300 



Garden and Forest. 



[June 19, i5 



Notes. 



The Legislature of California, atits last session, amended the 

 state revenue laws so as to exempt fruit-trees and Grape-vines 

 from taxation. 



Syringa Pekincnsis, Ruim'., is in flower this year in the 

 Arnold Arboretum. This is probably the lirst time that this 

 plant has flowered in culti\'ation. A photograph of a panicle 

 of flowers has been made, and will be reproduced in the 

 pages of this journal. 



On Friday last 2,200 plants of Cycas revolnta were sold at 

 auction by Messrs. Young & Elliott, of this city. This was the 

 larg-est importation of these plants ever disposed of here at a 

 single sale. They varied from six to eighteen inches high and 

 from twelve to sixteen inches in circumference, and were in 

 excellent condition. 



The collection of Orchids belonging to Mr. J. Wallace, of 

 Paterson, New Jersey, was sold on Tuesday last at the auction- 

 rooms of Messrs. Young & Elliott. The lot consisted of 1,700 

 established plants, and the prices realized were good. A 

 strong plant of the beautiful hybrid Catileya Exoniensis 

 brought the highest price, which was seventy dollars. 



The plant most commonly used in Japan for the making of 

 lawns is said by a German horticultural paper to be the Shiba 

 Grass {Artcttdinella anoviala). It is an evergreen which grows 

 to but four or five inches in height and requires to be cut only 

 twice in the year. It must be propagated by division, as it 

 rarely bears good seed, and plants grown from the seed do 

 not, it is said, have the soft gray-green color which is so highly 

 prized by the Japanese. 



The retail florists of Brooklyn have been lately offering for 

 sale fine plants of Pompone Dahlias, about eighteen inches 

 high and full of flowers. They are in four-inch pots, and sell 

 for twenty-five cents each. Dahlias of such size are unusual 

 in this market in early June, and a little investigadon brings 

 out the fact that most, if not all, of the plants come from the 

 establishment of Kritchsmar Brothers, Flatbush, Long Island. 

 This firm raised some 10,000 plants, 1,000 of which were sold 

 to the Brooklyn Jockey Club for decorating their grounds. A 

 large proportion of the Dahlias are of the old white variety, 

 known as Camellieeflora, but there are also colored Pompone 

 varieties which seem equally well-grown. The same growers 

 every year plant a house full of the white Dahlia, mentioned 

 above, for winter flowers. 



It is proposed, in connection with the International Ex- 

 position of Geographical, Commercial and Industrial Botany, 

 which will be held in Antwerp next year, to celebrate the third 

 centennial of the invention of the microscope. An historical 

 exhibit will be arranged, and another of the dilTerent forms of 

 the microscope, as at present perfected ; and these exhibits 

 will 1)0 illustrated by a series of descriptive lectures, which can 

 hardly fail to be interesting and instructive. The compound 

 microscope was invented by two brothers, Hans and Zacharia 

 Janssen.of Middelburg, in 1590. It was little employed, however, 

 until the end of the first quarter of the present century, when 

 the great improvements invented by Charles Chevallier led to 

 its general use by men of science and made possible the dis- 

 coveries to which the human race owes so much. 



The play-ground in Franklin Park, Boston, a broad and 

 beautiful meadow, one of the purest and simplest of Mr. Olm- 

 sted's creations, was formally dedicated to the public use on 

 Wednesday of last week, in the presence of the Governor of 

 the Commonwealth, the Mayor of Boston, 8,000 pupils of 

 the pulilic shools, and a vast concourse of spectators, before 

 whom the School Regiment, made up of battalions from the 

 High Schools of the city, paraded. The school children joined 

 in singing "The Star Spangled Banner" when the flag was dis- 

 played from the tall staff in the middle of the meadow, and the 

 people of Boston realized for the first time what it is to have a 

 park. A few passing clouds and some drops of rain served to 

 temper the heat of the day, and neither interfered, with the 

 success nor detracted from the beauty of one of the most pic- 

 turesque and important events in the recent history of the New 

 England metropolis. 



Everyone knows that the stork is almost superstitiously be- 

 loved by the peasants of northern Germany and the Low 

 Countries, and that iron supports upon which he may build 

 his nest are set on cottage-gables in the belief that where a 

 stork has his brood fire will never come. Nevertheless, trav- 

 elers are often surprised when they see how tame the great 

 birds become, following the agriculturalist through field and 

 furrow, and often sleeping on one tall red leg close to where 



he is at work and within sound of the rumble of the passing- 

 railroad train. So fond is the Dutchman of having storks 

 about him, indeed, that he makes provision for its nests even 

 in the centre of his bulb-fields. Here one may often see slen- 

 der poles some twenty or thirty feet in height, supported by 

 braces and bearing at the top a small I'ound platform similarly 

 strengthened. On these the storks build their nests, and here 

 they perch, like sentinels protecting the beautiful crops. 



