5^4 



Garden and Forest. 



[November 20, 1889. 



Notes. 



A lot of Chrysanthemums, imported from Japan by Messrs. 

 Pitcher & Manda, have just i)loomed, and one of them turns 

 out to l)e tiie veritable Mrs. Hardy, now introduced for the 

 second time into American gardens. 



Mr. F. T. McFadden contributed 300 Chrysanthemum 

 blooms to the hidianapolis Exhibition — twelve each of twenty- 

 tivc varieties — which were pronounced by John Thorpe the 

 best collection of such a size ever seen in America. 



We arc glad to know that the demand for Mr. Ellwanger's 

 pleasant book, " The Garden's Story," has been such that a 

 second edition has already been issued. The book appears 

 in heavier paper, with a new and most appropriate design for 

 the cover. 



The Emperor of Brazil has recently sent to oiu' correspond- 

 ent, M. Naudin, the decoration of Commander of the Order of 

 the Rose of Brazil, in remembrance of his visit to the gardens 

 of the Villa Thuret, and as a token of his appreciation of M. 

 Naudin's eminent .services to botany and horticulture. 



Reports from Los Angeles confirm what has already been 

 stated in regard to the effective work of the parasite which 

 was imported to check the increase of the Cottony Cushion 

 Scale. The prospect now is that the fcerya, which threatened 

 to destroy the Orange orchards of California, will itself be 

 exterminated by its microscopic enemy. 



A variety of the Chinese Juniper (y. Chinensis) with dis- 

 tinctly pendulous branches is one of the interesting and attrac- 

 tive novelties among the nimierous conifers of abnormal 

 crrowth which have lately appeared in European nurseries. It 

 originated on the Continent afew years ago, and has been prop- 

 agated at Knap Hill by Mr. Anthony Waterer. 



The interesting History of the Chrysanthemum, which was 

 prepared for the Gardeners' Magazine by Mr. C. Harman 

 Payne, is illustrated by portraits of men who hold positions of 

 prominence;in the annals of the flower, from Sabine and Bernet 

 down to the present time. Dr. H. P. Walcott and Mr. John 

 Thorpe represent America in this picture gallery. 



Spring is, of course, the time to see a bulb-garden in the 

 Netherlands at its best. But from an account of a visit to one 

 at Haarlem in the early autumn, recently published in a German 

 journal, they must be very beautiful at that season too, gay 

 with a multitude of Tritomas, Tigridias, Amaryllis, Gladioli, 

 Nerines and Autumn Crocuses, and their borders adorned 

 with a multitude of late flowering shrubs and annuals. 



Among the announcements of articles to appear in Scrib- 

 ner's Magazine during the coming year we note the promise 

 of a series dealing with American homes and their surround- 

 ings in town, suburb and country. This announcement is a 

 cheering proof that, in the opinion of the editors, the interest 

 which Americans have of recent years shown in the construc- 

 tion and arrangement of flie home building is extending itself 

 to the home surroundings, and that they are, in truth, one and 

 indivisible. 



Among horticulturists promoted to the grade of officer in 

 the Legion d'Honneur for their connection with the Paris 

 Exposition, may be mentioned M. Ed. Andre, the distin- 

 guished landscape-gardener and the editor of the Revue Hor- 

 ticole : M. Henry L. de Vilmorin, President of the Botanical 

 Society of France and head of the house of Vilmorin, An- 

 drieux & Co.; MM. Croux and Moser, the well known nursery- 

 men ; and M. Choisy, professor of landscape-gardening in the 

 national school at Versailles. 



A number of plants of Cattleya Bowringeana, including an 

 immense mass with twenty-five spikes, recently imported, are 

 now in flower in Mr. Ames' Cattleya-house. This is one of 

 die handsomest of the early autumn-flowering Orchids. The 

 flowers, of which a dozen or more are borne on a spike, vary 

 from pale lilac to rose-purple, shaded to dark crimson on the 

 front lobe of the lip. It is a native of Honduras, and was in- 

 troduced into England by Veitch & Co. in 1884. It is consid- 

 ered an easy plant to manage. 



The foliage of Hall's Honeysuckle continues bright and 

 green, as it usually does at this season, and it will, no doubt, 

 persist up to the holidays. It is rather late for the flowers, 

 however, but they are still opening in considerable numbers 

 where the vine has a sheltered and sunny exf)osure. For 

 some days past a vine trained against the south side of the 

 Pennsylvania Railroad Station at Marion, New Jersey, has 

 attracted much attention for the cheerful display of bloom it 

 is making in the face of approaching winter. 



