an important 

 step has been made in the progress of American systematic 

 botany." 



Many persons must have wondered at the meaning of the 

 word " ha-ha" still often used in England for a sunken fosse. 

 Walpole's explanation is that when dividing walls were first 

 abandoned, together with many other devices of the formal 

 style of gardening, and ditches were substituted, the attempt 

 " was then deemed so astonishing that the common people 

 called them Ha ! Ha ! to express their surprise at finding a 

 sudden and unperceived check to their walks." Modern diction- 

 aries assert that the word is a mere reduplication of haw, a hedge, 

 and can be written haw-haw or ha-ha. As the ha-ha is, how- 

 ever, a ditch not bordered by a hedge, but designed to be 

 invisible, this derivation seems as unsatisfactory as Walpole's 

 seems far-fetched. 



Young Bamboo shoots, when tender, are eaten as a pot- 

 herb, and to preserve their tenderness they are covered 

 over with earthen pots to blanch them. That this food 

 was in use among the ancient Aryans is evident from 

 the prohibitions of eating the same by the three upper 

 classes of the Hindoos. Green Bamboo shoots are used by 

 the Nepaulese very generally as a pickle, which they prepare 

 by cutting the shoot into small slices and steeping the same in 

 water in a close earthen jar, where they ferment and generate 

 a sort of acetic acid. This preparation is called Tambi in 

 Nepaul. It is a favorite pickle both of the rich and poor, and 

 pieces of the Nepaulese round Capsicums, called Khorasani, 

 are thrown into the same. 



A correspondent of The North-western Lumberman calls at- 

 tention to the interesting fact that about seven-eighths of fell the 



>1678® 



spools used in the world are produced in Maine and New 

 Hampshire, or are made from lumber manufactured and 

 shipped from those states. Millions of feet are sent every 

 year to the great thread works of J. & P. Coats at Paisley, Scot- 

 land, the greatest establishment of its kind in the world, alone. 

 No material for a spool has yet been found as good as the 

 wood of the Canoe Birch. Attempts have been made to make 

 spools of glass and from wood-pulp, but they have not proved 

 successful. A few years ago Birch-land was considered 

 almost worthless in northern New England; now it is held at as 

 high prices, when situated near railroads, as Pine-land. The 

 extension of the Canadian Pacific Railroad into northern Maine 

 is said to have brought a large amount of Birch-timber within 

 easy access of the mills. 



The R.eport of the annual meeting of American Cemetery 

 Superintendents at Boston last August contains much that is 

 of permanent value. A sketch of the life of Adolph Strauch, 

 by Mr. Eurich, of Toledo, is a deserved tribute to the man who 

 originated the so-called "Lawn-System" which has done so 

 much to encourage what is natural in the planning and plant- 

 ing of cemeteries. The essay by Mr. G. Troup, of Buffalo, on 

 cemetery roadways is worthy of study by every one who is 

 interested in road-construction. Mr. Simonds, Superintendent 

 of Graceland Cemetery, in Chicago, read a paper on the trees 

 and shrubs which have proved most valuable in that climate ; 

 and Mr. A. W. Blaine, of Detroit, in discussing "Mistakes in 

 Cemeteries," touched upon many common errors in design 

 and maintenance. It is a misfortune that the essay of Mr. J. 

 G. Barker, of Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain, which was 

 distributed at this meeting, could not have been included in 

 the Report. Mr. Barker's paper was read before the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society, and it contains descriptions of 

 several of the most interesting cemeteries of the country. 



The ugly and dilapidated board fence which has surrounded 

 Mount Morris Park, in Harlem, is being torn down, and will 

 be replaced by a fine retaining wall of stone, surmounted by 

 an iron railing. The improvement was desirable, for, although 

 almost unknown to inhabitants of the lower parts of our city, 

 this is certainly the prettiest of all the small parks in New 

 York, and is very probably the most individual park of its size 

 in the world. About two-thirds of its area (which includes 

 two city blocks) is level ground, charmingly laid out with wide 

 lawns, unbroken by cross paths, and with encircling walks 

 flanked by good trees and beautiful groups of shrubs. But in 

 the south-east corner of the park the ground rises suddenly to 

 form a rocky hill higher than the tops of the surrounding 

 houses, which is covered with great old trees, chiefly Oaks. 

 Such an isolated hill rising amid streets which are perfectly 

 level, is a most unexpected feature to find in the heart of a 

 great city, and its harmonious contrast with the flat lawns 

 around it is extremely picturesque. We advise our city 

 readers to use one of the first days when the trees next begin 

 to bud for an excursion to Mount Morris Park, certain that they 

 will feel themselves rewarded, and will wonder why its singu- 

 larity and beauty are not matters of more general knowledge. 



A writer in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, re- 

 viewing Dr. Schweinfurth's recently published work called 

 "Sur certains Rapports entre 1'Arabie Heureuse et l'ancienne 

 Egypte," the conclusions of which are based on an Arabian 

 journey during which the author collected 920 species of 

 plants, cites the following interesting facts : " The ancient 

 Egyptians cultivated certain trees, dedicated to certain divini- 

 ties, and among them were the Persea of the ancient Greeks 

 (Mimusops Schimperi) and the Sycamore ; the leaves and fruit 

 of both trees having been frequently found in ancient tombs, 

 where they had been deposited as offerings. The ' Persea ' 

 (not to be confounded with Persea gratis sima, Gaertn.) has for 

 centuries disappeared from Egypt, but the Sycamore is still 

 found .there in large quantities, though only in cultivation. 

 The region of the Upper Nile, rich as it is in Fig-tree species 

 having characteristics that bring them into close relation to 

 the Sycamore, has not as yet shown any in a wild state that 

 might be considered its ancestor. Dr. Schweinfurth gathering 

 from Forskal's notes that in Arabia were to be found species 

 allied to the Egyptian Sycamore, was especially interested in 

 searching for them, and learned that the Fig-tree known as 

 'Changs' in the mountains and as 'Bourra' on the plains, is 

 identical with the Egyptian tree which incontestably has its 

 origin there. He also found the ' Persea ' growing wild and 

 called 'Lebbakh,' a term used by the Arab geographers of 

 the middle ages, and which to-day in Egypt is applied to an 

 Acacia introduced from India (Albizzia Lebbek), and which is 

 now, as 'Lebbakh,' a widespread road-side tree." 



