36o 



Garden and Forest. 



[July 24, 1889. 



at least five other kinds of plants are attacked by the same 

 fungus. These plants are closely related to the Cranberry — 

 belonging- to the same family of plants and associated with the 

 affected Cranberry plants. Some of these plants grow only 

 upon the borders of the bog, and it was evident that the dis- 

 ease was confined to these plants located close to the bog. 

 For example, the narrow-leaved Kalmia (here called Calf-kill) 

 was badly attacked only when close by the bog. The same 

 was true of Azalias, of Cassandra and certain species of Huckle- 

 berries. It seems quite probable that the infection in the 

 form of spores reached these border plants during the time of 

 high water. 



There are many important points to be determined concern- 

 ing the life history of this destructive pest, including the time 

 and method of the dissemination of the spores. It will be 

 necessary to learn, if possible, the present exact limits of the 

 trouble and all the species of plants that are susceptible to the 

 disease. It is hoped that all readers of Garden and For- 

 est who are Cranberry growers will inspect their bogs and re- 

 port if they find the disease present. If there still remains 

 any doubt, the best way will be to send some suspected spec- 

 imens to a competent mycologist. As soon as the disease is 

 circumscribed, means may be taken for the eradication of the 

 pest. 



N. J. Exp. Station, July 17th, 1889. Byroii D. Halsted. 



Notes. 



Mr. W. F. Massey has been appointed professor of horti- 

 culture, arboriculture and botany in the college of agriculture 

 and the mechanic arts recently organized at Raleigh, North 

 Carolina. 



Professor Hartig suggests that the superior durability of wood, 

 cut in the winter, may be largely due to the fact that it has 

 time to dry on the outside before the atmospheric influences 

 are favorable to the development of fungi. The spores of 

 these are always about and in the summer at once attack 

 freshly-cut wood, while in the winter they are dormant. 



The grain plant-louse. Aphis avencE, has seriously damaged 

 the wheat crop from Ohio westward through Indiana, and as far 

 north as Grand Rapids, Michigan. An invasion so serious has 

 not happened for some years. There is little danger of a re- 

 newal of the attack next year, for the parasitic enemies of this 

 pest multiply as rapidly as the Aphides themselves, and keep 

 them in check. 



Some exquisitely naturalistic reproductions of various Or- 

 chids are displayed by the Messrs. Tiffany & Co. at the Paris 

 Exposition, wherein the most delicate tints and textures are 

 imitated in gold, enamel and precious stones. Odontoglosstmi 

 Harryaniim, O. sygopetaliim, Cattleya bicolor, Vanda Sanderi- 

 ana and Phalanopsis Schillcriana are among the flowers most 

 successfully used as models. 



From a private letter we learn that the Black Rot and Mil- 

 dew are so prevalent in Vineland and other parts of southern 

 New Jersey that the Grape crop will be nearly ruined except 

 where the vines have been treated with the Bordeaux Mixtui^e. 

 But it is hard to use this precaution and keep the leaves and 

 berries fortified against tliefungus when it rains seven days and 

 nights in succession. Colonel Pearson writes that so far the 

 Iron-clad Grape has escaped, while even weeds and forest- 

 trees all about it are rotting and mildewing. 



It is the practice in many English gardens to grow the Rose- 

 Acacia {Robiiiia hispida) as a wall-tree. It is treated in this 

 way because when grafted on a standard, as is usual, it is 

 easily injured by high winds. But the additional warmth of 

 the wall helps to ripen the wood and make strong buds, so 

 that the racemes seem longer and the color more rich. A 

 correspondent writes of a tree grown this way for several years, 

 nailed to a sunny wall, and the result is that it blooms for a 

 full month, and is then one of the most striking features of a 

 famous garden. 



The Hollyhock fungus {Puccinia Malvacearuni) seems to 

 have spread rapidly this year, for reports of it come to us from 

 widely separated localities. This fungus was carried from 

 Chili to France in 1872 and soon spread all over Europe. 

 Three years ago it was introduced into the United States from 

 Europe at Beverly, Massachusetts. Next year it appeared in 

 the Boston Public Garden, and although the plants were pulled 

 up and destroyed at the suggestion of Professor Farlow its 

 progress was not arrested by these precautions, and it will 

 probably spread all over the country. 



