204 



Garden and Forest. 



[Apr IX 24, 



Notes. 



Dr. Peyritsch, well-known for his studies of the morphology 

 of plants, died recently at Botzen. 



The National Society of Horticulture of France has decided to 

 give in Paris, in November, an exhibition of Chrysanthemums. 



The death of C. F. Martin, a veteran French botanist, and for 

 many years director of the Botanic Garden of Montpellier, over 

 whicii the great De Candolle once presided, is announced. 



Marsh Marigolds from New Jersey swamps and meadows 

 were in great al)Lmdance on the street Hower-stands on Satur- 

 day, and no brighter yellow was seen among all the Easter 

 flowers. 



The Spring Meeting of the Pennsylvania Forestry Association 

 will be held in the Cliapel of the Normal School, Westchester, 

 on Friday the 26th inst., at 7.30 P. M. Mr. B. G. Northrop will 

 address the Association uj^on the subject of Arbor Day. 

 All persons interested in the preservation of our trees and 

 forests are invited to be present. 



Easter Lilies, in large quantities, from Bermuda, were on 

 sale in this city last week. They do not endure transportation 

 well, and are much inferior to home-grown tiovvers, the prices 

 of which were but slightly affected by the imported Lilies. The 

 demand for all kinds of Ifowers seemed greater than ever, but 

 owing to the lateness of the season the market was well sup- 

 plied, and prices were not exorbitant. Roses and Daffodils 

 were in greatest demand. In the decoration of churches 

 branches of Japan Quince, Forsythias, Genista and other shrubs 

 in flower were used very generally, and with good effect. 



In Philadelphia the Bermuda Lily and L. longiflorum were 

 both unusually abundant in the Easter flower-markets, and 

 prices declined twenty per cent. The highest retail price for 

 these was forty cents each for every open flower and unex- 

 panded bud upon the plant. Azaleas were abundant and 

 sold at profitable prices. Tulips, as cut flowers, except the 

 lighter varieties, were in slight demand. Roses were sought 

 for more than any other flower, and brought good prices. 

 There seemed to be no notable preference for any particular 

 flower. Flowering plants of Hydrangea of various kinds 

 were sold in great numbers, but they are always popular as 

 gifts at this season. 



The Swiss Alpine Club and a newly-formed society for the 

 protection of native plants have recently joined in establishing 

 a garden in which Alpine plants are to be grown and the di- 

 rectors of which will endeavor to spread among the people a 

 knowledge of the great necessity which exists for preserving 

 them from extermination. Not orfly the famous " Edelweiss " 

 but numberless other Swiss plants are in danger of being 

 swept from the face of the earth by reckless tourists and by 

 native collectors, who pick them in large quantities to press 

 and sell to foreigners. The garden is to be called " Linnaea," 

 and the place chosen for it is near the town of Fionnay, in the 

 commune of Bagues, Valais, at a height of some 1,500 metres 

 above the sea-level. 



The leading article in the Gardeners' Chronicle for March 

 30th was a reprint of the one on Mr. HunnevveU's "Italian 

 Garden " at Wellesley, which was recently published in these 

 columns. The full-page pictin-e which formed the supple- 

 ment of the same issue was not, however, a duplicate of ours, 

 but a different view of the gardens, takeft last year from the 

 lake. Its label inaccurately gave the site of the garden as 

 " Boston, Massachusetts." Wellesley lies, in fact, some dozen 

 miles from Boston, in the town which derives its name from 

 Mr, HunnevveU's estate, and of which the chief feature, as is 

 well known in this country, is Wellesley College, one of the 

 largest establishments of the sort in die world devoted exclu- 

 sively to the education of women. 



A correspondent of an English horticultural journal wrote 

 as follows with regard to the Orchid Exhibidon held not long 

 ago in the Eden Musee in this city : "Being the first horficul- 

 tural show that I had ever witnessed in the United States I was 

 somewhat desirous of observing in what points it would vary 

 from one in the old country. It was astonishing to note so 

 great a difference in the methods and manner of exhibiting 

 the plants, there being none of that stiff formality so charac- 

 teristic of the English fiower-show, but all was grace and ele- 

 gance, even to the tables, which were not overcrowded or in 

 straight lines, showing off the exhibits to adv^antage. . . . The 

 largest and most meritorious exhibit was that of the firm of 

 Siebrecht & Wadley." Mr. W. S. Kimball was mentioned as 

 chief among the amateur exhibitors, although the coUections 

 of others were nained with praise. 



