I50 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 372. 



covered with white blossoms. Of course, the stems of the 

 tiowers are not as long as in the climbing- Peas, but there are 

 many places where the dwarf plant can be used to advantage, 

 and there can be no doubt that the California paper is correct 

 which declares that it will make an interesting pot-plant. 



A Dutch horticultural journal says that an excellent way to 

 preserve fresh nuts is to place them, immediately after gath- 

 ering, in clean flower-pots, the holes in which have been 

 stopped, and, covering them with a tile or bit of slate, to Vmry 

 them in the earth until they are needed for use. The main 

 thing is to protect them completely from the action of light. 



The delicate and remarkal)ly sweet-scented flowers of 

 Chimonanthus fragrans are often fully open in latitudes 

 south of Philadelphia in February. Mr. Joseph Meehan 

 writes that he has been watching for the appea]-ance of 

 these flowers for some time, and, in his disappointment, 

 has at last examined the shrubs closely, to find that the buds 

 had all been destroyed by the frost, sometimes when they were 

 about half-open. There are flowers on the prostrate stems of 

 Jasminum nudiflorum, but the buds on the upright-growing 

 shoots are still tightly closed. 



Professor Wood, while he was a member of the staff of 

 the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station, made 

 some tests with regard to the flow of maple sap which are of 

 interest. Maples are usually tapped to the depth of about an 

 inch, and this practice is based on the belief that the sap comes 

 chiefly from the wood of recent growth, so that any tapping 

 deeper than the layers made during the last six or eight years 

 is useless labor and an unnecessary injury to the tree. Pro- 

 fessor Wood's experiment, however, seems to show clearly 

 that the flow of the sap is largely dependent on the depth of 

 the tap, and that sugar-makers may with great profit tap their 

 trees to a depth of four or five inches. The additional injury 

 to the tree is slight, especially if the hole is small, and when a 

 three-eighths of an inch bit is used and the bark is left uninjured, 

 the holes v/ill be grown over the first summer after tapping. 

 It seems that twice the amount of sap can be obtained l)y tap- 

 ping four inches deep instead of two, while the sap from deep 

 boring is almost as rich as the other. The exposure of trees to 

 the sun has much to do with the result from tapping on dif- 

 ferent sides, and there is little doubt as to the correctness of 

 the popular view that the trees should bejapped on the south 

 side wlierever practicable. 



In a recent lecture, Mr. D. Morris, Assistant Director of the 

 Royal Gardens in Kew, noted the fact that the commerce in 

 vegetable fibres was one of the most important in Great Bri- 

 tain, and that the imports in 1893 amounted in value to forty- 

 five mfllions sterling, and the export of manufactured goods 

 reached a value of seventy-four millions sterling. Of imports, 

 nearly all the cotton, flax, hemp and paper material came from 

 foreign countries, and it seemed to Mr. Morris a matter of 

 regret that Canada could not become a great flax-producing 

 country, that New Zealand did not improve itsphormium pro- 

 duction for the higher class of textiles, and that cotton and 

 ramie were not grown in the West Indies. Cellulose is the 

 essential element in all fibre. Cotton, sola pith, ivory nut, 

 linen rags were all cellulose, and in the Kew Museum frag- 

 ments of linen cloth found between bricks of pyramids 

 erected twenty-five hundred years before Clirist, sl]owed tliat 

 in a dry atmosphere cellulose is practically indestructible. One 

 of the new fibres, especially interesting and quite unknown in 

 Great Britain, is to be seen in a cuirass made from a kind of 

 wild pineapple, and this suit, worn by the Indians of South 

 America, is padded before and behind with vegetable silk from 

 the fruit of the Yachan, Chorisia insigne. By rolling them- 

 selves in water the silk swells until the cuirass becomes arrow- 

 proof. 



Since the best teachers of science in these times insist that 

 their pupils shall study objects before they receive much in- 

 struction from books, instructors of botany find it difficult to 

 procure at any given season of the year enough fresh material 

 to fully illustrate diflerent subjects. In following any text- 

 book, for example, enough specimens to illustrate the different 

 sections of the book as they are taken up at different dates, 

 can rarely be found. To obviate this difficulty. Professor Beal 

 writes to Science that he has collected quantities of stamens of 

 different plants, say, the Barberry, .Sassafras, Lobelia, Cypripe- 

 dium, etc, and preserved each kind by itself in a solution of 

 twenty-five per cent, alcohol, or of one of formalin to one 

 hundred of water. These specimens are all ready when the 

 subject of stamens comes to be studied, and the preserved 

 objects can be placed in a small dish before the pupils when 



fresh specimens cannot be procured. If they are not allowed 

 to dry they can be used for successive classes. In the same 

 way Professor Beal has preserved forms of pistils, the torus 

 and other parts of plants, including fruits of various kinds, 

 such as half-grown plums or cherries, fruits of the Mandrake, 

 Bloodroot, Mulberry, etc., at different stages of growth, and in 

 this way lessons in morpliology can be made more impressive 

 than they would be if one illustration was used at one time, 

 and the others a week or a month later. 



