190 



Garden and Forest. 



[NUMBEF 376. 



Notes. 



Monsieur Edward Andre, the distinguished landscape-tjar- 

 dener, editor of the Revue Horticole and Clievalier of tlie Order 

 of tlie Crown of Italy, lias recently Lieen promoted to the 

 grade of officer in that Order in recognition of his services in 

 improving and enlarging the public gardens of Rome. 



For covering the walls of a lean-fo greenhouse there are few 

 things prettier than the blue and white Plumbagos, P. capen- 

 sis and P. capensisalba. They look best when trained on wires 

 strung about three or four inches from (lie wall, and if in fairly 

 rich soil and otherwise encouraged to grow, they will soon 

 make a most brilliant display of bloom. 



Daffodils and early-flowering Tulips have just passed their 

 best, and every one who has a garden should now deterjnine 

 to have an abundant supply of them another year. A dozen 

 varieties of Narcissi willgive examples of all the leading types, 

 and they are now so cheap that for a few dollars one can have 

 enough to cut an armful any morning and hardly miss them 

 from the general outdoor display. 



The Missouri Currant, Ribes aureuni, which is found in all 

 old gardens, has a rather straggling habit, but it is among the 

 earliest shrubs to show Its flowers, and these are of a singu- 

 larly clear yellow color. The great value of this plant, how- 

 ever, lies in the delicious fragrance of its flowers. No other 

 shrub at this season has an odor at once so pleasing and so 

 penetrating, and it is well worth planting for this quality 

 alone. 



The proceedings of the American Carnation Society at its 

 fourth annual meeeting have lieen published in a neat pam- 

 phlet of eighty pages, which contains not only the papers and 

 discussions, the essential parts of which we pulilished at the 

 time, but it includes the valuable report of the nomenclature 

 committee, which gives the names of all the leading varieties 

 of Carnations, new and old, together with such information as 

 to the quality of each as coidd be gleaned from the replies to 

 a thousand circulars of inquiry sent out to the leading grow- 

 ers of the country by the committee. 



So far the spring auction sales of plants in this city have 

 been very brisk, and an unusual variety of plants have lieen 

 offered. Indeed, all the ordinary staple herbaceous plants can 

 be had for glass houses or open ground with shrubs and 

 climbers, both- tender and hardy, and trees for orchards and 

 for ornamental planting. A comparatively novel feature is the 

 offering of small lots ot plants packed in baskets, so that they 

 can be carried away by hand. This enables persons who 

 only want a few plants to buy directly, so that practically a 

 retail trade is carried on at auction. 



The taste for the cultivation of Orchids is shown by the 

 works devoted to these plants, which are constantly appearing. 

 The last to reach us is entitled Lcs Orcliidces Exotiqiies et leur 

 Culture en Europe, a book of a thousand pages and nearly 

 one hundred and fiffy illustrations, by Lucien Linden, assisted 

 by A. Coaniaux and G. Grignan. Botanical classification, the 

 physiology of Orchids, their natural habitat, their cultivation 

 under glass, importations and hybridization, are some of the 

 subjects treated in this voluminous and comprehensive work. 

 Some idea of the importance of Orchids as garden-plants can 

 be obtained from the chapter devoted to their bibliography, 

 which, without probably aiming to be exhaustive, occupies 

 seven closely printed pages. 



The Rhododendrons and other broad-leaved evergreens in 

 the parks of this city and Brooklyn suffered very seriously 

 from the trying winter. More than four hundred Rhododen- 

 drons were killed outright in Prospect Park, and in Central 

 Park the destruction was almost as great, but the great mass 

 of these plants in the extreme northern end of the park on 

 a cold rocky slope facing the north came through without any 

 injury whatever. The beauty and healthfulness of this group 

 is a good fllustration of the fact that these plants are not so 

 much injured by cold as they are by the sun. Among the 

 coniferous evergreens the Retinisporas were most badly 

 damaged. 



Two or three unusually warm days have had the effect of 

 hurrying forward the flowers of the Sugar Maple, and for a 

 few days past these trees have been the most conspicuous and 

 beautiful olijects in the landscape near this city. Whether 

 standing alone or in a wood where the other trees show few 

 signs of flowers or foliage, each separate tree looks like a 

 soft cloud of lightest yellow, which is fairly luminous in full 

 sunshine. In years when the weather is comparatively cool at 



flowering-time these trees do not make such a striking dis- 

 play, because, when the flowers appear more slowly, they are 

 accompanied liy the leaves of the tree, and, although they are 

 always beautiful, the effect is heavier, or, at least, it is not so 

 airy as when the flowers appear alone. 



