228 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 380. 



After the flowering period the plants will need a little rest to 

 recuperate, but water must not be withheld, and soon the young 

 growths will start away, and this is the time to repot, which will 

 be about September, when cool nights will insure a good start. 

 For a potting compost we use moss and Fern-root, with a little 

 dried cow-manure from the pasture. They seem to like this 

 and manure-water at every second or third watering after the 

 roots have begun to run through the potting material, bat it 

 should be applied well diluted. 



There is no form of decoration to which these lovely flow- 

 ers will not lend themselves, either as cut blooms or in the 

 pots. The graceful, arching sprays of pink flower shades 

 vary from a rich deep rose to the pure white of the unique 

 "Fairy Queen," but even the common forms are beautiful 

 enough for any garden. Many of our plants are producing 

 four spikes from one bulb, and one of these single bulbs has 

 forty-one flowers on the four spikes, so the free-flowering 

 qualities of this Miltonia can hardly be overstated. 



Another very fine Miltonia is M. Roezlii, and its white va- 

 riety. The flowers of this plant are very fragrant and have the 

 same outline as M. vexillaria, but it requires a warmer house 

 than the latter, as it comes from a mucli lower elevation, from 

 1,000 to 2,000 feet, while M. vexillaria grows at an altitude vary- 

 ing from 4,000 to 7,000 feet above sea-level, so that it will easily 

 be understood that a house at least ten degrees warmer in 

 winter is necessary for M. Roezlii, otherwise it is of the same 

 easy culture and flowers at the same time of year. 



These two Miltonias used to be and are still known in cat- 

 alogues as Odontoglossums, but of recent years they have 

 Ijeen removed to the genus Miltonia with which they have a 

 true affinity. Owing to the recent introduction of these plants 

 ther& is a reasonable hope that other large-flowered forms of 

 M. vexillaria will soon be obtainable. zr ^ n 



South Lancaster, Mass. E. O. Orpct. 



Some Herbaceous Perennials. 



POLEMONIUM REPTANS is a native plant that is giving 

 good satisfaction this year, and every little stem is loaded 

 with flowers. It is eight or ten inches high, and its drooping 

 fieautiful blue flowers are produced in loose panicles. The 

 spreading stems are well clothed with pinnate leaves, and give 

 the plant a neat and compact habit. It grows well in ordinary 

 garden-soil, and likes a position where it is not shaded by 

 trees. 



The Rocky Mountain Columbine, Aquilegia cosrulea, is one 

 of the best in this genus. It is a choice perennial, and- deserves 

 more attention than some of our commoner forms. All the 

 Colutiibines are graceful and beautiful, but this species is 

 especially so. Its special beauty is in the nearly erect blue and 

 white flowers. They are nearly three inches across, and the 

 nearly straight, green-tipped spurs of the flower measure two 

 inches in length. The plants grow to be twelve or fifteen 

 inches high, and the leaves are large and biternate. A. ccerulea 

 does well in the border or rockery. It is, however, not a long- 

 lived plant ; seed should, therefore, be sown annually, so that 

 young plants may take the place of such as fail to come up in 

 the spring. 



On the north side of an Arbor-vita:' hedge a good strong 

 plant of Orchis latifoha is now showing, as it has in succcessive 

 springs, strong spikes of purple flowers. This plant does well 

 in such a situation in deep rich moist soil. It does not like to 

 be disturbed often, and when once established should not be 

 moved for a number of years. It grows about fifteen inches 

 high ; its leaves are lanceolate, spotted with purplish black. 

 The flowers of this English plant are produced in dense 

 spikes, and they last for a considerable time. 



Harvard Botanic Garden. Robei't Cameron. 



Correspondence. 



Is Parsnip Poisonous? 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In your issue of May ist Dr. Halsted has some inter- 

 esting notes on poisonous plants. What Dr. Halsted says in 

 regard to poisoning from Cowbane, Cicuta maculata, is to the 

 point. The cases of poisoning from this plant are so frequent, 

 not only in this state, but elsewheje, that I have prepared a 

 paper on the subject, which will soon appear in our station 

 bulletin. I have looked up with considerable care cases of 

 poisoning, and I have yet to learn of a case of fatal poisoning 

 from Parsnip running wild or " Wild Parsnip," Pastinaca 

 sativa. I have requested specimens, and have asked to re- 

 ceive information of authentic cases, but they have not turned 

 up. We have the best of evidence that the plant is not poi- 



sonous. No one can question the evidence introduced by 

 Professor Frederick B. Power,* whose careful scientific work 

 along the lines of pharmacy is well known. Professor Power 

 failed to find any poisonous substance in " Parsnips running 

 wild " ; boiled roots fed m considerable quantity to a cat showed 

 no symptoms of poisoning. His associate, Dr. Cramers, in- 

 sisted upon eating one-half of a raw parsnip which was sent to 

 him from West Salem, Wisconsin, and which were supposed 

 to cause the cases of poisoning in question, but no ill effects 

 followed. 