The producfion of raisins in California has grown steadily 

 year by year until it reached the amount of 1,250,000 boxes last 

 year. Careful and systematic experiments have been made 



in cultivating, curing and packing the fruit, and several 

 growers have visited Spain to investigate the methods prac- 

 ticed there. The result of this energy and study was seen in 

 last year's pack which proved superior to that of any previous 

 year in quality and attractiveness of appearance. California 

 raisins are sweeter than those of Spain and they will keep more 

 than twelve months, while the Spanish raisins will not last 

 longer than six months without extra sugaring. There is 

 likely to be some European demand for this year's crop of 

 California raisins while Australia and other countries on the 

 Pacific Ocean offer a hopeful market. At all events there is at 

 present little danger that the industry will be overworked, for 

 last year's enormous pack went at once into consumption at 

 good prices and the market is already bare and hungry. 



To several inquiries about the best nozzle for spraying 

 plants where insecticides and fungicides are to be applied in 

 this way, it may be answered that the Cyclone nozzle, perfected 

 and recommended by Professor C. V. Riley, throws a spray 

 as fine as a thin mist, but does not throw it far. For shrubs 

 or small trees, the tops of which can be reached with a light 

 bamboo pole, nothing can be better. It will completely and 

 evenly wet the foliage without applying so much as to cause 

 a drip. The finely-divided spray adheres easily, and the poi- 

 son is economically and effectively applied. Another appara- 

 tus is called the Nixon nozzle. It is patented and is made 

 and sold at Dayton, Ohio. Various sizes are made, the 

 smallest throwing a spray as fine as the Cyclone's, and throw- 

 ing it with much greater force. These nozzles can also be ad- 

 justed to throw a solid stream to a considerable height, the 

 size and force of the stream varying with the size of the 

 nozzle. Any good force-pump can be used with the nozzle. 

 The nozzle company make machines adapted to all kinds of 

 spraying. 



The Libraire Paul Klincksieck, 15 Rue de Sevres, Paris, is 

 to publish in two volumes, accompanied with an atlas of 300 

 lithograph plates, an account of the plants of Yun-nan, based 

 upon the collection of the Abb^ Delavay, by M. A. Franchet, 

 of the Paris Museum. Yun-nan is a vast province in the 

 south-eastern part of the Chinese Empire, surrounded by 

 Eastern Thibet, the Himalayas, Assam, Burmah and Tonquin. 

 The plants of this vast region are now first known through the 

 labors of a priest of the foreign missions of France, M. Dela- 

 vay, who has been stationed during the last four years at 

 Tapin-tze, near Lake Tali, and whose plants have been studied 

 by M. Franchet. In the territory explored by Delavay he has 

 gathered 3,200 species of plants, 1,200 of these being new to 

 science. Plants of real ornamental value abound in Yun-nan. 

 Among M. Delavay's discoveries are some forty species of 

 Piimrose, and as many new Rhododendrons ; Evergreen Oaks, 

 Legiiniinosce, RosasecB and Orchids are numerous, and probably 

 there is no part of the world from which so many valuable 

 additions to garden plants can now be expected. The Planta 

 DelavayancB will be pidilished in twenty parts (four or five 

 a year). The price of subscription is 200 francs. 



It is well known that plants of Dictaninus Fraxinella at 

 the close of a dry, suiniy day are surrounded by a gas which is 

 inflammable and will ignite with a sudden flash of flame when 

 a lighted match is applied to it. M. H. Correvon gives in The 

 Garden the results of some investigations lately made with 

 regard to this phenomenon. Certain plants, and very notably 

 the Rutacea; and Labiates, secrete various products, such as 

 essential oils, resins, gums, balsams, etc. Secretory organs 

 which are liuried in the substance of the parenchyma elaborate 

 these products, while hairs of various forms and' textures con- 

 duct them to the surface and there excrete them. The secretory 

 organs are termed internal glands, and the excretory hairs are 

 known as external glands. These latter glands are surrounded 

 at the base by a part of the epidermis, which the hair has 

 pushed up in issuing forth to make its appearance on the sur- 

 face of the stem, and in the Fraxinella this raised part of the 

 epidermis covers a gland which is very richly provided with 

 resin and essential oil. When this gland was examined with a 

 microscope on a hot day it was empty, its contents having 

 been drawn out by the heat through the cells of the epidermis 

 or through the hair that terminates the gland. It must be 

 understood that the surrounding air has to be pretty strongly 

 impregnated with the gas of the volatilized resin in order to 

 take fire when a lighted match is applied to it. This experi- 

 ment has also been carried out in France by-placing a pot- 

 plant of Fraxinella in bloom under a beU-glass and leaving it 

 there for some time, when the air in the bell-glass was found 

 to be so highly charged with the resinous gas that it ignited 

 the moment a lighted match was applied to it, and, it may be 

 added, without doing the slightest injury to the plant. 



