96 



Garden and Forest. 



[February 20, i88g. 



Notes. 



Flowers of the Hepatica, gathered in the woods near Bos- 

 ton, were displayed before the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society on the 26th of January. 



Monsieur Hemie de Vilmorin, one of the best known and 

 best liked horticulturists in Europe, has been elected Presi- 

 dent of the Botanical Society of France. 



From a note in a recent number of Le Moniteur D' Horticul- 

 ture it appears that M. Bleu, a well-known Parisian Orchid- 

 grower, has succeeded in obtaining a cross between Odonto- 

 glossiim Roezlii and O. vexillarium. Two specimens, show- 

 ing slight variations themselves, have now flowered, the 

 plants being only four years and nine months from seed. 

 They are intermediate in character between the two parents. 



Cherokee Roses in small quantities are at last to be 

 seen in at least one Boston florist's window. It is sur- 

 prising that they are not grown more frequently, for there is 

 scarcely a flower which is more lovely. From the florist's 

 point of view, however, the plants take up too much space, 

 as they must be planted out and well established before good 

 crops of flowers can be had from them, while only one crop, 

 lasting from four to six weeks, is produced annually. 



The Annual Report of the School of Forestry connected 

 with the Indian Forest Department, and situated at Dehra 

 Dun, shows that seventy-five students were under instruction 

 during the year 1887-88. Of these, fifty-six were supported by 

 Government, nine were deputed by native states and ten 

 were private students. The copies of the examination papers 

 joined to the Report indicate the tlioroughness of the scheme 

 of instruction, and show that a high standard of education is 

 aimed at for the future guardians of the Indian forests. 



Monsieur Joly, of Paris, has recently published a pamphlet 

 in which he describes a famous Black Hamburgh Grape-vine 

 which grows on the estate of the Marquis of Breadalbane, in 

 England, and is believed to have been planted in 1832. Its 

 stem, at one foot from the ground, measures two feet in cir- 

 cumference, wiile its branches cover an area of some 4,275 

 square feet, and during the year 1888 it yielded about 3,000 

 bunches of grapes. These facts denote a vine almost equal 

 in size to the famous one at Hampton Court, planted in 1769, 

 which is likewise of the Black Hamburgh variety. 



At the meeting of the Society of American Florists in this 

 city last summer a resolution was adopted setting forth the 

 advantage to the trada of flower-pots of uniform size and 

 shape, and a copy of tlie resolution was sent to all the potter- 

 ies in the United States. In response to this call tlie Whilldin 

 Pottery Company has already placed the standard pot upon the 

 market, and other manufacturers will, no doubt, follow the 

 example. Besides the evident gain from uniformity, the rim 

 at the bottom of these pots saves a great deal of the loss from 

 breakage when they are set down smartly on the bench to set- 

 tle the soil. The added band stiffens them at the top, and 

 they can be packed more closely and securely. 



At a late meeting of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society 

 a resolution was adopted authorizing the President to appoint 

 a committee of five to consider the subject of national and 

 state forestry, the need of further legislation to protect the 

 forests on our national domain, and the best means to pro- 

 mote a greater interest in arboriculture. Dr. Walcott named 

 as the committee, Charles S. Sargent, John Robinson, J. D. W. 

 French, Francis H. Appleton and Leverett M. Chase. The 

 appointment of similar committees by the horticultural and 

 agricultural societies of other states would tend to encourage 

 a more careful study of forest problems by thoughtful men, 

 and their recommendations would doubtless prove of practical 

 value. 



So rapidly were the mountain sides in the neighborhood of 

 Cape Town being denuded of their flowering plants by the 

 reckless hands of cockney pedestrians, that the local govern- 

 ment not long ago passed stringent laws for their preserva- 

 tion. Now botanists and tourists complain that these laws 

 are so very stringent as to interfere with all lawful pleasure as 

 well as all scientific research. " Here," says a correspondent 

 of the Gardeners' Chronicle, " is the text of the definition of 

 'forest produce' which may not be touched under penalty: 

 ' Game, fish, minerals, stones, earth, trees, timber, firewood, 

 wattles, kraal wood, branch wood, slabs, chips, sawdust, 

 plants, grass, reeds, thatch, rushes, bedding, peat, creepers, 

 fibres, leaves, moss, flowers, ferns, fruits, seeds, roots, bulbs, 

 galls, spices, bark, gum, resin, sap, charcoal, honey, wax, 

 shells, horns, ivory, and generally anything growing or 

 contained in the forest ' ! ! ! Anything else ? Could it 

 not be enacted that the respectable subject or botanical stu- 



dent should be blindfolded before going up, to further atone 

 for the stupidity of a few ' snobs ' who could easily have been 

 stopped without enacting such absurdities ? " 



