39^ 



Garden and Forest. 



[August 14, 18S9. 



crispa, with its frat^raiit, Ijrijjht purplu flowers, and C. Pitcheri, 

 rather eoarser tlian the others, but, Uke them, blooming- all 

 summer long-. Our eoninion Virgin's Bower (C Virginiana) 

 would graee the more elaborately dressed portions of a lawn- 

 border as beeoniingly as it would mingle with the untanied 

 intrieacies of the wild garden, and so would C. Vitalba, the 

 Traveler's Joy, of Europe. ' And how could one be satisfied 

 with his garden if he niissed in it the beauty and fragrance of 

 C. flaininula in August ? We should want C. graveolens, C. 

 integrifolia, and several more — indeed, we could dispense with 

 most of the Jackman class of hybrids with less sorrow than the 

 loss of one or two of these species would bring. But these are 

 cpicstions of detail, and certainly no suspicion of narrowness 

 or illiberality in selection will lie against a book in which the 

 prim, old-fashioned flowers of the farm-garden, the tangle of 

 Green-brier and Bitter-sweet in the wild garden, the Gold- 

 thread and Prince's Pine and Beech-ferns of the shaded wood- 

 garden, and the cool mosses and niinute Alpine flora of the 

 rock-garden, are all welcon-ied with sympathyand appreciation. 

 It is to be hoped that this dainty little volume will have niany 

 readers, for it can hardly fail to accomplish the worthy purpose 

 of its author " to stimulate a love for amateur gardening that 

 may be carried out by all who are willing to bestow upon it 

 tiiat meed of attention it so bountifully repays." 



Notes. 



The young city of Victoria, in British Columbia, has just 

 voted $15,000 to improve its public park. 



Near Bethlehem, in Montgomery County, Tennessee, stands 

 a Tulip-tree which is six feet and one inch in diameter, five 

 feet from the ground, and apparently of the same size up to 

 the first limb, which is seventy-live feet from the ground. 

 The next limb is a hundred feet from the ground. The South- 

 ern Lnmberinan reports this tree as probably sound, and esti- 

 mates that it contains more than fifteen thousand feet of 

 lumber. 



The agents of the California State Board of Horticulture are 

 now raising the Austi'alian ladybird in such numbers that 

 colonies are furnished to all applicants whose trees are infested 

 with the cottony cushion scale. These imported insects have 

 proved effective destroyers of the scale, and there seems to be 

 a reasonable ground for hope that this most serious enemy of 

 the Orange, the Lemon, and other trees of that family can now 

 be held in check. 



Vaccinin7)i hirsutuni, of which an account was given in 

 Garden and Forest for July 31st, has ripened fruit at the Ar- 

 nold Arboretum. It is fully as large as the fruit of the common 

 Huckleberry {Gaylussacia resi7iosa), and is of a shining black 

 color, and has quite an agreeable flavor. As it appears in cul- 

 tivation, the berry is not so densely hairy as it is represented 

 in the figure, which was drawn from wild specimens sent from 

 the native habitat of the plant. 



Mr. F. L. Temple, of Shady Hill Nurseries, writes from Lon- 

 don in regard to English Gooseberries, which he had been led 

 to believe were far superior to any thing grown in America. 

 But upon testing some of the sorts most highly praised he 

 found them coarse or watery, or of low quality in some par- 

 ticular, and altogether disappointing except in size and appear- 

 ance. No patriotic American will admit that the best of them 

 are as finely flavored as our native varieties. 



A year ago we published a note from M. Naudin (Garden 

 AND Forest, i, 289), who was trying for the third time to natu- 

 ralize in Provence the Japan Clover [Lespedeza striata), which 

 has proved so useful as a forage plant in our southern states. 

 He was not very sanguine of success in that dry climate, but 

 had sent seed to Brittany and other places with some hope. 

 He now writes that the Clover will certainly not thi-ive in 

 Europe. It has been moderately successful in Algeria, but 

 even there the amount of forage yielded is insignificant. 



Mr. William Falconer reports, in the Rural New Yorker, 

 that he planted, in May, some Lima Beans, pushing them into 

 the ground, eye down, and every seed grew. Seeds of a second 

 lot were laid flat and covered loosely, and those of a third lot 

 were laid the same way, but the soil was taniped firmly on top 

 of the beaiis. All the last lot sprouted and grew as well as those 

 planted with the eye down, fjut the loosely-covered ones 

 nearly all rotted. Mr. Falconer has not found that pinching 

 back the vines has hastened the maturing of the beans a day, 

 and thinlcs that allowing the vines to climb on poles at will is 

 the best and least troublesome j^ractice. 



