6oo 



Garden and Forest. 



[December ii, 1889. 



Notes. 



The fourteenth annual meeting of the Iowa State Agri- 

 cultural Society will be held at Glenwood on the loth, nth and 

 1 2th instant. 



On one of the coldest days of last week we received from 

 the gardens of Dr. George Thurber, of Passaic, New Jersey, 

 some large and perfect flowers of Hellebortis niger altifolius, 

 which had grown out-of-doors with no protection. 



It is a fact significant of the present tendency of horticultural 

 fashion that the receipts from visitors at the Chrysanthemum 

 exhibition held at Boston last month exceeded the receipts 

 taken at all the other exhibitions combined held by the Massa- 

 chusetts Society during the year. 



The illustration of the Chrysanthemum Mrs. Carnegie, on 

 another page of this issue, is taken from a photograph of 

 one of a collection of remarkable flowers exhibited at the late 

 Chrysanthemum show in Boston by James Brydon, gar- 

 dener to Mr. Simpkins, of Yarmouth, Massachusetts. 



According to specimens received from Professor Gerald 

 McCarthey, of Raleigh, and from Mr. G. W. Lawrence, of Fay- 

 etteville, North Carolina, it appears that hogs of that state are 

 fond of the fungus, Clathrus cobiinnatus, Bosc, a species 

 which has the repulsive odor foimd in nearly all the order 

 Phalloidea:. Several hogs have been killed by indulgence in 

 this unsesthetic, and, to human taste, nauseating diet. 



All foreign journals notice the fact that the taste for single 

 flowers is rapidly growing. Single Dahlias, Chrysanthemums, 

 China Asters, Cinerarias and Pyrethrums are now in de- 

 mand, whereas a while ago only the double varieties were 

 liked. So unfamiliar, indeed, was the single Dahlia a few 

 years ago in Germany that florists who displayed it in their 

 windows were constantly asked its name. Now it is one of the 

 most popular of flowers. 



Plants of Croton Alabamensis, described in another column, 

 were sent last spring to the Arnold Arboretum by Professor 

 Smith. They are now well established, but have not, of 

 course, been tested yet in the open groimd in winter. The 

 contrast between the brilliant green on the upper surface of 

 the leaves with the silver whiteness of the young branches 

 and the under surface of the leaves makes the Alabama Croton 

 an exceedingly attractive plant, and its cultivation desirable. 



Work has been begun on the Memorial Arch, at the entrance 

 of Prospect Park, which is to commemorate the citizens of 

 Brooklyn who fell in the war of the rebellion. The design 

 selected from the many competitive essays presented last 

 winter is the work of Mr. John H. Duncan, architect, of this city. 

 It is the same which was then pronounced in Garden and 

 Forest to be not merely the best for the purpose, but so far 

 above all its rivals that there was no room for discussion with 

 regard to it. Who is to execute the groups of statuary which 

 should adorn it we have not yet learned. 



Those elegant Cape bulbs, the Freesias, deserve their grow- 

 ing popularity, both on account of their graceful growtli and 

 their delicious fragrance. There are some plants of remark- 

 able vigor just now in the green-houses of Mr. John Thorpe. 

 They are in five-inch pots, with five bulbs in each pot, and each 

 plant is twenty inches high, with leaf-blades three-fourths of 

 an inch wide and sheaths of the same width at the base. 

 They were potted on the 6th of July in soil of sandy loam, with 

 a quart of bone flour to each half bushel of soil, and there is 

 little doubt but that the plant food in the bone did much to 

 nourish them into their unusual growth. 



One of the best forms of Elceagnus iimbellata in cultivation is 

 that introduced into this country from Japan by Mr. Thomas 

 Hogg. The largest specimens of this plant in the Flushing 

 Nursery, where it was first planted, are now twelve or fifteen 

 feet high and form stout, wide spreading bushes. It is almost 

 the last deciduous plant to lose its leaves in the autumn, and 

 the fruit, which is freely produced at Flushing, is high colored 

 and attractive in appearance, and possesses rather an agree- 

 able sub-acid flavor. The Indian form of this widely distributed 

 and variable species, known in gardens often as E. angustifolia, 

 is a far less hardy and in every way a less desirable plant. 



An interesting and attractive form of Cattleya Bowringeana, 

 with pale mauve colored flowers, is now blooming for the 

 first time in Mr. Ames' garden at North Easton. In the same 

 collection two plants of Vanda Kimballiana are in bloom, and 

 with them a plant of Vanda Amesiana. The flowers of the latter 

 plant, although less showy in their contrast of colors than those 

 of Mr. Kimball's Vanda, are deliciously fragrant, a single spike 



of bloom perfuming a whole house. This delightful fragrance 

 and the fact that this species blooms at a season of the year 

 when comparatively few Orchid-flowers are seen, make Vanda 

 Amesiana a most desirable plant. 



