4i6 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 399. 



root planted in good soil will become at the end of a couple 

 of years a dense mat four or five feet across. It has lanceo- 

 late bright green leaves and terminal fevi' flowered cymes 

 of small bright yellow flowers. It grows in rather moist 

 soil, and is distributed from the island of Nantucket, off the 

 coast of southern Massachusetts, and Rhode Island south- 

 ward. Its compact habit, low stature and ability to spread 

 rapidly, suggest that this pretty little Hypericum may be a 

 good plant to cover the ground of shrub-beds. The 

 number of plants that we can use at the north for this 

 purpose is not large, and the discovery of additions to the 

 number is desirable. The best covering plant, of course, 

 is the Periwinkle, but it takes some time to form a mat 

 that weeds cannot grow through. The Periwinkle being an 

 evergreen, a bed covered with it catches falling leaves in 

 the autumn and holds them all winter, and the cleaning 

 of such a bed in the spring is a slow and expensive opera- 

 tion. The Japanese Honeysuckle makes a good carpet, as 

 it grows rapidly and covers the ground in one season, but 

 it has the disadvantage of being so rampant that it grows 

 into and over the shrubs above it unless the stems are cut 

 over every year. This is the trouble, too, with the Japa- 

 nese Rosa Wichuraiana when used in this way. It soon 

 clothes the ground with a beautiful green carpet, but its 

 long vigorous stems, which often grow twenty feet in a 

 season, soon smother every plant that comes in contact 

 with them. Some of our dwarf native Roses would be good 

 plants for this purpose, but they usually grow too tall and 

 consume too much plant-food ; and what is really needed 

 is a deciduous-leaved shrub which will spread rapidly by 

 underground stolons into dense mats and will not, under 

 the most favorable conditions, grow more than eight or 

 ten inches high. Hypericum adpressum comes nearer to 

 filling these requirements than any other perfectly hardy 

 plant we have seen recently. 



Aglaonema pictum. — This is a fine foliage-plant of the 

 Arum family with curiously mottled leaves. It is very 

 dwarf in habit, growing to a height of eight or ten inches. 

 If the shoots are topped the plant will form compact masses 

 of very handsome foliage. The leaves are about six inches 

 long, ovate-lanceolate, with cordate base and rather long 

 petioles. The color is a deep velvety green, with silvery 

 gray, well-marked spots and blotches chiefly along the 

 midrib, and in a lesser degree over the whole surface of the 

 blade. The plant flowers freely, and will fruit if fertilized 

 artificially. The spathe is about an inch long, spoon-like, 

 of a creamy white color, but inconspicuous ; the spadix 

 short, club-like, greenish. For house-culture this is likely 

 to become a very satisfactory plant, and it is pretty for any 

 indoor decoration. Planted in pans so as to form dense 

 masses of foliage, and with the ground covered with some 

 creeping species of Club-moss — for instance, Selaginella 

 denticulata or S. cassia — it forms a tasteful ornament for a 

 dinner-table. Light vegetable soil is the best, and it is 

 readily propagated by cuttings. 



Cultural Department. 



OncocycluS' Irises. 



"VT OT many hardy plants have been more disappointing in 

 -'■^ gardens than the Oncocyclus Irises. A few gardeners, 

 happily situated, or liy dint of careful inanagemen*, occasionally 

 flower fliem, apparently, however, not for a long succession 

 of years. Many of my flower-loving friends report failures 

 most discouraging. The failures are especially aggravating;, 

 as the rhizomes are perfectly hardy, and many spines with 

 most beautiful flowers are now available. It is rather humil- 

 iating to be nonplused and thwarted liy a plant which is per- 

 fectly ready to grow and do its part if the gardener supplies 

 the proper environment. Among several reasons for lack of 

 success with these plants the principail one is probably that 

 good strong rhizomes have not been planted. Such rhizomes 

 are very scarce ; in fact, rare, and can seldom be secured from 

 either dealers or collectors. Judging- from the somewhat 

 numerous pieces of collected plants which have reached here 

 the rhizomes are seldom vigorous in a wild state. As they 



improve under cultivation there .is a possible question whether 

 the drought, to which they are accustomed, is entirely bene- 

 ficial. Apparently the first requisite to the successful cultiva- 

 tion of these O. Irises is to work up a stock of strong, vigorous 

 rcjots from the dormant weak pieces usually received. If 

 these are planted when received, before the ground is cold, 

 they will make a weakly growth of leaves, to be ruined by 

 winter storms. As they will not have made strong roots, and 

 have little reserve force in the rhizomes, they will not recu- 

 perate, and if dried off at the usual time will often disappear. 

