148 



Garden and Forest. 



INUMBER 372. 



equally at home in a pot containing a liberal amount of good 

 soil. N. affinis has also the merit of flowering for a long sea- 

 son, and might be useful to the commercial florist with a local 

 trade, as it will certainly be appreciated by the private grower 

 who enjoys something outside of the ordinary run of green- 

 house plants. It is, of course, an inexpensive plant, costing 

 nothing beyond the care of growing. .^ ,, ^ 



Elizabeth, n:j. ^ ^ J- N- Gerard. 



Strawberi-y Leaf Curl. 



TOURING the past year some visits have been made to 

 ■*-' Strawberry-fields complained of for a peculiar wilting of 

 the foliage. The appearance is not easily described, but 

 instead of the foliage remaining fresh and the leaflets horizon- 

 tal, the latter bend up at the sides, lose their normal green, 

 and assume a dryish and gray appearance. At first sight one 

 cannot but think this behavior is due to a lack of vvfater-supply ; 

 but the growers are firm in the opinion that plants in moist 

 places suffer equally with tliose upon naturally dry ground. 

 Many plants affected with the leaf curl were e.\ammed in the 

 field, and nothing could be found at the root sufficient to ac- 

 count for the dried appearance. It was observed that, as a 

 rule, the leaves showing the curl had a spot, sometimes sev- 

 eral, upon the leaf-stalk often close to the clasping base. 

 These spots are with an ashy centre and a purple border, and 

 in general appearance resemble the " leaf spot," which, by the 

 way, is usually found upon the leaflets of the same leaves. A 

 microscopic examination drove away all doubt of any differ- 

 ence, and established the fact that the spots are due to 

 Sphasrella Fragaria;, and probably cause a checking of the 

 flow of sap, and thereby occasion the dried appearance. Such 

 plants are seriously injured, because the fruit, depending as it 

 does upon the foliage for its growth, must remain small and 

 imperfect. It is not unusual for thefruit-stalk to be spotted like 

 the petioles, and, therefore, such clusters are often worthless. 



If the leaf-spot fungus, Spha-rella Fragariae, an old enemy 

 upon the foliage, is the cause of the curling of the foliage, it 

 then brings the question of a remedy for the latter down to 

 that of the eradication of the fungus. This can be done as 

 has been demonstrated by the use of any of several fungicides 

 as mentioned somewhat at length in previous articles upon 



similar subjects. r^ t, , , , 



RuiRtra College. Byrori D. Halsted. 



Rose, Marchioness of Londonderry. — This comes to us as a 

 new Rose of 1893, and it is one of the fine series which has 

 emanated from the nurseries of Messrs. Dickson, of New- 

 townards, Ireland, during the past few years, and it has the 

 distinction of having won the gold medal of the National Rose 

 Society. It is hardy, with foliage that is at once a recom- 

 mendation, being similar to that of the Ulrich Brunner, and 

 quite as beautiful. The stems are also without thorns — a de- 

 sirable feature in any Rose that has to be handled. The flow- 

 ers are of the largest size, almost si.v inches across when fully 

 open, of a most delicate shade of pink in the centre, something 

 like that of the Daybreak Carnation, but paler, and shading 

 from the centre to pure white at the edges. In all the English 

 descriptions that we have access to, this Rose is described as 

 pure white, but the pink shade is quite pronounced as grown 

 here, reminding one of the old Souvenir de la Malmaison tint, 

 and, indeed, it would not be surprising to learn that this plant 

 has some influence as one of the parents of the Marchioness 

 of Londonderry. The fragrance is similar also, and it has the 

 smooth wood of the older kind. There seems to be no doubt 

 that this new Rose will prove hardy, and it is listed as a Hybrid 

 Perpetual, which is equivalent to the term Remontant. Both 

 are unhappy terms as applied to outdoor Roses, as they rarely 

 flower but once in a season. For forcing under glass the 

 Marchioness of Londonderry can be highly recommended as 

 being of a rare shade, pleasing, one of the largest Roses 

 known, and as easy to force as Ulrich Brunner. 



Those who have seen the new Rose Clio in London speak 

 highly of it as a beautiful new white Rose. It is one of Paul's, 

 and we may expect to hear more of it, since hardy white Roses 

 are scarce. ,- ^ ^ 



South Lancaster, Mass. E. O. Orpet. 



