140 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 371 



pubescens, with a head six feet across, with drooping branches 

 all tasseled with golden Howers. A young- Orange-tree, which 

 contained at once blossoms, green and ripe fruit, from N. T. 

 Kidder's collection, was also very attractive, and Baiirea ru- 

 bioides, a handsome little shrub with pendent, pinkisli, saucer- 

 shaped flowers, from New Zealand, was new to most visitors. 



Boston. »-'. 



Notes. 



One of the very best, if not the best, of Strawberries for 

 forcing is the old but somewhat scarce variety Triomphe de 

 Gand. It will fruit abundantly in four-inch pots and it is al- 

 ways a sure cropper under glass. 



For a week or two past the sidewalk fruit-stands have been 

 decorated with branches of Kalmia latifolia, its glossy green 

 leaves being very effective in setting olf the colors of oranges, 

 bananas and apples. Leafy twigs of Wild Cherry are largely 

 used during the summer for the same purpose, but these 

 Laurel leaves have only lately come into such general use. 

 The supply comes from the coast counties of New Jersey. 



A series of excellent photographs of wild flowers, made by 

 Mr. Cornelius Van Brunt, of this city, and colored by Mrs. 

 Van Brunt, will be used as lantern slides to illustrate a lecture 

 on Wild Flowers in and about New York City, which Mr. Van 

 Brunt will deliver at Hardmann Hall, on Fifth Avenue and 

 Nineteenth Street, on Wednesday evening, April 3d. The 

 lecture has been already given before the Torrey Botanical 

 Society, of this city, when it was highly commended, and it is 

 to be repeated by request. 



According to a writer in the Youth's Companion, the largest 

 forest in the world is in Siberia, stretching continuously from 

 the plain of the Obi River, on the west, to the valley of the 

 Indigliirka, on the east, and embracing the great plains or 

 river valleys of the Yenesei, Olenek, Lena and Yana, the vast 

 belt averaging more than one thousand miles in breadth from 

 north to south, and some three thousand miles long. The 

 trees are mostly coniferous, and they cover thousands of 

 square miles, whose central regions no human being has ever 

 visited. Long-stemmed conifers, rising to a height of one 

 hundred and fifty feet or more, stand close together, and their 

 dense lofty tops exclude the pale arctic sunshine, and the 

 straight trunks, all looking exactly alike, bewilder the eye in 

 the obscurity, so that all sense of direction is lost. Even tlie 

 most experienced trappers dare not venture into these forests 

 without blazing the trees constantly with hatchets as tliey walk 

 forward, for a hunter lost tliere rarely finds his way out, but 

 perishes from starvation or cold. 



Mr. H. G. Hubbard, the entomologist of the Department of 

 Agriculture, writes that the cold weather which desolated tlie 

 gardens and Orange-groves of Florida, killed unnumbered 

 millions of injurious insects. All cockroaches in sight, and 

 even those in houses, unless they were exceptionally well pro- 

 tected, were killed. The young scale insects which had not 

 passed their second molt were K'illed, although many eggs 

 survive, and some adults of both sexes. The nitidulid beetles 

 in decaying fruit were also killed, small gnats in flowers were 

 frozen, and not a living colony of plant-hce is to be seen on 

 any Orange or other tree. No living specimen of the destruc- 

 tive white fly, Aleyrodes Citri, was found, and as the eggs are 

 laid on the leaves, every one of which will drop before the 

 new growth appears, the cold wave would have almost exter- 

 minated this pest l)ut for the fact that, besides the Orange-tree, 

 it also infests the Cape Jessamine, and as the leaves of these 

 plants have not all fallen, Mr. Hubbard is advising the orange- 

 growers to cut down their Jessamines and burn them. Since 

 the breeding of injurious insects has been suspended now for 

 some weeks an excellent opportunity has been olfered to clear 

 the trees of scale with comparatively nnid insecticides. On the 

 other hand, the trees have been so enfeebled by the cold that 

 they will be an easier prey to injurious insects than they were 

 before. 



Dr. E. F. Franceschi writes in the Santa Barbara Press that 

 the Norfolk Island Pine, Araucaria excelsa, thrives remarkaf>ly 

 well in that town, some of the older specimens being already 

 more than one hundred feet high ; most of them are now 

 bearing cones which appear to ripen perfect seeds, so that in 

 some places there are young plants growing from self-sown 

 seeds — that is, the tree has become practically naturalized. 