A correspondent of the Gardeners' Chronicle makes the 

 complaint so often heard in this country, that the trees on the 

 streets and in the open spaces of London are annually mu- 

 tilated by the saw and bill-hook of the ignorant pruner. He 

 adds : " In my neighborhood — a south-western suburb — the 

 young trees on the common were last year pruned in much 

 the same fashion as a Currant-bush, and this has been the 

 rule since they were planted in 1885. The result is seen in lit- 

 tle conical heads, full of small twigs, the general outline of a 

 tree being ^fac simile of those of a German toy. It is possible 

 by banishing the ' pruners ' for all time, that the trees would 

 throw out vigorous branches, and grow into picturesque ob- 

 jects, affording shelter from the rain and sun to the many 

 young and aged persons who make use of the common, and 

 become a pleasant picture to a district rapidly gaining in im- 

 portance." 



Mr. Flinders Petrie discovered not long ago in Egypt the 

 remains of a number of Roses which had been bound into a 

 garland and buried with the dead. The tomb from which they 

 came was one of those which contained the encaustic paint- 

 ings recently described and illustrated in Scribner's Magazine, 

 and date from between the second and the fifth centuries after 

 our era. Monsieur Crgpin has examined these Roses, and 

 recently read a paper relating to them before the Royal Society 

 of Belgium. The nine blossoms he had secured were all 

 imperfect, but evidently belonged to the same species. So far 

 as he could judge, they resemialed most closely a Rose culti- 

 vated in Abyssinia to-day, which was described by A. Richard 

 under the name of Rosa sancta, as it is grown in the vicinity of 

 temples. R. sancta, which is very similar to R. centifolia or 

 R. Gallica, appears not to be a native of Abyssinia, but to have 

 been cultivated there from a very distant period. Nor could 

 the Roses found in the tomb have been of native origin, as no 

 Rose grows wild in Egypt. But the flowers were doubtless 

 obtained near the place of sepulchre, as Roses were largely 

 cultivated in Lower Egypt and exported thence to Rome. The 

 only native Rose known in this east African region is one that 

 occurs in the mountains of Abyssinia — R. Abyssinica — believed 

 to be a variety of R. moschata. 



In a recent number of the Revue Horticole the following sen- 

 sible words were printed : "Whatever may be the degree of 

 intensity in the colorafion of foliage, it can never play the 

 same role as flowers in the summer decoration of a garden. 

 A mass of Coleus or Achyranthes, a basket-bed or garland of 

 one sort or another or a mosaic pattern in bright foliage, may 

 be usefully employed in a decorative composition of consid- 

 erable extent ; but they cannot produce the same attractive 

 and gay effect as flowering plants used in a mingled way or 

 in distinct groups. Recently we saw an example that was 

 pushed to an extreme point — a basket-bed entirely composed 

 of Coleus negro, with dark, almost black, violet-purple foliage, 

 and bordered with Achyranthes, the leaves of which showed 

 a net-work of green and yellow. The impression made by 

 this basket was inexcusably mournful. One vaguely imagined 

 the existence of a tumulus under this mass of flowerless plants, 

 and some sort of funereal urn would not have seemed inap- 

 propriate in the middle of it. This was certainly not the effect 

 that had been desired, and we might cite many other cases 

 where an injudicious use of colored foliage had produced 

 negative or disagreeable results. The general rules to follow 

 may be summed up thus ; Reserve colored foliage for spots 

 which are to be seen from a distance, in masses, and plant 

 near the house and in all other much-frequented spots those 

 flowering plants which, in addition to their elegance and their 

 varied bloom, usually disseminate a grateful odor." 



Catalogues Received. 



A. D. Cowan & Co., 114 Chambers Street, New York;— Seeds. — 

 Henry A. Dreer, 714 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa.;^Seeds, 

 Plants, etc. — Ellw anger & Barry, Mount Hope Nurseries, Roches- 

 ter, N. Y. ;— Select Roses.— J. T. Lovett Co., Little Silver, N. J. ;— Orna- 

 mental and Fruit Trees, Plants, etc. — A. M. & J. B. Murdoch, 510 

 Smithfield Street, Pittsburgh, Pa.; — Trees, Shrubs, Vines, Seeds, etc. — 

 Pitcher & Manda, United States Nurseries, Short Hills, N. J.; — Single 

 Dahlias; also, Chrysanthemums. — ^Jas. M. Thorburn & Co., 15 John 

 Street, New York; — Seeds. 



Publishers' Note. — The publishers wish to state that the 

 advertisement of L. D. Staples, Portland, Mich., which appeared 

 in last week's issue of Garden and Forest was inadvertently 

 inserted. 



