June 26, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



303 



men of Sugar Maple during one of the last days of the flow, 

 the average being 5.01 per cent., and 9.88 per cent, was 

 obtained from a similar flow of sap from an isolated White 

 Maple {Acer dasycarptcm), which averaged 4.36 per cent, of 

 sugar during the season. The avertige of all the analyses from 

 all the trees experimented upon is considerably less than 4 

 per cent, of sugar. 



In making some experiments on the sap of the Ash-leaved 

 Maple {Negundo aceroides), Dr. B. J. Harrington, of McGill 

 College, Montreal, found in a series of careful experiments 

 that the average amount of sugar in the sap of these trees was 

 very nearly 2.50 per cent. In a slight test of the sap from a tree 

 of Acer sacchariniim on the college grounds he found a little 

 over s per cent, of sugar. The detailed account of the experi- 

 ments with the Negundo sap is published in the "Transactions 

 of the Royal Society of Canada," vol. v., sect, iii., 1887. 



Adulterations and imitations of botli sugar and syrup are 

 very common. An extract obtained from the bark of Hickory 

 [Caryd) is said to resemble the Maple flavor very closely when 

 mixed with cane syrups. Such imitations may tend to lower 

 the price of the pure product a little, but there will always be a 

 demand for the true article. It is not likely that Maple will 

 take the place of cane-sugar, as Dr. Rush hoped, but the con- 

 sumption and perfection of production will continue to advance. 



Arnold Arboretum. J. G. Jack. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



TVr EVER were the florists of London so busy as they now 

 -^^ are, at the very height of the season. Every day they 

 must provide sumptuous and extravagant feasts of flowers at 

 the houses of the great, where flowers seem to be more 

 highly appreciated than ever. Those who are not behind the 

 scenes wonder where the material comes from to supply the 

 London fashionable world, and to many such an opportunity 

 was afforded the other night to see for themselves the inner 

 life of our great flower-market at Covent Gai'den. The mar- 

 ket-growers and florists have interested themselves in a most 

 commendable way on behalf of a charity established last 

 year as the Gardeners' Orphan Fund, and in order to augment 

 the funds they organized a public fete or show of their own 

 productions, such as they send every day throughout the 

 year to our central flower-emporium. The flower feast, for 

 such it was, was greatly appreciated by thousands who never 

 before saw a wholesale flower-market, and not a few seemed 

 astonished at the gorgeous sight. The perfection to which 

 popular plants are grown for sale astonished even profes- 

 sional gardeners, who have to grow miscellaneous collections 

 of plants, whereas most of the great market-growers devote 

 their sole attention to a few classes of plants, the result being 

 that they bring the plants to absolute perfection. 



The great flower-market at Covent Garden is truly a gor- 

 geous sight, though there is necessarily a good deal of same- 

 ness among the plants exhibited. The flowers of the season 

 were, of course, in strongest force, for the show was just on 

 the eve of " bedding out " week, when millions of plants 

 come through the market to be dispersed throughout the 

 suburbs. Among the most prominent kinds of plants were 

 Pelargoniums of all kinds, but especially the old Scarlet Vesu- 

 vius. It is surprising to see how comparatively few sorts are 

 grown for the market, and it is equally remarkable how very 

 tew among the infinite variety of Pelargonium are able to 

 conform to the market-growers idea of a standard sort. 

 Forced Roses were plentiful, especially the delicate Tea- 

 scented sorts, which seem to take with the public more than 

 the high colored kinds, and this is, I fancy, on account of 

 their perfume. Niphetos is the leading sort with all the 

 growers. Stand after stand was filled with nothing but double 

 Poet's Narcissus, which, for the time, quite usurps the proud 

 position the Gardenia holds for the adornment of the coat. 

 The florists have a clever way of making this Narcissus look 

 so like a Gardenia that it puzzles one to detect the fraud. 

 They "dress " the petals — that is, they extract the small ones, 

 flatten the big ones and surround the bloom with a few leaves 

 of the green Japanese Euonymus, whose shining foliage 

 passes well for that of Gardenia. 