There is certainly real cause for regret that the Japanese 

 Maples are so unreliable in the climate of this country, for 

 some of the forms of Acer polyinorphum especially are unsur- 

 passed by any other plant in the beauty of the colors which 

 their leaves assume here in late autumn after the foliage has 

 fallen from nearly all the native trees and shrubs. They are 

 hardy enough, and grow rapidly, and then, perhaps, at the end 

 of two or three years, or possibly ten or fifteen, jtist as they 

 begin to show their real habit and character, they often com- 

 mence to die branch by branch, and then soon disappear. 



On the evening of the foin'teenth instant the local Florists' 

 Club at Summit, New Jersey, formally took possession of a 

 new reading-room and bowling alley, which had been pro- 

 vided for tlie club by Mr. John N. May, upon his grounds. 

 There were a hundred guests present, many of them from 

 distant points, like Boston and Philadelphia, and including the 

 secretary and four former presidents of the Society of Ameri- 

 can Florists. A collation was served in Mr. May's long potting 

 shed, which was converted into a veritable bower of beauty 

 by a profuse use of greenery, with Roses, Orchids and Chrysan- 

 themums. 



Not long ago we spoke of the value of Ceratostigm-a plum- 

 baginoides — the blue Plumbago — as a hardy, low-growing per- 

 ennial plant; and in one of his pleasant letters, Mr. Nicholson 

 lately described the dazzling effect of a mass of this plant along 

 the top of a wall in the Via Petrarca. It is worth noting that 

 after the flowers have been checked by frost the foliage turns 

 to a deep red. According to Mr. Nicholson, the plant requires 

 a rather dry and poor soil and a sunny situation. We have in 

 mind a mass of it in deep, rich soil, partially shaded and cer- 

 tainly not dry this year, and the foliage is now fairly glowing 

 with a color which is nearly a maroon. 



Kerria Japonica, one of the first plants brought from Japan, 

 and an inliabitant of most old-fashioned country gardens, has 

 much to recommend it, especially tlie single flowered form, 

 which is much less commonly seen than that with ii-itensely 

 double flowers. This shrub is beautiful in winter, with its con- 

 spicuous, slender, light green branches ; it is beautiful when 

 it is covered in early June with its bright yellow flowers, and 

 just now it is particularly attractive. The foliage turns late 

 always, but when it does turn it takes on a clear, brilliant, 

 stmny yellow, which is unsurpassed. There is no more beau- 

 tififl or distinct looking shrub during the early days of Novem- 

 ber than the Corchorus, the old familiar name for Kerria. 



A law case of general interest to horticulturists is reported 

 in a late issue of the Gardeners' Chronicle. The plaintiff, a 

 niu'seryman, had purchased 500 roots of what he was led to 

 believe was Spircea palniata. He took them home with him, 

 potted them, and grew them from November until June, when 

 the plants flowered, and it was discovered that, instead of being 

 Spiraa pahnata, they were Spircca elegans, a comparatively 

 worthless species, it appears, for his purpose at least ; and he 

 was able to show that the plants he had purchased possessed 

 no commercial value. The plaintiff claimed the one shilling 

 and three pence for each of the 500 plants, which he would 

 have obtained for them when fully grown had they been of 

 the kind he supposed he was buying. No charge of fraud was 

 made against the defendant, who, evidently, was selling in 

 good faith what he thought was Spircea pahnata; but the jury 

 found for the plaintiff the full amount claimed, and judgment 

 was given accordingly. 



The Chrysanthemum has fairly captured the town of Boston. 

 The public flocked to the Horticultural Society's exhibition of 

 the favorite flower, which fills every florist's window to- 

 overflowing. It is sold at the street corner in profusion and 

 excellence, and a woman is rarely seen in the streets without 

 a bunch, big or little, in her hands or on her dress. This 

 remarkable popularity has grown in recent years, for it 

 appears, from an authoritative article published last week 

 in the Boston Evening Transcript, that the first record of 

 the exhibition of Chrysanthemums in this country was in 1830, 

 when fifteen varieties were shown at an exhibition of the 

 Massachusetts Society. The first prizes for Chrysanthemums, 

 amounting to a total of $17, were offered in 1861. Seven 

 years later the fall exhibition of the Society was first called the 

 " Chrysanthemimi Show," and the prizes were increased to 

 $55. They were increased to $150 in 1879, and an entire day 

 was devoted to the exhibition. The exhibition in 1882, although 

 planned for only a single day, excited so much interest that it 

 was kept open two days, and this plan was continued until 1886, 

 when three days were required, as they have been in succeed- 

 ing years, to satisfy the popular curiosity. The prizes, too, have 

 been gradually increased until they now amount, in the aggre- 

 gate, to the handsome sum of $741. 