 After many such failures I have been convinced that the pro- 

 cedure was wrong. Latelv I have found that by keeping the 

 rhizomes dormant, and planting them out very late — early in 

 December — they remain dormant and appear in the early 

 spring after frosts are finished. Hence they grow on without 

 interruption or weakenina:, and make strong roots, and with a 

 stock of these future operations are simple. Prudent culti- 

 vators, havino; secured strong plants, will do well to follow the 

 teaching of Herr Max Leichtlin, who advises covering them 

 overhead in June with a sash, which is to be removed in 

 August or September, thus giving them a forced rest. In this 

 climate I am inclined to think that if they are allowed to grow 

 somewhat longer and can be checked somewhat later, so that 

 they will have made little or no foliage-growth before winter, 

 successful flowering will be more certain. This will allow the 

 rliizomes to gain strength after flowering, and later the foliage, 

 not being advanced, will be less liable to injury. Anyone who 

 flowers a collection of Oncocyclus Irises in the open success- 

 fully for a succession of years will have an interesting expe- 

 perience and have reason to feel much pride in his skill as a 

 cultivator. 

 Elizabeth, N. J. y. A^. Gerard. 



The Vegetable Garden. 



KILLING frosts have now destroyed all tender crops in this 

 section, and the vegetable garden begins to look bare. 

 Plants of Sweet Corn, Beans, Tomatoes, Melons, Cucumbers 

 and the like we clear away to the rubbish-pile before they rot 

 and become disagreeable to handle. We always save a quan- 

 tity of corn-stalks of the taller sorts ; they are useful to scatter 

 over beds of Strawberries or half-hardy perennials after they 

 have had a covering of dry leaves. 



Early and second-early Celery of the White Plume and Self- 

 blanching kinds, which is being blanched by means of boards, 

 will now require some earth thrown up to the boards. A few 

 stout sticks driven inside the boards will keep them from 

 caving in on the plants. A quantity of dry leaves worked 

 loosely among the plants will preserve them for some time to 

 come ; later in the season a coating of litter-manure can be 

 given. We are just commencing to earth up our winter sup- 

 ply of Celery ; before doing so we remove all decaying stems 

 and tie up the plants loosely. The final earthing up is not done 

 until November. Of course, the plants should be perfectly 

 dry when earthed up and the soil carefully packed among 

 them so as not to break the somewhat brittle stems. We have 

 had so much better success with keeping Celery out in the 

 open where it has been growing that we no longer lift and 

 house any of the crops now. Lifted plants rot badly, the roots 

 too often die, and the plants quickly follow. When kept out- 

 side the root-action is not checked, and i£ protected with a 

 good coating of strawy manure or leaves, and boards to throw 

 off some of the moisture, we find it keeps in good condition 

 until spring. Of course, the ground where late Celery is 

 grown should have a gentle slope, so that water will not stand 

 on the ground during winter. I have seen much better heads 

 kept in this way than Ijy any lifting method. In this locality 

 Boston Market and Giant Paschal are the standard winter 

 sorts, but a second season's trial of that fine Michigan variety, 

 Kalamazoo, has proved it to be far superior to either of these 

 sorts. It has an erect habit, has shown no sign of disease, is 

 of fine flavor and unexcelled as a keeper. 



Parsnips, carrots, turnips and beets we keep in an open shed 

 packed in sand and covered over with a thick coating of dry 

 leaves. November is early enough to lift these. Parsley 

 should now be lifted and planted in a cold frame in some well- 

 enriched compost. We strip off all the leaves but a few of 

 those next the crown and trim off the tap-roots. The strongest 

 plants and those showing the best-curled leaves should be 

 selected. By placing a tew inches of dry leaves over the 

 plants in December little further protection outside of the sash 

 is needed during winter, an abundance of nice parsley can 

 Ije had. For convenience in severe weather, a few large pots 

 or boxes may be filled and placed in a spare corner in a cool 

 house. Lettuces which are heading up, if lifted with a ball of 