Among the piears in market the Winter Nells, with its beau- 

 tiful gray-russet coat, fine-grained, buttery flesh and rich aro- 

 matic juice, is still to be found in limited supply. Easter Beurre, 

 though not so beautiful, is much larger and is always prized 

 for its melting quality and rich flavor, and good pears of this 

 variety now sell for $1.50 a dozen. P. Barry is hardly yet at its 

 best. It is a large and beautiful fruit with a vinous flavor, but 

 its flesh is somewhat stringy, so that it can hardly be called a 

 pear of the very finest quality. It commands as good a price 

 as Easter Beurre, however, and will fje the leading pear in the 

 market when all others are past their season. The finest 

 apples here nov/ have Ijeen coming from Vermont and have 

 sold for exceptional prices. These have been Newtown Pip- 

 pins, Northern Spies and a few extra Baldwins. The crop of 

 Washington Navel oranges, from California, is so nearly ex- 

 hausted that prices have grown rather more firm, and fair 

 fruit sells for $3.50 a box and upward. There are practically 

 no seedling oranges from California in this market. They are 

 met half-way across the continent by West Indian fruit, which 

 commands fully as much in Chicago as the California product. 

 Good Wasliington Navels retail forsixty cents a dozen, Messina 

 Blood oranges for the same price, and the best Jamaicas for 

 fifty cents a dozen. Almeria grapes, if in large clusters and 

 finely colored, bring fifty cents a pound. In spite of the arrival 

 of the large supply of tomatoes which is coming from southern 

 Florida, Cuba and Bermuda, solid hothouse tomatoes sell for 

 seventy-five cents a pound. String beans, from Florida, bring 

 $8.00 a crate at wholesale, and green peas from the same state 

 bring $5.00. Asparagus is now coming from as far north as 

 North Carolina, and is worth seventy-five cents a bunch. 

 Florida is sending new beets and new cabbage. From Ber- 

 muda are coming newbeets, carrots, onions and parsley. The 

 best hothouse cucumbers are from Boston, and bring $2.00 a 

 dozen. 



Ignatz Forsferman, one of the most enterprising and accom- 

 plished of the commercial florists in the vicinity of this city, 

 died at his home in Newtown, Long Island, on the 29th of 

 March. Mr. Forsterman was born in Cof)lentz, Prussia, in the 

 year 1854, and after studying in the Garden Institute, in his 

 native city, he acquired facility in the practice of his calling- in 

 various horticultural establishments of his native country, in 

 Switzerland, France and England. He became specially skilled 

 in the cultivation of Orchids, and by his habits of close ob- 

 servation he acquired a very comprehensive knowledge of 

 these plants and their habits. In the year 1881 he began a 

 series of remarkably successful collecting tours for an English 

 firm, and sent home n-iany new ]5lants from India, the Malayan 

 Archipelago. Burma and other parts of Asia. His knowledge 

 was supplemented by such energy, industry and fearlessness 

 that no labor or hardship discouraged him. The trying cli- 

 mate, however, undermined his strong constitution, and since 

 he settled in this country in 1886 his health has always been 

 delicate. He bore this burden, however, with cheerful courage, 

 and, in spite of many drawbacks, he established a prosperous 

 business, some features of which were absolutely unique. He 

 became a large importer of such Orchids as could be profita- 

 bly grown for cut flowers, and sold them in quantities to 

 florists who grew them for market flowers, wdiile at the same 

 time he did not allow his collectors to neglect the search for 

 valuable rarities. Among the l>est-known Orchids which he 

 personally collected was Cypripediun-i Spicerianum, which he 

 rediscovered ; Dendrobium Sanderianuir., D. cruentun-i, Coe- 

 logyne Sanderiana and C. Forstermanii, Cypripedium Sanderi- 

 ana and many others, besides such interesting plants as Pteris 

 Victories, which has beconie a universal favorite. Besides 

 these he discovered a number of species and varieties, speci- 

 mens of which are now locked up in the Reichenbach her- 

 bariuni. 



The death of Mr. Forsterman is a genuine loss to horticulture, 

 but those who knew him best will niiss him more for his high 

 moral qualities than for his helpful knowledge in his chosen pur- 

 suit. He was a man of singular gentleness of disposition, 

 modest, truthful and unselfish. His ability always commanded 

 respect, while the genuine worth of his character won the 

 esteem of all who knew him. 