More apples were exported in the season just ended than in 

 any previous year, not excepting the banner season of 1891-92, 

 when 1,450,336 barrels left this country for European ports. 

 Nearly two million, or about 1,946,139, barrels of apples were 

 forwarded to Europe from Canatla and the United States this 

 season. Prices aljroad have been satisfactory to the shippers 

 throughout the entire season, which began earlier than usual, 

 owing to the failure of Europe.in apple crops. Golden Russets 

 of good quality recently brought $4.25 to $4.75 at the wholesale 

 auction sales in Liverpool for a barrel holding 140 pounds, and 

 California Newtown I'ippins, $3.00 a box of forty pounds, net 

 weight. There are but few apples in the wholesale markets 

 in this city, the entire receipts for last week being quoted 

 as 3,719 barrels. Since September 502,879 barrels have 

 been sold here, against 225,221 barrels during the same term 

 a year ago. The few Baldwins now offered command $3-75 to 

 $4.50 a barrel ; Northern Spies, which are even more scarce, 

 $3.00 to $5.00, and Ben Davis $4.50 to $5.00 A few barrels of 

 Newtown Pippins are coming from the Hudson River district, 

 and Golden and Roxbury Russets, the latter costing as much 

 as $4.25 a barrel, make up the bulk of the stock on hand. 



The literature of spraying has received another addition in 

 a bulletin prepared by Mr. E. G. Lodemari, of the Cornell Ex- 

 periment Station, vidiich gives a report of experiments with 

 apples, quinces and plums, liut, after all that has been said, 

 very little that is absolutely new can be expected. It seems to 

 be established that the arsenites and the copper compounds 

 will often save crops of fruit from insects and fungi when they 

 are properly applied. The fact is also emphasized in this bul- 

 letin that spraying sometimes does little good, which means 

 that orchards suffer from other causes than disease and insect 

 pests. Spraying will not bring a crop of fruit wdien there is no 

 food for the trees or when it is not in a form that is available. 

 This means that fruit-growers should be as persistent in apply- 

 ing fertilizers and cultivating the soil as they are in the use of 

 remedies against insects and fungi. Some of the results set 

 forth in Mr. Lodeman's bulletin are that power sprayers are 

 unsatisfactory with large trees because they do not throw the 

 liquid far enough or enough of it, and, therefore, hand pumps 

 must lie relied upon in orchards, while power sprayers can be 

 used to advantage in vineyards and among low-growing plants. 

 Three gallons of Bordeaux mixture are needed to a tree 

 twenty-five years old. To be effective against the coddling 

 moth Paris green must be applied immediately after the blos- 

 soms fall. Leaf-spot and cracking of the quince, the apple- 

 scab, the shot-hole fungus of plums and cherries, and the 

 fruit rot of plums and peaches, can all be held in check by the 

 proper use of the Bordeaux mixture. 



The Black Tartarian cherries now coming from California 

 are larger and of a deeper color than those seen here a week 

 ago, but they are not yet perfectly colored nor of full size. 

 They come in box lots, without ice, and bear the journey of 

 three thousand miles and the changes of weather on the road 

 very well. It is expected that cherries will arrive by the car- 

 load in refrigerator cars by the end of this week. As many as 

 one hundred car-loads of California oranges, mostly seedlings, 

 will reach eastern markets during this week. California grape- 

 fruits of large size are offered at $6.00 a box by wholesale deal- 

 ers, but find slow sale, since they are light and comparatively 

 juiceless. The smaller and thinner-skinned Jamaica pome- 

 los of really excellent quality bring $7.50 a box. The Jamaica 

 orange season is now ended, though a limited quantity of new 

 fruit known as the spring cutting will come from that island a 

 little later on. The last ffavana oranges have arrived, and the 

 stock of this fruit still on hand is bringing $3.50 a barrel. 

 More than 16,000 barrels of pineapples were landed here 

 during last week, and on Monday alone some 14,000 barrels of 

 this fruit were unloaded on the docks. The season for Cuba 

 pineapples is now at its height, and in a fortnight they will 

 come from the Bahamas and Key West. The Florida supply 

 will be hardly a third as large as last year, nearly all the 

 plants in the central part of the state having been frozen. Prices 

 at wholesale range from $4.00 to $16.00 a hundred. A few 

 boxes of wild oranges from Jamaica, known in the trade as 

 I3itter Fruit, are seen in the wholesale stores. These are used 

 solely for marmalade, and sell to canners at $2.00 a box. 

 Catawba grapes, held over winter in cold storage, are still 

 occasionally seen, a box containing two and a lialf pounds 

 costing thirty-five cents. 



