368 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 394. 



Among' orang-e shades it is unique. General Mirabel is also 

 orange-red. It is compact in habit and dwarf, and for this 

 reason it is well adapted for the front row. Sunshine is a 

 lustrous orange, in the way of Paul Marquant, but more dwarf. 

 Both these varieties are better under glass, their flowers scorch- 

 ing easily under bright sunshine. There are few good varieties 

 among vermilion shades ; C. H. Molis and Columbia are the 

 best. The latter has probably the largest truss of any known 

 Canna, but is not of good form, being irregular and bunched. 



There has been great improvement among crimson shades 

 during the past few years. Alphonse Bouvier was a wonder. 

 We had never seen anything equal to it. When Charles Hen- 

 derson was introduced last year it was doubted whether it 

 could possibly be an improvement on Alphonse Bouvier. It 

 did not get strong enough last year to establish its claim, but 

 this year it is everywhere in grand form. We have another 

 Canna this season even better in form and nearer the ideal. 

 As a crimson I do not consider it quite as good as Cliarles 

 Henderson. The petal limbs are yellow, forming what would 

 appear to be a yellow tube, and the staminate petal is also yel- 

 low, which, to my mind, detracts rather than enhances its 

 value. 



In dark-leaved varieties we should expect little improve- 

 ment in the size of the flowers, since thev are used principally 

 as foliage-plants, but advance in size and color of the flowers 

 has been as great as in the green-leaved varieties. I consider 

 J. D. Cabos the most beautiful of all. The liabit is sturdy and 

 free. The spike is neatly formed and free from laterals ; the 

 color is clear orange. President Carnot is a giant and a grand 

 foliaged plant. C. Vaughan carries a spike of scarlet flowers 

 equal in size and form to any green-leaved variety. 



Wellesley, Mass. T. D. Hatfield. 



Notes from Cornell Universit}'. 



Fruit Rot. — The fruit rot, Monilia fructigena, on plums and 

 peaches is more prevalent than usual the present season 

 in this vicinity. Many trees that gave promise of a good crop 

 have lost half or more of their crop by this fungus. Generally 

 thefruit alone suffers, but there are many instances this fall, 

 especially in early peaches, in which the foliage is attacked 

 also. The fungus causes the leaves to become discolored and 

 die. It has been shown by Craig (Bulletin 23, Central Experi- 

 ment Farm, Ontario), that the rot can be lessened by spraying 

 with Bordeaux mixture after the blossoms fall, and that two or 

 three applications are needed during the season, the last being 

 with ammoniacal coppercarbonate a few days before picking. 



Russian Apricots. — The Russian Apricots at the station bore 

 a full crop. The following varieties were in fruit : Gibb, Budd, 

 Alexander, Nicholas and Catherine. All of these varieties are 

 too small and the quality too poor to compete with other 

 apricots. The Gibb, Alexander and Budd are the best. The 

 Catherine is worthless, being very dry, and the Nicholas splits 

 badly. 



Prunus Simoni. — While Prunus Simoni has the reputation of 

 being a light bearer, our trees were overloaded this summer, 

 and had to be thinned. The fruit began to ripen about July 

 2oth, and continued till August 1 5lh. It is but little attacked 

 by curculios, but is quite susceptible to rot. The use to which 

 P. Simoni can be put is not yet clear. The fruit as grown here 

 is not edible, having a peculiar flavor, somewhat like oil of 

 almond, and though cooking- lessens this flavor, it does not 

 make it a palatable sauce. We have not tried P. Simoni for a 

 grafting stock, and until we know more of the general habit of 

 the tree it cannot be wholly condemned. 



Cornell University. G- Harold Powell. 



Isotoma longlflora is a West India perennial plant, allied to 

 the Lobelias, which deserves more attention than it usually 

 receives. It is at its best when raised from seed sown indoors, 

 for it makes a considerable growth before flowering time. 

 The flowers are snow-white, at least an inch across, with a long 

 corolla tube, making them altogether distinct and showy at 

 this season. Seed is produced abundantly. 



Caladium argyrites is well known as a useful little plant for 

 greenhouse decoration, growing continuously through the 

 winter without any rest if it has a suitable atmosphere. It can 

 also be used successfully as an outdoor bedding plant, if it can 

 have the benefit of partial shade. The bulbs are so small that 

 they ought to be started into growth before they are set out in 

 the open ground. It is easily multiplied ; indeed, few of the 

 Caladiums increase as rapidly, since every little shoot, if it 

 has but a small piece of the bulb attached, will make roots 

 when put into coarse sand and become a good-sized l>ulb in 

 the course of a month or so. 



