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Garden and Forest. 



[^fUMHER 368.' 



Jos^ scale, and gives directions for treating the trees with the 

 kerosene emulsion, so as to prevent it from getting started in 

 April. Tile bulletin will be of great use to tliose whose trees 

 are infested with this new pest if they will lieed its instruc- 

 tions. 



At the late meeting of the Carnation Society, in Boston, 

 Pre.=iident Dailledouze stated that the cutting-bench fungus 

 was more likely to appear when the benches were made of old 

 boards. All the woodwork should be treated with a coat of 

 warm lime before it is used. It was also suggested that sand 

 more than two or two and a half inches deep was likely to 

 harbor this fungus, since it did not dry out quickly. Mr. 

 Chitty warned propagators against using the sand a second 

 time, and other members stated that when it was necessary to 

 use the sand over again it should he drenched with water 

 which contained a minute proportion of carbolic acid. A 

 solution of copper sulphate of the strength which is used in 

 spraying would be equally good. 



The last number of The Gardeiters' Chronicle contains a 

 good picture of the variety of Doronicum plantaguieum known 

 as Excelsum or Harpur Crewe, and recommends that after 

 flowering in spring these plants can lie taken up and planted 

 in a reserve garden, so as to give room for other plants. We 

 have often commended these hardy perennials for their 

 beauty, and they have the advantage of being taller than most 

 plants which flower in this season, and their large golden yel- 

 low ray-florets make very conspicuous objects. Plants of 

 many of the Doronicums taken up in autvunn and potted can 

 be had in fine flower during late winter and spring, and if 

 started in a cold frame even now they will make good decora- 

 tion for the conservatory later on. 



Professor Wiley, Chemist of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture, has been making some investigations as to the 

 possibilities of Sweet Cassava as an agricultural crop in the 

 southern states, and he pronounces that it can be grown with 

 safety and profit in the peninsula of Florida, and probably in 

 the coast region of the other Gulf states. It contains so little 

 ash and nitrogen that it will produce in poor sandy soils four or 

 five tons to the acre, and the fresh roots will yield twenty-five 

 per cent, of starch of a high grade, whicli can be used as a 

 substitute for the starch of Maize. A superior tapioca can be 

 prepared from the plant, and so can glucose, and it furnishes 

 an excellent food for man and for cattle, although it is deficient 

 in albumen. To make a well-balanced ration for cattle it 

 should be mixed with one-fourth of its weight with cotton- 

 seed oil cake. 



Professor Budd, of the Iowa Agricultural College, writes 

 that he fears the losses to the Orange groves of Florida are 

 even more serious than has been stated. Of course, the 

 present crop is all gone, but the fact that many of the Orange- 

 trees remained leafless after deciduous trees had come into 

 leaf seemed to indicate that they have received a severe shock. 

 If cut back. Professor Budd thinks, they may start from the 

 stubs, but their vitality may be too low to give paying crops of 

 fruit. He adds that the trees which were cut back by the frost 

 of 1886 have never paid for the space they occupied, and that 

 many of them which did come into leaf the next April dieil 

 during the following summer. Of course, time alone will 

 reveal the full effects of this disaster and enable us to calculate 

 the total loss. We hope, however, that Profesor Budd's view 

 of the case will prove too gloomy. 



When Layard first uncovered the ruins of Assyria he iden- 

 tified, among their sculptured ornaments, representations of 

 grape-bunches, pomegranates, reeds and apples, and, with 

 regard to the prominent olijectso frequently held in the hands 

 of the chief figures portrayed on the bas-reliefs, he wrote that 

 he " would not hesitate to identify it with the pineapple unless 

 there were every reason to believe that the Assyrians were 

 unacquainted with this fruit," and he added, "the leaves 

 sprouting from the top prove that it was not the cone of a Pine- 

 tree or Fir." As it is now well known that the pineapple is of 

 American origin, Layard's doubt upon this point is confirmed ; 

 and Dr. E. Bonamia, in his recently published Flora of the 

 Assyrian Monuments and its Outcomes, asserts his belief that 

 the symbol represents a Cedar-cone, which was used in reli- 

 gious and royal ceremonials to sprinkle holy water. Illustrat- 

 ing his words with reproductions of the ancient sculptures, Dr. 

