372 



Garden and Forest. 



[July 31, 1889. 



Notes. 



The Horticultural Times notes with approval an increasing 

 use of Ivy-leaved Geraniums in window-gardens. 



In the latter half of August a Botanical Congress will be held 

 in Pai'is, when an exhibition of maps, photographs, books and 

 other articles relating to botanical geography will be opened. 



Our readers will be glad to hear that Belmont, near Boston, 

 the old estate described in Garden and Forest, for July 10, has 

 been purchased for the use of a new boys' school, to be called 

 Belmont School. A finer setting for such an institution can 

 hardly be imagined. 



The Kansas Board of Agriculture reports that cliinch-bugs 

 are dying by the million of some contagious disease. Experi- 

 ments are now in progress to ascertain whether the disease 

 can be introduced artificially among healthy bugs, so that the 

 ravages of this most dreaded enemy of the western farmer 

 can be held in check. 



Major O. P. Rooks, in a recent address at Fruitland, Florida, 

 spoke of some admirable seedlings from both the Peen-to and 

 Honey Peaches. The fruit of the Peen-to seedlings was so large 

 that a peach would rest on the top rim of an ordinary .tea-cup, 

 and peaches borne by the Honey hybrids were eight inches in 

 circumference. The fruit was also of excellent quality and 

 beautiful color. 



Colonel J. A. Price argues strenuously for the selection of 

 Indian Corn as the national flower on account of its essential 

 beauty and the adaptability of all its parts — stalk, leaf, plume, 

 silk, husk, ear — to purposes of art and architecture. Its cheer- 

 ful colors, too — the green of summer, the gold of autumn and 

 the tinted red and yellow of the ears — ^all contribute to the in- 

 finite variety in which it can be used for ornament. In the 

 Decorator and FurnisJicr for the current month Colonel Price 

 offers a prize of $100 for the best adaptation of Maize to the 

 industrial and architectural arts. 



In a careful review of the spring plant trade The American 

 Florist observes that there has been a decrease in the total 

 sales from those of last season. Among causes assigned for 

 this are : (i) The mild winter, which permitted many plants to 

 be carried over; (2) the general curtailment of trade among 

 the people who are the largest buyers of ornamental plants ; 

 (3) the unfavorable weather, which discouraged planters 

 during the selling season. A smaller demand for Coleus and 

 similar plants was generally reported, and for this a partial ex- 

 planation is found in the prevailing cold weather, which would 

 naturally check the sale of such tender plants. It is probable, 

 however, that the popularity of this class of plants is beginning 

 to wane. 



Professor Forbes gives an account in Insect Life of some 

 experiments with the Plum curculio, from which it was 

 learned that they would eat the petals of Roses and the blos- 

 soms of bush Honeysuckles and Snowballs, so that it seems 

 not improbable tiiat the beetle gets only a small part of its sub- 

 sistence from fruit-trees. It is therefore worth while to make 

 the attempt to attract the adult insect to other plants than 

 the Peach or Plum for the purpose of poisoning it there. 

 This is especially worth trying late in the season, when 

 tiie use of arsenites upon fruit might be dangerous. 

 There is no longer any doubt that very weak solutions 

 of London purple or Paris green will be fatal to the 

 beetle. It is true also that the leaves of the Peach 

 are liable to be scorched by a mixture of London Purple, even 

 when applied at a rate of one pound to 200 gallons of water. 



Mr. W. T. Thiselton Dyer, in writing of the principles of 

 Orchid nomenclature, argues that all the botanist can do is to 

 refer any Orchid submitted to him to some well-defined spe- 

 cies which has already been described in intelligible terms, or 

 to describe it as new if this has not already been done. For 

 horticultural purposes it is evident, however, that something 

 more than this is wanted. Within the limits of a species it is 

 known to every one that there are variations of size, color and 

 texture which practically elude botanical terminology, and yet 

 are of paramount interest and value to the cultivator. The 

 difference between a fine form and a poor one of the same 

 species can often with difficulty be seized, even in ordinary 

 language, and yet it is recognizable at a glance Ijy every expe- 

 rienced Orchid-grower. It is a great mistake to suppose that 

 a botanist can deal with such forms in any useful way. Their 

 distinctness and merit is a matter for the judgment of experts, 

 just as in the case of any other cuUivated plant. Nothing, 

 then, is gained by giving such forms Latin names, which imply 

 that they are well-marked varieties. The proper course is to 



give them arbitrary names in English or some other language, 

 and these should not be accepted as authoritative till they have 

 received the approval of the Floral Committee of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society. 



