222 



Garden and Forest. 



[May 8, 18H9 



mickllc of the last century upon a tree in a German forest), 

 either directly from g;rafts, and now sometimes by seeds ; 

 for the ]-)lants raised from the seed of a purple-leaved 

 tree preserve more or less constantly this character to a 

 greater or less degree. 7'he seed from certain trees 

 yield more purple-leaved seedlings than those from other 

 trees, although the proportion of the purple-leaved seed- 

 lings from the same tree vary in different years, and among 

 purple-leaved seedlings there is always a great variety ot 

 shades of color. In other words, a race of purple-leaved 

 Beeches is gradually becoming "fixed ; " and if it was not 

 in practice more convenient and satisfactory to propagate 

 the best varieties of this tree by grafting it would doubtless 

 be perfectly possible, at the end of a few generations, to 

 raise from seed Beeches with leaves of almost any shade 

 of purple with as much certainty as difTerent races of the 

 Cabbage are obtained from seed. There is no reason to 

 doubt, therefore, that the variety will be as permanent as 

 the type from which it originated. 



It would be interesting to know if there are large or very 

 fine specimens of the Purple Beech in the neighborhood ot 

 this city or of Philadelphia. 



M- 



Cultural Department. 

 Brussels Sprouts and Savoys. 

 ANY people object to Cabbage and even'to Savoys — Cau- 

 liflower they have found uncertain in our climate, and 

 hard to grow without the aid of glass. For a delicate form of 

 Cabl)age, Brussels Sprouts are to be commended. They re- 

 quire a rich soil, and if success is expected they must be 

 alumdantly fed. The seed should be started early, and the 

 plants should receive the same treatment as Cabbages, but 

 the Sprouts last all summer, and should be placed where they 

 can have the whole ground for the season. The plants grovv 

 with a large, loose, Cabbage-like top and a tall stalk below, 

 over which little Cabbage-like heads form, which can be 

 gathered all summer and until the hard frost of the north may 

 destroy them. In Virginia they usually endure the winter, 

 and furnish an abundance of greens when planted late in 

 summer. Boiled in clean water and dressed with cream, the 

 little heads make a good substitute for Caulifiovver. The plants 

 grovv tall and top-heavy, and in small gardens it will pay well 

 to stalce and tie them up. 



Most people who consider Cabbage an essentially coarse 

 food are unacquainted with the Savoy class. Even the Savoys 

 which have been crossed and increased in size and coarse- 

 ness, like the Drumhead Savoy, are still far superior to the ordi- 

 nary Flat Dutch and Drumheads. And now we have a variety 

 known as the Netted Savoy, which combines fair size with the 

 highest quality. We never miss Cauliflowers while we have 

 good Netted Savoys. The difficulty in growing all late sum- 

 mer Cabbages is the ravenous green caterpillars which eat 

 them so greedily. Pyrethrum powder will destroy the worms 

 if constantly and thoroughly used, but the maurauders come 

 so rapidly that if the application is not made almost daily it is 

 useless, and with good pyrethrum at seventy-five cents per 

 pound, it will not take long to spend the value of the Cab- 

 bages. I generally succeed in raising good ci-ops of Cabbage 

 without pyrethrum by stimulating the growth of the plants 

 during summer with occasional top-dressings of nitrate of 

 soda and frequent, shallow cultivation. 

 Crny.ct, Va. IF. F. Afassey. 



How We Rid Our Vines of the Mealv-Bug. 



VyiTH the exception of Phylloxera this is the worst pest the 

 ** Grape-grower has to contend with. When I took charge 

 of these gardens I found that two vineries were badly infested, 

 and the vines were also in very bad condition, and most of 

 the bunches of grapes were full of the bug. I had been told 

 it was impossible to clear vines of the bug, but I determined 

 to try what could be done with those in one house. A few of 

 the bunches were not affected, and by tying pieces of wadding 

 around the stalks of these the fruit was kept clear until it was 

 ripe. When the fruit had been consumed the laterals were 

 shortened back, and the spurs, which were onlv nine inches 

 apart on either side of the rods, were thinned out to about 

 eighteen inches apart. The vines were then heavily syringed 

 with warm water in which one ounce of soft-soap and one 

 tablespoonful of paraffin per gallon were mixed, taking care to 

 keep it well stirred. This operation was repeated several times 

 until the leaves had falleri, and it reduced the numbers of the 



insects considerably. As soon as possible after the fall of the 

 leaf the vines were'pruned, the loose bark pulled off, and the 

 crevices and spurs scraped with a knife; the glass, woodwork 

 and iron trellis thoroughly washed with hot water and soft- 

 soap, and the wood and iron painted all over with paraffin. 

