2Bg 



Garden and Forest. 



[June 12, 1889. 



the origin of a plant which has become one of the most pop- 

 ular and universally used evergreen shrubs of English gar- 

 dens ; and these last results (of which more are promised) of 

 Dr. Masters' studies of garden plants are a solid and valuable 

 contribution to knowledge. 



M.A.CLEANIA PUNCTATA, Gardeners' Chronicle, April 27th; 

 the berries of this vacciniaceous shrub — a native of the 

 Andes of Ecuador — are now first made known from a speci- 

 men grown in the gardens of Chatsworth. 



Notes. 



It is expected that during the month of June three thousand 

 varieties of Roses will bloom in the grounds of the Interna- 

 tional Exposition at Paris. 



The larvEe of the Imported Elm-leaf beetle are already- 

 appearing, and the sooner the trees are sprayed the better. 

 One pound of London Purple to one hundred gallons of water 

 makes an efficacious mixture. 



Those of our readers who intend passing the summer in 

 England may be interested to know that important Rose- 

 shows will be held as follows: July 2d, Boston, Sutton; July 

 loth and nth, Brighton, Ealing; July 17th, Bedford; July 

 26th and 27th, Wilmslow. 



Mr. Edward L. Greene will devote the next three months to 

 exploring the forests of Colorado, Montana, Oregon, Washing- 

 ton and California, and his journey should throw much new 

 light upon some of the perplexing questions relative .to the 

 trees of western America. 



The summer meeting of the Wisconsin Horticultural So- 

 ciety will be held at Sparta, on June 19th and 20th. Prizes will 

 be offered for the best essay on the native trees of Wisconsin 

 and for the best plan for laying out a school-ground not ex- 

 ceeding an acre in area. Here is an exainple which some of 

 the older states might follow with profit. 



The Association of American Nurserymen, at their meeting 

 in Chicago last week, elected the following officers for the 

 year: President, Geo. A. Sweet, of Dansville, New York ; Sec- 

 retary, Charles A. Green, of Rochester, New York; Treasurer, 

 A. R. Whitney, Franklin Grove, lUinois; Executive Commit- 

 tee, Leo Weltz, Wilmington, Ohio ; S. D. Willard, Geneva, 

 New York; S. M. Emery, Lake City, Minnesota. 



M. Viullemin has recently discovered that the now wide- 

 spread disease of the Lombardy Poplar is due to the attacks 

 oi ainngus, {Didyniospkceria poJ)iilina), against which a solu- 

 tion of sulphate of copper has been found effective. But as 

 the lower branches of the trees are attacked first, it is sug- 

 gested that their removal as soon as the presence of the fun- 

 gus is detected will check the spread of the disease. 



A plant of the new Strawberry originated by Mr. James Ni- 

 mon, of Dennison, Texas, and named Parker Earle, has been 

 sent to this office from the experiment-grounds of the Rural 

 New Yorker. The plant is remarkable for its strong foliage 

 and for the abundance of fruit, held up from the ground by 

 the stout peduncles. The berries are large, of excellent 

 flavor, and their entire surface becomes white like wax before 

 turning red. 



A Brussels journal notes the fact that the Belgian Govern- 

 ment has decided to grow plants for distribution in the schools 

 in sufficient numbers to insure that each student shall have a 

 specimen before him when he takes his botanical lesson. A 

 subscription price of five francs yearly seems cheap enough, 

 even if it stands only for an individual pupil ; but in Berlin for 

 a number of years plants have been cultivated for the same 

 purpose and freely distributed by the government. When 

 shall we be intelligent enough to follow German example in 

 directions like this ? 



During the last session of Congress the sum of $200,000 

 was appropriated for the establishment of a zoological garden 

 in Washington. The necessary site for it has now been se- 

 lected. It comprises about 150 acres, lies to the north-west of 

 the city, about two miles from the White House, along the 

 banks of Rock Creek, and is said to be admirably situated and 

 in every way well adapted for its purpose. It is expected that 

 before next winter the necessary arrangements will be so far 

 advanced that the animals now inappropriately housed in the 

 grounds of the Smithsonian Institution can be removed to 

 their new quarters. 



Patchouli, says a recent writer in the Journal of the Agricul- 

 tural and Horticultural Society of India, is the product of Oci- 



mum Basilicum, v&v.pilosujn. The species is largely grown on 

 the continent of Europe in pots for room decoration, under 

 the familiar name of Sweet Basil. It is a small annual be- 

 longing to the Labiatcp, with little white flowers in simple race- 

 mes. The variety Pilosum seldom or ever flowers, the perfume 

 iieing obtained from its aromatic leaves. Its cultivation is 

 almost entirely confined to the Chinese of the Straits Settle- 

 ments, who grow the plants from cuttings in raised beds. 



