August 21, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



337 



and average from seven to ten large deep green peas in each, 

 of excellent flavor. As it grows only from two to two and a 

 half feet in height, it is specially useful for small gardens 

 where space is limited. As the season progresses, and we get 

 heavier dews, late sowings will begin to mildew badly. 

 Copious waterings are needed by late batches, or they will 

 produce but little. Our latest sowing of String Beans are now 

 some four inches high ; these will give us pickings until frost. 

 We usually get some heavy winds toward the end of August, 

 and it is well to look over Pole Beans, and where the poles are 

 shaky firm them. 



Miscellaneous. — Lettuce, to be nice and crisp, requires to be 

 kept moist at the root, and from now onward fewer heads will 

 be produced. A sowing is now seasonable. The plants can 

 be stored in cold frames before severe weather. We make a 

 further sowing early in September and transplant into frames 

 in October. Radislies can be sown until the beginning of 

 September. Asparagus beds require hand-weeding or hoeing, 

 and if any of the troublesome beetles are still on the planis 

 apply Paris green with a force-pump at the rate of one poiuid 

 to fifty gallons of water. Late Beets should be thinned out by 

 this time and kept well cultivated. Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, 

 Savoys and Curled Borecole will be benefited by having a little 

 chemical fertilizer hoed among them. Nitrate of soda we 

 find excellent. Cauliflowers can scarcely have too much mois- 

 ture at the roots, unless the soil is of a very clayey nature, and 

 liquid stimulants once a week will prove helpful. Leeks, like 

 Celery, are gross feeders, and a soaking of strong liquid- 

 manure after a rainfall will speedily show good results ; a little 

 earth can be drawn up to the plants as they grow. Sweet Corn 

 for late crops requires to have the ground frequently stirred. 

 Early Munich and other quick-growing Turnips may still be 

 sown. We sow our prickly Spinach the last of August, using 

 land vacated by Onions for the purpose. Endives, wlien well 

 ■grown, need tying up to blanch, and an occasional watering 

 with liquid-manure. IVluskmelons, if lifted from the ground 

 and placed on a block of wood or back of a plant-saucer, will 

 ripen better and be less liable to rot in wet weather ; if the 

 plants are too large to admit the use of the hoe remove weeds 

 by hand. The earlier varieties of Potatoes we are now lifting 

 and storing in a cool cellar ; in September the remainder are 

 stored, and a crop of Rye sown on the ground to be dug in 

 next spring. Ground occupied by Parsnips, Carrots and Beets 

 needs stirring witli the hoe, care being laken not to break the 

 foliage or cut the roots. Crops, as they become spent, should 

 be consigned to the rubbish pile in order that tlie garden 

 may have a presentable appearance. Early in September is a 

 good time to gather together materials for an early Mushroom 

 bed ; an open shed is the best place to lay the manure. Last 

 winter we had so much better results from spawn made by a 

 New England firm of seedsmen over imported spawn that we 

 purpose to rely on it exclusively for our next season's crop. 



Taunton, Mass. W. N. Craig. 



Hardy Herbaceous Perennials. 



T N the open ground which once was an old vegetable garden 

 ■'■ at Mr. Kidder's place, on Milton Hill, Massachusetts, away 

 from the roots of trees, and consequent shade, perennials are 

 seen growing in their most suitable conditions. They may 

 thrive for a while in new shrubberies, but when these are filled 

 with roots, and with an impoverished soil and lack of moisture, 

 perennials soon die out. My plea has always been to give the 

 herbaceous garden a position by itself and for its own sake, 

 and not a subordinate place, as we generally find. Plenty of 

 room should be allowed for the full development of individual 

 specimens, and with a good selection, appropriately placed, 

 with a view to height, time of flowering and color-effect, the 

 garden may be made attractive the whole year roimd. The 

 herbaceous ground in the Harvard Botanic Garden gives one 

 a good idea of what may be done with herbaceous plants when 

 grown in large quantities together. With grass verges be- 

 tween the beds, the picture of so many plants of varied colors 

 is really a beautiful one, for here and there are masses large 

 enough of some kinds to make quite a brilliant effect. They 

 are arranged in beds in an open space, but, being in botanical 

 order, they lose much of the effect they could otherwise be 

 made to have were it possible to select and arrange the colors, 

 heights and dates of flowering. The Harvard garden is a good 

 place to visit when one wishes to make a selection of the best, 

 for here seeds of the rarest and most beautiful come along 

 with those possessing only botanical interest, from all parts of 

 the temperate zones of both hemispheres. Mr. Henry Hunne- 

 well, in planning his new place at Wellesley, with a full appre- 

 ciation of the value of herbaceous plants in the landscape. 



