38o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 395. 



discovered a process by which he can compete successfully 

 with the French distillers of perfumes. The great advantage 

 of the new method is said to be that it extracts the odors from 

 the flowers almost instantaneously, and in this way much time 

 and labor is saved. 



Mr. Carman, who has grown the Green Mountain Grape 

 since 1889, writes that the more he sees of it the better he likes 

 it. He pronounces it positively fthe earliest, and, for its 

 season, the best of our White Grapes. The fruit on the 

 Rural Grounds were ripe on the 20th of August this year. Tlie 

 quality is pure and refreshing, the seeds are small, the skin 

 thin, but tirm. The Early Ohio ripens about the same time, 

 Imt llie berries are sour and the flesh tough. 



Leycesteria formosa is a shrub found in the higher parts of 

 Nepaul and well known in English gardens. It is not hardy in 

 this latitude, but Mr. Joseph Meehan writes to the Couiitiy 

 Gentleman that, although it gets partly killed back in the win- 

 ter-tmie, the young shoots come up every spring and flower 

 in Germantown abundantly from July to November. The plant 

 belongs to the Honeysuckle family, and bears pleasing light 

 pink flowers, whose purple stems and calyxes are also quite 

 attractive. 



Mr. B. F. Bush, of Independence, Missouri, has reprinted 

 from the State Horticultural Report of Missouri his List of the 

 Trees, Shrubs and Vines of that state. Two hundred and 

 ninfjty-fourspecies are described, a number which can prob- 

 ably be slightly reduced. Belula populifolia, for example, which 

 is admitted doubtfully, probably does not grow anywhere west 

 of tlie Mississippi River. The list, too, is enlarged by two 

 bylirid Oaks and by our Chestnut, wliich is not an inhabitant 

 of any part of the region west of the Mississippi. 



Mr. C. W. Garfield, in The Rural New Yorker, makes the 

 suggestion that the American Pomological Society furnish the 

 Government with a bulletin containing its fruit catalogue with 

 the perfected nomenclature and the distinguishing characters 

 which indicate values for different localities. When it is re- 

 membered that the publications of the American Pomological 

 Society are limited in number and published biennially, it 

 seems that the proposed method would be useful in giving a 

 wider circulation to the results of the work done by the Com- 

 mittee on Fruits. 



Dr. F. Franceschi has brought together, in a volume of eighty- 

 eight pages, under the title of Santa Barbara Exotic Flora, a 

 Handbook of Plants from Foreign Countries Grown at Santa 

 Barbara, California, a series of articles first contributed by him 

 to the Santa Barbara Press. There is probably no better spot 

 in North America for a garden than the coast of southern Cali- 

 fornia, and the number of exotic species that can grow there is 

 very large. Dr. Franceschi's publications will certainly stimu- 

 late a taste for gardening in California, and his efforts to enrich 

 the exotic flora of his adopted state will be watched with the 

 greatest interest by all Americans interested in horticulture. 



We have received from Meehans' Nurseries specimens of 

 Cedrela Sinensis in fruit. It has flowered for several years in 

 this country, but we have never before seen the seed, and 

 should like to know if it has been produced elsewhere. The 

 tree in its general appearance resembles the Ailantus, and, 

 perhaps, it might be used here to advantage as a street-tree in 

 places where the Ailantus is objected to on account of the 

 odor of its flowers. The tree is a native of the northern 

 parts of China, and it is not improbable that a strain of the 

 species may yet be established here which will be hardy 

 throughout New England, where it is now rather tender. 



We have heretofore given several methods of saving un- 

 ripened tomatoes wdiich remain on the plants when the first 

 frost comes. On this point. Professor Massey, of the North 

 Carolina Experiment Station, writes that when frost is immi- 

 nent he gathers the green tomatoes, wraps them separately in 

 paper (old newspapers will answer), and packs them in boxes, 

 which are stored in a place just warm enough to be secure 

 from frost, the object being to keep them and not to ripen 

 them. Then, as the fruits are wanted, a few are brought out 

 at a time and placed in a warm position, where they will ripen 

 in a few days. In this way he has kept his table supplied with 

 sliced tomatoes up to midwinter. 



