6l2 



Garden and Forest. 



[December i8, 1889. 



Notes. 



GoolI hot-house grapes are retailing in New York at two dol- 

 lars a pound. 



On several plants of Clematis paniculata, observed near this 

 city, the foliage remained green through the hard frosts of 

 autumn and well into December. 



The business of forcing bulbs for the market was so much 

 overdone in this country last year that florists have bought 

 more cautiously this fall. On the other hand, a combination of 

 growers in southern Europe compelled importers to pay high 

 prices for these bulbs, and as a consequence many Roman 

 Hyacinths and other bulbs have been sold at less than cost. 



At a ball given lately in Providence the three debutantes, in 

 whose honor it was made, received from their friends no 

 hand-bouquets. The money value of these flowers must have 

 been, at current retail prices, not far from $1,800. The fact is 

 worth noting, as an indication of the lavish use and tremen- 

 dous demand for flowers in this community. 



In the Bulletin de la Societe Botanique de France, M. Doumet 

 Adanson describes a Fir which he considers a hybrid between 

 Abies Pinsapo and A. pectijiata as the pollen parent. The 

 plant shows the distichous arrangement of leaves which char- 

 acterizes A. pectinata, while the leaves themselves resemble 

 those of A. Pinsapo. 



William H. Moffett, United States Consul at Athens, reports 

 the impossibility of making any official statement as to the agri- 

 culture of Greece, because " agriculture is here in the most 

 undeveloped condition. Even in the immediate neighborhood 

 of Athens it is common to find the wooden plow and the rude 

 mattock which were in use 2,000 years ago. Fields are plowed 

 up or scratched over, and crops replanted season after season, 

 until the exhausted soil will bear no more. Fertilizers are not 

 used to any appreciable extent, and the farm implements are 

 of the very rudest description. Irrigation is in use in some 

 districts, and, as far as I can ascertain, the methods in use can 

 be readily learned by a study of the practices of the ancient 

 Egyptians. Greece has olives and grapes in abundance, and 

 of quality not excelled ; but Greek olive oil and Greek wine 

 will not bear transportation." 



The northern suburbs of London will shortly be enriched 

 by a fine park, presented by Sir Sydney H. Waterlow. In a 

 letter addressed to the^London City Council, the donor writes : 

 " On the southern slope of Highgate Hill, in the parish of St. 

 Pancras, I own an estate of nearly twenty-nine acres in extent, 

 which was for many years my own home. This property, if 

 judiciously laid out, would, I think, make an excellent public 

 park for the north of London. The grounds are undulating, 

 well timbered with Oaks, old Cedars of Lebanon, and many 

 other well grown trees and shrubs. There is also one and 

 a half acres of ornamental water, supplied from natural 

 springs. The land is freehold, with the exception of two and 

 three-quarters acres held on a long lease, of which thirty-five 

 and a half years are unexpired. It is bounded almost en- 

 tirely by public roads and a public foot-path." 



A Cotoneaster, which has not flowered there yet, received at 

 the Arnold Arboretum some time ago from the Veitchian nurs- 

 ery, under the name of C. bacillaris floribunda, is a remarkable 

 and interesting plant at this season of the year. The foliage on 

 the 1st of December was fresh and bright green, and on the 6th of 

 the month, when all the deciduous leaved plants in the collec- 

 tion, with the exception of Elceagnus umbellata and two or 

 three others, on all of which they were already much wilted 

 and disfigured, had lost their leaves, those of this Cotoneaster, 

 although they had been subjected to a temperature as low as 

 ten degrees above zero, were just turning to a deep, rich wine 

 color. This shrub, whatever its name and origin may be, is 

 certainly worth growing for its late autumn and early winter 

 foliage. It is vigorous and very hardy, of good habit, with 

 large, acuminate, membranaceous leaves, and slender, spread- 

 ing branches, covered with bright green bark, which at this 

 season of the year turns claret color on the side toward the 

 sun. It has the appearance of growing to a large size. 



Professor Comstock, in a late Bulletin of the Cornell Univer- 

 sity station, gives an interesting account of a saw-fly borer 

 which attacked the Wheat on the station ground in great 

 numbers this year. The insect {CepJius pygmaus) is well 

 known in Europe, where it has been considered a serious 

 pest. This is the first time, however, that it has ever been 

 observed in this country. European entomologists describe 

 parasites which infest this insect, but Professor Comstock 

 found no trace of any among those in the station Wheat field. 

 Artificial means for checking the spread of this species must. 



therefore, be depended on. The burning over of the stubble 

 or plowing it under after harvest would destroy the larvae, but 

 either remedy would also destroy the Grass or Clover usually 

 sown with Wheat. It seems probable, therefore, that if the 

 insect becomes a serious pest it will be necessary in badly 

 infested regions either to sow Grass seed with Oats and burn 

 or plow all Wheat stubble, or to suspend the raising of Wheat 

 for one year, in order to destroy the insects by starvation. 



