12 



Garden and Forest. 



[January 2, 1889. 



of berries. Its great height, however, makes the collection of 

 the fruit slow and expensive, and it is perhaps doubtful if it 

 will ever really supplant the dwarf Abyssinian plant. This 

 instructive and interesting report upon one of the most valua- 

 ble industries of the West Indies is from the pen of Mr. J. H. 

 Hart, F.L.S., long connected with the- Botanical Department 

 of Jamaica and now the energetic and successful head of that 

 of Trinidad. 



Notes. 



The Colorado State Horticultural and Forestry Association 

 will meet at Denver on the loth instant. 



December was so exceptionally mild in England that Snow- 

 drops and Marechal Neil Roses, Hepaticas and Christmas 

 Roses were blooming together in gardens. 



Mr. Henslow, at a recent meeting of the scientific committee 

 of the Royal Horticultural Society, of London, called attention 

 to the fact that the Dahlia was first introduced into England 

 100 years ago by the Marchioness of Bute. 



The pretty little Draba verna, one of the earliest of spring- 

 flowers, was blooming holiday week in abundance in Ger- 

 mantown. The constant rains of late summer advanced the 

 plants much more than usual, and it takes but a few 

 warm days to bring them into bloom. It has been many a 

 year since this flower could be gathered at Christmas. 



In the Colorado State Agricultural College, theoretical and 

 practical' arboriculture form part of the regular course of 

 study. Preparation has been made for the establishment of 

 four experimental stations in as many different sections of the 

 state, to be conducted in connection with the college, and 

 special attention will be given to trees and tree-planting. 



The Phylloxera has made its appearance at the very gates of 

 Paris, having been detected recently in the grounds of the 

 School of Agriculture at Grignon. The discovery naturally 

 causes great excitement and alarm among the Grape-growers 

 of Argenteuil, who derive an annual revenue of a million 

 francs from their vineyards. They have petitioned the Min- 

 ister of Agriculture to order the destruction of all the vines at 

 the school. 



It is stated upon good authority that in Germany the small 

 holdings in land of two and a half acres and less exceed 

 1,000,000; of two and a half acres to twenty-five, 2,000,000; and 

 while, in the whole kingdom, 14,000,000 acres are devoted to 

 grass, 47,000,000 to vegetables and corn, over 64,000,000 are 

 utilized for fruit and the productions of market gardens 

 worked by the spade, in England there are to every five acres 

 devoted to fruit over 1,000 devoted to root crops and corn. 



The American Philosophical Society is printing the manu- 

 script diary kept by the French botanist Michaux during his 

 travels in America during the last century. It was presented 

 to the Society more than sixty years ago, by his son, the 

 younger Michaux, the author of the standard work upon 

 American forest trees. This curious document, which covers 

 the whole period of Michaux's residence in America, with 

 the exception of the two first years, contains much informa- 

 tion of interest to students of the habits and customs of the 

 people of this country, especially of the inhabitants of the 

 frontier settlements during the last century, as well as to 

 botanists. The Journal is edited by Professor Sargent. 



In the report made by Professor Beal upon his examination 

 of the Jack Pine Plains of Michigan, he says : " In watching 

 the rapid flow of the Au Sable and the Manistee passing by 

 the plains which were thirsting for water, it often occurred 

 to me, ' Why not turn the waters on the fields and make them 

 fertile, instead of using them to float logs to the lakes?' A 

 thing so easily done, I believe one day will be done — and 

 done with great profit — not likely by those owning small 

 farms, but by those owning land by townships and sections. 

 If we could control the water on these plains, so they should 

 not lack for it, we could grow good crops, and with good 

 crops the soil would rapidly improve in fertility." 



The following descripdon of a singular freak of nature was 

 recently printed in The Garden : A few days ago a friend 

 was exploring a room in a dwelling house which appeared 

 to have been unused for a long time, when he found a 

 curiosity in the shape of a Potato plant which had sprung 

 from a large Kidney Potato that was lying at the bottom of a 

 damp cupboard. It had made no roots, but had thrown up 

 several leafless stems which were perfectly white and had 

 filled the lower compartment of the cupboard. From every 



joint of these stems, long white filaments were sent out, 

 each of which bore several small tubers. In all, the Potatoes 

 must number some hundreds, all grown from the same 

 parent tuber. 



