December 4, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



587 



plant is a serious matter in many cases. It not only discour- 

 ages the tyro from persevering, but the judgment may be 

 unsound. It is easy to pass by varieties that are not at their 

 best when shown before a committee, and as the legitimate 

 season of the Chrysanthemum extends now from the 20th of 

 September until the 20th of December, varieties may be 

 neglected which may be very good eitlier early or late. There 

 are few Chrysanthemums in which I can see no beauty, butfor 

 the best interests of all there must be a limit to the propaga- 

 tion of varieties which are at best duplicates of existing kinds. 



Pearl River, N. Y. JohtlThorpe. 



A Lesson in Transplanting Evergreens. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — During the month of August last I witnessed the trans- 

 planting of several hundred Austrian and Scotch Pines. The 

 result was the loss of nearly the whole lot ; and it was such a 

 surprise to me that I think the facts in regard to it worth 

 recording. The weather was all that could be wished for, 

 being warm and moist, and the soil was in the same condition. 

 The Pines had been growing close together in rows and were 

 from four to five feet high. As they were not as bushy as 

 could be wished, we thought best to prune- them in well, and, 

 after the transplanting, a man was sent with shears to clip 

 them closely. This lie did, cutting off all the latest growth, 

 taking from six to ten inches from the branches. Out of 300 

 plants all were so trimmed except some half dozen, which 

 were purposely left unpruned to see which would do the better. 

 At that time I confidently expected that the pruned trees 

 would show the benefit of the work. However, they soon 

 began to turn brown, and in the end every one died, while 

 every one of the few left unpruned are alive to-day. 



As' soon as it was observed how the matter was going to 

 end, another row was set out, unpruned, and all the plants in 

 it are thriving to-day. No doubt the severe pruning was the 

 cause of this faihn-e. All the younger or active foliage had 

 been cut away, leaving only that which was past its usefulness 

 and which was about ready to drop off. The trees were, in 

 fact, in just the same condition that a deciduous tree would 

 liave been if stripped of all its leaves in the middle of summer. 

 It was a costly but a most valuable lesson and one worth 

 putting on record as a warning to others. 



Germantown, Pa. Joseph Meehan. 



Variegated Wild Plants. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir. — I found in 1888, near here, a prettily variegated form of 

 Polygonatiiui bifloruin, and it has kept its variegation during 

 two years of cultivation. In the garden of a friend there is a 

 plant of Symplocarpus foetidics, the foliage of which is suffused 

 with large white blotches, and he tells me this is the second he 

 has found in his wanderings. Variegated plants of Capsella 

 Bursa-pastoris and Portiilacea oleracea are frequently to Ije 

 met with here in the summer months. These instances are 

 offered in response to the suggestion of Dr. Sturtevant. 



Passaic, N.J. E. O. Or pet. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — In your issue of November 6th a correspondent asks 

 for additions to the list of variegated wild plants, which he 

 gives. 



Rudbeckia hirta. — On marshy land near Klinger Lake, Mich- 

 igan, I noticed for the first time, in 1887, a nuniber of plants 

 upon which the yellow rays were variegated with brown. 

 This year more regularity and deeper coloring was observable, 

 and in one instance, at least, a distinct circle at the base of the 

 cone. Dorcas E. Collins. 



Klinger Lake, Midi. 



Recent Publications. 



Annual Report of the Royal Botanic Garden, Tri)iidad, 1888. 

 By J. H. Hart, Superintendent. Handsomely illustrated with a 

 series of views of several of the most interesting trees in the 

 garden, including a fine specimen of the Traveler's tree (/vrtz/f- 

 nala Madagascariensis), of the great Bamboo, the Palmyra 

 Palm {Borassus flabelliforinis) and of other Palms. 



As a scientific station the value of the Trinidad garden is 

 very great, and much of its present success is due to the 

 energy of the new superintendent, who is doing wonders in 

 his efforts to develop the material prosperity of the British 

 West Indies, by the publication of bulletins on various useful 

 plants, and by the introduction of others from different parts 

 of the tropics. The Trinidad garden, too, is the richest and 



most beautiful probably in the tropics of the New World, and 

 there is no spot where so many interesting plants of the tropics 

 can be seen growing together which can be so easily reached 

 from this country. It is gratifying, therefore, to read in Mr. 

