i8o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 375. 



that the question of the names of the plants in one part of 

 the country has been settled, or almost settled, perhaps the 

 long-felt want of a comprehensive Flora of North America 

 in compact form, and suitable for the use of students, may 

 be supplied for them. Such a work can never be final, but 

 it is absolutely needed, even if it is imperfect, to enable 

 students and collectors in all parts of the country to carry 

 on their investigations intelligently. 



Notes. 



Among the flowers for sale on the street-stands Marsh Mari- 

 golds, Caltha palustris, have been very abundant and popular 

 during the week past. 



The so-called Lemon-scented Verbena, from the western 

 coast of South America, Lippia citriodora, is said to have been 

 among the earliest of the shrubs planted in the southern part of 

 California, where it is now one ot the most popular plants, and 

 attains the proportions of a fair-sized tree. 



This is the autumn of the year in South Africa, and fresh 

 grapes are now arriving in London from Cape Colony in good 

 condition and are selling by the box at one shilling a pound. 

 Boxes of Louise Bonne pears, each containing thirty fruits, 

 have sold at thirty shillings, at which price some one ought to 

 realize a handsome profit. 



Would it not be more satisfactory if retail florists were more 

 particular in giving customers the true names of plants and 

 flowers which they admire ? In one of the most aristocratic 

 shops of this city a beautiful plant of Andromeda speciosa at- 

 tracted much attention lately, and visitors who inquired 

 what it was were calmly informed that it was a Canterbury 

 Bell. 



Mr. H. J. Hale writes to the Florists' Exchange that in his 

 three-year-old Peach orchard, in Georgia, every one of the 

 hundred thousand trees is loaded with fruit, and some of 

 fliem now carry ten times too many peaches for a full crop. 

 Much of this fruit will drop about the time when the pits are 

 forming, but, allowing for this, the indications are that the 

 trees will have to be hand-thinned and at least three times 

 as many peaches picked from them as are allowed to re- 

 main. 



A correspondent of The Garden writes that one of the great 

 attractions at the recent bulb show in Haarlem were some 

 groups of Tulip species. The very early and showy Tulipa 

 Kaufmanniana, mentioned in another column of this issue, 

 is said to have flowers resembling some of the Magnolia-flow- 

 ers while in bud, but opening white, yellowish toward the 

 centre, with a dash of red on the outside. T. violacea is also 

 very early, and has bright magenta-red flowers. T. linifolia, 

 named for its narrow leaves, has flowers of a bright scarlet. 

 T. Batalini has a pure soft yellow flower, which is small, but 

 very pretty. The early Irises also were said to have attracted 

 great attention. The best of those which will flourish in this 

 country have been more or less mentionedin these columns 

 by Mr. Gerard. 



The first California cherries of this year reached New York 

 on April 24th, one week earlier than last year. These were 

 Black Tartarians. Since then small lots of the white cherry 

 Rockport Bigarreau have arrived, but the fruit is small and 

 unripe. Ten-pound boxes are offered at wholesale for $2.50. 

 Some extra large Porto Rico pineapples are oftered at fifty to 

 seventy-five cents each. Easter Beurre pears of large size 

 bring $1.50 a dozen, and selected Newtown Pippins, from 

 Ulster County, in this state, sell for $1.50 a peck basket. Large 

 bunches of Almeria grapes sell at the rate of fifty cents a 

 pound, and Black Hamburg grapes, from Rhode Island, at 

 $3.00 to $3.50 a pound. Strawberries, from Charleston, of fine 

 color and flavor, said to be Hoffman's Seedlings, sell for sixty 

 cents a quart. 



Messrs. Ellwanger & Barry send us an extract from a letter 

 which one of their customers has written to say that small 

 plants of the Crimson Rambler Rose, in two and a half inch 

 pots, set out in the open border last autunm, have stood the 

 severe weather without any mulch, and are now beginning to 

 make a good growth. This was in a climate where the ther- 

 mometer fell to six degrees below zero during the winter, with 

 much alternate freezing and thawing, and this speaks well for 

 the hardiness of the Rose. On the other hand, we have a let- 

 ter from Herr Max Leichtlin, who states that at Baden-Baden, 



where the temperature once dropped to five degrees below 

 zero, and at another time to eight degrees, the wood of the 

 Crimson Rambler became brown, and the buds of these 

 shoots are not starting as well as they should. The fact that 

 strong shoots are coming up from the roots seems an addi- 

 tional prooi that the exposed branches at the top had suffered 

 very much. Herr Leichtlin adds that it ought to be said in 

 favor of the Rose that last summer and autumn were ex- 

 tremely wet and cool, so that the wood did not ripen as well 

 as it would naturally be expected to do in our hot and dry 

 climate. 