Irises of all varieties of the Japonica group are coming into 

 public favor more and more, especially now that a famous 

 grower at Twickenham has turned his attention to them and 

 has planted the best sorts by the acre. But the Iris is not 

 everybody's flower, and only those who have the gift of artis- 

 tically arranging flowers can make the Iris look as it should in 

 a vase. The sorts most in demand are the dark purples and 



clear yellows and whites. Marguerites are as popular as ever, 

 and their culture is so remunerative that some of the smaller 

 growers produce very little beside them. They were here to 

 be seen of all sizes in jjots, from plants a yard through to the 

 tiny bits in thumb-pots for bedding out. The yellow sorts, 

 such as Compte de Chambord and Etoile d'or, seem to be 

 more difficult to grow than the white, as they were not nearly 

 so fine. Among other popular flowers were Fuchsias, Violets 

 and Pansies, Stocks, Petunias, Lilies of the Valley, Tulips, 

 Scillas, Heaths, Spiraeas and Miss Joliffe Carnations, which sort 

 is undoubtedly the best for the market. The pyramidal Saxi- 

 frage (6". Cotyledon, var. pyramidalis) is now largely grown, 

 and a group of a hundred plants, all with tall clusters of small 

 white flowers, was one of the prettiest things I saw. 



Orchids, singularly enough, were not plentiful, though there 

 was evidence that these fashionable but expensive flowers are 

 becoming more in demand as market flowers. The chief lots 

 of cut blooms were of the Alexandrian Odontoglossum, which 

 for wreaths, sprays and the like, are matchless. Cattleyas, 

 Laelias, and other showy common kinds, were represented by 

 a few flowers, but it is apparent that this Orchid does not find 

 favor with the great growers yet. There was nothing very 

 remarkable among the foliage plants, which, though not so 

 plentiful as the flowers, were to be seen by the thousand. The 

 plants with highly-colored leaves, such as Coleus, Caladiums, 

 Dracaenas, Crotons and the like, seem to be regaining their 

 former popularity, and I am told by the great London nursery- 

 men that fine foliage plants are likely to be as much in demand 

 as they were a dozen years ago, when bright-leaved plants were 

 as popular, almost, as Orchids are now. W. Goldring. 



New or Little Known Plants. 



A Hybrid Catalpa. 



THE name Catalpa X J. C. Teas,^ is suggested for a 

 plant whose hybrid origin is probable. The history 

 of the plant is, briefly, this : J. C. Teas of Carthage, Mis- 

 souri, while living in Indiana, in 1864, purchased a seed- 

 ling Catalpa from Mahlon Moon of Morrisville, Pennsyl- 

 vania, who had raised it from seed procured from Japan by 

 Hovey & Co., the Boston seedsmen. According to the 

 statement of Mr. Teas, to whom 1 am indebted for the 

 facts in the case, this tree, which proved to be C. Kani- 

 p/eri, was planted in his nursery among or near plants of 

 C. bignonioides and C. speciosa, the two North American 

 species ; and it produced in due time cue pod of seeds 

 which were quite unlike those of any Catalpa with 

 which Mr. Teas was acquainted. The seeds were planted 

 and gave rise to a tree almost intermediate in character 

 between C. KcB-mpferi and one of the American species. 

 The appearance of this seedling tree and its progeny sug- 

 gests that the pollen from a flower of one of the American 

 Catalpas had fertilized a flower of the Japanese tree. The 

 American parent was probably C. bignonioides, although 

 Mr. Teas is inclined to believe that it was C. speciosa. 

 The latter flowers two or three weeks earlier than the 

 Japanese species, whereas the former flowers contem- 

 poraneously with that species during the first week of 



July. 



Whatever may have been its origin, the hybrid of which 

 a figure appears upon page 305 is an erect, vigorous, and 

 rapid-growing tree, with the thin, scaly bark of the Ameri- 

 can species. The leaves are sharply three-lobed, or rarely 

 entire, and more or less cordate at the base; they are 

 slightly pubescent on the lower surface, and the mid- rib 

 and primary veins are covered with scattered hairs ; they 

 are twelve to fifteen inches long and ten to twelve inches 

 broad. The inflorescence, which is eighteen to twenty 

 inches long by ten inches wide, is composed of two or three 

 hundred fragrant flowers about an inch long, the corolla 

 slightly tinged with yellow in the throat, and handsomely 

 marked with broad purple stripes. The fruit is from twelve 



*Cata1pa, J. C. Teas; nov. hyb. Arbor excelsa, ramis horizonlalibus ; foliis 

 amplis, longe petiolatis, ovatis acuminatis, liasi rutundatis vel cordatis, integ;ris 

 vel srepissime 2-3 lobis, lobo medio attenuato-aciiminato, lateralibus brevibus di- 

 vergentibus, subtus villoso-hirsutis ; paniculis terminalibus amplis, Horibus 

 gracile pedicillatis, calycis labiis rotundatis mucronatisque, ooralltu tubo caiiipa- 

 nulato, limbi 2-Iabiati, lobis 5, rotundatis, tiavis vel albidis ianthino punctalis ; cap- 

 sula cylindracea seminibus alatis molliter villosis utrinque in caudas capillaceo- 

 fissas productis. 



