28o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 385. 



taurea Moschata, are among the most lieautiful of those now 

 sold on the sidewalk-stands. This is a common market flower 

 in Europe, but laas never been offered so abundantly in this 

 city as it is this season. It is one of those excellent old an- 

 nuals which deserve to be taken into favor everywhere. 



Some of the Kcelreuteria-trees in the parks of this city are 

 just opening their flowers, while others have been in full 

 "bloom for nearly a fortnight. Tlie difference in the time of 

 flowering is very marked in this tree, and it would be interest- 

 ing to know if seedlings from the same tree varied widely in 

 this respect. If they do not, the difference may be due to the 

 fact that the original seed came from trees growing in dilfer- 

 ent latitudes. 



The latest number of the London Garden, wliich has come 

 to hand, gives the picture of an arrangement in a vase of 

 flowers of Gaillardia and Gypsophila paniculata which is very 

 pleasing. We have often advised the use of this Gypsophila, 

 with its loose panicles of minute white flowers among larger 

 and brighter-colored ones. It has a mist-like hazy effect 

 which adds very much to the lightness and grace of the coml)i- 

 nation. Statice latifolia is another plant of great value for the 

 same purpose, and so is Galium aristatum. All three are per- 

 fectly hardy perennials which will live on from year to year 

 with little care. The neat little annual. Gypsophila muralis, 

 is also very useful in the same way, and nothing is better to 

 associate with Sweet Peas. 



Mr. J. S. Woodward writes to The Rural New Yorker that 

 persons who pasture sheep in their orchards do not, as a rule, 

 use enough sheep to do the most good. The sheep can add 

 nothing to the land but what they take from it, but if a large 

 number, say fifty, are put in eight acres of trees seeded with 

 Orchard Grass, and are fed a little bran, say about a pound a 

 day to each sheep, something like a hundred and thirty-four 

 pounds of nitrogen, a hundred and si.xty-four pounds of phos- 

 phoric acid and eighty-six pounds of potash would be dis- 

 tributed during the season over the ground in the best possible 

 vi'ay, while the sheep would keep down every weed and 

 sprout, gnaw the grass close and eat every fallen apple as 

 soon as it strikes the ground. 



Delaware grapes are offered on the fruit-stands, with Niag- 

 aras, and cost sixty cents for a three-pound basket. New Cali- 

 fornia figs firing sixty cents a dozen. Royal Anne cherries of 

 immense size and showy color command twenty-five cents a 

 pound. Some Hale's Early peaches are already coming from 

 Delaware. The main crop of Georgia peaches, being mostly 

 of the early sorts, is practically exhausted. Those from Cali- 

 fornia are now bringing good prices, which will probably be 

 sustained until Delaware and New Jersey fruit is plentiful, 

 when even the singular beauty of the California peaches will 

 not avail in competition with the eastern fruit. About twenty- 

 five car loads of California fruit were sold here last week, in- 

 cluding some seedling oranges. These brought the high 

 average price of $3 27 for a car-load, owing to the inferior 

 quality of the Rodi and Sorrento oranges, which were dam- 

 aged by frosts. 



Nearly fifty years ago a Michigan nurseryman propagated 

 Rosa setigera, our beautiful native climbing Rose, in consid- 

 erable quantity, and sold it as a novelty to eastern planters. 

 Few people, however, cared for single Roses then, and it 

 never became common in our gardens. In the ff rst volume of 

 Garden and Forest we called attention to the singular beauty 

 of its broad healthy leaves and its corymbs of large deep rose- 

 colored flowers, which are certainly more effective than any of 

 the double varieties which have sprung from the plant. Even 

 after we had dwelt upon its value for several years corre- 

 spondents would write to inciuire where plants could be had, 

 and only a few nurserymen kept it. We are glad to say that 

 it is now offered by almost every first-class nursery establish- 

 ment in the country, and it should find a place in every gar- 

 den. It is just passing out of bloom here, where it has been 

 flowering for a fortnight. The flowers last a long time when 

 cut — that is, if the branches are cut just as the first flowers on 

 the cluster are appearing, the buds will follow each other for 

 a week or more until all have opened. 



