228 



Garden and Forest. 



[May 8, il 



received it from Mrs. Barniini, of tlie American Mission at 

 Kharput, in Armenia. 



Cai.iandka oppositifolia, a 7051 ; a native of tlic moun- 

 tains of Oret^on and nortliern California — a neat but not very 

 sliowy-llowcrcd species. 



Notes. 



Tlie annual congress of tlie German Pomolugical Society 

 will be held this year at Stuttgart, between the 22d and the 30th 

 of September. 



A horticultural and a l)otanical congress will both be held 

 in Paris during the month of August, this year, in connection 

 with the International Exhibition. An agricultural congress 

 will be held during the month of July. 



After the meeting of the Pennsylvania State Forestry Asso- 

 ciation, at Westchester, on the 26th of April, a Chester County 

 Forestry Association was organized, with the Honorable Wash- 

 ington Townsend as President, and Professor J. P. Welsh as 

 Secretary. 



A new edition of Mr. Robinson's popular "English Flower 

 Garden" has just been issued by Murray, of London. It con- 

 tains more than 1,400 pictures, illustrating many beautiful Eng- 

 lish gardens, Efe well as nearly all the plants that are hardy in 

 the kingdom. 



The parasitic insects which have been imported from Aus- 

 tralia to prey upon the cottony cushion-scale, the most serious 

 enemy of the Orange in California, are already multiplying 

 rapidly in Los Angeles, and sweep the scale before them, as has 

 been the experience in Australia. Mr. Koebele, the agent of 

 the government, has brought to California a large supply of 

 these predaceous beetles, and will distril^ute them wherever 

 the scale is troublesome. 



The legend of St. Patrick and his expulsion of all vermin 

 from the Emerald Isle probably gave rise to the ancient belief 

 that Irish oak-wood was superior to all other kinds, having a 

 sort of sacred character and being proof against the ravages of 

 insects. The venerable Bede declared that this wood " hath a 

 virtue against poison," and so great was its renown that even 

 at the end of the last century it was imported by the King of 

 Portugal after the great earthquake at Lisbon to share in the 

 construction of his new church. The original rafters of West- 

 minster Hall were of Irish oak. 



An English horticultm'al journal states that a small box of 

 Lilies-of-the-Valley was recently sent from England to Pieter- 

 maritzburg, in South Africa, the plants being packed in a tin 

 box, and each root enveloped first in damp moss and then in 

 tin-foil. " The roots were all tightly packed at one end of the 

 box, the other end being left vacant to admit of growth being 

 made. The crowns were just bursting their first foliar en- 

 velope, and by the time the parcel reached its destination — a 

 journey of twenty-four days — the buds were just breaking into 

 bloom, and the plants were in a perfectly healthy condition." 



In 1887 a spot disease was observed on Cucumbers near 

 Geneva, New York, wdiich almost ruined the crop. Professor 

 Arthur pronounces it a parasitic fungus similar to one which 

 has been disfiguring Peaches in Indiana, detracting from their 

 beauty and hindering their growth. The Cucumber spot did 

 not appear at Geneva in 1888, although it seems an aggressive 

 fungus. It has been named Cladiosporiiini cucumeriiim. The 

 fungus on Peaches has only been recorded before as occur- 

 ring in southern Austria, where it was named C. carpophiliiin. 

 No remedies for either disease have yet been tried so far as 

 known, but both of them threaten to become dangerous pests. 



The pea-weevil {Bruchiis pisi) and the bean-weevil {Bruchtcs 

 faba) can be destroyed by putting the Peas or Beans into a 

 pail and covering them with water ; if the water is warmed to 

 about blood-heat all the better, but this is not necessary as 

 cold water will answer. If the seed remain in the water from 

 eight to twelve hours every weevil will be destroyed, as the 

 cavity containing the insect is soon filled by the water ab- 

 sorbed by the seed and the weevil is drowned. This simple 

 remedy, which is recommended by Professor J. W. Clark, of 

 the Agricidtural College of Missouri, is not only effective, but 

 does no injury to the seed, and if the seed is not soaked 

 until the day before planting it will germinate more readily 

 than before. 



Speaking of the great popularity of Cobaa scandens, the 

 Revile Horticole says that it seems somewhat strange that 

 until recently no \'ariety of it had been raised. A novelty is, 

 however, now offered in the shape of a white-flowered \'ariety, 

 which differs from the type not only in the color of the blos- 



soms but in the paler green of tlie leaves and the purplish hue 

 of the stems, which passes into whitish in the young shoots. 

