JUNE 19, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



249 



least efficacious in ameliorating the soil itself and in preserv- 

 ing its moisture. As a rule, the orchardists have taken pride 

 in their pruning and in their general care of the trees, but the 

 soil treatment,'in reference to tree-growing, has been much 

 neglected. I imagine that much of this attitude of mind has 

 been brought about bv the habit of nearly all horticultural 

 writings of treating of the plant first, with only incidental refer- 

 ence to the soil. Books are full of good advice in regard to 

 planting, pruning, grafting, varieties and the like, but where is 

 the book which instructs the orchardist in detail how to till and 

 fertilize his soil ? 



The orchards of western New York, therefore, are beautiful 

 to look upon, but they are rapidly coming to that point where 

 the expenditure of capital equals the deposit in the bank. I 

 have been apprehensive that the vigorous and necessary cam- 

 paign of spraying may still further obscure the importance of 

 the fundamental treatment of the land ; but the extent to which 

 the old orchards are being plowed and cultivated this year is 

 encouraging. .. 



Cornell University. J^- ■"• iiCl"Cy. 



Poison Ivy. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir,—! have been interested in the subject of the compara- 

 tive virulence of Rhus toxicodendron at different seasons, as 

 discussed in your paper. An acquaintance of mine was se- 

 verely poisoned by it this spring in March, before any leaves 

 appeared, although he had handled it many times before at this 

 season without being affected. Three years ago he was poisoned 

 in midsummer. Now, it is well known that persons can con- 

 tract contagious diseases on seemingly slight exposure under 

 some conditions, although with more complete exposure on 

 previous occasions the disease had not been transmitted. Is 

 it unreasonable to suppose that the physical condition of the 

 patient in some measure limits or increases the poisonous 

 qualities of the Rhus more than the season of the year ? 



Harmonsburg, Pa. 



B. L. Putnam. 



Nymph^a Laydeckeri rosea. ' 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir,— There seems to be a general misunderstanding about 

 the origin and habits of this plant. It is not the result of the 

 direct hybridization of Nymphsea pygma;a or of N. alba, var. 

 rosea. On the contrary, it comes from seed of the variety N. 

 Laydeckeri rubra punctata, which latter plant is a cross in 

 which the pollen parent is N. rubra, of India. N. Marliacea 

 flammea has the same parentage, and when IVIr. Marliac had 

 produced these two plants they were named by Monsieur 

 M. L. de Vilmorin as above. 



Nymphcea Laydeckeri rubra punctata produces flowers as 

 large as those of N. odorata rosea, and of a vivid carmine 

 color. The plant gives no offsets from the rhizome, but makes 

 up for this lapse by bearing abundantly fertile seeds from 

 which comes the elusive N. Laydeckeri rosea. Mr. Marliac 

 has never sold the goose which lays his golden eggs, and thus 

 easily keeps a corner in the market for N. Laydeckeri rosea. 

 No doubt, expert horticulturists may succeed in obtaining valu- 

 able results by hybridizing in the hopes of obtaining duplicates 

 of this plant, but they will probably not get the real plant in 

 this way, nor can they secure stock by murderously cutting in 

 pieces an imported plant of the same. r> tj r- 



Sandwich, Jlass. R- H. I'dUHCe. 



For the Rock-garden. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — A gay little group in the rockery for early spring is 

 made by the low-growing Saponaria ocymoides, which we 

 have already described, with its bright pink blossoms, the 

 Achillea tomentosa, with its sunny yellow flowers, and the 

 white, hardy Candytuft, all of which are in full bloom in the 

 middle of IVIay. Wild Geraniums are easily naturalized, and 

 they bloom in company with the early Larkspur, Delphinium 

 tricorne, whose blossoms of deep indigo-blue are very attrac- 

 tive. Both of these plants are natives of our woods. Veronica 

 amethystina, with its deep blue flowers, is also an admirable 

 low-growing plant for the early season, and is always seen to 

 good advantage among the hardy Candytufts. And, by the 

 way, these Candytufts are in bloom through such a long pe- 

 riod and their habit is so good for the purpose that they are 

 indispensable in the rock-garden where early white flowers 

 are needed to mingle with those of other colors. 