Botanic Garden, Washinsrton, D. C. G. Jv. Oliver. 



Correspondence. 



Origin of the Name Sambucus. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In a note in a recent number of your paper reference 

 is incidentally made to tlie etymology of the word Sambucus, 

 which, according to all botanical works that attempt to explain 

 the meaning of genus names, is derived from (jaiifJvHi], a 

 Greek name, of Syriac origin, for an ancient musical instru- 

 ment. This statement is an error that needs correction. 



Sambucus as a name for a species of Elder dates back only 

 to about the eleventh century, and is a badly corrupted word. 



Chapter cxlviii. of the Herbarium of Apuleiiis* a work sup- 

 posed to have been written in the fourth century, is devoted to 

 the virtues and uses of the plant (5a'/(V'''X'"'- In a tenth-cen- 

 tury Anglo-Saxon translation of this work, the translator iden- 

 tifies this plant as the Elder. Such identification, although 

 erroneous, was accepted, and the word passed into the plant 

 lists of the eleventh, twellth, thirteenth and succeeding cen- 

 turies of the middle ages as a gloss for " Ellen " and " Eller " 

 (the Anglo-Saxon and Middle English names for the Black or 

 common Elder), in the corrupted forms Samsuchon, Sam- 

 suhton, Sambucus, Sambucum, Sambuca and Sabuca. The 

 form Sambucus was adopted by the ante-Linnsean botanists 

 for the different species of Elder, and has been perpetuated to 

 the present day. The work of Aptileius is founded in great 

 part upon the Materia Medica of Dioscorides, whose office of 

 military physician carried him to different countries and 

 enabled him to embody in his work a considerable number of 

 plant synonyms from various languages. Among such names 

 foreign to the Greek tongue is the word ddiii'vxov, which is of 

 Coptic origin, and means, according to Rossi, in his dictionary 

 of that language, " Crocodile herb." The plant thus named 

 has been identified by the commentators of Dioscorides as 

 Origanum Majorana. ,„ n ^ 



New Yorii. W • -«• Gerard. 



Rhus Poisoning. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — You ask for a statement from me as to the poisonous 

 principle in Rhus Toxicodendron. I wish such statement could 

 be made with confidence, but it must be acknowledged that I 

 do not know as much about the matter as I once supposed 

 I did. 



In 1882 I communicated to the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science a paper in which this and some 

 other vegetable poisons were referred to bacteria as the active 

 agents. Early in the following year, among other new species 

 of bacteria, the one supposed to have to do with Rhus poison 

 was named Micrococcus toxicatus and described in the At/ier- 

 ican Naturalist. 



In the former paper the poison of Mushrooms was stated to 

 belong to two very different agencies. One is a narcotic and the 

 ill effects follow closely after the substance has been swallowed, 

 after the fashion of other true poisons. The other becomes 

 known only after several hours or one or two days. In the 

 first case no lesions of importance are produced ; in the sec- 

 ond, violent inflammation and ultimate mortification of the 

 intestinal tract occurs. It was the latter to which the agency 

 of bacteria was ascribed. 



It is well known that in Rhus poisoning the effect shows 

 only after twelve to twenty-four hours, suggesting incubation. 

 This led me to undertake some studies upon the matter. I 

 put some carefully secured juice of the growing plant upon a 

 marked spot on my arm. Very serious results followed, 

 though I had not considered myself very susceptible to the 

 poison. After twelve hours the spot was slightly reddened ; at 

 the end of twenty-four hours it was considerably inflamed and 

 somewhat swollen, but was still nearly confined to the origi- 

 nally infected area. During the next twenty-four hours the 

 inflammation greatly increased and spread widely until nearly 

 the whole forearm became involved. Colorless serum began 

 to exude, first from well-defined papules, then apparently 

 from the entire surface. This serum was transferred to other 

 parts of my body, and in one instance produced similar in- 

 flammation. 



Minute spherical bodies had been found in the milk-sap of 

 the plant, and similar ones were seen under high magnifica- 

 tion in the exuding serum. These were taken to be micro- 

 cocci. At this time no attempts were made to cultivate them 

 in artificial media, and no other demonstration was had of the 



* Herbarium Apuleii Platonici qu«.n:l accepit Escolapio et Cliirone Centauro magis- 

 tro Achillis. 