A correspondent sends us the following note upon Magnolia 

 glaiica in its isolated northern station in Essex County, Massa- 

 chusetts : " Magnolia Swamp contains several hundred acres, 

 and it is one and a half miles in length and from ten to over 

 100 rods in width. I am of opinion that this swamp has fur- 

 nished the shrub to all the others. In regard to three of the 

 smaller swamps I know that this is a fact, the Magnolia shrubs 

 having been transplanted by men. The inhabitants of Glou- 

 cester are firm in the belief that Magnolia glaiica is a native 

 shrub, but I cannot think so. I believe it was introduced by 

 the old settlers, some of whom_ may have lived in and removed 

 from a more southern state. ' 'The old Salem road,' deserted 

 l)y the traveling public for over 100 years, skirts the eastern 

 side of Magnolia Swamp. Along the line of this road are 

 the ruins of old cellars, and in the swamp opposite one of the 

 cellars, near a spring, may be found Magnolias which appear 

 the oldest in the region. The root-crowns below the moss are 

 often found to be two feet in diameter. In no other place can 

 I find such a growth, and it is here, I think, that the shrub first 

 started. It must be evident to any careful observer that Mag- 

 nolia glaiica is struggling here in an unnatural climate. The 

 primary roots grow straight down into the muck, and in 

 the fall are thickly covered with rootlets, snowy white in 

 color. In the spring these I'ootlets are mostly dead, and a 

 greater part of young shoots die down to the moss, and a cer- 

 tain per cent, of the old plants are winter-killed, which indi- 

 cates that there is no harmony between shrub and climate." 



The fruit of the Japanese Persimmon or Kaki can still be 

 found in the markets of this city in great abundance, and of 

 extraordinary beauty and excellence. It is raised in Florida 

 and Georgia, where the Kaki has been planted in large quan- 

 tities. It is by far the handsomest dessert fruit which the mar- 

 ket affords at this season of the year ; but it is a question 

 whether the kaki really possesses as good a flavor as one of 

 our thoroughly ripened and frosted native persimmons from 

 Georgia or Virginia, a fruit which some people consider about 

 the best that grows. A cross between the American and Japan- 

 ese species might be expected to produce a fruit of larger size 

 and finer color than that of the former, and with a richer flavor 

 than any of the cultivated forms of Kaki. The Asiatic Persim- 

 mon, according to Rein, is "undeniably the most widely distrib- 

 uted, most important and most beautiful fruit tree in Japan, 

 Corea and northern China. In Japan it endures night frosts 

 at ^ temperature of from twelve to sixteen degrees C. It 

 can be cultivated high up in the valleys and far beyond the limit 

 of the Bamboo cane. It is a stately tree, after the fashion of a 

 Pear-tree, with beautiful deciduous leaves, almost as large as 

 those of some Magnolias, but of bright green color and resem- 

 bling those of the Pear in shape only. The new leaves come 

 in May; it blossoms in June; the season of ripe fruit is late in 

 autumn, from the middle of September to the end of November. 

 There are many kinds of Kaki, ranging in size from a small 

 hen's egg to a big apple. Some are nearly spherical, others 

 oblong, others heart-shaped. In color of the outer skin they 

 run from light orange-yellow to deep orange-red. They are 

 distinguished also by their taste, which is pleasant in its way 

 and reminds one of tomatoes, as does the color also. They 

 are eaten not only in a soft, doughy condition, in which those 

 of the Migako-no-dj6, in the province Hiuga, are prized most 

 highly, but the fruit is gathered while still hard, to ripen after- 

 ward. The best in Japanese estimation are Tarugaki, that is, 

 ' Tub Persimmons,' which have been converted from astrin- 

 gent into sweet fruit by being kept in an old sake tub. The bit- 

 ter, astringent taste of all green kaki remains, even in the ripe 

 fruit, in the case of most varieties, and it is from these that, 

 during the summer, an astringent fluid, rich in tannin, is pre- 

 pared (called Shibu), an acid of considerable importance in 

 several industries. When over-ripe and dried in the sun, 

 pressed somewhat flat, and then put away in boxes, the sweet 

 kaki get to look and taste, in a few months, when skinned, 

 like dried figs, and are used like them. The white powder 

 which covers these dried persimmons in boxes is natural sugar 

 that has exuded from the fruit. "In September the Kaki tree, 

 laden with large, orange colored fruit, is a great ornament to 

 the landscape. This beauty it preserves till it loses its leaves 

 in October." 