An Engfish correspondent of The Garden writes as fol- 

 lows with regard to the effect that the wet summer of 1888, 

 followed by a very warm autumn, has had upon the foliage of 

 Oaks: "Last year, growth was made early and became 

 well ripened, and the leaves fell at the usual time. But this 

 year the first growth of the Oaks was stripped of leaves by a 

 plague of caterpillars. After the plague subsided a second 

 growth, in some cases as much as nine inches in length, was 

 made. This wood was quite soft when early frosts came in 

 October and the leaves were perfectly green ; but gradually 

 the shoots have hardened, the leaves have colored, although 

 they refuse to drop, and resist the force of strong November 

 gales which have been recently sweeping over the country." 



According to the Cairo correspondent of the London Times 

 the arable area of Egypt has been almost quadrupled since the 

 days of Mohammed Ali, half a century ago. An immense 

 impulse was given during the reign of Ismail, when the War 

 of the Rebellion in this country stimulated the cultivation of 

 cotton in other lands ; the cultivable area of Egypt then in- 

 creased at the rate of 22,000 acres a year. During the last five 

 years, when the English have administered the departments of 

 Finance and Public Works, an almost equally rapid increase has 

 taken place, and it is said that during 1888 no less than 75,000 

 acres will have been reclaimed. Irrigation is, of course, the 

 expedient employed. When one stands on an elevated point 

 in any part of the Nile Valley, a straight, clear line is described 

 which separates the rich growing crops from stretches of 

 white sand, as barren and hopeless-looking as the beaches of 

 the sea. But this line merely inarks the extent to which the 

 waters of the river have been admitted at the time of their 

 annual overflow ; and it only needs that they shall be admitted 

 further and stored by a simple system of little dams and 

 canals, for the sand to become a soil of marvelous fertility. A 

 certain verse in the Bible speaks of the laborer as "watering 

 the ground with his foot" ; and the persistence of Eastern cus- 

 toms is revealed by the fact that to-day this process may be 

 seen in execution. The fields in many districts are cut into 

 rectangular squares, between which run little canals, their 

 banks formed by low ridges of earth. At due intervals the 

 cultivator goes from one to another, pressing down a bit of 

 the ridge with his foot, letting the water overflow the square, 

 and then closing the aperture in the same manner. The ara- 

 ble area of Egypt is now 4,885,968 acres, as against 1,856,000 

 estimated for the year 1833. 



A correspondent of the Gartenflora, writing from Cara- 

 cas, in South America, tells of the recent development of 

 horticulture in that country. Twenty-five years ago, he 

 says, the art was almost unknown ; no public parks or gar- 

 dens existed, and private cultivators made but a sorry show- 

 ing with a few species of common garden flowers and native 

 plants grown, very often, in broken pots and boxes. The 

 first impulse toward improvement was given by a German 

 botanist, Moritz, who laid out a charming garden for a Ger- 

 man colony at Tovar and introduced many unfamiliar plants, 

 among them the Gladiolus. His efforts were followed by 

 those of a fellow-countryman, Herr Hahn, who formed a 

 beautiful Rose garden near Caracas, and then by those of 

 General Guzman Blanco, who established the first public 

 park, and turned the squares of Caracas — formerly mere 

 stone-covered or weed-grown spaces — into charming gar- 

 dens. A French gardener was imported, who, in addition to 

 his other enterpises, succeeded in the difficult task of mak- 

 ing beautiful lawns in this hot, dry climate. The principal 

 park is now called " Pazeo Guzman Blanco," and adorns a 

 hillside near the city which was formerly a sterile expanse of 

 red-brown earth. Now it is terraced and planted with fine 

 groups of trees, shrubs and flowers — various species of 

 Ficus and Cassia being conspicuous — and among them large 

 clumps of a tree-like Grass (Guadua) and of broad-leaved 

 AroidecE. Among the native shrubs, the writer notes as 

 most beautiful, Duranta Plumieri, which has a compact 

 growth and evergreen foliage, and bears its violet-blue 

 flowers and profuse yellow-red fruit together. Araucarias 

 have been largely planted, and while A. imbricata does not 

 do well, A. Bidwelli flourishes and A. excelsa seems likely to 

 succeed. Fortunately, adds our author, only a single formal 

 bed can be seen in this park. Private citizens have had their 

 ambition excited by the success of the park, and many of 

 them can now show delightful gardens for which they 

 import plants from Belgium and England. 



