100 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 367. 



house is rather agreeable to it, and as it naturally flowers in 

 winter it needs no forcing to make it bloom. A plant is men- 

 tioned which is growing in an eight-inch pot under ordinary 

 living-room conditions, and during the past winter it had 

 seven flowers, which began to open early in December and 

 have continued one after the other until February. 



The most conspicuous objects in the windows of the florists' 

 shops just now are compact plants of Azalea in full bloom. It 

 is rather strange that the newer varieties are mostly those 

 which bear double flowers, since the single-flowered kinds are 

 generally more effective. The fashion, imported from France, 

 of swathing the plants as well as the pots with ribbons and 

 paper and decorating them with bow-knots of various mate- 

 rial has nothing to commend it. Much of the beauty of a well- 

 grown plant is in its form, and when this is hidden by uphol- 

 stery the plant loses half its charm. 



A broad sheet, entitled The Spray Calendar, prepared by 

 Mr. E. G. Lodeman, has just been issued by the horticultural 

 division of the Cornell Experiment Station. It gives a list of 

 the remedies for the more dangerous fungous diseases and 

 insects, which are to be used on different fruits and crops. It 

 tells how, when and how often to apply these remedies, and in 

 different kinds of types it indicates the comparative importance 

 of llie applications to be used. All the needed facts are grouped 

 together in a convenient form, so that this will not only be 

 efficacious in instructing those who are not well informed on 

 these matters, but will serve to remind those who already 

 know how to make these applications when the time for using 

 e- ch has arrived. 



An English lady, Miss Wilkinson, has, in recent years, made 

 herself widely known as a landscape-gardener, capable of un- 

 dertaking public works and of carrying them to completion 

 under her personal supervision, and Vauxhall Park, in Lon- 

 don, opened to the public last year, is one of her latest works. 

 Commenting upon these facts, and characterizing Vauxhall 

 Park as " a remarkable work in every respect," the Revue 

 Horticole recently said : " So we see that a woman has 

 entered the professional camp, the camp of practicing artists, 

 and has proved her right to a distinguished place in it by 

 worthy results. It seems a curious sign of the times. Who 

 knows whether the delicate gifts of woman may not introduce 

 valuable innovations, unknown refinements, into our garden- 

 ing conceptions ?" 



The current number of Scribner s Magazijie contains an 

 article on bedding-plants, by Samuel Parsons, and it is illus- 

 trated by some excellent pictures taken from actual groups in 

 the different parks of the city. All of these beds are easy and 

 natural — that is, they show no trace of formality or mannerism 



and there are accompanying maps which explain the method 



of arrangement, the plans having shaded sections to indicate 

 the particular plants which are used in every location. The 

 pictures show how much better this irregular planting is than 

 straight ribbon lines or geometric beds, and the maps explain 

 that the irregularity is no haphazard mingling together of dif- 

 ferent forms, sizes and colors, but a well-studied system, 

 analogous to that which a good planter would use in disposing 

 trees on a wood border, or of shrubs when massed for general 

 effect. Tender bedding-plants are always expensive ; they are 

 often misplaced, and where they can be made effective masses 

 of select woody plants and perennial herbaceous plants are 

 preferable, as a rule, and the shrubs will have a beauty of their 

 own all winter. But in large places and public parks bedding- 

 plants will add variety to the garden effects aimed at, and the 

 grouping described and figured in this article is much more 

 satisfactory than the regular and rigid carpet patterns so often 

 used. Particularly pleasing are the examples wliere single 

 plants or groups of two and three have broken away from the 

 mass and strayed over upon the turf. 



Both in England and in America "lumljer" means useless, 

 bulky things which are cumbersome or in the way. In America 

 only it is also used as a synonym for " timber sawed or split 

 for use." This fact all modern dictionaries note, but even the 

 American ones make no attempt to trace its origin. It is 

 interesting, therefore, to find such an attempt in an article 

 recently published in the Aiiiericati Architect and Building 

 News, and signed by Mr. C. W. Ernst. In what Mr. Ernst 

 calls " the Tudor period " of Boston's existence, between 1630 

 and 1720, its chief article of trade, he says, "was wood in all 

 its forms, especially for fuel and building purposes. The arti- 

 cle had to be brought to Boston by boats. These boats were 

 apt to discharge at random. The harbor front and wharves 

 were accordingly ' lumbered up ' with all sorts of forest prod- 

 ucts to the inconvenience of the public, which traveled pref- 



erentially by boat and frequented the wharves relatively more 

 than we do." Therefore, in 1663, the police " were instructed 

 to 'clear the ends of all streets and wharves that but upon the 

 water from all lumber and otlier goods.' This is the first use 

 of the word lumber for sawed wood. The Boston Town Order 

 of April 27, 1663, called the sawed wood the timber (hewn), 

 the masts and other wood brought to town by boats ' lumber' 

 because the cargoes lumbered up the harbor-front. The new 

 meaning was immediately adopted, and lumber, in the sense 

 of sawed wood, is the least restricted as well as the earliest of all 

 Americanisms." 



