March 27, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



129 



retail stores, that all good citizens are beginning to feel the 

 necessity of keeping every acre of forest productive of timber 

 until it is needed for agriculture, it seems possible tliat now, 

 after last season's disasters, every citizen could be brought to 

 take an active part in this conference. I believe the time has 

 come to start a movement that will soon establish a public 

 sentiment that will make our forests as safe as the forests of 

 Prussia, where only six one-hundredths of one per cent, of 

 the forest area was "burned during the very dry year of 1892. If 

 this can be done in Prussia, why not in America? 



Carleton, Minn. H. B. A. 



Recent Publications. 



Sweet-scenled Floivers and Fragiaui Leaves. By Donald 

 McDonald. With sixteen colored plates. Charles Scrib- 

 ner's Sons, New York. 



This work is essentially an alphabetical list of plants 

 which are attractive on account of their fragrance. It is 

 true, as the author states, that the professional introducers 

 of new plants pay more attention to the size and shape and 

 color of the flower than they do to its scent, and, therefore, 

 it is a worthy undertaking to make this list to aid those who 

 care particularly for the odorous qualities of plants in se- 

 lecting fragrant species and varieties. The list will, 

 therefore, prove a useful one, although man}' of the plants 

 here catalogued have such a faint odor that one would 

 hardly detect it, and, of course, it is impossible within rea- 

 sonable limits to name all the plants wliich are pleasing to 

 the sense of smell. We have been particularly interested 

 in observing the efforts of the author to select words to 

 describe the quality of a given odor. This is not an easy 

 task — a more difficult one, indeed, than to describe a color. 

 The only satisfactory way to do this is to say that a given 

 odor resembles some other odor which is well known ; but 

 even this will give only an approximate idea of what is 

 meant, since no two fiov\'ers have an identical fragrance. 

 Turning over a few pages at random, we observe that 

 the perfumes of different flowers are characterized as 

 delightful, powerful, dainty, delicious, sweet, agreea- 

 ble, strong, elegant, exquisite and rich. None of these 

 adjectives, with the possible exception of "sweet," gives 

 an accurate idea of the quality of the perfume named. 

 Other odors are described as slight, penetrative or pun- 

 gent, and these words have reference to the comparative 

 power of odors rather than their quality. Aromatic and bal- 

 samic are words more closely descriptive. Other odors are 

 said to be honey-like, musk-scented, lily-scented, lemon-like, 

 or to resemble that of camphor, turpentine, mint, and these 

 adjuncts carry some well-defined ideas. The mingling of two 

 different colors often gives a third which resembles neither 

 one, and some flowers are here said to have two odors, 

 which, however, do not unite to form a third, but can be 

 separately recognized. 'I he flowers of Clematis Davidiana 

 are said to have "a delicious fragrance of lemon and 

 spice," a combination which we have never detected. So 

 the fruit-buds of Calysaccion longifolium are said to pos- 

 sess an "odor like violets and rose-water," while Aspe- 

 rula odorata smells like "cowslips and new-mown hay," 

 and Cuscuta verucosa smells like "violets and cowslips 

 mixed." One can hardly understand what these combina- 

 tions would be like, but still they convey some approxi- 

 mate idea which has more definiteness of meaning than is 

 found in the description of the flowers of Brugmansia 

 suaveolens, of which it is said that "their delicious fra- 

 grance diffuses through the surrounding atmos]3here a 

 perfume of unequaled sweetness." 



The list fills one hundred and thirty-six pages, and while 

 it makes no pretense of giving the botanical characters of 

 the plants, the descriptions as a rule make mention of those 

 qualities which would most interest the general reader. 

 We ought to add, that besides the fragrance of the flower, 

 notice is made of plants whose leaves or bark or fruits have 

 a pleasing odor. The list is preceded by a brief treatise on 

 the perfumes of flowers, and a few pages by way of senti- 

 mental introduction by IVIr. William Robinson, editor of The 

 Garden. 



A Key lo Ihe Trees and Shrubs of Kav Enghind. By E. 