The Woman's Division of the German Academic Associa- 

 tion recently decided to promote the education of women in 

 the art of gardening, " partly in order to enable the future 

 housewife to care for her own garden, but chiefly to open new 

 sources of income to the unmarried." A committee of the 

 Association for the Promotion of Horticultin-e at once con- 

 cerned itself with the matter, and announced that it would be 

 considered at a general meeting on May 23d. Meanwhile, 

 however, the subject was broached at an open horticultural 

 conference in Berlin on the 8th of May, where 600 gardeners 

 were present. An hour and a half was spent in discussing the 

 advisability of educating women as gardeners, thirty speakers 

 making themselves heard for or against the idea. A vote was 

 then taken, and the following resolution submitted to the 

 ladies' committee of the Academic Associafion : "The confer- 

 ence feels itself compelled to oppose the projects of the 

 Academic Association in the interest of German gardening, as 

 well as in those of woinankind itself, because gardening 

 demands much greater physical powers than usually are 

 found in women, and because the industry is already at this 

 moment sulTering from overcrowding." 



A writer in the Garden speaking of the American White 

 Pine by the name most commonly employed in England, says: 

 " When we consider how valuable a timber-producing tree the 

 Weymouth Pine is, how rapid of growth, how easy of culture, 

 and, withal, how distinct and beautiful, the wonder is that it is 

 not more extensively cultivated on this side of the Atlantic. 

 It is becoming a rare tree in its native wilds, the demand for 

 its beautifully-grained and easily-worked wood being far in ex- 

 cess of the supply." It is true that om-supply of White Pine for 

 commercial purposes has been greatly reduced, partly by le- 

 gitimate use, but still more largely by wasteful methods of 

 cutting and destructive forest fires. But it is a great exaggera- 

 tion to say that Piniis Strobus is becoming a "rare tree" in 

 this country. Fine specimens of noble height, such as were 

 easy to obtain a generation ago, are indeed rare to-day ; but 

 any one who has seen the way in which young White Pines 

 spring up on deserted pastures and fields in New England can 

 hardly fear that it is in danger of perishmg from the land. It 

 still gives a distinctive, character to many broad districts of 

 New England, but, all the same, the counsels which the Eng- 

 lish writer offers his countrymen with regard to the advisabil- 

 ity of cultivating this tree, are even more insistently needed in 

 this coimtry. White Pines will grow whether we plant them 

 or not ; but it would be greatly to our advantage did we plant 

 them more generally and systematically in regions where they 

 once flourished in such stately forests. 



More than one correspondent of a certain English horticul- 

 tural journal has spoken with approval of the idea of growing 

 Roses and Asparagus together, as conducing to a fine display 

 of the beauty of the Roses, while not incompatible with good 

 economical results as regards the Asparagus. "The two 

 plants match," says one, "on the principle of strong contrast," 

 and he exclaims with rapture over the effect when one comes 

 upon " a glorious Rose-bed in the flower-garden overflowing 

 with beauty and verdure, each drooping Rose resting its beau- 

 teous cheek on the soft, feathery fronds of bending Asparagus 

 foliage." To many readers this will seem a singular perver- 

 sion of taste. Not the principle of strong contrast, but the 

 principle of harmony, is that which guides the man of true taste 

 in arranging his growing plants or his cut flowers ; and when 

 a plant has such beautiful foliage as a Rose-tree, it seems per- 

 versity indeed to seek to enhance its effect by an intermixture 

 of green of a totally different character. The massive loveli- 

 ness of a double Rose is surely seen to better advantage 

 resting its cheek on its own leaves or drooping in isolated per- 

 fection than swathed in the fluff of Asparagus shoots. In 

 ancient times Plutarch wrote that there was no better way to 

 show off the beauty of Roses than to plant them among Cab- 

 bages. But such a mixture of alien forms is generally con- 

 demned to-day, while we have so long been accustomed to 

 separating useful from ornamental plants in our gardens, that 

 the mere fact of a utilitarian crop being grown in a Rose-bed 

 would give a slight shock to the feelings, even though the 

 effect might be better to the eye than the one which these 

 English horticulturists admire. 



