430 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 400. 



Notes. 



Since the drought has been broken late-ilowering varieties 

 of Tamarisk are putting out new flowers, which are of a 

 deeper and more attractive color than the eariier ones were. 



Under a law passed by the last session of the Legislature of 

 Rhode Island the state is directed to construct a sample half- 

 mile of good road in any town which petitions for it and will 

 pay one-quarter of the cost. Fifteen towns have asked for 

 such object-lessons, and it is hoped that by this means the 

 movement for improving the quality of the public highways 

 of the state will receive a new impetus. 



A woman in Brooklyn who visited the grave of a deceased 

 relative in Cypress Hills Cemetery, some months ago, alleges 

 that she was poisoned by Rhus Toxicodendron which had 

 been allowed to grow in her lot. She has sued the cemetery 

 association for $10,000 damages on account of the sufferings 

 which she has since endured. This gives rise to some very 

 interesting questions as to the responsibilities of corporations 

 who control cemeteries. 



The sidewalk flower-stands are again gay with Chrysanthe- 

 mums, and the superb masses of color they make justify the 

 popularity of the flower, and make it safe to prophesy that it 

 will long retain its place against all rivals as the Queen of 

 Autumn. Marion Henderson in early October was the leading 

 yellow variety, its even size, stiff stems and healthy leaves 

 making it one of the most desirable of the early sorts ; 

 Madame Bergmann was the earliest of the good white varie- 

 ties, while Merry Monarch was only a few days later ; Marquis 

 de Montmort is a good pink, which was in market here on the 

 30th of September. 



An interesting plant lately received at the Horticultural De- 

 partment of Cornell University is Eleusine coracana. It belongs 

 to the Grass family, but is unknown in a wild state. It is sup- 

 posed to have come from Eleusine Indica, the common Crab 

 Grass of dooryards, although it differs from this plant greatly 

 in size, being four feet high, and in the appearance of its seeds, 

 which are smooth instead of being wrinkled. The plant is 

 known in China and India as Natchnee and Mandua, and 

 thousands of acres of it are grown in those countries and in 

 Japan, where it is a famous food-plant, the flour from the 

 farinaceous seed being made into bread. A form of it is also 

 in cultivation as an ornamental grass. 



Bulletin No. 30 of the New Hampshire Experiment Station 

 gives a full account of the methods and cost of macadamizing a 

 section of a country road. Illustrations show the methods of 

 construction at various periods, and there is an itemized ac- 

 count for grading, ditching and surfacing. The directions are 

 full and complete, and the little pamphlet ought to have a 

 genuine practical value in country districts where good road 

 engineers are scarce. In regard to repairs, the following 

 sound advice is given : Men should be employed in each sec- 

 tion of the town to make all necessary ordinary repairs and 

 surfacing, not once or twice a year, but as they are needed. 

 Nothing is so costly as to allow a good road to go to pieces for 

 lack of timely attention. 



Three-fifths of the oil of peppermint consumed in the world 

 IS produced, according to the Detroit Tribune, in eight coun- 

 ties of Michigan. The oil product of that state this year will 

 amount to 150,000 pounds, and between twelve thousand and 

 fifteen thousand acres are devoted to the cultivation of Pepper- 

 mint. Frost and drought have injured the older plantations 

 this year, although the plants set this spring have escaped 

 injury. The peppermint is cut when in blossom like hay, and 

 when dried is placed in wooden vats and steamed until the 

 cells burst and the oil passes upward with the steam, which is 

 condensed and conducted into a reservoir where the oil rises 

 and is skimmed off. It requires 350 pounds of dried pepper- 

 mint to produce one pound of oil. An acre of land will yield 

 from six to ten pounds, and in exceptional cases even as great 

 a quantity as fifty pounds. This year the price has ranged 

 from $1.60 to $1.70 a pound. 



In speaking of shrubs which resist the drought and heat, 

 Mr. Joseph Meehan writes to the Cotmtry Gentleman that 

 Caryopteris mastacanthus carried its blue flowers in great pro- 

 fusion, while its foliage looked fresh and clean well into Octo- 

 ber, in spite of the fact that hardly any rain had fallen in 

 Philadelphia since the fourth of July. We have often com- 

 mended this plant for its neat habit and for its profusion of 

 bloom late in the season. It will survive the winters as far 

 north as Boston in a dry and sheltered position, but even 

 where it is necessary to lift the plant and place it in a pit to be 



kept over until spring, its distinct and striking character is suf- 

 ficient to warrant this trouble. Even as far south as Philadel- 

 phia the extremities of the branches die back every winter. 