Ii-iasmucli as there is usually some basis of truth for any witle- 

 spread popular belief, the inquiry was made in these columns 



not long ago, -whether there was any foundation in fact for the 

 prevalent opinion that the Beech-tree is never struck by light- 

 ning. In a late number of Science, Dr. D. L. Phares gives an 

 accoimt of a remarlcable flash out of an almost clear sky 

 which struck a Beech-tree, killed one ox, and stunned all the 

 others of a team of six which happened to be drawing a wagon 

 under its branches. Two men in the wagon \\'ere stimned. 

 Dr. Phares adds that this is not the only instance which has 

 come under his observation where a Beech-tree has been 

 struck. 



Mr. A. H. Fewkes, of Newton Highlands, Massachusetts, 

 who makes a point of testing all the new varieties of Sweet 

 Peas, reports that the only one of this year's introduction 

 which came up and showed enough flowers for comparison 

 was Blanche Ferry, and this is apparently an improved 

 Painted Lady. The two are much alike, but when seen 

 together the' new one seems to be brighter in color and to 

 have a purer white keel. In habit it is very free. Boreatton 

 and Splendor of last season are proving fully as good as they 

 pron-iised, and, with Invincible Carmine, Princess Beatrice, 

 Bronze Prince, Orange Prince and Adonis, show a very de- 

 cided improvement on the older varieties. 



Professor Bailey has been making some experiments with 

 seeds with a view to determine the influence of certain condi- 

 tions upon germination. The most interesting of several 

 conclusions reached was that drawn from tests with different 

 quantities of water. Sprouting was proved to be decidedly 

 more rapid and general where the seeds received less than the 

 usual amounts of water given in green-houses. Seeds of 

 Tomato, Cucmnber, Pepper, Lima Bean, Carrot, Celery, Let- 

 tuce and Cobcea scandens were all tried, and almost without ex- 

 ception, of those planted in soil kept simply moist, a larger per- 

 centage sprouted, and sprouted more rapidly than of those in 

 soil more profusely watered. Professor Bailey explains what 

 the latter phrase means by the statement that the seed-pans 

 were shallow and had more than ordinary drainage, so that no 

 stagnant water could remain, and the water was rarely applied 

 in such quantities as to cause any drip from the pans ; 

 that is, the so-called profusely-watered plants received no 

 more water than is given in many houses. 



The garden at Glen Eyre, Southampton, is one of the most 

 interesting in England, owing to the experiments in growing 

 exotic phmts out of doors, which were made there some years 

 ago by the late Mrs. Eyre Crabbe. "The house," says a re- 

 cent description in the Gardeners' Chronicle, "looks east and 

 stands right at^the head of a deep, narrow valley or gorge. . . . 

 A series of steep terraces, profusely planted and richly 

 decorated with flowers . . . filling- the beds, vases and 

 baskets, gives to the garden a resemblance to some scene in 

 Italy rather than in England. Away on the steep slopes on 

 the sides of the valley there are numbers of very noble con- 

 ifers . . . truly marvels of production considering that the 

 slope " is in many places so steep that " it is difficult to stand 

 erect upon it. Beyond and about these conifers are huge 

 masses of Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Kalmias, etc., all exhibit- 

 ing wonderful growth. Especially on the north side of the 

 valley with its southern aspect there is a perfect forest of 

 Rhododendrons, the huge heads standing up like miniature 

 mountains and ablaze with tufts of flowers in vast quantities." 

 But the most remarkable feature of Glen Eyre is its masses of 

 Camellias which Mrs. Eyre, full of faith in the hardiness of the 

 plant, set out by liundreds and which have justified her con- 

 fidence, by the most luxuriant growth. The gardener's house 

 stands upon the north slope of the valley and between it and 

 the mansion are a large number of fine Camellias growing 

 with other plants in a bordei-, many of them being ten feet in 

 diameter. On the wall of the stableyard is trained a dark red 

 Camellia ten feet in height and fifteen feet broad, and another 

 twelve feet in lieight and eight feet in depth from the front to 

 the wall, with companions of almost equal size. Everywhere 

 else on the groimds Camellias are plentiful in many varieties, 

 sometimes niassed, sometimes standing singly. "The finest 

 specimen, the lion of the collection, is a grand plant of the old 

 double-striped which stands on the upper terrace, or house- 

 level, in a very ex]:)Osed windy spot, but looking south., This 

 splendid fellow is some ten feet in height and forms almost a 

 perfect square of thirteen feet each way, and blooms profusely 

 every year." The success of the gardens at Glen Eyre is all 

 the niore remarkal)le because it is not very many years since 

 they were started and the soil was " originally very poor, pro- 

 ducing nothing but coarse Heather with some Scotch Fir. The 

 skill and perseverance of the gardener have, however, trans- 

 formed the unkind-looking wilderness into an earthly paradise." 