A fine, colored plate of Dictamnus fraxinella, showing both 

 the crimson and the white varieties, was recently published in 

 the Garden. About a year ago one of our correspondents 

 called attention to this plant, saying that it was once a great 

 favorite, but now, despite its beauty and its peculiarly attrac- 

 tive fragrance, is seldom seen and almost forgotten. Never- 

 theless, it is a surprise to learn from the text which accom- 

 panies the picture in the Garden that no colored illustration of 

 Fraxinella had ever before been published in England. The 

 great peculiarity of the plant is the luminosity it develops on 

 warm summer nights, owing to the aromatic juice which ex- 

 udes from its pores, especially those of the pedicels of the 

 flowers. 



Professor Patrick, of the Iowa Agricultural College, under- 

 took last winter to make a chemical study of apple twigs to 

 ascertain whether he could detect differences of composition 

 between the young growth of such varieties as are hardy, and 

 those which are not hardy in that region. At the same time 

 and for the same purpose a microscopic examination was 

 made of apple twigs by Dr. Halsted. It would be a great ad- 

 vantage if hardy and tender varieties could be distinguished 

 from each other by a chemical analysis or an examination of 

 their cell-structure. Professor Budd, indeed, has expressed 

 the opinion that there was an apparent difference in the struc- 

 ture and composition of the trees which proved hardy in Iowa 

 and those which were tender. The results of Professor Pat- 

 rick's analysis "lend, perhaps, some slight encouragement" 

 to this idea. Professor Halsfed found "no paraUelism be- 

 tween microscopic structural differences and ability to with- 

 stand the influences of a trying climate." 



The only plant of any size, probably, of the true Ai>ies amabilis 

 to be seen in the eastern States is growing in the nurseries of 

 Mr. Josiah Hoopes, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. This, for 

 many years and until 1880, when Engelmann and Sargent gath- 

 ered a number of small seedlings in the mountains of the 

 lower Eraser, and subsequently made arrangements for the col- 

 lection of large quantities of seed, was the rarest of all the 

 western American conifers in cultivation; the only large plants 

 in Europe being those in the Botanic Garden at Edinburgh and 

 in the Arboretum of Dropmore, derived from the scanty col- 

 lections of David Douglas, who found this tree more than half 

 a century ago on the Cascade Mountains, overlooking the great 

 Falls of the Columbia. He discovered on the same day and in 

 the same locality Abies nobilis. Abies amabilis was certainly 

 well named, for it is by far the loveliest of the North 

 American Firs. The West Chester plant is a graft from the 

 Edinburgh tree ; and although some fifteen years planted, it 

 has been slow, like so many grafted conifers, in getting started 

 to grow. It has at last, however, commenced to grow satis- 

 factorily, and is now somediing like four and a half feet high 

 with a diameter of branches of seven feet on the ground. It is 

 healthy, and apparently quite hardy, giving promise of becom- 

 ing a handsome tree. 



A constant inci-ease may be noted in the variefies of flow- 

 ers sold by the street venders in this city. In a space of a 

 block and a half there were counted, a short time ago, Roses 

 of several kinds, among which La France, Bon Silene and 

 General Jacqueminot were most conspicuous. Heliotrope, 

 Pansies, Carnations of many colors, including large numbers 

 of a fine scarlet kind with unusually long stems, Lilies-of-the- 

 Valley, Peonies, white and red, Magnohas (the sweet-scented 

 M. glauca), Corn-flowers, Syringa, Mountain Laurel, huge 

 baskets full, and Daisies by the thousand, sometimes mingled 

 with Red Clover blossoms. A few moment's observafion 

 showed that the preference of purchasers was distinctly for the 

 wild flowers. Hot-house flowers are lovely in themselves, but 

 they tell of nothing but themselves, while the wild flowers 

 bring with them a picture of the spot where they grew, a vis- 

 ion of summer, a breath of country air, and eyes weary of 

 brick and mortar are quick to appreciate the difference. Ex- 

 cellent taste is shown by many of the peddlers in making up 

 their wares. The bunches of Daisies and Clover very often as 

 fresh and natural as though a child had just picked them, and 

 sometimes sprays of Beech leaves are prettily mingled with 

 the Daisies. 