The first of the twelfth course of the free Michaux Forestry 

 lectures was delivered by Professor Rothrock, in the hall of the 

 Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, on the evening of 

 the 4th instant. The subject was "Civilization as Related to 

 Surroundings." The other lectures of this course will be given 

 on the succeeding Wednesday evenings, and will treat of 

 "Some Neglected Trees," of "Some Famous Trees," of 

 "Trees Along Our Roadsides," of "Trees In Oiu" Yards," of 

 " Trees We Are Exterminating," and of " Practical Forestry." 

 These lectures are given under the auspices of the American 

 Philosophical Society, and are provided for from the income 

 of the fund left to that Society by Francois Andre Michaux, the 

 distinguished historian of American trees. 



The new vegetable, Stachys aiffinis (or 6". tuberifera), which 

 is called " Crosnes " in France, seems to be winning its way in 

 Germany. It was put to proof in the proverbial way at a re- 

 cent meeting of the Society for the promotion of Horticulture 

 in Berlin, being eaten both boiled and roasted. Some who 

 tasted it pronounced roast potatoes much better, but the ma- 

 jority, says a German journal, declared that the Stachys tubers 

 havea " fine, peculiar taste, and shoidd be highly recommended 

 to the epicure." An official of the Berlin Botanic Garden 

 stated that a rumor to the effect that the new vegetable was 

 being propagated there brought hundreds of requests for it, 

 and that he was obliged to have hectographed circulars pre- 

 pared explaining that the report was untrue. 



We must listen to foreigners to learn about American man- 

 ners and customs. Here is an example, quoted from a Ger- 

 man horticultural journal of the most serious character : "The 

 love for oranges in America has led to the introduction of 

 picnics that are called 'Lemon Parties.' Each attendant aj- 

 such a picnic brings a lemon or orange and gives it to thg 

 general 'squeezer.' This official cuts the fruit in two, coUectg 

 and counts the seeds and then prepares a' bowl of lemonade 

 Each person then guesses the total number of seeds collected, 

 he who is nearest right receives a prize, usuallya costly lemon^ 

 ade goblet ; he who is furthest wrong is called ' the Bubi , 

 (booby ?) and given a lemonade squeezer. Those whose 

 lemons have contained the most and the fewest seeds likewise 

 receive prizes, and the ladies present are always adorned with 

 yellow Roses and ribbons." 



The rare Cypripediuiii Fairicamini is now in flower in 

 Mr. Ames' collection. This species, although it has been 

 known for thirty years, is one of the rarest plants m cultiva- 

 tion. All that is known of its origin is that it was obtained at 

 a sale at Stevens' auction rooms, in London, of a lot of East 

 Indian Orchids sent from Assam. It has never been seen in 

 its native country, although various efforts have been made to 

 rediscover it, one enterprising English dealer having expended, 

 it is claimed, no less than $25,000 in a vain attempt to obtain a 

 supply of native plants. The flowers are not large, but they 

 are exquisitely colored and penciled, and are among the most 

 attractive of the genus. Cypripedium Fairieantan, although it 

 has been considered generally a delicate plant, and difficult to 

 manage, has impressed itself on several hybrids, of which 

 the best known is C. vexillarium, obtained by a cross with C. 

 barbatum. 



The English journals announce the death, in his ninetieth 

 year, of Robert Marnock, the foremost landscape-gardener 

 who has appeared in England during the second half of this 

 century, and one of the best exponents of the natural style. 

 He served his apprenticeship as a gardener and found his first 

 public employment in designing the Sheffield Botanic Garden, 

 of which he became the first curator, not a bad training for a 

 landscape-gardener, and one which led to his selection, in 

 1839, to lay out the garden of the Royal Botanic Society in 

 Regent's Park in London. This established his reputation, 

 and he has since been kept busy in the practice of his profes- 

 sion until his retirement a very few years ago. Marnock was 

 strong in artistic feeling and in his practical knowledge of 

 plants ; and here was the secret of his success. The artist 

 and the gardener worked together, and his creations were gar- 

 dens gracefully and tastefully arranged, but gardens in which 

 plants were always the principal and controlling feature. It 

 never fell to his lot to make any great urban pleasure ground, 

 or to design one of those broad landscapes which tax the 

 highest creative skill of the artist, but in his particular field 

 Robert Marnock was, in his day, without a rival. As a man 

 he was singularly modest and attractive. 