In the April number of The Chaulatiquan, Mr. Sidney Wey- 

 man has an interesting article on the German Forest, in which 

 he points out that the value of the forest in its relation to 

 chmate and health is more fully appreciated in the German 

 Empire and in Austria than in any other countries in the world. 

 Its important place in the national economy is seen from the 

 fact that the forests give employment to a quarter of a million 

 of persons, and yet, more remarkable still, is the sentiment of 

 affection and pride with which the people regard the forest as 

 the dominant feature of the country. The torest has always 

 played a great part in the history of the German people. In the 

 early centuries the Germans were born and bred m the woods, 

 and the forest still has a hold on the imagination of the people as 

 a place of refuge and shelter and a home, a sentiment which we 

 look for in vain among any of the Latin nations. The French- 

 man retires for rest to the water-side, but the German seeks 

 change of scene among picturesque forest sites, where the 

 pure air is supposed to bring health and relief from all bodily 

 ills. Week after week the nerve-racked German will spend 

 whole days from morning till sunset in the woods. Many of 

 the people have little taste for fashionable life and take their 

 holidays in out-of-the-way nooks and corners, living in soli- 

 tary forest inns and cottages for weeks together. Notwith- 

 standing the enormous growth of the German towns the na- 

 tional love of the forest seems to have become more inten- 

 sified. In the winter there are sleighing-parties in the woods, 

 and at Easter and Whitsuntide the forests swarm with tour- 

 ists, and the school youth of Germany make long pedestrian 

 journeys through thein in the spring. The rifle clubs and 

 singing clubs of every town meet in the nearest wood, and to 

 provide tor these various festivities there are any number of 

 excellent inns scattered throughout the length and breadth of 

 the forests. Bismarck lives in the midst of an old Saxon 

 forest, and the Germans love to erect the monuments of their 

 great men amid forest solitudes. A great portion of the poetry 

 and literature of the country is connected with the forest, and 

 from Schubert's songs to Wagner's operas their music is sat- 

 urated with forest sentiment, their dramas are set in forest 

 scenery and deal primarily with forest life. 



Kale, spinach and lettuce comprised the principal greens of 

 the winter season, and these are still offered, with dandelion, 

 tarragon, sorrel, beet-tops, mint and clumps of chives. Large 

 quantities of radishes are coming from Norfolk, peas from 

 Charleston and Savannah, and string-beans from Florida. 

 Asparagus of excellent quality is being forwarded from points 

 between South Carolina and New Jersey. The grade from 

 Charleston known as Extra Fancy brings sixty cents a bunch, 

 and choice asparagus from southern New Jersey costs fifty 

 cents. New celery from New Orleans brings fifty cents for 

 three stalks. Egg-plants from Florida are rare, and small 

 ones command forty cents each. Crook-neck and greert 

 squashes cost ten to fifteen cents each. New potatoes from 

 Florida are somewhat higher than those from Bermuda, and 

 bring sixty cents a half-peck. Peppers from Cuba bring sev- 

 enty-five cents a dozen, and okra, from the same place, ten 

 cents a dozen. Hot-house beets from Boston cost twenty 

 cents a bunch, those from Florida and Bermuda bringing 

 nearly as much. Carrots, caulillower and long English frame 

 cucumbers also come from northern hot-houses. Mushrooms 

 at eighty-five cents a pound, cranberries at twenty cents a 

 quart and French artichokes at twenty-five cents apiece are 

 among other staples on the best-stocked vegetable-stands. 

 The superiority of vegetables carefully grown under glass 

 over those which are grown out-of-doors in the south is seen 

 in the fact that cucumbers from Louisiana and Florida are 

 worth ten cents each, while those from Boston hot-houses 

 command fifteen cents each. Tomatoes from Cuba, Florida 

 and Bermuda are worth thirty-five cents a pound ; those from 

 northern hot-houses command twice that amount. What with 

 modern skill in growing vegetables under glass, and in- 

 creased means of transportation, it is now possible to find 

 almost any vegetable in New York at any, season of the year, 

 with the exception of sweet corn. , ■ 