has alternated irregular beds of small flowering shrubs and 

 herbaceous plants. Referring to a magnificent specimen of 

 the late-blooming Hemerocallis Thunbergii in this connec- 

 tion, he -suggested that the colors of the Japan Iris, mostly 

 blue and white, would blend well with the sulphur-yellow of 

 this Day Lily, and both bloom at the same time. In a recent 

 number of Garden and Forest there is a description of a 

 new Day Lily exhibited by Messrs. Wallace, of Colchester, 

 England, which was found growing among Japanese Iris in a 

 wild state. 



In wandering through the old garden paths at Mr. Kidder's, 

 with wide borders of herbaceous plants around plots of vege- 

 tables, it seemed to me just the spot where a lover of haniy 

 plants could spend a pleasant afternoon. These plants may 

 not be arranged most effectively for a landscape picture, but 

 none of them look homesick, and they suggest how many a 

 modest garden could be made beautiful by liberally planting 

 the borders along the paths. 



Although the plants have been described more than once 

 in Garden and Forest, I venture to note a few of the more 

 striking ones. Here were large masses of Clematis Davidiana 

 and C. tubulosa ; both species belong to the sub shrubby sec- 

 tion and are allied to the Atragenes. They have handsome, 

 trifoliate, deep green leaves of classic cut, their stems being 

 sparsely clothed with blue tubular flowers, which continue to 

 bloom until late in the season. C. Davidiana is sweetly per- 

 fumed. C. Pierotti and C. paniculata occupied posts, doing 

 duty at two opposite corners; both are beautiful climbing 

 species, handsome in foliage as well as bloom. C. Pierotti 

 comes in a week or so before C. paniculata. There was a 

 grand clump of Veronica longifolia, var. subsessilis. It is a 

 giant among Speedwells. The color of the flowers is the 

 deepest blue, and it is the latest of all to flower. Cimicifuga 

 racemosa is a bold and handsome plant here, with lono-- 

 branched spikes of white flowers. It is a member of the Crow- 

 foot family, with handsome triternate leaves which endure 

 until the autumn, so that the plants are never unsightly. 

 Lythrum roseum, var. superbum, is one of the showiest of 

 the Loosestrifes. Lysimachia clethrioides, a very distinct and 

 handsome member of the Moneywort family, is an acquisition 

 when one has a proper place for it, but generally in the 

 open border it makes itself a nuisance by spreading. Rud- 

 beckia maxima is a tall, distinct-looking species, with 

 entire glaucous leaves and large yellow flower-heads, with 

 a long black receptacle. It is a handsome and effective plant 

 for the rear ranks of the border. Gypsophila paniculata is 

 most effective, with its large feathery sprays of small white 

 flowers, and so is G. acutiloba, a somewhat taller-growing- 



species. 



Wellesley, Mass. 



T. D. Hatfield. 



Euryale ferox.— This aquatic, which is second only to the Vic- 

 toria regia in the size of the leaves, was tried in the basin of 

 the Bartholdi fountain, in this city, for the first time last year ; 

 it flourished well and produced a good number of its curi- 

 ously shaped and colored flowers, ripened several capsules of 

 seed, and then disappeared, root and branch, long before the 

 approach of cold weather. This year its behavior has been 

 even more erratic ; some of the seed was saved from last 

 year's plant, kept in water and sown about the middle of 

 January in a tank kept at a temperature of about eighty de- 

 grees, Fahrenheit. None of them germinated, however, and 

 we came to the conclusion that we would have no Euryale this 

 season. The large box in which it was planted last season had 

 not been disturbed further than by planting a Zanzibar Lily in 

 it. About the beginning of June the seed of the Euryale which 

 had Iain on the surface of the soil all winter began to germi- 

 nate, and now there are six good-sized plants in the box, and 

 all of them in bloom. It may be added that the soil is only 

 about ten inches beneath the surface of the water ; during the 

 winter the ice was thicker than this by at least five inches. A 

 peculiarity of this plant is the way in which the flower-buds 

 make their way right through the leaves and then expand. 

 The foliage is so thick together that the crown of each plant 

 is covered with leaves. 



Botanic Gai'dtn, WasJhington, D. C. G. W. OHvcr. 



Correspondence. 



Grape-growing- in North Car 



oima. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The grape-growing district in the central portion of 

 North Carolina now embraces parts of the counties of Wake, 

 Moore, Cumberland and Richmond. Only within the past five 