An investigation at the Delaware Experiment Station shows 

 that the farm and garden seed found in the markets of that 

 state has a germinating power up to the average stand- 

 ard. The purity of the seed, too, was found to be above 

 the average, and yet the report makes it very plain where most 

 of the farmer's weeds come from. He sows their seeds, and 

 he sows them on well-prepared land, where they are sure to 

 thrive. For example, a moderately pure Clover seed, with but 

 a trifle more than one per cent, of impurity by weight, was 

 found to contain the seeds of Plantain, Rag-weed, Smart-weed 

 and Foxtail Grass in sufficient numbers to put one seed every 

 foot in drills fifteen inches apart if the Clover seed were sown 

 eight poimds to the acre. In another instance, a very clean 

 sample of Alfalfa seed, with less than one-half of one percent, 

 of impurity, and that mainly dirt, showed the presence of the 

 minute seed of the Clover Dodder [Cuscuta Tr if alii) at the 

 rate of 720 to the pound. If the Alfalfa were sown at the rate 

 of fifteen pounds to the acre, this would place one seed of 

 Cuscuta every two feet in drills two feet apart. The sowing 

 of so much of this seed would be a dangerous proceeding, for 

 when this Dodder once winds its wiry stem about a Clover 

 plant and begins to suck its juices, the doom of that plant is 

 sealed, and the Dodder is soon reaching out its arms for a new 

 victim. These seed-tests were made by Professor F. D. Ches- 

 ter, and the bulletin containing his report furnishes some in- 

 structive reading for the farmers and gardeners of Delaware. 



A writer in the Gardeners' Chronicle speaks with enthusiasm 

 of tiie natural beauty in the extensive gardens and pleasure- 

 grounds of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild's noble estate, 

 Waddesdon Manor, a beauty which has been developed to the 

 very highest by the arts of the landscape-gardener at every 

 point. From the elevated plateau on which the mansion 

 stands some of the most beautiful views in the country are 

 commanded, and the devious and carefully-arranged walks in 

 the grounds reveal different gardens, each distinct, but all in 

 harmony, a result which the clever planting of the whole of 

 the grounds in clumps and groups of the same kind does 

 much to secure. By planting in this manner, each thing, 

 whether flowering Weigelas, Rhododendrons, Escallonias, 

 Philadelphus, double and scarlet Thorns, or whatever it may 

 be, appears to make its individuality distinct, which is not the 

 case where single plants, instead of groups of each kind, are 

 used. The effect of planting in groups brings out some fine 

 effects in the Waddesdon gardens — notably in the case of the 

 silvery-leaved Sea Buckthorn, the mingled white variegated 

 Maples and Copper Beech, and the noble clumps of Pampas- 

 grass. There is plenty of bloom in every part of the gardens. 

 The view from the terrace over the main flower-garden being 

 especially brilliant with the rich scarlet of Pelargonium, Henry 

 Jacoby, the pink of Pelargonium, Mrs. Lever, and other elTecfive 

 flowers worked in with variegated foliage, among which the 

 Pelargonium, Flower of Spring, employed amounts to over 

 8,000 plants. 



The edible Banana, it is said, is known to seed only in one 

 small spot on earth, the Andaman Islands. However this 

 may be, it is universally grown from suckers. Its cultivation 

 in the West Indies has vastly increased during the past fifteen 

 years, owing to the demands of the United States for its cheap, 

 wholesome and luscious fruit. About 400 or 500 trees are 

 planted to the acre, and the plantations are called " Banana- 

 walks." In former days any available spot was chosen, 

 usually an abandoned cane-field, where the ground was most 

 easily prepared for the new crop. But experience and com- 

 petition have brought about more careful methods of plant- 

 ing, and the best place for a Banana-walk is now considered a 

 valley or hill-side with a western prospect. The tree fruits the 

 first year, and the expense of cultivation is so small that a 

 bunch of Bananas, delivered at the sea-coast, need have cost 

 its owner no more than four or five cents, while it may be sold 

 in the winter months for from twelve to eighteen cents, and in 

 the spring months for four times as much. There are i-isks 

 attending Banana culfivafion, however, for the thievish ne- 

 groes often seriously decrease the value of a crop, and it may 

 be entirely swept away in a single hour by a hurricane. As 

 soon as the Bananas begin to cast a shade, young Cocoa 

 plants ai-e set out between them, as this tree needs protec- 

 tion from the sun in its youth ; and when the Bananas 

 cease to be profitable — which is at the end of three or four 

 years — Almond-trees or other fruit-trees are often set in their 

 places while a new " walk " is laid out elsewhere. 



