336 



Garden and Forest. 



[July io, 1889. 



The leaf-stalk is ten feet high, divided at the top into three 

 branches, each as large as a man's thigh. The tiovver spadix 

 is six feet long, and, altogether, this must be considered one 

 of tlie vegetable marvels of the world. 



BOUGAINVILLEA GLABRA, Revile Horticole, June 16. 



Notes. 



The first prize for cut blooms of double Lilacs at the Paris 

 Exposition was taken by Messrs. V. Lemoine & Son, with 

 tiowers of twenty seedlings named and unnamed, and in- 

 cluding the double white variety. 



The programme for the Botanico-geographical exhibition 

 which, as we have already announced, will be held in Antwerp 

 during the summer of 1890, may be obtained from Monsieur 

 Charles de Bosschere, Lierrelez-Anvers, Belgium. 



According to the Pacific Rural Press, California has pro- 

 duced two new Roses of undoubted excellence this year. One, 

 introduced by J. H. Sievers, is known as Rainbow, and the 

 other, yet unnamed, was raised by E. Gill, of Oakland. 



Mr. H. H. Rusby, well known as a botanist from his explora- 

 tions in southern New Mexico, and later in South America, 

 has recently been appointed Professor of Botany and Materia 

 Medica in the New York College of Pharmacy, in this city. 



A correspondent of the Country Gendeman writes that he 

 once heard Dr. William Darlington, the well-known botanist, 

 express the wish that the Tulip-tree {Liriodejtdron ticHpifera) 

 might be selected as our national emblem, both leaf and 

 fiower being distinct and beautiful. 



A very interesting hybrid Philadelphus, lately bloomed at 

 Nancy. It was produced by crossing P. microphyllus, the 

 beautiful dwarf species with deliciously fragrant flowers, 

 which is a native of the mountains of southern Colorado and 

 New Mexico, with P. coronarius. The plant has been named 

 after its originator, Philadelphus hybridus Lemoinei. 



Among the bush Honeysuckles, Lonicera Ruprechtiana is 

 now by far the most striking. Its abundant bright scarlet 

 fruit, carried gracefully on arching branches, would make it 

 one of the most desirable of hardy shrubs, even if it were not 

 beautiful in general habit, foliage and fiower. Its single fault 

 is that the flowers lack perfume. 



Cladrastis Amurensis, the Old World representative of our 

 Yellow-wood, is blooming most abundantly this year, and as 

 the specimens grow older the tree becomes more attractive. 

 The foliage is very clean, the shape of the tree neat, and the 

 spikes of flowers are fragrant and yield abundant nectar, as is 

 proved by the constant hum of tlie bees, which visit tiiis tree 

 in great numbers. 



English horticultural journals describe a splendid display 

 of Tulips lately in bloom in the garden of Lord Arlington, at 

 Crichton House. Twenty-four large beds were filled with 

 about 15,000 bulbs. Crimson King and Yellow Prince being 

 the only varieties used. This is but one sign among many 

 that we have noted of late to prove that there is a growing 

 tendency in England towards more simple and effective ar- 

 rangement of bedding-plants than those which have hitherto 

 prevailed. In the parks of London the Tulips are said to have 

 made an especially attractive appearance this year, " although 

 individually the flowers have not been so fine as in some sea- 

 sons. . . . The advantage of having distinct beds of one color 

 over indiscriminate mixtures of several shades is most con- 

 spicuous." 



Mr. Roosevelt, consul of the United States at Bordeaux, re- 

 cently reported toovirGovernment concerningthe wine produc- 

 tion of France during the year 1888. He announces a consid- 

 erable increase over the amount credited to 1887, and explains 

 that the fact is due to the introducdon of American vines as 

 stocks. The vineyards of the south of France were the first to 

 suffer from the ravages of the phylloxera, and their owners 

 were the first to test the value of American plants. A large 

 number of vines on American roots bore for the first time in 

 1888, and so successfully that the most steadfast doubters were 

 converted ; a large demand for seedlings immediately followed, 

 and the nurseries have been already exhausted. Preparations 

 are being made to meet the growing demand as quickly as 

 possible, and, according to Mr. Roosevelt, the future is not 

 very distant when the vintages of former years will again be 

 equalled. 



