170 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 374. 



as they come into flower, and the ornamental and useful prop- 

 erties, as well as their habits of growth and other peculiarities, 

 will be considered. Any person who desires further informa- 

 tion in regard to these lectures may address Mr. J. G. Jack, 

 Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. 



Mr. Joseph Meehan writes from Germantown, under date of 

 April 17th, that the conifers there have, as a rule, suffered very 

 little by the hard winter, the exception being the Hemlock 

 Spruce, which is terribly browned, Cephlotaxus and many of 

 the Yews, which are scorched. Deodar Cedars lost a few 

 leaves on their upper branches, but they are already budding 

 out freely to the very tips of their shoots. The Cedar of Leba- 

 non is also quite unhurt. In sunny places Forsythia sus- 

 pensa was in full bloom, and so was Magnolia stellata. The 

 early-flowering Bush ffoneysuckles, Cornus mas and Daphne 

 Mezereum, are everywhere in flower. 



It is well known that the common evergreen Live Oak, of 

 California, Quercus agrifolia, is preyed upon in the neighbor- 

 hood of San Francisco Bay by caterpillars of the California 

 Processionary Moth, Clisiocampa Californica, which often de- 

 vour the leaves once and sometimes twice during the summer 

 and have given many of the trees an abnormal mushroom- 

 like shape by stunting their growth. Professor E. W. Hilgard, 

 of the University of California, calls our attention in a private 

 letter to the fact that the caterpillars of another moth, Phry- 

 gandia Californica, which also devour the leaves of Ouercus 

 agrifolia, are defoliating the plants of the European Oak 

 planted at Berkeley, although they do not often attack the Cali- 

 fornia White Oak, O. lobata, which is botanically closely 

 related to the European species. Curiously enough, horses 

 and cattle never browse on the foliage of the California White 

 Oak, although the branches of this tree, which are pendent 

 and often sweep the ground, are very accessible to them, 

 but they will stand on their hind feet to devour the young 

 shoots of the European species. 



Some interesting investigations have been made at the South 

 Dakota Experiment Station on the distribution of weed-seeds 

 by winter winds. For example, the contents of snow-drift on 

 plowed land two feet square, three inches deep and ten rods 

 from any standing weeds, were melted, and thirty-two weed- 

 seeds belonging to nine species were found in it. Other tests 

 confirm the fact that seeds are carried great distances upon 

 the snow. Another test was made by pouring half-bushel 

 piles of oats and millet upon the snow-crust when the wind 

 was fifteen miles an hour. Both millet and oats passed a 

 point twenty rods from where they had been placed m forty 

 seconds. A twenty-five-mile wind was found to drift wheat- 

 grains thirty rods in a minute. Of course, when winds on the 

 plains keep blowing in one direction for days, seeds will travel 

 many miles. The moral of these investigations seems to be 

 that in the great western plains, at least, bare summer fal- 

 lowing and matured weeds m waste ground may help to scat- 

 ter seed during the winter over great areas, and they will be 

 buried in the soil when the snow melts. 



In the April issue of T/te Botanical lilagazine a plate is de- 

 voted to Magnolia parviflora, one of the species introduced 

 into this country nearly a quarter of a century ago by the late 

 Thomas Hogg, and largely propagated at the Parsons' Nursery 

 at Flushing, but apparently only recently known in Europe. 

 It is said in the description which accompanies the plate to be 

 a native of the alpine regions of the Japanese Island of Nip- 

 pon, or, as the Japanese usually call it, Hondo, where it is said 

 to grow on the Hakone Mountains, on Hego-San, and at the 

 foot of the volcano of Wunyen, the two last being localities 

 we do not find in the gazetteers ^or in Mr. Chamberlain's ex- 

 cellent Guide Book of Japan. The best Japanese botanists, 

 however, who have in recent years carefully explored the 

 forests of Hondo do not believe that this is a Japanese plant, 

 but, like M. conspicua, M. Watsoni and many other plants 

 which they only know in gardens, that it was introduced from 

 China, which, at the time of the introduction of the Buddhist 

 religion, sent to Japan most of the plants which they had been 

 cultivating in their gardens for nearly a thousand years. 



There is but a small amount of wood in a broom, but so 

 many millions of these implements are used every year that 

 the consumption of wood for broom-handles is a considerable 

 item. The Southern Lumberman slates that while it would 

 have been almost impossible to sell a broom-handle made of 

 heavy hardwood a few years ago, at present the reverse is true. 

