6o 



Garden and Forest. 



[January 30, 1889. 



M^hich continued to furnish boiling ears of the sweetest quality 

 from August loth until frost came on October nth, would be 

 a valuable acquisition but for one fault. Many of the ears 

 have a dark red cob, the juice of which produces an almost 

 indelible stain upon table linen or upon the hands. Emerald 

 Gem (Henderson) and Perfection (Livingston) were the finest 

 Musk Melons tested, all things considered. Two new Okras 

 proved desirable varieties for the Northern States. These 

 were Little Gem (Dreer) and New Dwarf Density (Thorburn). 

 Both were early, dwarf and bore fruit of uniform size. Child's 

 Celestial Pepper (Gregory) is distinct and attractive, remark- 

 ably productive, and as the plant bears both red and yellow 

 peppers at the same time, it is quite ornamental. Among 

 Squashes, the Sibley (Sibley & Rawson) and the White Chest- 

 nut (Gregory) are valuable additions to the old list, and the 

 former is likely to prove a formidable rival of the Hubbard. 

 Probably the most important novelty of the year is the Dwarf 

 Champion Tomato (Henderson). The plant is dwarf and 

 compact, with foliage little subject to rust, and fruit is smooth, 

 uniform in size and of excellent quality. Of eighteen new 

 varieties of Potato tested, the Rural New Yorker No. 2 gave 

 the largest yield. Stachys tuberifera, the so-called new vege- 

 table from northern Africa, was tested, and yielded small, 

 fleshy tubers, which only attained the size of acorns. Its table 

 qualities were not tried. 



Besides the papers already mentioned, Mr. Geo. B. EUwan- 

 ger contributed one on "Hardy Herbaceous Plants;" Mr. 

 George Savage read one on " Roses for Winter Forcing ; " 

 Mr. ^A^illiam Webster spoke of "Improvements in Farmers' 

 Homes ; " Mr. Charles S. Little discussed the "Cultivation of 

 Aquatic Plants," and Professor A. J. Cook gave a practical ad- 

 dress on " Insecticides." 



The exhibition of fruit was notably good. EUwanger & 

 Barry alone showed sixty-three varieties of apples and thirty- 

 six varieties of pears, while other members contributed al- 

 most as many more. No finer Fameuse, Fallawater or King 

 apples were ever seen, and the plates of Anjou, Winter 

 Nelis and other pears could hardly be excelled. One Anjou 

 pear weighed twelve ounces. Mr. Barry showed eighteen 

 varieties of hardy grapes, among them early varieties, like 

 Brighton, and all were in capital condition. Several of 

 Roger's Hybrids, Eumelan, Niagara, Jefferson and Ver- 

 gennes, were included in the collection. Grapes have kept 

 so well this year, that Catawbas were selling in Rochester for 

 a lower price than at any time since they first ripened. 



Cook's fruit-gatherer is a new machine, which was strongly 

 recommended to all who have orchards of any considerable 

 extent. Not only are apples and pears gathered much more 

 cheaply with this implement — for about one-half the cost of 

 hand-picking — but much time is saved, which is an important 

 item. Apples often increase in size just as they approach the 

 ripening point, and the gain in quantity, not to speak of quality, 

 when the fruit is allowed to remain until its full growth is 

 reached, is worth considering. This machine does its work so 

 rapidly that the fruit-grower can wait until the fruit matures 

 before beginning to harvest the crop, and several members 

 asserted that such an implement is as necessary to Apple- 

 growers as is a mowing-machine or reaper to farmers. 



As an evidence of increasing interest in Peach culture in 

 western New York, it was stated that Mr. J. F. White, of 

 Mount Morris, has an orchard of 22,000 trees, covering 145 

 acres. The varieties with which Mr. White has had the most 

 success are Waterloo, Alexander, Early Rivers, Mountain Rose 

 (the earliest freestone), Fosters, Early Crawford, Oldmixon 

 and Late Crawford. 



Notes. 



Erica cariiea and Daphne Mezereuin were blooming in the 

 open ground in the Arnold Arboretum on the 19th of January. 



The bean of the Soja hispida is in as great demand in Japan 

 as our garden Beans are here ; but though it has been intro- 

 duced, and re-introduced, over and over again, to American 

 gardens, it fails to meet popular appreciation. A little money 

 buys a good deal in Japan, but the crop of Soja Beans in Japan 

 last year is represented by $20,000,000. 



A remarkable Orchid, still in Ijloom at Rose Hill nurseries, 

 is a white variety of LcElia Pattinii, so-called. There is some 

 uncertainty as to the identity of this plant ; it is supposed by 

 some authorities to be a winter-blooming form of Cattleya 

 Skinneri, which it strongly resembles. The colored variety 

 was introduced some two or three years ago, but this white 

 form appeared in a consignment imported by Messrs. Sie- 

 brecht & Wadley. 