During the year 1894 the importations of bananas into the 

 United States amounted to nearly 18,000,000 bunches. Heavy 

 cyclones throughout the West Indies last autumn destroyed 

 much of this year's crop, and the few cargoes now coming 

 from Jamaica and Cuba bring high prices, some bananas of 

 the first grade selling last week for $1.40 a bunch by the truck- 

 load. Nearly one-third of all these imports usually come from 

 Jamaica alone, so that the market has been considerably 

 affected by the shortage. But change in the wholesale prices 

 of bananas does not seem to affect the prices asked for them 

 by retail dealers, who the year through olfer three of the 

 best quality for five cents, and fairly good bananas for a 

 cent each. W. & C. Smith, on Liberty Street, now have a sup- 

 ply of the small Lady-finger banana, from Colon, for which 

 buyers acquainted with their delicate flavor pay twenty-five 

 cents a dozen. Unusually fine plantains, each twelve to four- 

 teen inches long, sell at the same place for fifty to sixty cents 

 a dozen. Partially ripened ones are used by Spanish residents 

 for boiling, while the fully ripened fruit, with blackened 

 skin and softened pulp, are considered preferable for frying. 

 Spitzenberg, Northern Spy, Greening, Ben Davis and Baldwin 

 apples are regularly quoted in the wholesale market reports, 

 and form the staple supply. These sorts cost from S4.00 to 

 $7.00 a barrel for good grades, some exceptionally choice and 

 fancy apples commandingeven higherprices. A selected lot of 

 Baldwins of uniform size, deep, rich color and higii quality re- 

 cently brought $ 10.00 a barrel at wholesale. Retail dealers in high 

 grades of fruit offer beautifully colored Winesaps and North- 

 ern Spies. Newtown Pippins, from California, cost fifty cents 

 a dozen, and the more acid Pippins from Ulster County, in 

 this slate, bring seventy-five cents. California Seckel pears, 

 held over in cold storage, may still be seen in the fancy fruit 

 stores and cost from sixty cents to $1.00 a dozen. The last 

 specimens of the larger D'Alencon are seventy-five cents to 

 $1.25 a dozen, while well-ripened Easter Beurresand P. Barrys 

 bring seventy-five cents to $1.50 a dozen, and Winter Nelis 

 fifty to seventy-five cents. California strawberries, looking 

 unimproved by their long journey, cost seventy-five cents a 

 pint, and the first strawberries from Lakeland, in southern 

 Florida, fresh and bright and in good order, are sold at the 

 same price. In addition to damage to the orange crops in 

 other parts of the world, there is now well-authenticated 

 information that the crop in Sicily has been damaged by hail 

 storms. Some 40,000 boxes of this Mediterranean fruit will 

 be sold in this city this week, but even so large a quantity does 

 not supply the loss of the Florida crop, since at this time last 

 year 5o,ooo boxes of Florida oranges made an ordinary week's 

 supply here. Some extra-sized Navel oranges, from Florida, 

 held here since before the freeze in that state, sell for $2.00 a 

 dozen. They are too large to be profitable, even at this price, 

 since they measure twelve inches in circumference, and the 

 largest actually weigh two pounds each. 



Mr. John J. Thomas, one of the most eminent pomologists 

 of the country, died at his home in Union Springs, New York, 

 on the 22d of February, at the ripe age of eighty-five years. 

 From his father, who was a naturalist and explorer of distinc- 

 tion, he inherited the power of original research which led 

 him to investigations and experiments which have been use- 

 ful in so many branches of Iiorticulture. Among his works, 

 7X1? American Fruit Cullitrist, which was first published fifty 

 years ago, still remains probably the most useful work of its 

 kind. It has been revised many times to keep pace with the 

 a<lvance of pomology in this country, and the latest labors of 

 Mr. Thomas were given to the preparation of a new edition 

 which is to be published in May. Nine volumes of miscellany, 

 entitled Rural Affairs, which are selections from the Country 

 Gentleman, of which he was an associate editor, and another 

 interesting work on Farm Implements and iSIachinery, were 

 prepared by him and they rank among the most useful man- 

 uals for a country library. Personally, Mr. Thomas was a 

 man of great simplicity and sincerity of character, combining 

 sturdy integrity with a rare refinement, gentleness and unfail- 

 ing charity. 