 "Although tlicsc differences may not be considered very im- 

 portant, they are sufficiently so to be appreciated when the two 

 forms are growing close together, as \\-e recently saw them at 

 Paris, planted alternately and entirely covering a wall with 

 their abimdant foliage, prettily relieved by the white and violet- 

 colored flowers. The white-flowered Cobfea l)eing as vigorous 

 and hardy as the type, the same details of culture are applic- 

 able to both forms." 



Few persons imagine how many different substances have 

 been used of late years in the making of paper. Rags, of 

 course, still furnish the bulk of our paper, but large quantities 

 are also made of wood, straw and Esparto-grass (Stipa tenacis- 

 sima) \ and. in various parts of the world successfid experi- 

 ments have been made with a multitude of materials that have 

 not yet been brought into general use. In France paper has 

 been manufactured out of leaves which are cut, pressed into 

 blocks, and then steeped in lime-water to reduce them to pulp. 

 In Ireland the Mallow, the Hop-vine, the Yellow Iris, and even 

 the Red Clover have furnished paper pidp, and in Scotland 

 the stems of the Hollyhock, peat, bracken, flags and rushes of 

 several kinds. Sea-weed and tan have also been used in Eu- 

 rope, and in the East, Ramie Pine-apple fibre. Bamboo stalks 

 and the refuse of Sugar-cane. 



Professor W. A. Henry, writing in Agricultural Science of 

 some weeds that are becoming troublesome in Wisconsin, 

 says: "On the great plateau along the eastern flank of the 

 Rocky Mountains grows Solamnn rostratum, a homely, harm- 

 less sort of plant. The naturalist knows it to be the original 

 food-plant of the Colorado potato-beetle {DorypJiora 10- 

 lineata). In the year 1872 or thereabouts the beetle, coming 

 across the uncultivated strip of eastern Colorado and western 

 Kansas, found a new food-plant in the common cultivated po- 

 tato, and spread with marvelous rapidity over the country. 

 Solanum rostratiim also comes into the fields to conquer, and 

 has spread on cultivated lands in Texas and Missouri, where, 

 with greatly increased size, it proves a troublesome weed. 

 Last summer Mr. L. H. Pammel, one of our agricultural 

 graduates, now professor of botany in Iowa Agricultural Col- 

 lege, found this plant growing at Watertown, in this State. It is 

 following up the potato-beetle. Will it spread over as large an 

 area as its old acquaintance ? " 



Nothing could have been more elTective or in better taste 

 than the floral decorations of the Metropolitan Opera House 

 as arranged for the great Centennial ball and banquet last 

 week. The walls of the lobbies and lower staircases were 

 entirely concealed by plants so that they presented the aspect 

 of verdant bowers, yet a certain architectural dignity was pre- 

 served by the systematic employment of tall, upright Junipers 

 intermixed with the lower plants. On the face of the arch 

 leading from the main lobby into the house the dates 1789- 

 1889 were emblazoned in red upon a quiet green ground, but, 

 with this exception, scarcely any cut flowers were used ; and 

 the growing ones were beautifully massed in contrasting 

 groups. The corners were filled with pyramidal banks of 

 pink Hydrangeas, and against .the piers stood enormous 

 tall clumps of while Lilies with masses of red Geraniums or 

 Azaleas around their base. In other spots great Azalea 

 bushes rose from a foundation of white Spirseas, or yellow 

 Cytisus from banks of yellow-centred bush Daisies ; and the 

 beauty of the individual plants was as conspicuous as the 

 tasteful richness of the general effect. In the supper room 

 again there were no set pieces, but Azaleas, Spiraeas, and 

 other growing plants adorned the tables at intervals. The 

 arrangement of the chandeliers in this temporary structure 

 was especially pretty. They were formed as round baskets 

 filled with Palms and Pine branches, apparently growing, 

 and with streamers of Ivy, amid which rose gracefully 

 curving stem-like supports bearing the electric lights. Few 

 plants were used in the ball-room as space was precious,' 

 but the corners of the stage opposite the Presidential boxes 

 were banked with pink Hydrangeas and other plants of an 

 harmonious character, while long festoons of green hung 

 from the proscenium arch. Of course, the finest display was 

 when the house was arranged for the dinner on Tuesday; 

 then the vast room was encircled with tall, green plants, and 

 the tables were profusely yet most tastefully adorned, flowers 

 of a single hue, or at most of two contrasting hues, being 

 exclusively used on each of the different tables. Mr. Klunder 

 has long been famous for his skill in floral decoration, but 

 his success in this instance will add a conspicuous new leaf 

 to his laurels. 



