November 20, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



56. 



attention ; a string being placed wliere the festoon is required, 

 the plants attach themselves to it and very soon produce a 

 rope of verdiu-e. This plant has yet another good quality to 

 recommend it; in the evening, or after a shower of rain, it 

 emits a very pleasant, faint, musk-like perfume." 



The leaves are rough to the toLich on the upijer surface, 

 tive-lobed, one or one and a half inches in diameter, 

 and bright green. The flowers are small and quite inconspic- 

 uous, and as only the male plant is known, apparently, in cul- 

 tivation, it never produces fruit. It is for its foliage, therefore, 

 that this Melothria is used, and it is certainly well suited for 

 making a temporary covering over any unsightly object in the 

 garden. If it is not known in this country, it might be intro- 

 duced advantageously from Germany. -S". 



fruits are smaller in size antl the plants less productive. The 

 second, is a winter Sqiiash, the color of the Perfect Gem, or a 

 shade more grayish, antl of a foi^m resembling that of our Bay 

 State. The quality is very good, but in our test the plants were 

 (_(uite unproductive, and the fruits were formed so late thatfew 

 of them attained their size before frost. 



Wisconsin Expniiiicnt Station. . F S. Goff. 



Begonia Socotrana — Botanically, this is one of the most in- 

 teresting Begonias known. It was discovered in Socotra in 

 1880 by Dr. Balfour, who sent tubers of it to Kew, where it 

 flowered the year following. Sir Joseph Hooker, when figur- 

 ing it in the Botanical Magazine, said that " Socotra was one of 

 the last places in the world where a Begonia would have been 

 expected to occur." Horticulturally, it has proved exception- 

 ally valuable, partly from its own merits as a winter-flowering 

 species with remarkable foliage, and handsome, deep rose, large 

 flowers, but chiefly as the parent of a race of Begonias which 

 promise to be as useful for in-door gardening in winter as the 

 progeny of the Andean tuberous species are in summer. I 

 allude, of course, to the several hybrids raised by Messrs. 

 Veitch, and named John Heal, Adonis and Winter Gem. 

 These grow about a foot high, have bright green foliage 

 and rosy crimson flowers, large and numerous enough to 

 make a rich glow in the stove in winter. The most remark- 

 able character in the flowers of these plants is that of keeping 

 fresh several weeks in water, or if left on the plants they last 

 a month or more l)efore withering on the stalks. They do not 

 fall as all other Begonia flowers do. B. Socotrana is repre- 

 sented by a large group of plants in the Begonia house at Kew, 

 and it will be attractive until Christmas. The leaves are large, 

 peltate, cupped, shining green, and they spring almost upright 

 from a short, fleshy stem. This plant and its offspring go to 

 rest in spring, and start into growth again about July. They 

 should be started and grown in a warm, sunny green-house 

 till the beginning of October, when they require a stove tem- 

 perature. 



Jasminum gracillimum. — This plant ought to be in every 

 collection of stove-plants. It is by far the finest of all the trop- 

 ical Jasmines, although J . pubescens, an old garden plant and 

 a near ally of J. gracilliimim, is not much its inferior. When 

 first introduced it was grown as a dwarf pot plant, in which 

 form the Messrs. Veitch exhibited it for the first time in 1881. 

 Now, however, it is known to be best when treated as a 

 climber, and when grown against pillars or along rafters in 

 stoves it is seen to great advantage. At Kew it is trained on 

 pillars, and its long shoots hang gracefully all round, each one 

 bearing a large terminal cluster of beautiful white, star-like 

 flowers, one and a quarter inches across and sweet scented. 

 As a basket plant tliis species also produces a fine effect. It 

 is a native of north Borneo. W. 



American-grown Cauliflower Seed. — Last spring two packets 

 of Cauliflower seed, grown at Fidalgo, W^ashington, were sent 

 to this station for trial. The seed was of the Erfurt and Snow- 

 ball varieties. It was sown in the open ground on May 14th. 

