240 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 381. 



woven in some strangely subtle fashion with the thought 

 of duties fulfilled, and the love of nature to be awakened 

 in after years had its root in what was noblest and most 

 enduring in his character. 



Though Mr. Prime is not without that perceptive sym- 

 pathy with nature which the modern world demands in its 

 interpreters, he also possesses something which does not 

 always accompany the higher gift, a wholesome and vig- 

 orous love of the country itself He is familiar with every 

 phase of rural life. Every sight and sound and suggestion 

 of the landscape to him is full of significance. His touch, 

 even when light, is always firm. Many a world-weary 

 man, whose early life was passed amid rural surroundings, 

 will find in these simple records of country life the genuine 

 refreshment of spirit which comes in adult years whenever 

 the chords of association and memory have been touched 

 by a reverent hand. 



Notes. 



Since the leader in this week's paper was in the form the 

 Park Board of this city has rescinded the order which threw 

 open to the public certain areas of turf in Central Park from 

 which they had been excluded except by special permit. 



Owing to a typographical error, Mr. Craig was made to say 

 in our last week's issue that Pelargoniums do not flower in 

 England until September. As a matter of fact, these plants 

 begin to flower at the end of April, and their flowering season 

 condnues until September. 



A late number of The Garden contains a colored plate of a 

 variety of Cyclamen Persicum named Salmon Oueen. The 

 plant has well-marked foliage, and is said to be of compact 

 habit, and bears freely flowers with long stems and of a thor- 

 oughly distinct color. Judging from the plate, this color is a 

 rich salmon-pink, which is very attractive. 



We have received some excellent specimens of the Ignotum 

 Tomato, grown under glass by the students in the Horticul- 

 tural Department of Cornell University. The fruit is large, 

 smooth, solid and of the best flavor. In a note accompanying 

 the specimens, it is stated that plants raised from cuttings are 

 grown to a single stem four feet high, and have been in bear- 

 ing since the middle of May, each one having produced from 

 six to ten pounds of fruit. 



It is reported by Mr. T. M. Steven, Consul of the United 

 States at Annaberg, Germany, that the wood of the Aspen is 

 now largely used there in the manufacture of matches on ac- 

 count of its open structure, ready combustibility and freedom 

 from knots. He suggests to the State Department that inas- 

 much as this wood is found abundantly in the United States, 

 and is used for little else than paper-pulp, it might be well to 

 test its value here as a material for matches. 



Within the past few weeks lemons have advanced $2.00 a 

 box, the lowest price now quoted for the Sicily fruit being $5.25 a 

 box. So active is the demand that a lot of thirty-one f)Oxes 

 unexpectedly left on hand after an auction sale brouglit $6.62 ■< 

 in the keen competition for them. Nearly 70,000 boxes will 

 be offered at auction sales in this city during the early part of 

 this week, and 81,000 boxes more are shortly expected to 

 arrive from Sicily. The high prices are due to the warm 

 weather and large purchases by western buyers. The first 

 Rodi oranges of the season, the best oranges to be had here 

 during the summer, arrived last week. 



We have never seen Pasonia Witmanniana in flower, 

 although strong specimens of it are growing in the excellent 

 herbaceous collection of Mr. E. V. R. Thayer, of South Lan- 

 caster, Massachusetts, and elsewhere. It is an early species, 

 which flowers at the same time with Pasonia tenuifolia. 

 The flowers are single, cream-colored, with a large cluster of 

 golden stamens. It ought to be useful for hybridizing with 

 other single-flowered kinds, which certainly have a higher 

 decorative value than the double ones. We have often com- 

 mended the single white-flowered P. albiflora as one of the 

 most attractive of hardy plants, and there are others now to be 

 had with single flowers which range in color from light pink 

 to deep crimson. P. Witmanniana has a strong perfume with 

 something of the odor of valerian. 



Referring to the fact stated by a correspondent of this 

 journal, that the Cherotvee Rose has proved hardy as far 

 north as Salem, New Jersey, another correspondent writes that 

 a plant of this l4ose has lived against a south wall at Beverly 



Farms, Massachusetts, for about seven years. It is somewhat 

 protected with boughs in the winter, and yet it is usually killed 

 back to within one or two feet of the ground. It was killed quite 

 to tlie ground this year, but is sending up strong shoots again. 

