144 



Garden and Forest. 



[March 20, 1889. 



Notes. 



Our associate, Professor A. S. Packard, sails for Europe this 

 week, and will pass the summer in Germany and Italy. 



The eighty-sixth annual exhibition of the Imperial and Royal 

 HorticuUural Society of Vienna will be held this year from the 

 25th to the 29th of April, inclusive. 



One hundred and twenty different varieties of Willows are 

 successfully grown, it is said, by Mr. S. J. A. Salter, F.R.S., in 

 his private grounds near Basingstoke, England. 



Professor Oscar Drude, Director of the Royal Botanical Gar- 

 den in Dresden, Germany, has just published an atlas showing 

 the geographical distribution of plants. The maps measure 

 sixteen by fourteen inches, and the work can be bought 

 for about $4. 



It is reported from Berne, Switzerland, that recent snow- 

 storms of exceptional severity have done much damage in 

 that neighborhood, not only ruining many picturesque old 

 bridges and houses but destroying thousands of the splendid 

 Fir trees which clothe the mountain sides. 



A year ago the Dutch horticultural journal Seinpervirens 

 asked for reports upon Stachys tuberifera for European culti- 

 vation as an article of food. Twenty-one reports were sub- 

 mitted, among which seventeen were favorable, recommend- 

 ing the plant as a valuable addition to the list of table vege- 

 tables. Good sandy soil, not too dry, is said to be the best for 

 it, as the tubers then become beautifully white, while in heavier 

 soil they assume a brownish color. 



Chrysanthemums are largely cultivated in Dalmatia to sup- 

 ply chemists with the substance from which the well-known 

 " Dalmatian insect powder" is made. The island of Lesina is 

 the chief seat of cultivation, and the flower most generally 

 grown is C. cineraricrfolimn Trev. It is said that no other 

 local crop pays so well, the product of a single acre of 

 ground bringing a gross receipt of $500 to $1,500; and the 

 government yearly distributes plants at very low rates in order 

 that the industry may be still further developed. 



Mr. Abbot Kinney's retirement from the California Forestry 

 Commission is to be deeply regretted. He has devoted much 

 time and study to the question of forest preservation in Cali- 

 fornia, and his services to the state in this way have been 

 great. His term of office has expired, and the Governor has 

 appointed in his place Mr. F. J. Moffitt, a member of the State 

 Senate. The other members of the Board, as it is now con- 

 stituted, are John D. Spreckels and W. S. Moore. Mr. Kinney 

 was Chairman of the Board, and its success in the past has 

 been due to his energy and zeal. 



Professor Rothrock contributes to the last issue of our valu- 

 able contemporary. Forest Leaves, an interesting article upon 

 " Tree Growth as Determined by Location," which is graph- 

 ically illustrated by the portraits of two White Oaks — the first 

 grown in a forest and closely surrounded by other trees and 

 the second developed in the full enjoyment of abundant light 

 and space. The second tree is one of the most magnificent 

 specimens of its kind which can be seen. It stands on the 

 banks of Mantua Creek, in central New Jersey. This tree is 

 not tall, but it has a spread of branches of one hundred and 

 three feet, and a trunk diameter of six feet three inches. 



Eastern Roumelia is the real source of the world's supply of 

 Attar-of-Roses, many provinces sharing in its production, but 

 the richest regions l^eing those which lie aroimd the famous 

 Shipka Pass and the district of Maglis further east. The name 

 Shipka itself means "Wild Rose." Here a famous White 

 Rose is grown which has always been considered a peculiar 

 species. But specimens collected on the spot by a person sent 

 for the purpose by Dr. Dieck, Director of the National Arbo- 

 retum near Merseburg, Germany, were recently submitted to 

 Monsiein- Cr^pin, the well-known authority on Roses, and he 

 pronounced them " simply the typical form of the familiar R. 

 alba of our gardens." 



According to a writer in the Gardeners' Chronicle, singular 

 survivals may still be found in England of ancient methods of 

 "allotment gardening." In Somersetshire, for example, he 

 says, " there are two large pieces of common land called 

 East and West Dolemoors, which are divided into single 

 acres, each bearing a peculiar and different mark cut in the 

 turf ; one of these is a horn ; others are, four oxen and a 

 mare, two oxen and a mare, a poleaxe, a cross, a dung-fork, 

 an oven, a duck's nest, a hand-reel, and a hare's tail. About 

 midsummer of every year these lots are 'raffled,' and each 

 particular portion is taken over by one individual for the 

 ensuing year. Archaeological research affords several ex- 

 amples of this singular phase of allotment gardening." 



Monsieur Andre dedicates, in a recent issue of the Revue 

 Horticole, a new genus of Bronieliacea to Mr. J. G. Baker, the 



English botanist, who has long studied this difficult family. 

 Bakeria tillandsioides flowered this year in the garden of M. 