 Knobel. Bradlee Whidden, Boston. This booklet, which 

 is one of a series intended to facilitate the study of natural 

 history in New England, contains cuts of the leaves of two 

 hundred and fifteen different trees and shrubs and climbers, 

 and they are arranged in such a way that the identity of all 

 the ordinary woody plants which grow in New England 

 can be traced by the form and position of their leaves. 

 The plan is novel, and, of course, like all keys, it is open 

 to some objection. At the same time it will be found very 

 helpful to beginners, who can, with a little study, locate all 

 the native species which come under their observation. 

 The Ferns and Evergreens of New England is another little 

 hand-book in the same style, and by the same author, which 

 contains thirty-eight figures of Ferns, besides Lycopodiums. 

 If anything, this little key to the Filices is superior in 

 method to the key to trees and shrubs, and it is especially 

 good in giving, besides illustrations of the frond itself, out- 

 lines of the different divisions of the fronds as well as of 

 their fructification. These little books are oblong duo- 

 decimos, and cost only fifty cents each ; it is to be hoped 

 that the succeeding volumes of the series, which will in- 

 clude notes on the butterflies, beetles, moths, fresh-water 

 fish, frogs, turtles, etc., of New England, will be equally 

 well done. 



Notes. 



Anemone blanda, Taurian Scillas, Chionodoxas, Grape Hya- 

 cinths, Iris Bakeriana, I. histrioides, with Crocuses and Snow- 

 drops in variety, are now in bloom in the gardens about this 

 city. Early Daffodils are showing buds. 



The American Dahlia .Society was permanently organized 

 last Wednesday at Piiiladelphia, with Robert Kift as President ; 

 L. R. Peacock, Secretary ; Frank C. Bruton, Treasurer, and A. 

 Blanc, chairman of Executive Committee. 



The exceptionally trying winter in Europe has done great 

 injury to Cabbage, Kohl-rabi and Borecole planted for seed. 

 The choice-named varieties of Celery, which are largely grown 

 for seed in northern Europe, are also said to have been se- 

 riously injured. 



Notwithstanding the fact that fresh fruits come across the 

 continent from California by the train-load at nearly all sea- 

 sons of the year, dried and canned fruits are annually exported 

 from the same state in still greater quantities. Last year dried 

 and canned fruits equivalent to 30,000 car-loads, or 140,000,000 

 pounds, were distributed throughout the world from this state. 



It is objected to planting Butternuts, Hickories and Chest- 

 nuts as roatlside trees, that they will be destroyed by boys 

 in gathering the nuts. We agree witli Dr. Hoskins, however, 

 that if properly instructed the boys can be made to feel a pride 

 in protecting what they might otherwise destroy. Why not 

 make it a part of Arbor Day exercises to enlist the boys as 

 defenders of the street trees in each school district ? 



A correspondent of The Garden, London, writes that at Esher 

 Place, the residence of Sir Edgar Vincent, there is an old Tulip- 

 tree whose stem girths eighteen feet and seven inches three 

 feet from the ground, while its long lithe branches sweep the 

 greensward in a circle seventy-eight feet across. The tree is 

 in rude health, and shows no dead or dying limbs ; the 

 foliage is bright and fresh, and the flowers are produced every 

 year "in almost extravagant abundance." 



In the February issue of the Tokyo Bota?!tcal Magazine, Mr. 

 Homi Shirasaua describes, under the name of Tsuga (Pseudo- 

 tsuga) Japonica, a tree recently discovered by him in the 

 Province of Kii, near Yoshino. If this tree, which appears 

 from the figure (o be a true Pseudotsuga with shorter and 

 broader leaves an^.! a shorter cone than the American species, 

 proves to be really a member of this genus, its presence in 

 Japan is exceedingly interesting, as Pseudotsuga, as previously 

 known, is confined to western North America. 



A paper of considerable importance, read before the Wash- 

 ington Entomological Society by Professor Hopkins, of the 

 West Virginia Experiment Station, has just been published. It 

 seems to have been established that the potato scab and potato 

 rot are due to bacteria and fungi, but Professor Hopkins shows 

 that certain fungus-gnats belonging to the genera Sciara and 

 Epidapus are able to inflict injuries upon potatoes which re- 