Again, Dr. Brown, of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, had prepared 

 enough wild parsnips for a good dinner, which he ate, and, if 

 I remember correctly, his whole family ate of it, but without 

 any ill effects. Now, these Parsnips had been running wild 

 for fifty years. 



I have myself eaten raw parsnips "running wild," but could 

 observe no injurious effects whatever. I have been trying in 

 a limited way to demonstrate the non-poisonous properties of 

 parsnip, and that people should especially guard against Cicuta 

 maculata. I believe it is largely a myth that parsnip is poison- 

 ous. It is possible that some people may have peculiar idio- 

 syncrasies for parsnip just as for celery, but to call the plant 

 poisonous is a mistake. 



Agricult'I College, Ames, Iowa. L. H. Pamtliel. 



Agaves in Southern California. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In reference to the beautiful engraving of Agave Hua- 

 chucensis, in your issue for May 8th, allow me to say that 

 A. applanata has frequently bloomed during late years in 

 southern Europe, and, as far as leaves and habit are con- 

 cerned, it appears to be totally different from the subject of 

 your picture. A. applanata is a larger plant, with a smaller 

 number of leaves, which are nearly triangular in shape, of an 

 ashy gray or whitish color, with strong decurrent dark red 

 mucros and similar spines. Two-year-old plants of A. Palmeri, 

 from seed received from the Missouri Botanic Garden, are 

 certainly not to be confused either with A. applanata or with 

 grown-up specimens of A. Parryi, received from the same 

 source, and from Professor Tourney, of Tucson, Arizona, who 

 writes that in his opinion A. Parryi and A. Huachucensis have 

 been badly mixed together. 



Every one who takes interest in the progress of botany and 

 of practical horticulture in the United States will concur in 

 your view that a large number of plants can be thoroughly 

 studied only if grown in the open and in conditions similar to 

 those of their natural homes. Such a station as suggested, 

 or better still, something hke an Arnold or a Shaw endow- 

 ment, we ought to have in southern California, a location 

 which offers so many advantages to growing in the open all 

 sorts of plants from many climates. Meanwhile we are work- 

 ing steadily here to increase the nucleus of such a garden. Of 

 the above-mentioned plants we have already of Agave thirty 

 species; Fourcroya and Beschorneria, eleven species; Dasyli- 

 rion, Beaucarnea and Nolina, seventeen ; Yucca, fifteen ; and 

 among them such rare ones as Agave angustissima and A. 

 parvillora (illustrated in Garden and Forest), A. vestita, from 

 Guadalajara, A. Margarita?, from Lower California, A. Franzo- 

 sini and A. Henriquesii, recently descriljed by Baker ; Nolina 

 Beldingi, from the extreme southern point of the Peninsula of 

 California ; Yucca gigantea and Y. Guatemalensis, from Central 

 America. At the rate all plants are growing here it will not 

 take many years for most of them to bloom and fructify, thus 

 affording amplematerial for study and ident fication. 



Santa Barbara, Calit. F. Fraiiceschi. 



At the South Orange Nurseries. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — At a recent visit to the establishment of Mr. W. A. 

 Manda I noticed, among other interesting plants in flower, 

 Iberis sempervirens superba, which is apparently an excep- 

 tionally good variety of the hardy Candytuft. It was sent out 

 by Backhouse, and has flowers of the purest white in dense 

 heads, and the individual flowers are of good size. I. semper- 

 virens is evergreen, more reliable for hardiness than I. Gibral- 

 tarica, and this variety is of a bushy habit, and evidently a fine 

 subject for the garden. Mr. Manda had also in flower Campa- 

 nula persicifolia alba grandiflora, which formidable name has 

 been given to a superior form of this common Bellflower, 

 which is too uncommon in hardy-plant gardens. The corollas 

 of this variety were much deeper and more bell-shaped than 

 those of the type, which is a favorite plant wherever grown. 



*See/%<irw. Riuu/sc/uni, 1S91, pp. 162-165. /i/,/., 1886, p. 161. 