 Devansaye, who cultivates one of the largest collections of 

 these plants in Europe, and who had received it from Brazil 

 without a name. In habit it resembles a Tillandsia, but it 

 produced a long, slender, flexible scape, with branches covered 

 with numerous, small, violet-colored flowers. Judged by the 

 colored plate published in the Revue, Bakeria, with its graceful 

 inflorescence, springing from a rosette of narrow, silvery 

 leaves, will make a charming addition to the number of orna- 

 mental plants of its family, which are more appreciated in 

 Europe than in this country. 



Dr. R. A. Phillippi, writing from Chili to the Gartenflora, 

 speaks of a singular sight which met his eye on the way from 

 Traiguen to Angol. "One sees great fields several acres 

 in extent thickly covered with Oats, among which no other 

 plant of any other kind appears, except, perhaps, some species 

 of GEnothera. But the crop has not been sown by men, but is 

 a spontaneous growth of Avena hirsiita from southern 

 Europe, called ' Tiatina ' by the Chilians. ... In certain 

 parts of Valdivia Hypocharis radicata has become a public 

 pest ; it stands so thickly that the rosettes formed by its 

 leaves entirely cover the ground and permit no other plant to 

 grow. Where it appears, however, it kills out two other pests 

 — Runiex Acetosella and Brunella vulgaris — and in its turn is 

 suppressed by Trifoliuni repens which is spreading more and 

 more widely year by year. As European man drives out the 

 native American man, so European plants drive out those 

 indigenous to the soil." 



Dr. Masters, in the issue of the Gardeners' Chronicle for 

 February 9th, shows that Abies siibalpina of Engelmann, a 

 Fir of the interior Rocky Mountain region, is really the same 

 as the tree of which a fragment gathered forty years ago in 

 Oregon, is preserved in the herbarium at Kew, and to which 

 Sir William Hooker applied the name A. lasiocarpa. If this 

 view is correct, and the specimen, judged by the illustrations 

 which accompany Dr. Masters' article seem to substantiate it, 

 one of the most troublesome cases of synonomy among 

 American trees is cleared up. Less clear is Dr. Masters' re- 

 ference of Murray's A. bifolia to A. sttbalpina. We have 

 never examined Murray's specimen, which is here figured 

 by Dr. Masters. It is hardly worth while, therefore, to express 

 any opinion in regard to it, and we only suggest that the size 

 and shape of the cone, and the shape of the scale in Murray's 

 specimen bear a strong resemblance to some of the interme- 

 diate forms which seem to connect Abies grandis and A. coti- 

 color, and which abound in southern Oregon. 



A correspondent of the Revue Horticole, M. Desbois, of Or- 

 leans, sends to that journal the folio-wing interesting note on the 

 effect of sulyjhate of iron upon the rigidity of the stems of 

 plants. "The La France Rose, although beautiful, is often pro- 

 duced on the summit of a stem too feeble to support it. The 

 way to obviate this is to water the plant when the bud is partly 

 grown with a solution of sulphate of iron. The stems become, 

 when treated in this way, sufficiently rigid to support the ex- 

 panded flowers, which gain depth and beauty of color. I have 

 used sul])hate of iron in a large number of similar cases, and 

 always with excellent results ; and I have never known a plant 

 injured V)y it, or found that too large a dose could be adminis- 

 tered. The solution should be made stronger for plants grow- 

 ing in heavy soil than when the soil is light. During the last 

 season a dozen Fuchsias treated with sulphate of iron flowered 

 freely in spite of the unfavorable weather ; the flowers were 

 exceptionally l^rilliant in color, and the shoots were unusually 

 vigorous. I saved by the same means a Marechal Niel Rose- 

 l)ush which had l)een seriously injiu-ed by cold, but which 

 entirely recovered, and is now more vigorous than ever." It 

 is to be regretted that M. Desbois does not give the strength 

 of the solution which he uses with such excellent results. 



Catalogues Received. 



p. J. BERCKi^rANS, Augusta, Ga.; — Green-house, Bedding and New 

 Plants. — Robert Buist, Jr., 922-924 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pa. ; — 

 Seeds. — Z. De Forest Ely & Co., 1303 INIarkct Street, Philadelphia, 

 Pa. ; — Seeds. — I. V. Faust, 64-66 North Front SBtreet, Philadelphia, 

 Pa.; — Garden, Field and Flower Seeds; also, Garden Implements. — 

 Joseph Harris Seed Co., Rochester, N. Y.; — Seeds.— Johnson & 

 Stokes, 217-219 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pa.;— Seeds. — Wm. 

 Henry Maule, 1711 Filbert Street, Philadelphia, Pa.; — Seeds. — Robert 

 ScoTT & Son, North-east corner Nineteenth and Catherine Streets, 

 Philadelphia, Pa. — T. H. Spaulding, Orange, N.J. ; — Chrysanthemums. 



