July 3, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



261 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST-OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 1895. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial A rticles :— The New York Bolanical Garden 261 



The Persimmon. (With figure.) 262 



Early Summer in the Pines Mrs. Mary Treat. 263 



Notes upon Corylus rostrata and C. Californica Professor J. N. Kose. 263 



Foreign Correspondence ; — London Letter IV. ll^atsotu 263 



Plant Notes 264 



Cultural Department:— Best Time for Transplanting T. H. Hoskins.M.D. 266 



Greenhouse Celery Michael Barker. 266 



Som'; Good Hardy Perennials Robert Cameron. 267 



Hardy Nymphfeas J. N. Gerard. 267 



Notfs Excelsior Pea .IV. R. Smith. 268 



Correspondence : — Poison Ivy /''.//. Harrison. 268 



Fig:s in Buffalo, New York John Chamberlin. 269 



Witches' Brooms on Cherry-trees F.C. Stewart. 269 



Recent Publications 269 



Notes ■- _ 270 



Illustration : — Persimmon-tree, Diospyros Virginiana, near Auburn, Ala- 

 bama. Fig. 38 ' 265 



The New York Botanical Garden. 



THE managers of the New York Botanical Garden have 

 received by subscription the fund of $250,000 which 

 it was necessary to raise in order to secure the appropria- 

 tion of 250 acres of land in one of the parks north of the 

 Harlem Riv«r and the erection of buildings there by the 

 city. Professor Britton, who is Secretary of the Board of 

 Managers, has written a circular letter calling the attention 

 of the public to the fact that the original plan of procuring 

 half a million dollars or more as an endowinent has not 

 been abandoned, and that it is their desire to enlist popular 

 interest in the enterprise and to receive pecuniary aid from 

 any source. He adds that the development of the garden, 

 after the grounds are laid out and the buildings are com- 

 pleted, will require a large annual income for many years, 

 and since it is e.xpected that this income will be derived 

 mainly from the investment of the money contributed, 

 there will be use for all that can be raised, and subscrip- 

 tions of any amount will be welcomed. 



Professor Britton does well to emphasize the fact that 

 there will be use for all the money that can be obtained if 

 we assume that New York is to have a garden worthy of 

 its rank as chief city of the New World. The Royal Bo- 

 tanic Gardens at Kew, vi^hich are recognized as the leading 

 institution of this kind in the world, cost $80,000 a year, 

 although the botanic garden proper covers only seventy 

 acres, and the labor employed can be secured at half the 

 amount it costs here, while all supplies are correspond- 

 ingly cheap. The income, from $250,000 will cover but a 

 small fraction of the expense of such a garden as we hope 

 to see in this city ; lout there must be a beginning to all 

 things, and the men who have subscribed this amount vi'ill 

 be gratefully remembered by the city for their liberality and 

 public spirit. The large sum already given proves that the 

 men w^ho have contributed to it are thoroughly in earnest, 

 and that it will be their aim to build up in the city a great 

 scientific establishment ; and if they have clear and correct 

 ideas as to what such an establishment should be there are 

 among its incorporators enough men of administrative 

 force to carry it forward to a successful future. 



Of course, such an institution must grow into well- 

 rounded proportions from comparatively modest begin- 

 nings. It is impossible at the outset to provide a completely 



developed establishment, well manned and etjuipped, for 

 active usefulness. But, in order to reach such a stage, it is 

 essential at the beginning to have a well-defined plan in 

 which the lines of future growth are plainly laid down, for 

 a botanic garden is the last thing in the world whose future 

 can be safely trusted to any chance. Great care should be 

 used in selecting the site, which is the physical foundation 

 of the scheme, and its framework should be made with a 

 clear apprehension of vi'hat its probable expansion will be 

 in any direch'on. The modeling of the grounds, the loca- 

 tion of the buildings which are needed immediately, and 

 of those which will be required as material accumulates, 

 will, no doubt, be made a subject of profound study. If 

 this initial work is wisely done, and the plans, with their 

 descriptions, are published, a stronger appeal for pecuniary 

 aid can then be made than is now possible, for if these 

 plans meet the hearty approval of men of science and of 

 affairs so that liberal-minded patrons can have renewed 

 assurance that the garden vi'ill be an institution of high 

 scientific value and an object of genuine civic pride sub- 

 scriptions will be, without doubt, forthcoming. The man- 

 agement should, therefore, not be discouraged if their fund 

 grows slovi'ly at first. Indeed, they ought rather to be 

 stimulated by the prospect to begin the work of design 

 with new heart and hope. 



We have laid stress upon the scientific value of the gar- 

 den, for, although "the prosecution and exhibition of orna- 

 mental and decorative horticulture for the entertainment 

 and instruction of the people " is laid down as one of the 

 purposes of the garden in the act of incorporation, it is not 

 to be a pretty flower garden merely or primarily. It was 

 the value and reputation of the collections which Sir Wil- 

 liam Hooker brought to Kew more than fifty years ago, his 

 great botanical library and herbarium, as well as his own 

 scientific standing, which attracted the attention of natural- 

 ists in every part of the world. The scientific spirit which 

 characterized his administration and that of his still more 

 renowned son, and which still prevails under the broad 

 management of the present director, Mr. Thisselton-Dyer, 

 is what gives to Kew its leading position among the bo- 

 'tanic gardens of the world. The Royal Gardens are not 

 a mere pleasure ground with show'y flowers to please holi- 

 day makers, but they are the headquarters of a great scien- 

 tific organization, which is felt, by its publications and ex- 

 changes, not only throughout the great British Empire, but 

 through all the known globe, and even to the most inac- 

 cessible parts of the earth. From these remote and unex- 

 plored regions travelers and missionaries are sendingseeds 

 and plants to Kew, not only to enrich the pleasure gardens 

 of the world, but they are widening the domain of scientific 

 truth and disseminating knowledge which exerts a direct 

 influence upon the world's trade, commerce and general 

 economy. While it is the aim of the administration of Kew 

 to make it beautiful, and to fill its borders and conserva- 

 tories with attractive and picturesque vegetation, this does 

 not overshadow the stern utilitarian and scientific purpose 

 which reigns there, and the study of plants, for their uses in 

 medicine and the arts, for food and fabrics, is never neglected 

 or treated as a subordinate matter. It is the investiga- 

 tion of plants, the study of their life histories, which gives 

 new value to them in the general economy of life, and 

 it is by the help of such an institution that botanic re- 

 searches into the secrets of plant-life can be made with the 

 most hopeful prospect of results which will be of benefit to 

 the race. 



But Kew had b^n a garden for a century before Sir 

 William Hooker was placed in charge in 1S41, and ever 

 since then it has been developing on the plans laid down 

 by him and the landscape-gardener Nesfield. It has taken 

 fifty years of the best scientific direction, with the resources 

 of the British Empire behind it, to bring the Royal Gardens 

 to their present condition. The gradual building up of a 

 great library, herbarium and museum, the gathering of 

 representative plants from the tropical floras of the world, 

 the establishment of collections of hardy perennial and 



