70 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 364. 



with much information which young pupils in botany can- 

 not digest and assimilate, a great deal more that they do 

 not need to be told, and very little which cannot be found 

 in better form in the nearest cyclopedia. 



Notes. 



We have received a series of twenty pictures from different 

 points of view of Mr. S. C. Nash's water-garden at Clifton, New 

 Jersey, which has often been mentioned in this journal. These 

 prints are from photographs taken by Mr. Nash, and they have 

 been reproduced by the photogravure process, so that none 

 of the delicacy of the photographic detail is sacrificed. The 

 pictures not only give a good idea of such plants as the Vic- 

 toria regia, the various Nymphasas and Nelumbiums, but 

 they convey instructive hints to any one interested in aquatic 

 gardening, especially in the important matter of planting along 

 shores, and thus furnishing a proper setting for lakes and 

 ponds. Mr. Nash has a few extra sets of these views which 

 he will dispose of at less than their original cost. 



In Meehans' Monthly for February the sound advice is given 

 to dig a trench before spring growth begins around large trees 

 which are to be moved. The inside of the trench should be two 

 feet from the butt or more, according to the size of the tree. 

 It should be deep enough to cut off most of the roots, two feet 

 at least, and the trench should be carefully filled up with good 

 soil, wliich should be firmly packed about the ball. Next 

 autumn many new roots will have been formed, and the trans- 

 planting of the tree will be much more easy and more cer- 

 tainly successful. When the trench is dug, the top of the 

 tree should be pruned back, though not as severely as if the 

 planting was to take place immediately. Mr. Meehan says that 

 some large Scarlet Oaks and American Beeches treated in this 

 way last winter made a very remarkable root-growth during 

 the following summer. 



The literature of spraying is becoming very extensive, and 

 no one who wants to apply remedies against insects and fungi 

 in this form need lack for information. Bulletin No. 74 of the 

 Geneva Experiment Station gives a very complete account of 

 the machinery for this purpose, but it is said that better ma- 

 chines are still needed. For Potatoes and Tomatoes a nozzle 

 should be used which can be lowered between the rows and 

 directed so as to spray up through the vines. The same 

 sprayer should not be expected to do all kinds of work with 

 equal satisfaction. The agitator, which keeps the mixture of 

 uniform strength by preventing the heavier ingredients from 

 settling, is one of the most important parts of any sprayer and 

 one which works up and down like a churn dash is the best. 

 Pumps for spraying should be made of brass, or should be 

 brass-lined, and when the piston-head is packed the packing 

 should be frequently changed. 



A writer in a recent number of the Ga^'deners' Magazine 

 gives an interesting account of the cultivation of Kent Cob- 

 nuts. The particular orchard, if such It can be called, which 

 he describes, covers something 'ike sixteen acres, and was 

 carrying, at the time of the writer's visit, about thirty-two tons 

 of nuts. Some of the trees on this farm are seventy-five years 

 old, and in the rich deep soil of West Kent the stems of many 

 of them are eighteen inches In diameter and gnarled with age. 

 These trees are usually called basin-shaped, but an ordinary 

 sugar-basin with a shortstem more truly represents thelrshape. 

 The stems are from fifteen to eighteen inclies high, and the 

 branches radiate from these in an outward direction to a dis- 

 tance of from four to seven feet on each side, and by a perfect 

 system of training and pruning they form a complete circle 

 eight to fourteen, or even more, feet in diameter. The trees 

 are trimmed to a flat top some five feet high, and to one look- 

 ing across the great plantation not a branch Is seen above this 

 line. By summer and winter pruning these trees are kept in 

 this shape, and the branches are closely covered with spurs, 

 from which the nuts are produced. No suckers are seen, and 

 something like three hundred trees may be grown on an acre, 

 but the number varies according to the size. Many ot the 

 trees will produce ten pounds of nuts. 



