40 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 361. 



showing what can be done to make a fiower perfect, 

 according to any given standard, by persistent and intelli- 

 gent care. 



The part of the book which will be of the greatest use to 

 American readers, however, is the chapter entitled Man- 

 ners and Customs, which, in a thorough way, makes men- 

 tion of the peculiarities of habit, general appearance and 

 behavior, under different circumstances, of the best-known 

 varieties. The list is not complete like the admirable one 

 in Mr. EUwanger's book, but the descriptions of the varie- 

 ties which are named are much more minute, and all the 

 drawbacks, as well as the good qualities of the show-varie- 

 ties, are noted. The demerits and bad habits of each are 

 pointed out just as their good qualities are, and besides the 

 peculiar ways which mark different groups or families, the 

 "manners " of individual varieties are set forth so thoroughly 

 that one feels sure that the author is familiarly acquainted 

 with all of them and that he writes out of abundant per- 

 sonal experience. The book is illustrated with several 

 half-tone plates, and many of them really help the text. 

 They are not as well executed as American half-tone work 

 usually is, although some of them show admirably the tex- 

 ture of the leaf and the shading of the petal. Perhaps the 

 judge of an English Rose-show would like the prize plant 

 whose illustration fronts page iSi, and certainly it shows 

 the highest cultural skill. Persons who prefer Chrysanthe- 

 mums tied and staked into a perfectly globular form, and 

 with flowers appearing at equal distances all over the sur- 

 face, will probably like this Rose much belter than one 

 naturally grown. The reverend author tells us that it will 

 often take a man three days to tie and wire one of these 

 big plants into the shape of a pyramid, globe or cone. 

 Sometimes they are trained with a flat back and without 

 any growth on that side, and these one-sided plants, ac- 

 cording to the author, look well where the pots are stood 

 up against the wall. 



Notes. 



Mr. J. H. Hale writes to the Florists' Exchange that a single 

 nursery company in Georgia has planted a hundred bushels of 

 native chestnuts, which are now in nursery rows simply to 

 produce seedling stock upon which to graft cions of Burbank's 

 new Sweet Chestnut. The company has contracted to propa- 

 gate a half a million trees. 



At a recent exhibition in Holland, Mr. J. H. Schober exhib- 

 ited fruiting branches of fifty-two species of Conifers grown in 

 his pinetum at Scliovenhorst (Patten), on ground winch less 

 than fifty years ago was a barren moor. In a catalogue of 

 the Pinetum Schoberianum, published in 1892, one hundred 

 and ninety-nine species and varieties of coniferous plants are 

 enumerated. 



Professor Webster, of the Ohio Experiment Station, has 

 been making experiments to determine whether honey-bees 

 are injured by spraying fruit-trees with the arsenites while 

 they are in bloom. These tests seem to show conclusively 

 that bees are killed in this way. Apart from the destruction of 

 the bees and the consequent loss to the apiarist, this would 

 seem to be a bad policy tor the fruit-grower, since the presence 

 of bees is acknowledged to be of great value in securing a 

 crop of fruit by their work in poUenizing the flowers. 



No species of Orchid as important as the beautiful Cypripe- 

 dium Charlesworthii was introduced in quantity during the 

 year 1894, but one new genus has been described, coming 

 from the Andes, and forty new species. Two remarkable 

 natural hybrids have appeared, with many striking varieties of 

 natural hybrids already known. Tlie Orchid Review gives a 

 list of between fifty and sixty hybrids which are considered 

 sufficiently important to put on record as having flowers for 

 the first time during the year, and, of course, there are many 

 more which can in no way be considered as improvements on 

 existing varieties. 



Unlike bananas, which are usually eaten as a dessert fruit, 

 plantains, as is well known, are unpalatable unless roasted or 

 boiled. It is not generally known, however, that the inner 

 undeveloped leaves and the flower-buds of the Plantain are 

 often boiled and eaten like cabbage and made into a curry. A 

 palatable drink is made by covering crushed ripe bananas or 



plantains with water and allowing the mixture to stand for a 

 few days until it ferments. Since Bananas and Plantains are 

 singularly free from diseases, there is, no doubt, a promising 

 future for their cultivation, as the uses of both for various pur- 

 poses are largely on the increase. Bananas are now preserved, 

 canned and dried, and both bananas and plantains, when 

 dried and ground, make a meal which is highly palatable and 

 nutritious. 