 The manufacturer prefers hardwood because it does not re- 

 quire so large a bolt, can be turned down smaller and yet 

 retain sufficient strength, and can be ornamented more cheaply 

 and artistically. Brooms with hardwood handles sell more 



readily and do not deteriorate in appearance like the soft wood 

 handles. Any kind of inexpensive hardwood, such as Beech, 

 Birch, Maple or Ash, makes acceptable handles, while springy 

 woods like the Elms are not salable, because one essential 

 feature of a good broom is a straight handle. The manufac- 

 ture of broomdiandles can only be made profitable when the 

 timber runs largely clear. In the eastern states the timber 

 waste in making broom-handles exceeds fifty per cent., while 

 in the south-west it is usually less than twenty-five per cent. 

 There are four factories in Amsterdam, New York, one of 

 which has a capacity of 1,200 finished brooms a day. They 

 use hardwood handles from the south and west and get them 

 for less than the bolts ready for the lathe can be furnished 

 from native hardwood. Tlie handles are turned green and 

 dried afterward. The large end on which the brush is wired 

 must be thoroughly dry or the broom will work loose. The 

 drying of the upper part of the handle is of less consequence, 

 except in the saving of freight. 



Strawberries from Florida are scarce enough to make prices 

 high, and the best fruit, which is coming from the vicinity of 

 Lawtey, in that state, sold on Monday for sixty cents a quart. A 

 few strawberries have already been received from as far north 

 as Charleston. Mediterranean oranges are advancing in price, 

 but much of this fruit is still coming at a loss. Altogether, 

 1 10,000 boxes of Sicily oranges and lemons were sold here 

 during last week. Some California mandarins, small, but of 

 good Havor and quality, bring twenty-five cents a dozen, and 

 grape fruit from Jamaica costs ten to twenty-five cents apiece. 

 Fully 50,000 bunches of bananas were disposed of last week at 

 auction at high prices. Six cases of grapes from the Cape of 

 Good Hope, via England, were sold here last Wednesday ; 

 while they arrived overripe and not in the best condition for 

 want of proper packing, the experiment will again be made next 

 season. Nectarines and grapes from South Africa reach Eng- 

 land in perfect order, and peaches from the same remote 

 place have been sold in this city in midwinter at 

 $3,00 each. Above 150,000 bushels of Australian and 

 Tasmanian apples have been imported into England 

 this year, the season continuing for six weeks from the 

 first of March. The fruit is shipped in cases containing 

 one bushel. The original cost of these apples is eighty-seven 

 cents to a dollar a bushel, the freight for transportation cover- 

 ing 12,000 miles is $1.00 more, and, with other expenses added 

 the fruit stands at $2.12 to $2.25 a case when oftered to whole- 

 sale buyers in the English market. With American apples, 

 these are considered the best apples imported into England. 

 The American export season for apples is almost ended, and 

 above 1,440.000 barrels have left this country for Europe since 

 last August. 



Although the Japanese Anemone was introduced into Euro- 

 pean gardens fifty years ago, and the famous white sport 

 from its variety, Elegans, known as Honorine Jobert, was dis- 

 seminated as long ago as 1863. there have been few variations 

 from these old forms, owing to the fact that the plant, as we 

 know it, rarely, if ever, produces fertile seed. Mr. Emile 

 Lemoine, in an Interesting letter to The Garden, once more 

 invites attention to the fact that the variety Lady Ardilaun is a 

 true seedling. This plant was raised by Mr. Campbell, gardener 

 to Lady Ardilaun, who, nine or ten years ago, observed a head 

 of seed on a plant of the white-flowered A. Japonica. This 

 seed was sown, and of the three seedlings thus produced one 

 was conspicuously better than the others, having pure white 

 flowers of great size and substance, a taller growth than Hono- 

 rine Jobert, thicker stems and larger leathery leaves. A 

 remarkable thing about this variety, which was called Lady 

 Ardilaun, is that it produces seed which ripens readily in the 

 open air. Mr. Lemoine sent out a seedling of this plant last 

 year, which bore a semi-double flower at the same time that 

 the American Anemone, Whirlwind, was sent out. He has 

 other seeiilings now under observation, and since this sudden 

 change in the habit of the plant — that is, since it has become 

 fertile and seed-bearing — we may, without doubt, look for- 

 ward to a great many new varieties, single, double and semi- 

 double. ]\Ir. Lemoine descriljes a ijlant exhibited last autumn 

 with stems as thick as a lead-pencil, perpendicular, and bear- 

 ing numerous flowers which stand erect on firm foot-stalks. 

 These flowers are formetl of three or four rows of undulated 

 and hooded petals, looking like little cups. Sometimes there 

 are sixty of these petals in a single flower. The color of the 

 flower is creamy white, passing into pure white, and it is three 

 and three-quarter inches in diameter. Of course, where forms 

 are constantly changing we may look for some improve- 

 ments, although it would be dil'ficult to imagine any flower 

 which can excel in purity of color and grace of bearing the 

 white-flowered Japanese Anemone as we know it. 