A recent number of the Illustriate Gartenzeitung, of Vienna, 

 cjuotes from Monsieur Charles Joly, Vice-president of the Horti- 

 cultural Society of France, a description of three enormous trees 



which stand in the south of France. One is a Stone-pine [Piniis 

 Pinea), the stem of which is two metres in diameter — which 

 means nearly twenty-two feet in circumference — with a crown 

 of foliage that measiu-es twenty-six metres in diameter. Another 

 is a very old Olive-tree at Villefranche-sin--mer, between Nice 

 and Monaco, which seems to have formed part of an ancient 

 orchard, as it has several neighbors of almost equal size ; the 

 diameter of its trunk, at a metre above the ground, is the same 

 as that of the Pine just referred to. And the third is a still 

 larger Olive, which stands in the " do main e de St. Eulalie." 

 The circumference of this trunk is no less than eleven metres. 

 Its head was greatly injured by a severe frost in 1820, but since 

 then has developed afresh into a compact, spherical shape. 



We have more than once referred to tlie fact that greater siin- 

 plicity in the planting of flower-beds was becoming the rule in 

 England, much to the enhancement of the effect of private 

 gardens and public parks. Another instance may be quoted 

 from a recently published description of this year's Tulip- 

 planting in Alexandra Park, Manchester. Here there were 

 twenty-eight large circular beds, each filled with a single 

 variety of Tulips, about 300 plants to a bed. Prosperpine, 

 Dussart, Potter, Crimson King, Rosa Mundi, Queen of the 

 Violets and Chrysolora were the varieties used — seven in all — 

 making four beds of each. The contrast of their colors, which 

 was carefully considered in disposing the different beds with 

 relation to each other, was sufficient to produce a very bril- 

 liant effect ; and it may be noted that the beds themselves 

 were placed where such formal arrangements are well in keep- 

 ing — fourteen on either side of a long, straight path which runs 

 from the terrace to the principal drive. 



An interesting article recently published by Mr. Percy E. 

 Newberry, in the Pharmaceutical Record of this city, upon 

 "The History of Medicine in Ancient Egypt" says that some 

 fifteen vegetable remedies are mentioned in a Papyrus pre- 

 served in the Leyden Museum, while the so-called " Berlin 

 Medical Papyrus," which dates from the eighteenth dynasty, 

 mentions more than fifty such remedies, "from herbs and 

 fruits to sawdust and chips of Cypress and Sycamore." Min- 

 eral remedies were, of course, also largely used ; and while 

 many incantations and conjurations were thought to aid the 

 physician in his work, still the manuscripts reveal no depend- 

 ence upon " hocuspocus or gibberish." On the contrary, the 

 well-known Egyptologist, George Ebers, writes that the fa- 

 mous Papyrus which bears his name and was published by 

 him " shows that it was possible to write in the sixteenth cen- 

 tury, B.C., complex receipts, and that the physicians under- 

 stood how to administer with care the medicines prescribed." 

 Many such receipts are written on the papyri, and some of 

 them, says Mr. Newberry, might well be used to-day for the 

 indicated purpose. Castor-oil, Senna and Caraway-seeds are 

 among the vegetable remedies that were then employed in 

 much the same way as they are to-day. 



The park of Holwood House, which lies about fourteen 

 miles from London, on the road to Uckfield, and was formerly 

 the home of William Pitt, is famous for its magnificent trees 

 of many kinds. But there can be none among them more in- 

 teresting than a double tree recently described in the Garden. 

 It is formed of an Oak and a Yew which were originally 

 planted close to one another and the young stems of which 

 were, perhaps, bound together. A "natural graft" was thus 

 produced ; the two trunks united and, though a clear line 

 marks the junction of their different barks, there is now but a 

 single trunk of perfectly normal outline, which at three feet 

 above the ground girths nearly twelve feet. The height of 

 tfie Oak portion is thirty-five feet, and its branches spread 

 fifty-four feet, while the Yew portion is fifteen feet in height 

 with a spread of thirty-six feet. Up to about five feet above 

 the ground, where the Oak sends out two great branches, the 

 Yew seems to absorb nearly one- third of the diameter of the 

 trunk, although it is impossible, of course, to tell how far in- 

 ward its wood extends. Each of the main branches of the 

 Oak girths more than four and one-half feet and "as they grow 

 in opposite directions . . . and in bow-shape have an appear- 

 ance that is as peculiar as it is unusual in tree-growth." The 

 Yew stem almost encircles one of these branches and is com- 

 pletely amalgamated with it, " the barks being level and as if 

 inarched at the point of junction." Such a twin growth would 

 be remarkable in any trees of different species, but is doubly 

 striking when one is a deciduous and the other a coniferous 

 tree, and we can well understand that "when viewed from the 

 public patli, which is only eleven yards distant, these combined 

 trees presenta most curious and unusual appearance, particu- 

 larly when the Oak is destitute of leaves, as the co-mingled, de- 

 ciduous and evergreen branches are then most noticeable." 