A leguminous evergreen climber, with flowers a foot across, 

 whose petals are pure white, of a tissue-like texture, with a nar- 

 row fringe on the edges like gold lace, would certainly present 

 a magnificent spectacle when in full bloom. On page 103 of 

 ourlast volume, Camoensea maxima, a tropical African climber, 

 was described by Mr. Watson as bearing such flowers, and 

 although the plant is not new, and many large specimens are 

 found m European glass-houses, it was said that no one as 

 yet had succeeded in flowering it. It was slated also that a 

 plant sent from Kew to Ceylon ten years ago was now 

 flowering with great vigor in the famous botanical gardens 

 of that island, and it has also flowered in the botanical 

 gardens of Trinidad. From the Kew Bulletin we now learn 

 that Mr. W. Mackie, gardener to j\Irs. Ruddle, of Tewkesbury, 

 England, has at last flowered the plant successfully. No doubt, 

 as its habits become better known these beautiful flowers will 

 be seen more frequently. It has been suggested with great 

 probability that the plant loves bright sunlight and a good 

 deal of it, so that one would think it a promising subject for 

 some of the large collections in this country. 



The established fact that leguminous plants are able to 

 gather a portion of the nitrogen they need for food, either 

 directly or indirectly, from the tree nitrogen of the air, suggests 

 that it may be worth while to investigate the foraging powers 

 of different plants for other nutrients. Every one knows 

 that in any given soil different plants are grown with 

 dift'erent degrees of success, and it seems quite likely that 

 some plants are able to use certain compounds of potash 

 or phosphoric acid in the soil which are not so readily availa- 

 ble to others, just as leguminous plants can obtain nitrogen 

 from sources that are not available to the Grasses. Some 

 tests were made at the Maine Experiment Station last year to 

 ascertain the capability of different plants to appropriate phos- 

 phoric acid, and they seem to indicate that Wheat, Barley, 

 Corn, Peas, and especially Turnips, can secure this food from 

 crude, finely ground South Carolina rock with greater or less 

 ease, while Beans and Potatoes derive no benefit from it. Of 

 course, definite conclusions can hardly be drawn from one 

 year's work, but these investigations are being continued. It 

 would be a distinct gain to horticulture and agriculture if it 

 could be known in what particular form each particular plant 

 preferred to have its food. 



Owing to the unexampled destruction in Florida from the 

 late freezing weather half-rates were allowed to shippers by 

 transportation companies until the i6th of January, so that 

 seventeen and a half cents covered the freight on a box of 

 oranges from Jacksonville to New York. This low charge 

 induced large shipments, and whereas but 12,000 boxes of 

 Florida oranges reached New York during the first week 

 after the crop had been frozen, nearly 60,000 boxes arrived last 

 week. Prices have ranged from fifteen cents to $1.00 a box for 

 frosted fruit, $5.00 being asked for choice oranges gathered 

 before the frost. Grape-fruit seems to have been more se- 

 verely injured even than oranges and has been selling slowly 

 at the nominal price of fifty to seventy-five cents a box, while 

 Tangerine oranges seem to be the least affected and sell at 

 $1.50 to J2. 00. Jamaica oranges now command $5 50 to $6.00 

 a barrel at the steamer's side. Havana Strawberry pineapples 

 range from $3.00 to $12,00 a hundred, and Aspinwall bananas 

 cost $i.i2'2 a bunch by the truck-load. English hot-house 

 grapes have advanced in price with the scarcity of Almeria 

 and other sorts, and Gros Colmans bring $3.50 a pound. Large 

 Easter Beurre pears cost $1.00 a dozen. The highest grade of 

 cranberries is quoted at the unusual price of $14.00 a barrel, 

 retail dealers asking twenty cents a quart. Florida cucumbers, 

 cauliflower, chicory, egg-plants, peas and string beans, which 

 a month ago were in regular supply, have been cut short by 

 the frost, and the standard winter vegetables will have to be 

 depended upon for some weeks to come. Some tomatoes 

 from as far south as Key West bring thirty cents a pound for 

 the best, and tomatoes from Cuba cost the same price. Other 

 vegetables now coming from Cuba are onions, okra and pep- 

 pers, and small supplies of well-blanched'Romaine lettuce are 

 now imported from Bermuda. Bermuda potatoes cost $7.50 a 

 barrel, and cabbage from Denmark $6.00 a hundred. 