A dispatch from London to The Sun, of this city, states that 

 this year there has been such an enormous crop of plums in 

 Great Britain that the price for the fruit has fallen to twopence 

 a pound, which is so little that it does not pay the cost of 

 gathering and freight. One would naturally have supposed 

 that the growers would have made haste to dry the fruit, since 



England pays annually two million dollars for dried plums 

 imported from France. English farmers are extremely con- 

 servative, however, and they sat still and allowed the fruit to 

 fall on the ground and rot. It may be that these plum- 

 growers can give some reasonable excuse for their failure to 

 meet such an emergency. Farmers and fruit-growers are 

 often accused of a lack of enterprise when in reality it is prac- 

 tically impossible to solve offhand the problems wliich sud- 

 denly confront them. 



Professor Lazenby, of the Ohio Experiment Station, in mak- 

 ing tests for ascertaining the purity and vitality of seeds, notes 

 the remarkable power of re-germination which is exhibited by 

 various species. Different samples of Wheat germinated no less 

 than ten times after intervals of a week or more, during which 

 time the seeds were kept perfectly dry. Corn will germinate 

 nearly as often. Clover and the grass seeds germinate but 

 once, as a rule. This helps to explain why a good stand of 

 Grass or Clover is difficult to obtain in unfavorable seasons, 

 wdiile failure vi'itli Wheat or grain from alternate wet and dry 

 conditions seldom occurs, provided the seed is good. It may 

 also be one reason why certain garden seeds will endure 

 much greater neglect than others. 



The Rev. W. T. Hutchins writes to The Florists' Exchange 

 that the quality of the newer Sweet Peas is endangered by the 

 enormous production of seed in California and perhaps else- 

 where. It is complained lliat some of the improved types are 

 losing their fine shell-shaped and hooded form and have a 

 narrow, reflexed look, and in this half-deteriorated and washed- 

 out condition they are not as good as the old sorts from which 

 they were originally developed. The reason for this is that 

 proper care has not been taken to hold the plants up to a rigid 

 standard. In order to retain the highest quality something 

 more is needed than merely pulling out the rogues or plants 

 which show a bad color. Every single plant which shows any 

 deterioration should be removed, or else the best of the varie- 

 ties will revert to ancestral types. Of course, such rigorous 

 care cannot be exercised where seed is sold at present prices, 

 but, unless the seed is grown distinctly for quality rather than 

 for quantity, the deterioration of flowers is sure to follow. 



In the markets, cranberries, crab-apples, quinces and small 

 yellow tomatoes, for preserving, indicate the autumn season 

 in fruits, although all the middle and late summer fruits and 

 vegetables are yet fairly represented. Lemons still command 

 unusually high prices, notwithstanding the drop of forty to 

 fifty degrees in temperature since (he middle of last week. 

 The supply of this year's crop from the Mediterranean for the 

 remainder of the season is said to be only one-third of the 

 quantity imported for the same term a year ago, and choice 

 I\lajori fruit during the past week sold for 58.25 a box at whole- 

 sale. With the last California seedling oranges, brought out 

 of cold storage, now appear the earliest Jamaica oranges, 

 the first large shipment of which fruit is due here to-day. 

 , Flame Tokay grapes, with a fine lilac-bloom on the red 

 skin, and large Kelsey plums, with their different shades 

 of mingled purple and yellow, were among the showiest 

 California fruits of the fifty-two car-loads sold in this 

 city last week. Some Purple Damascus grapes are also now 

 coming from the western coast, with the long-berried Black 

 Cornichons and Rose of Peru. George's Late Cling is one of 

 the varieties of peaches most frequently seen now, a large 

 white-fleshed fruit, the yellow skin striped and splashed with 

 bright red, and said to be among the most profitable kinds 

 grown in California. Picquet's Late, a free-stone, introduced 

 from Georgia, is another good sort now coming from the 

 "west. The preference is, however, for eastern-grown peaches, 

 even though these are small and unattractive in appearance. 



Charles V. Riley, the well-known entomologist, died in 

 Washington on Saturday night from injuries received in a fall 

 from a bicycle. He was born in London in 1843, came to this 

 country at the age of seventeen years and settled on a farm in 

 Illinois. He served as a soldier in the last years of the war, 

 and after some experience in journalism he w^as made state 

 entomologist of Missouri, which position he filled for nearly 

 ten years. His work in that state attracted much attention, 

 and in 1S7B he came to Washington, where, until last year, 

 when he resigned his position, he has practically supervised 

 all the entomological work carried on by the Government. 

 Mr. Riley was a tireless worker, with an aptitude for original 

 research, and many of his published papers are of permanent 

 value. He had a talent, too, for political management, and 

 for many years he was recognized in the Department of Agri- 

 culture as one of the forces in directing its policy and selecting 

 its agents. 