The death was recently announced of Ernst Rudolph von 

 Trautvetter, who was born in Germany in 1809, but spent most 

 of his life in Russia. In 1835 he was appointed assistant to 

 the director of the Imperial Botanical Garden in St. Peters- 

 burg, and a little later professor of botany at the University of 

 Kiew, where he founded a botanical garden. In 1850 he be- 

 came rector of this imiversity, and in 1866 was made direc- 

 tor of the St. Petersburg garden. More than eighty botanical 

 treatises were pidjlished by Trautvetter, most of which relate 

 to the flora of the far northern parts of Russia and Siberia, and 

 of the Caucasus, and the most southerly parts of European 

 Russia. He was recognized as an authority on the plants of 

 the empire, and his chief works — " Florae Rossicas Fontes " 

 and " Incrementa Floras Phanogamae Rossicse" — are indis- 

 pensible to all botanists who desire to carry his investiga- 

 tions fiu-ther. 



The Rev. Dr. R. S. Storrs has retired from the Board of Park 

 Commissioners of Brooklyn. In his letter of resignation he 

 explains that this step has been rendered necessary by a recent 

 interpretation of the law by which the functions of the Board 

 are regulated. Under this interpretation the Board has no 

 authority to expend, according to its own judgment, and under 

 its responsibility to the city, the moneys specifically appropri- 

 ated for its use in the care and maintenance of the parks. Dr. 

 Storrs says : " It is qiute impossible for me to devote time and 

 labor to the work of making suggestions which, after they 

 shall have been discussed, matured and adopted by the Board, 

 may or may not prove acceptable to others having the real 

 authority in the premises. My time and thought are too much 

 engaged upon other things to allow tiiem to be given to such 

 ineffective skirmishing in the air; and it is painful to me to 

 see the Park already suffering, and destined to suffer more and 

 more for want of work which the Board has no power to order 

 to be done, yet for which the feeling of the city holds it 

 responsible." 



The windows of the flower-shops in Boston have never 

 been so well flUed as they are this year. They have not before 

 displayed such a variety of flowers, or such well-grown speci- 

 mens. Not even in Paris can displays of this sort be seen so 

 tastefully arranged. Roses, in very great variety and of sur- 

 prising excellence, are the great feature in these windows ; but 

 there is a marked increase of comparatively rare flowers — 

 Orchids, Lilies, Amaryllis with forced Rhododendrons and 

 Gladioli, besides the usual forced bulbs in great variety, Aza- 

 leas, Violets, Pansies, Carnations and other famifiar flowers. 

 There is no other city where such dislays can be seen, or 

 where such free object-lessons ai'e offered to every passer-by. 

 The number and the excellence of the flowers sold in the 

 streets by itinerant dealers, at prices which can hardly make 

 much return to the growers, is simply astonishing. Boston is 

 more than holding its own as a great centre in the world of hor- 

 ticultural development and horticultural taste, and the labors of 

 the men who founded and maintained the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society is now bearing its legitimate fruits. 



Continuing his articles on tlie cultivation of Roses for the 

 production of attar, to which we have already referred as aix 

 interesting feature in recent numbers of the Gartenflora, Dr. 

 Dieck gives the following account of planting operations in 

 Roumelia : " In the autumn, sections of ripened wood, about 

 one foot in length, are laid in trenches at the distance of two 

 or three feet apart, and covered with two or three inches of 

 soil. The sprouts, which spring from the eyes in the wood, 

 take root without difficulty and grow into hedges, which often 

 bear as early as the second year, although it is only in the 

 fourth year that complete development is reached and a full 

 harvest can be gathered. The hedges are formed one or two 

 metres apart, according as it is desired or not to grow vege- 

 tables between them. In the autumn, and in the spring 

 until harvesting time, the ground is diligently hoed and loos- 

 ened, and, in certain places, the bushes ^are covered at the 

 advent of winter, as in the higher districts harmful frosts are 

 not uncommon." The methods of culture pursued in Asia 

 Minor are similar. But the planting is carried on in a " truly 

 Turkish way," which reveals the fatalistic Mohammedan be- 

 lief that if Allah wills a tree to grow the help of man is super- 

 fluous. "The worthy Turk of Bithynia simply makes a hole 

 about two feet deep in the place where he wishes a new Oil- 

 rose to grow. Then he cuts off from a Rose-tree a bundle of 

 twigs, throws them in the hole, with a pile of horse-dung on 

 top of them, fills up the hole, and leaves the rest to Allah. 

 The only remarkable thing is that almost invariably some one 

 of the buried buds manages to sprout, pushes up through the 

 dung and the heavy layer of earth, and justifies- the faith of its 

 planter." 