Shepherdstown, w. Va. Danskc Dandridj^e. 



Recent Publications. 



Fatniliar Flowers in Field and Garden. By F. Schuyler 

 ■Matthews. D. Appleton & Co., New York. 



It is difficult to find any reasonable e.xcuse for the exist- 

 ence of this book. It could hardly have been written for 

 persons who have ever taken any interest in flowers, for 

 such information as it gives is of the most superficial 

 character. It contains little that is novel or sugges- 

 tive, and it does not state well-known facts with any of the 

 freshness and force which comes from original observa- 

 tion. One can conceive of a book on flowers which would 

 be entertaining and stimulating, even if it were not dryly 

 instructive on botanical lines, but in that case the author 

 would need to have the gift of clear-seeing, and he should be 

 able to describe what he sees in a sprightly way, or else 

 he should have the power to lift his subject into the realm 

 of poetry. But Mr. Matthews has little of the naturalist's 

 discriminating faculty, and still less of the creative im- 

 agination ; he lacks, too, a sense of humor, or he would 

 not state his commonplaces with such circumstance and 

 seriousness. 



If the book was prepared for novices it has still less to 

 commend it. When a reader, young or old, is to be in- 

 structed on some subject quite new to him the first essen- 

 tial to success is that the matter shall be systematically 

 treated. There must be some plan of arrangement, some 

 sequence and consistency, some central purpose or group 

 of ideas which control the structure of the work and give 

 it form. Mr. Matthews, however, has very little faculty 

 for classification. His facts, such as they are, are tum- 

 bled together without any idea of their relation to each 

 other. The only simulacrum of apian to be found in the book 

 is the statement that the flowers are listed according to 

 their season of bloom. If they were arranged in the order 

 of their first appearance this would mean something, but 

 when we find the Chickweed and the Blue Vervain ranked 

 in the same season together, and the Dandelion following 

 the perennial Phlox, it can readily be seen that this arrange- 

 ment means nothing at all. 



Many of the drawings are excellent, but inasmuch as they 

 are not drawn to any uniform scale, and the comparative 

 size of picture and plant is never given, they are often quite 

 misleading. No one can get any idea of what Pokeweed 

 looks like from the illustration on page 236, for example. 

 There is nothing to show that Spiranthes cernua is any 

 smaller than Maxmillian's Sunflower, a page or two before 

 it, and, indeed, there is nothing in the text to give any idea 

 of the size or stately habit of this Sunflower. 



Books written for the purpose of popularizing natural 

 science are often useful, but when this is the case they are 

 prepared by persons moderately well versed in the particu- 

 lar branch of science of which they treat. There are 

 instructive treatises on astronomy for general readers, but 

 they have been written by persons who know something 

 of astronomical science. Mr. Matthews is neither a bota- 

 nist nor a skilled horticulturist, and therefore ^he is not 

 properly equipped to write in a thoroughly instructive way 

 upon vi'ild or cultivated plants. This explains why he so 

 rarely observes the distinctive characters of ditferent flow- 

 ers and why he often falls into loose and inaccurate state- 

 ments. In short, the topics of the book seem to have been 

 selected at random — that is, there is no apparent reason 

 why any one of the flowers chosen for description should 

 have been selecte4 rather than a dozen others which 

 have been omitted. The arrangement is quite as unsys- 

 tematic, and the subjects are treated without any unity of 

 design. It is a misfortune that so many good and well- 

 printed illustrations should not have been accompanied by 

 a text that was more entertaining, suggestive and stimu- 

 lating. 



Notes. 



The first Lima beans of the season are now coming from 

 Florida, and sugar corn is also received from the same state. 