 It has never made any attempt to flower. Mr. James 

 MacPherson writes that there are plants of the Cherokee Rose 

 in Trenton, New Jersey, which have stood out for twenty-five 

 years. They lose their foliage and part of their growth almost 

 every winter. 



Several of the agricultural colleges have recently issued 

 timely bulletins on spraying, so that farmers and gardeners 

 the country through ought to be well instructed as to the 

 proper methods of preparing the mixtures against insects and 

 fungi and the methods of applying them. It should be re- 

 membered that the applications for fungous diseases are pre- 

 ventive rather than curative, so that one or two sprayings in 

 the early season at the proper time are worth more than half 

 a dozen after the plants have been attacked. The caution is 

 given not to mix the copper preparations in iron or tin, but 

 either in earthen, wooden or brass vessels. The valves, cylin- 

 der, piston, etc., of spraying-pumps should also be of brass. 

 Alter every application of the poisons they should be put 

 away carefully and labeled distinctly. 



The latest farmers' bulletin issued by the United States 

 department of Agriculture is on the subject of Weeds and 

 How to Kill Them. After some general remarks on the proper 

 mediods of exterminating annual, biennial and perennial 

 weeds, a few of the pests which tiave been attracting special 

 attention during recent years are described and figured, to- 

 gether with the best means of combating them. This is fol- 

 lowed by a useful table of a hundred weeds which are regarded 

 as about the most troublesome in the United States, giving 

 the common and technical name, with their range and their 

 characteristics. To this is added the time of flowering and the 

 appearance of their flowers, the time of their seeding and the 

 methods in which the seed is distributed, with brief remarks 

 as to the best means of eradicating them. 



Three years ago we published an account, condensed from 

 an article in Forest Leaves, of the removal of an Elm-tree 

 more than fifty years old, seventy feet high and three feet in 

 diameter, to a distance of 175 miles from the Oliver estate, 

 near Bay Ridge, New York, to the grounds of General Paul A. 

 Oliver, at Oliver's Mills, Pennsylvania. This tree was an off- 

 shoot of the great Penn Treaty Elm which stood in Philadel- 

 phia, and measured before it blew down in 1810 twenty-four 

 feet around the base. General Oliver's tree survived its peril- 

 ous journey l)ack to Pennsylvania after having stood for more 

 than half a century overlooking New York harbor, and a year 

 ago a vigorous sucker started trom its root. This spring the 

 sucker was separated from the parent tree and sent to the Park 

 Board of Philadelphia to be planted upon the exact spot where 

 the old Treaty Elm stood, on land which has now become 

 public ground, and is called Penn Treaty Park. It is hoped 

 that this youthful sprout will inherit the vitality of its race, so 

 as to become a specimen interesting in itself as well as for its 

 historical association. 



Strawberries were, perhaps, never more plentiful and cheap 

 in the New York markets than on last Saturday, when extra- 

 large New Jersey and Maryland berries, firm and of good 

 quality, sold as low as four cents a quart by the crate. The 

 Maryland season is now nearly ended, and Hudson River 

 strawberries are already coming in. A few cherries from 

 southern New Jersey are here, the best selling for twenty cents 

 a pound. California cherries this season are of large size and 

 beautiful in color, and boxes of Royal Ann or Napoleon 

 Bigarreau, holding ten pounds, sell for $2.25 in the wholesale 

 markets. These are among the largest and showiest cherries 

 ever seen here. Other good sorts now offered are Cleveland 

 Bigarreau, large, clear red and yellow, the flesh juicy, rich and 

 sweet ; Governor Wood, Black Eagle, Oxheart, Black Tar- 

 tarian, May Duke, Rockport Bigarreau, especially useful for 

 canning; Knight's Early Black, Belle d'Orleans, whitish yel- 

 low, half-covered with pale red, and Elton, considered one of 

 the best. Alexander peaches from California sell for seventy- 

 five cents a dozen, and the smaller fruit from Georgia is quoted 

 at thirty-five cents. Huckleberries from North Carolina are 

 unusually abundant and cheap. Watermelons from Florida 

 and Georgia have commanded seventy-five cents to a dollar 

 and a halt each, but they have already begun to arrive by the 

 car-load, and are now cheaper. Baskets of assorted fruits for 

 outgoing steamships contain P. Barry pears. Black Hamburg 

 and White Muscat grapes and Ben Davis apples, with apricots 

 and other more seasonable fruits. 