 A. Cookii, from New Caledonia, also bears cones there, while 



specimens of A. Bidwelli, A. Cunninghamii, A. Brasiliensis 

 and A. imbricata are doing well, although none of them 

 have flowered as yet. The most remarkable exotic conifer 

 is, perhaps, the splendid specimen of Dammara, which was 

 planted more than twenty years ago on what are now the 

 grounds of Mr. E. H. .Sawyer, at Monlecito. The tree has 

 never flowered, and until it does it can hardly be identi- 

 fied. Dr. Franceschi hardly thinks it is the true Kauri Pine, 

 from New Zealand, Dammara australis, and it has been doubt- 

 fully referred to D. robusta, from Queensland, while others are 

 inclined to consider it D. orientalis, from Java. An apparently 

 different species of Dammara with broader leaves is to be seen 

 in Carpinteria. Of true exotic Pines there is a specimen of 

 Pinus maritima, from the Mediterranean basin, in Santa Bar- 

 bara, which is now twenty-hve years old, and some fine Stone 

 Pines, Pinus Pinea. The pyramidal form of the Italian Cypress, 

 Cupressus sempervirens, has been much planted, and there 

 are splendid specimens of the Weeping Cypress, C. fune- 

 bris, from China. Cedrus Deodara, C. Libani, Cryptomeria 

 Japonica, C. elegans, Sciadopytis verticillata and several other 

 Asiatic conifers have been planted recently, and all do well. 

 Dr. Franceschi thinks there is no other place in the United 

 States, and, perhaps, none in the world, where such a rich and 

 instructive pinetum could be planted, since the conifers of 

 widely different climates seem to thrive in Santa Barbara 

 equally well. 



Every year increases the demand for grape-fruit, as people 

 will insist upon calling the pomelo, and those who have 

 learned to appreciate its value as a breakfast fruit in winter 

 feel that they have something like a personal grievance when 

 they are deprived of it. It is an expensive luxury now, how- 

 ever, since almost the entire supply came from Florida, and, 

 except the limited number of boxes picked before the holi- 

 days, the entire crop was destroyed by the killing frost at the 

 beginning of the year. Small quantities of this fruit were 

 brought from the West Indies a few years ago, but it could 

 hardly be given away, and no attempt has been made to culti- 

 vate it systematically on any extended scale in those islands. 

 A week ago a few barrels were brought in from Jamaica, and 

 they sold at auction at $24.00 a barrel, the highest price ever 

 realized for this fruit in New York. At retail a good pomelo 

 costs half a dollar. As we have stated before, every orange- 

 growing region of the world was laid under contribution as 

 soon as the disaster to the Florida crop was known, and, there- 

 fore, the supply of this fruit is still overabundant, and oranges 

 from Sicily can be bought here for less money than they bring 

 in the groves where they were produced. Probably a hun- 

 dred tfiousand dollars have been lost by the large dealers in 

 this fruit in this city within a few weeks past. The supply of 

 California Navel oranges, however, is now running low, and 

 prices for fine fruit are growing more firm. The cold weather 

 lias retarded the growth of pineapples, so that the season 

 is uncommonly late. Last week fifty-six barrels came into 

 this port, and a year ago they were arriving at the rate 

 of three thousand barrels a week. Of domestic fruits, 

 pears are no longer quoted in the market reports, although 

 in the fancy-fruit stores some of the best late winter 

 varieties, like P. Barry, one of the long-keeping Fox seed- 

 lings, can be had at seventy-five cents a dozen. The apple 

 supply is, of course, falling off. Ever since the middle of 

 September this fruit has been coming into New York at the 

 rate of about twenty thousand barrels a week. Last week, 

 however, only six thousand arrived. Varieties, like Ben Davis, 

 Northern Spy and Baldwins of good quality, bring at whole- 

 sale $4.50 a barrel, while choice Spitzenbergs, Winesaps and 

 Greenings cost $6.00. Strawberries, from Florida, have fallen 

 to fifty cents a quart, while choice berries from farther north 

 can only be afforded by wealthy buyers. Asparagus, from 

 Charleston, has been in fullersupply, and the price has dropped 

 to $1.00 a bunch. Green peas sell at $5.50 a crate. The finest 

 salad plants in the market now are dandelion and chicory, 

 from New Jersey, and Romaine lettuce, for which last Ber- 

 muda gardens seem to have a monopoly in this market. 



Mr. William S. Kimball, of Rochester, died on the 26th of 

 March, after a brief illness, at Virginia Beach, where he was 

 spending the winter. Mr. Kimball has long been known as 

 one of the most liberal patrons of horticulture in America. In 

 Orchids, especially, he took an enthusiastic interest and was 

 known to all dealers in rare plants of this class. He bought 

 with intelligence, and being a man of abundant means he had 

 amassed a collection which in its completeness and in the 

 value of its individual plants had few rivals in the world. 