 In due time the plants were transplanted to the garden, and 

 they have headed better than plants of the same varieties 

 grown in former years from imported seed, and that, too, in 

 spite of an extremely dry autumn. Every plant has eitlicr 

 formed a fair-sized head or it gives promise of doing so in a 

 few days. The heads are not large, but that is not surprising, 

 as we have had almost no rain for the past two months. They 

 are neatly formed, and when tied early, to exclude the bright 

 sunshine, are white and of excellent flavor. If the seeds 

 planted in this trial are fair samples of the Cauliflower seed 

 that may be produced in the Puget's Sound region, there are 

 good reasons for believing that w'e shall soon be able to grow 

 all our own seed of this delicious vegetable. 



Two New Squashes.— Last spring Messrs. Vilmorin, Andrieux 

 & Co., of Paris, advertised in their catalogues two new 

 Squashes, under the names Very Early Prolific {Coiirge pro- 

 lifique tres hative) and Missions Squash {Coiirge des missiotis). 

 Like most of the varieties of the Cucurbit family developed 

 in France, these do not appear to have qualities that would 

 commend them in this country. The first is an early Squash, 

 similar to our Uunlap's Marrow and Orange Marrovv, but the 



Correspondence. 



Growing Timber Without Knots. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — What is the best treatment of Pine-trees in a forest 

 when the lower branches on the trunks are dying ? The 

 trees are wanted for timber. 



Duhith, Minn. S. 



Your correspondent fails to state whether he has in view 

 particular conditions, to which the information is to be 

 applied, and as a doctor can only prescribe after diagnosis 

 of the special case, the answer can only be general. 



To grow timber free of knots, and that means a shaft 

 free from branches, the best plan is to provide for it from the 

 start by keeping the growth densely crowded. Close plant- 

 ing is recommended largely for this reason. The physio- 

 logical explanation of the effect of dense growth in pre 

 venting the formation of branches, or, if formed, in soon 

 killing them, lies in this, that leaves, and dependent upon 

 their activity wood-growth, require for their development 

 and life a certain amount of light. Failing to receive this, 

 no buds are developed, and where the branches that have 

 developed are exchided from the light, or receive insufti- 

 cient light, they lose first their foliage and then die a 

 natural death. This is the forester's natural method of 

 growing clear timber — b}'' timely management. 



As knife and medicine become necessary, where the 

 rules of hygiene have been neglected, so the pruning knife 

 and saw are called into requisition to fit trees for a pur- 

 pose, for which they were not managed in time. The sys- 

 tem of pruning the branches for the purpose of producing 

 clear timber has not, as a rule, proved satisfactory in 

 France, where it was most strenuously advocated and prac- 

 ticed. Dead and dry branches can usually be removed 

 without danger to the tree. . In fact, their timely removal 

 by a sharp cut close to the trunk reduces the danger of rot, 

 which is apt to start in the stubs of broken branches. The 

 removal of living or partly dead branches is practiced at 

 the risk of inducing decay, unless done with great care. 

 The open, unprotected wound first dries, then splits open 

 and gapes, water enters, with the spores of fungi, which 

 produce rot, and the disease may spread and ruin the 

 whole shaft. If the tree is in vigorous growth, with a' fully 

 developed crown, on a favorable site, it will heal a wound 

 made by the amputation of a branch not thicker than three 

 or four inches by " walling over." Where the conditions 

 are less favorable, it becomes necessary to guard against 

 decay by covering the wound. 



To avoid, then, the occurrence of knots in future saw- 

 logs, and to produce trunks free from branches, these must 

 ■ be shaded out when young. Since, however, a full 

 development of the crown is necessary for the full and 

 normal development of the trunk — the trunk being a pro- 

 duct of the crown and its mass proportional to it — it is evi- 

 dent that the right time for bringing the growth out of the 

 dense position of its early years to the roomy position 

 which insures proper development of crown and trunk, is 

 an important consideration for the grower of timber. This 

 time occurs when the maximum height-growth has been 

 attained ; that is to say, when the trunk proper has grown to 

 nearly its full length and now requires filling out — diam- 

 eter development — under the full activity of the crown. 



According to species and character of site this period 

 varies, and accordingly also the time of first thinning, its 

 recurrence and degree require the judgment of a forester 

 and cannot be briefly formulated. 



Thinning out takes place in a dense forest growth sooner 

 or later, more rapidly or more slowly, according to the 