The showy Yellow Broom (Genista) is now being grown 

 largely for Easter decorations, and increased demand is 

 reported. Pot-plants, well grown, make a mass of bloom 

 highly effective among other plants, and it usually pays the 

 grower better to sell it in this form than to cut the flowers. 



Under the modest title of Botanical Notes, Mrs. Mary K. 

 Curran, the curator of the botanical section of the California 

 Academy of Sciences, contributes to its Proceedings a paper 

 (now issued separately) containing a large amount of varied 

 and important information upon a number of California plants, 

 derived, for the most part, from personal observations made 

 in the field. 



Styrax Obassia has not yet, we believe, flowered in Ameri- 

 can gardens, though the plant itself has been considerably 

 distributed. The leaves are as large as those of the Witch- 

 Hazel, and the flowers are of corresponding size. Like the 

 ordinary Snowdrop-tree or Halesia, to which it is related, the 

 flowers are white, with the addition of a grateful perfume. It 

 flowered last year in England. 



The cork trade in Spain was unusually good last year, the 

 exportation to other parts of the Continent, as well as to Eng- 

 land and America, having been greater than for several years 

 past. The demand has been the greatest for the superior 

 kinds of corks, such as those for champagne bottles. Gerona 

 is the most important centre in Spain for the production of 

 c6rk,hundredsof cork manufactories being scattered over the 

 province. In the town of Palamos there are forty. From St. 

 Felin de Guixols it is reported that the Cork trees have been 

 suffering from the attacks of a pest which threatened to de- 

 stroy them. A voracious caterpillar or worm has been 

 attacking the Cork forests in millions during the past year or 

 two. In a very short space of time it stripped the trees of all 

 their leaves completely. These worms are now in their turn 

 said to be attacked and devoured "by another insect, a species 

 of beetle of a dark green color, and armed with a horn, with 

 which it cuts the worms up. Still another insect, in the form 

 of a crab {cangrejd), pursues the worms and destroys them ; 

 and thirdly, when the caterpillar has passed through its meta- 

 morphosis, and the butterflies have deposited their eggs, a 

 third insect, until now unknown, attacks and pierces the bags 

 containing the new germs, and destroys them ; all of which 

 will contribute, no doubt, to the complete extinction of these 

 destructive caterpillars." 



The competition annually opened to young designers by the 

 Architectural League of New York dealt this year with "A 

 Tomb for a Distinguished Architect." The competitive draw- 

 ings have recently been displayed at the exhibition held by the 

 League, and it was pleasant to see how much good taste, as 

 well as scholarly accomplishment, they revealed. The design 

 by Mr. Brite of this city, which gained the gold medal, was 

 adapted to a site such as frequently presents itself in American 

 cemeteries — a low hill-side crowned with trees ; and his 

 scheme showed an Ionic fagade with angle-piers and two 

 intermediate columns — behind which stood a large sarcopha- 

 gus — fronting on a finely designed platform, with encircling 

 seats backed by a i^etaining wall against the sloping bank. 

 The silver medal fell to Mr. Enders, of Chicago, who showed 

 a charmingly simple and dignified isolated mausoleum, with- 

 out columns, but with steps and a seat-encircled platform in 

 front. Both these designs, and all the best ones among the 

 seventeen that were shown, adhered to classic types — a note- 

 worthy and a promising fact in these days when Romanesque 

 art so strongly attracts our artists. Although Romanesque art 

 is undoubtedly better fitted than any other for many kinds of 

 modern buildings, it is difficult to secure with it just that ex- 

 pression of combined dignity, refinement, quietness, sim- 

 plicity and delicacy which is especially desirable in a tomb. 

 Nor does an adherence to classic types necessitate monotony in 

 form or feature. The drawings now in question were suf- 

 ficient to refute such an idea, for there was much diversity, 

 even between those which were most " scholarly." When 

 we reflect that no work had been admitted into this compe- 

 tition by men more than twenty-one years of age, its results 

 were extremely promising; and for several of the designs one 

 may heartily wish realization in more solid material than pen 

 and paper. Still more interesting than any one of them, how- 

 ever, was a design not in the competition, which had been 

 prepared by Mr. St. GaudensandMr. Page Brown. It showed a 

 temple-like structure with a projecting pediment borne by 

 twelve caryatids, arranged in three rows of four each, which 

 had been given the shape of winged angels. Here, Christian 

 sentiment had been significantly displayed ; yet the result 

 was truly classic in feeling, and, executed as this sculptor 

 could execute it, would be of wonderful beauty. 



