February 20, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



77 



August-flowering China Asters have been mucli ravaged here 

 lately by the blister-beetle, which devours the flowers as rapidly 

 as they show color. The Yellow Aster should be rather 

 highly colored. The strain of flowers ottered this season is 

 said to be of a clear sulphur-yellow. Asters of this color are 

 offered at regular intervals, but previous introductions have 

 always needed the eye of faith to discover the tint. This is an 

 attractive novelty, but it may be said that the sulphur-yellow 

 of the florist usually proves to be a lurid yellow, very ineffec- 

 tive and unpleasing. There are others — The Lady in White, 

 etc. — but few of the annual introductions of Asters prove to 

 be improvements on the standard old varieties, which cost 

 only a trifle, and whose colors are pure and forms entirely 

 satisfactory. 



A Wallflower is offered which is said to flower in three 

 months from seed, with the quaint coloring and delightful 

 fragrance of the old favorite, of which we never have too 

 many in the garden. 



Sweet Peas have become so important, and are in such de- 

 mand, that we have the usual number of new varieties, the 

 most important of which seems to be Blanche Burpee, a 

 white-seeded white variety, said to be of very pure color and 

 fine form. This is an Eckford variety. Reports of trials by 

 growers do not indicate that it is superior in purity of color to 

 Emily Henderson, though of slightly differeat form. Cali- 

 fornia, in recent years, has become the nursery for Sweet 

 Peas, for nowhere else does stoclv increase so rapidly. In con- 

 sequence we are now able to secure quickly all the new varie- 

 ties at moderate prices, and no longer have to wait some years, 

 as we once did, while stock was being worked up in less ge- 

 nial climates. Growers of Sweet Peas have noticed lately that 

 there has been a tendency to produce double flowers among 

 the modern improved varieties, and this year we are offered 

 for the first time seeds of douljle Sweet Peas, said to produce 

 fifty per cent, of double flowers. This will interest some 

 growers and irritate some purists. To me the double flowers 

 seem to be neither more or less beautiful than the single ones. 

 If one has a greenhouse or warm frame, seeds of Sweet Peas 

 may now be sown singly in thumb-pots with large drainage 

 holes. They readily germinate, and if the pots are set on 

 loose earth the roots will work into it, and it will not be neces- 

 sary to repot. The plants will be in good condition to trans- 

 plant as soon as the garden can be worked. This inside 

 planting is particularly useful for the white-seeded varieties 

 and where the garden is too cold and wet to permit of early 

 planting. 



Without prejudice I should say that double flowered Morning 

 Glories, Ipomoea purpurea, seeds of which are offered, are curi- 

 ous, not pretty. Those which I have tried have produced a 

 moderate number of flowers with numerous confused petals 

 among a wealth of foliage. The flowers, unlike other Ipomoeas, 

 are rather lasting. There are many Ipomceas offered this year, 

 and one can seldom go amiss on Morning Glories, with their 

 usually pure colors. Every one should grow the variety or 

 species which has lately been reintroduced as the "Heavenly 

 Blue," the true Ipomcea rubro-ccerulea, a most striking and 

 delightful flower. 



Those who fancy double Petunias are likely to be very 

 much pleased with the "Double Giants of California," as they 

 possess all the merits of the ordinary double flowers in an 

 enhanced degree, being as large as Hollyhocks. Single Pe- 

 tunias, which have their uses in the garden, have also been 

 transformed in California, and the new strains are now well 

 fringed and as big as any one could desire. 



Of other important seeds not new, but still in the novelty 

 lists, Nemesia slrumosa is a Cape annual with very attractive 

 flowers, which seems to have been litfle grown yet. The seeds 

 are somewhat like those of Stocks and easily ruined in the 

 seed-pan by overwatering or too much warmtii. 



Begonia Vernon has proved to be such a good bedding plant 

 that other forms of Begonias for the garden are likely to 

 excite interest. B. Erfordise is said to be a cross between B. 

 Schmidtii, a well known free-flowering kind, and B. Vernon, 

 which is a form of B. semperflorens. 



Hibiscus Sunset, a tender perennial said to flower_ the first 

 season, seems to have attractions and to be worth trial. The 

 flowers are creamy, with a crimson maroon centre. A form 

 of same character fried by me last season grew very vigor- 

 ously. 



The other offerings of the season are of minor interest, be- 

 ing mostly new varieties of less important flowers. I notice a 

 new strain of climbing Nasturtiums, called Madame Gunter 

 hybrids, but my experience with these has been that they are 

 very vigorous and bright-colored, but no more so than the 

 strains usually offered by our best seedsmen. 