 Finally the houses were filled with fumes of sulphur, and the 

 walls were scraped and then dressed with hot lime-wash in 

 which some sulphur and carbolic acid had been mixed. The 

 top soil was taken off the border to the depth of three inches, 

 tiie vines were scrubbed with hot water and soft-soap at the 

 rate of nine ounces to the gallon, and were painted over with a 

 mixture of gas-tar and stiff blue clay, the latter being dried 

 and rubbed into a powder before being well mixed with the 

 tar, the whole forming a stiff paste, witli which the vines were 

 coated all over, care being taken not to injure the buds. Some 

 fresh loam was put on the border, and we thought that the last 

 of the mealy-bugs was killed. Meanwhile steps were taken to 

 assist the roots l)y renewing the outside border, which hatlgot 

 into a very bad state. The vines having started gently on 

 January 5th, all went well, and no traces of bug were found, 

 but as the sap began to rise the coating of clay and tar ex- 

 panded, and on examining the vines, just as the buds were 

 breaking, three or four young l)ugs were disco\'ered — a proof 

 that not as yet were all killed. As a last resource a gallon of 

 boiling water was procured, and into which was put five wine- 

 glasses full of paraffin, five of carbolic acid, and half a pound 

 of soft-soap; this was carefully applied all over the rods, with 

 the exception of the growing buds, and decided the fruit in 

 our favor, as we have not had a bug on the vines since that 

 time. This last application may appear to be too strong to be 

 safely applied generally, and I have no doubt it would have 

 injured the vines had they not have been partially protected 

 by the previous application of clay and tar, which formed a 

 hard coating all over them. — W. H. Diners, in Gardeners' 

 Chronicle. 



Orchid Notes. 



Among the many select Cypripediums now in bloom at the 

 United States Nurseries, C. Wallisii superbiim deserves men- 

 tion for its rarity and beauty. It belongs to the section 

 Selenipedia, and is a variety of C. caudatiim Wallisii. It is 

 supposed to have been imported from Ecuador by the collec- 

 tor whose name it bears, and so far as known there are but 

 three plants in existence. Theflowers are somewhat larger than 

 those of C. caiidatum, of a soft lemon color, veined and marbled 

 with delicate green. The dorsal sepal is hood-shaped, se\'en 

 inches long by three inches wide at the base, and the lower 

 sepal is similar, although slightly darker. The lip, which is of 

 unusual size, is veined with a deeper color than the sepals — 

 pure white within and mottled on the edge with crimson. The 

 petals are more than twenty inches long, of a crimson tint, ex- 

 cept at the base, where they are of a pale yellow. Two or three 

 flowers are borne on a scape eighteen inches long and well 

 above the long, deep gi'een leaves. 



C. SchrmiercB is another rare Orchid belonging to the same 

 section of this genus, a hybrid between C. caudatinn and C. 

 Sedeni, and raised by the Messrs. Veitch & Sons. It inherits 

 the "tails" of C. caiidatuin, while in color it approaches C. 

 Sedeni, although superior to the latter plant in this respect. 

 The dorsal sepal is whitish, suffused with rosy pink and slightly 

 A-eined with green, while the lower sepals are of a pale rose 

 color. The twisted petals are pink, with veins of deeper shade, 

 while the li]) is a pak: carmine; the lobes white, spotted with 

 purple. 



C. bellaiuluin is another recent introduction, which has been 

 already described in Garden and Forest. It belongs to the 

 Euc}'pripedia; the fiowers are thi'ee inches in tliameter with 

 brownish-|)urple spots showing' to advantage on a groiuid of 

 pale lemon-yellow. The scape is \-ery short, scarcely holding 

 the single flowers abo\-e the i-emarkably large and slightly 

 mottled leaves. 



C. Driiryi superbiim, C. Rosbellini, C. hirsutissiniuui, C. Day- 

 antim, choice varieties of C barbatuni, C. Sedeni candidwn, 

 a pure white variety of C. niveii/n and many other choice speci- 

 mens of the genus are now in flower. tt r, , 

 siiort Hills, N.J. J^- A. Bimyard. 



Orchid-growers In America will be interested in the fact that 

 Mr. F. Sander has succeeded in getting from Madagascar 

 "a splendid consignment of living plants of Phajiis tiiberctilo- 

 sus and P. Hiimblotii," two of the most beautiful of all Orchids. 

 In England these two species are extremely rare, almost all 

 the plants previously obtained and distributed by Mr. Sander 

 and others having died. They are not easily kept in health, 

 but when successfully managed and flowered they are really 

 gorgeous Orchids. The genus Catasetum is getting a great 