 Hart's report that the number of Americans who take advan- 

 tage of this opportunity and visit the garden is steadily increas- 

 ing, and that " the amount of energy and enthusiasm shown 

 by visitors from the north is something surprising — certainly 

 eclipsing- anything seen from the European side of the world." 



Department of Agricicltiire, 1888. 77^;? Report of the Botan- 

 ist, by Dr. George Vasey, contains a description, with figures, 

 of a number of Grasses of economic value, to which are added 

 accounts of the western Plantain {Platitago Patagonica), a 

 native of South America, but now spread into various parts of 

 North America, and extending as far north as British Colum- 

 bia on the Pacific side of the continent, and to New England 

 on the Atlantic ; of Lygodesniia juncea, a perennial weed com- 

 mon in the Rocky Mountain region, especially pernicious in 

 vegetable gardens ; and of Solaniim triflorion, a wild Potato 

 found growing from New Mexico into British America. A 

 paper upon the Pastoral Resources of Montana, from the pen 

 of Mr. F. W. Anderson, is appended. 



The Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information from the Royal 

 Gardens, Kew, for October, contains articles on the Bahia Pias- 

 sava, a valuable fibre obtained from the leaf-stalks of the Bra- 

 zilian Palm {Attalea funiferd), largely imported into Great Brit- 

 ain, and on Seedling Sugar-cane plants at the Barbadoes ; on 

 the cultivation and production of the very successful Cinchona 

 plantations in Jamaica ; on Gambler, largely used in tanning 

 and obtained from Uncaria Gambler, a climbing plant, native 

 of and largely cultivated in the Strait Settlements of the East 

 Indies, and on Fibre Industry at the Bahamas. 



Hooker's Icones Plantariim. The October issue completes 

 vol. xix. of the entire series and contains figures of sev- 

 eral of the small Orchids of the Indian flora now in process of 

 elaboration, by Sir Joseph Hooker, for his Flora of British 

 India J and a continuation of the remarkable new Cliinese 

 plants which Dr. A. Henry has discovered in the western prov- 

 inces. The most interesting of these are Tetracentron Sinense, 

 a new genus of MagnoliacecE, a tree twenty to fifty feet high, with 

 the habit of Cercidiphyllum, but with the flowers in long spikes ; 

 Toricellia angulata, the Chinese representative of a genus 

 known previously in the Himalayas only, and belonging to 

 Cornacce ; Cercis racemosa, an exceedingly handsome shrub 

 or small tree, well marked by its loosely racemose inflores- 

 cence ; no less than eight new species of Maples ; a new genus 

 m Sapindacce, Dipteronia Sinensis; and several other plants 

 which need not be enimierated to show the richness of the 

 flora of western China in new forms, and the service to 

 science which Dr. Henry has performed in making them 

 known. 



Notes. 



The fifteenth annual meeting of the New Jersey State Hor- 

 ticultural Society will be held at Trenton, on Wednesday and 

 Thursday, the i8th and 19th instant. 



At one of the horticultural exhibitions held in the Expo- 

 sition grounds at Paris last summer, eighty-five new varieties 

 of Potato were shown by M. Rigault, of Croslay. 



Lilium Harrisii \s already found in ciuantities in our flower 

 markets. This is five or six weeks earlier than usual, and it 

 shows that florists have learned how to force these flowers 

 more rapidly. 



The Yellow Chrysanthemum, H. E. Widener, which received 

 the Blanc cup for the best new seedling at the Philadelphia 

 Exhibition, has passed into the hands of Mr. E. G. Hill, of 

 Richmond, Indiana, who will send it out. 



A novelty at the World's Fair in Paris was the exhibition of 

 a group of Orchids, chosen simply for the beauty of their foli- 

 age. With the exception of Odojitoglossuvt Alexandra- foliis 

 variegatis all were natives of eastern Asia. 



Barnard College, the new institution for women connected 

 with Columbia College in this city, recently opened with a 

 Freshman class of twenty girls, nine of whom will devote 

 themselves exclusively to the study of botany. 



An illustration of Pilogyne punctata was published in the 

 fllustrirte Garten Zeitung, of Vienna, for November last, witli 

 a brief note highly commending the plant. A fuller descrip- 

 tion of it, with directions for cultivation, was given in Garden 

 AND Forest on the i8th of November. 