 This does not mjure the plant, however ; but, in fact, makes it 

 more compact, and as the flowers appear on the growths of 

 the current year the more nev/ branches made the more 

 flowers there will be. The plant ought to become common 

 since it is easily propagated from cuttings. 



A correspondent of The Independent writes that the Jersey 

 Kale, a plant largely used in the island of Jersey as food for 

 cows, has been introduced into California and has shown itself 

 a good forage-plant, as well as a good plant for poultry. It 

 grows very vigorously, and some ranchers in California have 

 stated that it will produce more food to the acre than any 

 other crop which they have tried. The plant in question is 

 really a tall-growing Collard, not essentially different from 

 the well-known Collard of the south, which is popular where 

 Cabbages do not head easily. It differs from the Scotch Kale 

 in having leaves almost smooth instead of curled. Perhaps it 

 has no special advantages over other members of the Cabbage 

 family, except that with care it will last several years and will 

 grow sometimes from eight to ten feet high if the leaves are 

 pulled off. Even Brussels Sprouts on good California land 

 will often grow four feet high, and it will sprout from the trunk 

 and will give a great mass of leaves if it is cut back several 

 times in the season. 



Mr. F. W. Burbidge, writing to The Garden, says that, as a 

 rule, there are two or three times too many flowers and plants 

 used in the best of the London parks and gardens. There are 

 too many flower-beds, and these are too near together, so that 

 there is no breadth or repose. One may admire the quantity 

 and variety of exotic plants and flowers employed, but he can- 

 not but be struck with the absence of the best taste in their 

 arrangement and disposal. Palms, Bamboos and Bananas are 

 dotted singly and at equal distances in all directions, so that 

 instead of seeing a series of stately effects or pictures, the re- 

 sult is constant repetition, and one is wearied by seeing the 

 same plants over and over again. The London parks possess 

 also a profusion of flower-beds, but, in nine cases out of ten, 

 half as many plants simply arranged would be more effective. 

 He adds that a good gardener is not always a good artist, and 

 this artistic feeling is what is especially wanted in public 

 gardens, and good and costly materials are more than half- 

 wasted every year because they are badly managed. 



Among pears now in season are spicy Seckels from Roches- 

 ter, New York, at fifteen cents a quart. Showy Comice, the 

 best-flavored of the larger sorts now offered, the large green- 

 ish-yellow Easter Beurre, and the medium-sized russet Win- 

 ter Nells, all range from seventy-five cents to $1.00 a dozen 

 for the best. Quinces are becoming scarce, and the best cost 

 in the retail stores $6.00 a barrel. Among the few peaches still 

 arriving are good specimens from western Maryland and 

 Pennsylvania, and some choice White Heaths, from the Hud- 

 son River district. These sell in the fancy-fruit stores at fifty 

 cents a dozen. Selected King apples bring $5.00 a barrel at 

 retail, and Albemarle Pippins $6.00. Apples generally are ad- 

 vancing in price, as the European crop is not as large as antici- 

 pated, and the high quality of the American crop has been 

 lowered by recent unfavorable weather. The best grades of 

 Alexander and Snow cost, in wholesale lots, $3.00 to $3.75 a 

 barrel, and Jonathan and Alexander $3.00 and upward. Small 

 Lady apples, not yet in their brightest colors, cost forty cents 

 a quart. The showiest objects now seen among the best col- 

 lections of fruits are the orange-red Japanese persimmons ; 

 they cost sixty cents a dozen. Jamaica oranges are being hur- 

 ried on the market at the beginning of the season for high 

 prices, many of them but halt-grown, green and sour. As a 

 consequence, prices are lower and likely to fall below the pay- 

 ing point. There is a steady demand for Alligator pears, and 

 one of the fancy-fruit stores, on the arrival of a shipment of 

 this fruit, sends notice to two hundred regular customers. 

 The fruit at this time is coming from Nassau, and sells quickly 

 from twenty-five to thirty-five cents apiece, and the supply is 

 never as great as the demand. A remarkable sale of figs 

 occurred here last Wednesday, when $40,000 worth of this 

 fruit was sold at wholesale auction in one hour. Prices ranged 

 from 6)i to I'^ii cents a pound, and on the succeeding day the 

 extremely high price of 19^ cents a pound was reached. 

 Thirty-four car-loads of California fruits were sold here last 

 week, mostly Tokay grape.s. The last German prunes are now 

 shown and cost seventy-five cents for a package containing 

 three dozen fruits. Extra large-sized chestnuts, from New 

 Jersey, have sold as high as $12.00 a bushel, and bring forty 

 cents a quart at retail. 