 Bonamia also claims that he has identified among them fig- 

 ures of the Date-tree, the pomegranate, the fig, the banana, 

 the Pine-tree, the melon, the Reed, the Lily, the Baobab 

 and some daisy-like plant. But, perhaps, the most interesting 

 of his suggestions is the one he makes with regard to the 

 origin of that ornament, so familiar in heraldry and decorative 



art, which we call the fleur-de-lis. It has never been well 

 established that this ornament was evolved, as its name im- 

 plies, from an Iris-blossom ; and Dr. Bonamia thinks that he 

 has traced it back, not to any other flower, but to the Assyrian 

 custom of tying a pair of horns to a Date-tree as a charm 

 against evil spirits. Representations of these " luck-horns " 

 are frequent on Assyrian monuments, and Dr. Bonamia 

 argues that the way in which they are attached explains the 

 origin of that fillet or cross-band, so conspicuous in the orna- 

 ment called the fleur-de-lis, which, of course, has no proto- 

 type in the Iris or any similar flower. 



Botanical science has sustained a fresh loss in the death of 

 Mr. John H. Redfield, which occurred at his home in Phila- 

 delphia, February 27th. Mr. Redfield was born at " Middle- 

 town Upper Houses," now Cromwell, Connecticut, July loth, 

 1815, and had nearly completed his eightieth year. He came 

 from a pure New England ancestry, John and Priscilla Alden 

 being among his progenitors. His father, William C. Redfield, 

 at the birth of his son a country storekeeper, was a man of 

 much more than ordinary intelligence, who became in after 

 years a noted meteorologist, and made important discoveries 

 in regard to the rotary and progressive movements of storms. 

 The elder Mr. Redfield looked well to. the school facilities of 

 his district, and here the son's education was commenced. It 

 was continued at Stamford, Connecticut, at the High School in 

 New York city, and finally at a private school. While at the 

 school in New York, to which city his father brought his 

 family in 1824, a teacher strengthened his inherited love of 

 scientific pursuits, by taking him with him in his country 

 walks and instructing him in mineralogy. In this way also he 

 acquired the love of botany, which distinguished him later. In 

 the interval between his attendance at the different schools he 

 heard Dr. Torrey's lectures on chemistry. In 1836 he became 

 a member of the New York Lyceum of Natural History, and 

 this intensified his boyish interest in the sciences already 

 named, besides developing in him a taste for conchology. At 

 this time. Dr. Asa Gray was librarian and superintendent of 

 the Lyceum, and here began the friendship which became 

 closer with passing years, and continued through life. In 

 1843 he was most happily married, and in 1861 he removed to 

 Philadelphia to take a position in the large car-wheel works of 

 A. Whitney & Sons, his father-in-law being the head of the 

 firm. During these years his spare time was given to scien- 

 tific pursuits, especially to botany, in which the order Filices 

 was his favorite. He had been elected a member of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences in 1846, and now became a life' 

 member. In 1876 he was made a member of the Council and 

 Conservator of the Botanical Section, and in 1879 Corre- 

 sponding Secretary of the Conchological Section. A mem- 

 ber of the Publication Committee in 1877, he became chair- 

 man in 1891. All these offices he held until his death. 

 Retiring from active business in 1885, all his leisure time, when 

 in the city, was devoted to the Academy, and more particu- 

 larly to the botanical section, where, in tlie face of many ob- 

 stacles, he accomplished a great woric in the rearranging of the 

 vast herbarium and in the proper mounting of a great part of 

 it. During this period his summers were mostly spent on 

 Mount Desert Island, the flora of which he studied in connec- 

 tion with Mr. Rand, the result being the excellent catalogue 

 recently published by them. Mr. Redfield's published articles 

 number fifty-four. Of these, forty related to botanical sub- 

 jects or to botanists, twelve to conchology, one to meteorology 

 and one to fossil fishes. 



As a scientific man Mr. Redfield was held in high esteem by 

 the leading botanists of the country. His friendship was sought 

 and cherished by such men as Doctors Torrey, Gray and 

 Engelmann and their successors. He was of great assistance 

 to them by the excellent judgment he displayed in the notes 

 he made upon the plants contained in the very important her- 

 barium under his control, and in forwarding portions of them 

 for inspection. The Academy of Natural Sciences will keenly 

 feel the loss of his faithful and efficient services and of his 

 many gifts of important sets of specimens ; and not the less, 

 his wise counsel in its ruling board. In botany, his name is 

 commemorated by a beautiful gra.=s of the western plains, the 

 Redfieklia flexuosa. Mr. Redfield was of most genial and 

 kindly address. No one gave a warmer or more sincere 

 greeting to a friend, or s-howed better, on all occasions, the 

 spirit of a true Christian gentleman. Honorable to the last 

 degree, generous and kind in every relation of life, he was yet 

 modest in character antl diffident of himself. He was almost 

 the last remaining of the old set of botanists, among whom he 

 was honored as an associate and loved as a friend. 