Early-flowering Perennials.— Unless the greatest care is taken 

 in moving this class of plants few flowers should be expected 

 from them the first year, unless they are moved before their 

 spring growth starts and a large amount of soil is taken with 

 them. With every precaution, such plants as our native Dicen- 

 tras. Spring Beauties, Dogtooth Violets and Trilliums had 

 better be left until they have gone to seed. Some of them, 

 however, like the Trilliums, when set out in early spring, 

 make a better growth the second year than they would do if 



the transplanting is deferred until autumn, when the leaf- 

 buds have formed. There is a dormant period in the life 

 of many early-flowering plants, especially those with fleshy 

 and bulbous roots, which comes after their stems have 

 died down, when they can be transplanted with little loss of 

 strength. When the plant has begun to make growth in early 

 spring, or when it is left until the autum growth begins, the 

 small roots are broken, and new ones must be formed, and 

 this is always something of a drain upon its vitality. 



Madison, N. J. IV. P. 



Correspondence. 



The Opening of the Fire Season in Minnesota. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — From the 15th to the 22d of March forest fires were fre- 

 quent in the more open parts of Minnesota. The smoke from 

 these so filled the air on the 22d as to make long sights with a 

 surveying instrument impossible. These fires often originate, 

 as has been stated and published many times, through a lack 

 of intelligence on the part of people using fire. I lately noticed 

 an instance that illustrates the effect of the proposed burning 

 of tops after logging. The Eastern Minnesota Railroad Com- 

 pany had evidently instructed their section foremen to bum 

 the brush on their right of way. There were but three men 

 on the section, and with a track heaving by frost, and a great 

 deal of brush along the line, they could not do the work prop- 

 erly. A fire was started in the brush, and the men went to 

 dinner. Coming to the place a half-hour later, I found the fire 

 running rapidly through the adjoining Pine. 



In Minnesota most of the railroad companies have large 

 grants of land for sale, and it would be a good policy for these 

 companies to clear and cultivate the land along their tracks, 

 both to illustrate what can be grown on the lands they have 

 for sale and to keep the fires from spreading from their tracks 

 and killing their timber. The evidence that fires started from 

 locomotives last summer can be found along nearly every 

 mile of track, and it must be that stockholders in these com- 

 panies are not aware that they are doing themselves great 

 damage by letting these fires escape. 



Carleton, Minn. 



A. 



The Cherokee Rose. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The article in your issue for March 20th on the Chero- 

 kee Rose encourages me to relate a most satisfactory expe- 

 rience with the same plant. Some tvvo and a half years ago I 

 set Cherokee Roses along a fence consisting of seven barbed 

 wires, some eight inches apart, and therefore about eight feet 

 high. The plants were set at a distance of fifteen feet apart, 

 and grew well, although I took care that they should be trained 

 along the wires. By this process I soon had a fence which is 

 hardly thicker through than the wire, and which is marvel- 

 ously beautiful as it stretches along the road. It blossomed 

 within the first year after planting, and produced in the second 

 year such a mass of flowers that it seems as if covered in 

 snow. During the past unfortunate winter it was three times 

 badly set back l>y the frost, and though it showed flowers in 

 the first week of February, a severe frost on the eighth of that 

 month checked it again for weeks, although it was never de- 

 prived of its leaves, and as it ran between dead and brown 

 Orange groves it was the one redeeming feature of the land- 

 scape, as it is today in a much higlier degree. During the 

 past three weeks it has made a full growth of new foliage, and 

 the flowers, which came forth sparingly, novv cover the fence 

 from top to bottom. I have planted two miles of it, and it not 

 only gives a great deal of pleasure, but it seems to be a fence 

 whicli, while not thicker than a man's hand, is absolutely se- 

 cure against man and beast. It has been grown without any 

 trouble, only requiring the first careful training, which the 

 plant easily follows. Later on it will undoubtedly require the 

 cutting out of the older wood. Some of my neighbors flatter 

 me by saying that this is the only instance they have ever seen 

 where a barbed-wire fence has been transformed into a thing 

 of beauty. 



Maitland, Fla. J^ ■ F. L. 



Forestry at the Michigan Agricultural College. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir, — Michigan has not attempted any work of consequence 

 in forestry, although every dollar intelligently expended in this 

 direction would return to the state in increased value. People 

 take it for granted that nothing can be done to improve forest 