A bulletin from the Cornell Experiment Station, prepared by 

 Professor George F. Atkinson, gives a very complete account 

 of several of the fungi which cause the disease known as 

 damping off, on account of which the tissues of the seedling 

 plants rot at the surface of the ground. The life history of 

 several of these fungi is given very completely. Of special 

 interest is the fungus which is parasitic upon Fern prothallia 

 in forcing-houses and which is new to America. An entirely 



new species is also described. Since too much moisture in 

 the soil, high temperature, insufficient light and close apart- 

 irients favor the growth of these parasites, and at the same 

 time weaken the growth of the seedlings so that they are less 

 able to resist disease, the plain conclusion is that houses 

 should be well lighted, supplied with fresh air and kept at as 

 even a temperature as possible, and saturation of the soil 

 should be avoided ; if the disease once sets in the tempera- 

 ture should be kept as low as the plants will bear, and if they 

 do not recover the soil in which they have grown should be 

 discarded and the benches whitewashed ; only perfectly 

 healthy plants should t>e reset. Soil in which diseased plants 

 have grown should not be used again until it is sterilized by 

 steam heat for several hours. 



We have more than once called attention to the value of the 

 second crop of Irish Potatoes, raised in some parts of the south 

 for seed. From the crop of early potatoes which is fit for 

 market in June medium-sized potatoes are selected, spread 

 out in the shade and exposed to the air for a week, when they 

 turn green. After this they are covered with a thin layer of 

 leaf-mold or straw, v/hich is kept slightly damp, and in ten 

 days or a fortnight they begin to sprout, when they should be 

 planted, fn the latitude of Carolina the tubers are fit to dig 

 and store when frost kills the vine, and it is said that potatoes 

 grown in this way and used as seed will produce a heavier 

 crop of early potatoes in the north than can be grown from 

 seed raised here. The great value of this seed is that it does 

 not sprout in the spring, and even in the south it will not com- 

 mence to sprout before June. The Southern Planter says that 

 this seed planted in the south in June or early July will pro- 

 duce a late crop for table use which keeps longer and sounder 

 than northern-grown potatoes. We are not sure that the 

 quality of this crop will be as good as that grown in Maine, 

 for example, or in Saratoga County in this state ; but when we 

 remember that last year we imported more than two millions 

 of bushels of potatoes in excess of what was exported from 

 the country, it would seem that it might be a profitable invest- 

 ment to grow this late crop on a larger scale. 



Daniel Cady Eaton, the recognized authority in this country 

 on Ferns, Mosses and Algas, and professor of botany in Yale 

 College, died in New Haven on the 29111 of June, in the sixty- 

 first year of his age. His grandfather. Professor Amos Eaton, 

 was one of the leading systematic botanists of his day, and 

 conspicuous among the comparatively few investigators in 

 this field who devoted themselves during the early years of 

 the century to the classification of the flora of the United 

 States. His father. General Amos B. Eaton, like other mem- 

 bers of the family, was given to scientific research, so that Pro- 

 fessor Eaton inherited the passion and aptitude which gave 

 direction to his youthful studies, and while yet in college he 

 was the author of a paper on " Three new Ferns in California 

 and Oregon." After his graduation from Yale College in 1857 

 he studied with Dr. Gray in Harvard for three years, when he 

 enlisted as a private in the Seventh New York Regiment. 

 After the civil war he was elected to the chair of botany in 

 Yale College, which he held for more than thirty years and 

 until the time of his death. He prepared the account of 

 Ferns and their allied families for Chapman's Flora of the 

 Southern United States ; did the same work for the fifth edition 

 of Gray's Manual of Botany of the Northern United States, and 

 for Gray's Botany of Field, Forest and Garden. He wrote 

 many papers on various botanical subjects, chiefly in his 

 special field, and had charge of the botany in Webster's Inter- 

 national Dictionary. His great work, however, was the well- 

 known Ferns, including the Ophioglossacees of the United States 

 of America and British North American Possessions, which was 

 published in 1879-80, and illustrated with beautifully colored 

 plates from drawmgs by J. H. Enierton and C. E. Faxon. Pro- 

 fessor Eaton was an enthusiast in the special branch of bo- 

 tanical science to wliicli he. devoted his life, and he had the 

 patience and the acuteness of discrimination necessary to 

 secure for him his rank as an authority on flowerless plants. 

 Many special students came to him for instruction, and his 

 large private herbarium was one of the best of its kind in the 

 world. Apart from his scientific studies, Professor Eaton was 

 specially fond of genealogy and art, and took an active interest 

 in puljlic alfairs. He had a singularly gentle and winning man- 

 ner and a wholesome love of the woods and fields and outdoor 

 sports. His achievements in science won the respect of the 

 world, and among those who knew him more intimately in all 

 his social relations he was held in esteem and affection for his 

 kindliness, sincerity and unselfishness. 