In the autumn of 1893 we mentioned the fact that the so- 

 called Rose-colored Calla, RIchardIa RehmannI, had flowered 

 in Holland, and that the spathes as they appeared there were 

 described as white, tmted with rose. In one of Mr. Watson's 

 letters of January of last year It was stated that a colored pic- 

 ture of the plant as It grows in Natal showed that there Is a 

 variety of the plant there witli spathes of dull rose-purple. In 

 October last we gave an account of the flowering of the plant 

 in Kew, where it showed nothing more than a flush of rose- 



color inside of the upper portion of the spathe. The last num- 

 ber of The Garden gives a picture of this plant in flower from 

 a photograph sent from Holland, from which the appearance of 

 the plant is shown to be quite different from the ordinary 

 Calla, although it is a true Richardia. The distinct feature of the 

 plant, as we have noted, is the lanceolate form ot the leaves, 

 which resemble somewhat those of a Canna, and the spathes 

 are striped, as they unfold, in a way which reminds one of 

 Jack-in-the-pulpit. The color of these stripes is said to be 

 chocolate-brown, while on the inside the spathe is said to be a 

 soft rose-color. It Is suggested that the difference between 

 the color of this flower and of the flower of the Kew plant 

 may be due to the fact that one came from a much more 

 southern latitude than the other. It is not Improbable that the 

 Rose Calla needs a hot sun to bring out its distinctive color, 

 and it might do its best In our southern states. It is plainly 

 less desirable than the white RIchardias, and even than the 

 yellow-spathed species. Nevertheless, it may be useful for 

 hybridizing, and may found a race with a range of color quite 

 distinct from any we now have. 



At the semi-monthly meeting of the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society, on February 2d, there was a fine display of 

 cut blooms of Orchids from the Ames collection at North 

 Easton, Including first-rate examples of white forms of Laslia 

 anceps, one called Vestalis being remarkably good, and 

 another called Winnlana, one of the darkest of all the varie- 

 ties of this winter-blooming Laslia, was specially good. Mr. 

 Robinson, the gardener, also showed a fine hybrid Cyprlpe- 

 dium of his own raising, and named after Mrs. F. L. Ames, a 

 cross between C. Falrieanum and C. tonsum, the latter being 

 the seed parent. The hybrid showed plainly the parentage, 

 having the characteristic petals of the charming pollen parent, 

 with the shining surtace over the whole flower that is so 

 marked a feature of C. tonsum. Another hybrid raised in the 

 same collection was shown, it being the Nortli Easton variety 

 ot Cyprlpedium H. Ballantine, a charming little plant, having 

 for Its parents C. Purpuratum and C. Falrieanum. There were 

 also a collection of cut blooms of Orchids from Mr. John L. 

 Gardiner, of Brookline. Cut blooms of Camellias were also 

 shown in quantity, chiefly by Francis B. Hayes, and made a 

 fine display. The competition for the prizes offered for Violets 

 was good, and the first prize was well merited by those shown 

 by Mr. W. N. Craig, of Taunton, but the two vases of Marie 

 Louise, shown by Alexander Mackay, of South Framingham, 

 were, perhaps, the largest of their kind ever shown in Boston, 

 the flowers easily covered a silver dollar, and the color was 

 superb, eclipsing all other varieties on exhibition. There was 

 also another promising kind, shown under the name of the 

 Farquhar. A good display of Carnations was staged, the first 

 prize going to the noted specialist from Framingham, Mr. W. 

 Nicholson, and the second prize to Mr. W. N. Craig. 



The second period of freezing weather in Florida was even 

 more disastrous to the Orange groves than the first, when, as we 

 have stated before, the crop of fruit was practically destroyed. 

 The older trees, which had not been killed, had begun to put 

 forth leaf-buds and fruit-buds, and this second cold wave has 

 evidently destroyed these and apparently ruined the next crop. 

 The cold weather has also hurt the crop in Spain, so that now 

 nearly all the oranges in this market are from Sicily and 

 Jamaica. From the latter island some very good fruit is com- 

 ing, and this Is here repacked in boxes like those used in 

 Florida. The California orange season practically begins 

 when the Florida season ends, in February, and continues 

 through the spring months. Ot course, the short crop else- 

 where will make prices of California oranges high, so that this 

 season's crop In that state will be unusually remunerative. 

 The best California Navels which are now here seem to be of 

 unusually good quality and they sell by the box for $2.50 to 

 $4 50 ; good ones bring sixty-five cents a dozen. This unprece- 

 dented cold weather throughout the south has disorganized 

 the vegetable market, and the supply here comprises hardly 

 any fresh green vegetables besides tlie ordinary northern 

 winter sorts and llmltedquantitles of a few kinds from northern 

 hot-houses. Hot-house tomatoes cost from sixty to eighty 

 cents a pound ; new carrots, forty cents for a dozen bunches 

 containing five of these small but tender vegetables ; radishes 

 cost five cents a bunch, and tiny fresh onions the same price. 

 Kohl-rabi, from Bermuda, rhubarb grown under glass on 

 Long Island, and very slender stalks of hot-house aspara- 

 gus, costing $1.25 for a small bunch, are other luxuries seen 

 in the l)est markets. The heavy snows have seriously inter- 

 fered with transportation, and the large supplies of kale and 

 spinach which come from Norfolk, Virginia, have been cut 

 oft' for the time. 