Saintpaulia ionantha of last year, still in the novelty list, is 

 a charming little African gesneriaceous plant, which is, of 

 course, to be grown under glass. It is a quaint little plant, 

 forming a rosette of attractive leaves, crowned with small pur- 

 ple single flowers and producing a pretty effect. 

 Elizabeth, N.J. J. N. Gerard. 



Notes from the Harvard Botanic Gardens. 



ORUNFELSIA (FRANCISCEA) LATIFOLIA is a handsome 

 •^ and very satisfactory stove shrub. It makes a shapely 

 plant three to four feet high and produces an abundance of 

 lavender-colored flowers about this time of year. Its leaves 

 are broad, elliptic and acute, four to six inches long and about 

 two inches broad. The deliciously fragrant salver-shaped flow- 

 ers are produced at the ends of the branches. Of a lavender color 

 when they first open, they become almost wdiite in a day or two. 

 B. latifolia is a native of Brazil, and was brought from that coun- 

 try in 1840. Another good species, also in bloom now, is 

 B. eximia. Its habit is like that of B. latifolia, but the leaves 

 are different, being dark green and oblong-lanceolate, and the 

 flowers are of a deep purple color. This plant also came from 

 Brazil, but was introduced a few years later than the first- 

 named species. When the blooming season is past, the plants 

 should be potted, using a light, rich compost, and they'should 

 be grown in a strong moist heat. The Brunfelsias are propa- 

 gated from cuttings, which root easily if placed in sand with 

 good bottom-heat. The small young plants flower freely as 

 well as the large ones. 



The genus Grevillia contains plants which bear handsome 

 flowers as well as decorative foliage. Perhaps the most 

 desirable species grown for its flowers is G. Thelmanniana, 

 also known in gardens under the specific name Preissii. A good 

 specimen, four feet high and a yard across, is almost a constant 

 bloomer here, but at this season it produces its flowers in 

 greatest profusion. It is an erect, much-branched shrub, and 

 the branchlets have a graceful drooping habit. Its leaves are 

 pinnate, and the singularly shaped flowers are bright deep red, 

 and yellow at the tip, borne in dense pendulous racemes three 

 to four inches long. It is a south-west Australian plant, and 

 grows well in a temperature ranging from forty-flve to fifty 

 degrees. When it requires potting, this should be done after 

 the flowering season. The pot should be well filled with roots 

 before the plants are shifted into a larger size, and they 

 should not be given too large a shift, since the plant does bes't 

 in a moderate quantity of soil, when it is less liable to suffer 

 from overwatering. During the summer the plants should be 

 plunged outside in a shady place and taken back to the green- 

 house before frost in the fall. Half-ripened wood makes good 

 cuttings, and these roof easily in the bench with a little bof- 

 tom-heaf. When the plants are young they require frequent 

 pinching, so as to make them close and bushy. 



Botanic Garden, Harvard University. Robert Cameron. 



Damping Off. —At this season there is a great deal of this 

 trouble among seedlings of all kinds, caused by various kinds 

 of fungi. Where small quantities of choice seeds are grown 

 in variety the seeds of each kind are generally planted sepa- 

 rately in small pots or boxes, and it is, therefore, much easier 

 to treat them than it would be to deal with a large quantity of 

 seed in a bed or bench. In any case, the soil must be kept as 

 dry as possible, without hindering the process of germination 

 and growth, until the seedlings have made two or three rough 

 leaves. Then they may be safely transplanted, although much 

 watchfulness is still necessary. Where the soil is used in small 

 parcels it may be sterilized in a hot-air oven. This process 

 will destroy the germs of fungi. Sulphur may be mixed with 

 the soil, using one part to thirty parts of soil. Powdered char- 

 coal is also helpful when mixed with soil in the ratio of one to 

 ten. As all propagators well know, this damping off is not 

 confined to seedlings, but also attacks cultmgs. It is for this 

 reason that we prefer to use coarse, sharp, clean sand in our 

 propagating-benches, the material least favorable to the growth 

 or retention of noxious germs. But even sand becomes cor- 

 rupt from long-continued use, and should be washed and 

 sterilized occasionally^ 



Cornell University. 



Michael Barker. 



Strobilanthes isophyllus and S. anisophyllus are both good 

 plants, and are blooming very freely just now. If they receive 

 anything like favorable Irea'tment they will bloom for two or 

 three months. They are dwarf and bushy, with very dark 

 green leaves, and carry a great profusion of lavender mauve- 

 colored flowers. Young plants are very easily raised from 

 cuttings, and during summer they should be planted out in the 



