488 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 406. 



gracing the lawn near Mr. Himnewell's residence in summer are 

 here stored for the winter. They would lie worthy of note any- 

 where. Kentia Behnoreana is represented by several plants, 

 the largest of all l)eing sixteen feet high and as many in diam- 

 eter of leaf-spread. There are fifteen well-developed leaves. 

 These are palmate in form, with the incisions carried to a com- 

 mon centre of the midrib. One of the largest and handsomest 

 specimens of the rare Licuala grandis occupies a prominent 

 position in the tropical-plant house. For many years this was 

 one of few plants of this species in cultivation, and many a 

 time IMlr. Harris felt anxious about it. It is more common 

 now, and one occasionally sees a small plant of it in private 

 collections. The habit is erect, with leaf-stalks about four feet 

 in length in a well-grown plant. The leaves are distinctly pal- 

 mate, almost circular, rotate and irregularly notched. It is a 

 native of New Britain, and probably would do as well in a tem- 

 perature lower than it receives here — sixty-five degrees, Fahren- 

 heit, night. Mr. Harris, however, believes in leaving well 

 alone. 



Reidia glaucescens (Phyllanthus pallidifolius) is an uncom- 

 mon and attractive tropical shrub belonging to the order 

 Euphorbiacese. It is a native of Java. The peculiar arrange- 

 ment of the small, sessile, ovate leaves horizontally on oppo- 

 site sides of the twiggy branches gives them the appearance 

 of being large pinnate leaves, and the odd way in which the 

 shortly pediceled, fringed, salmon-colored flowers hang on 

 the under sides of these stems makes a curiously attractive 

 combination. This is a plant one does not see every day. 



Among the many rare and beautiful Orchids a grand speci- 

 men of Vanda coerulea attracts especial attention now. It is 

 only a moderate-sized plant, but carries a spike eighteen 

 inches long bearing fourteen unusually large liright blue flow- 

 ers. V. Kunballiana is not quite so handsome, but is less 

 common. In general appearance it resembles V. Teres. The 

 sepals and petals are wliite, with a rose-purple stained lip. A 

 large collection of Cattleya labiata are now in bloom, and all 

 are good varieties and well grown, a few being very fine. This 

 beautiful species fills the gap between summer and winter 

 flowering kinds, continuing until January. The flowers are 

 borne erect, two or more together, and quite fragrant. The 

 sepals and petals are bright rose, shading to mauve in some 

 and lavender in others. The lip is crimson, varying in in- 

 tensity, often brilliant, with a yellow throat in varietal differ- 

 ences of shading. 



In addition to the Rhododendrons of the Javanicum type as 

 mentioned in blooiii several weeks ago, the following may be 

 added : R. Taylori, light rose ; Duchess of Teck, pale salmon ; 

 R. roseum, bright rose. 



Wellesley, Mass. 



T. D. H. 



Exhibitions. 



Flowers at Madison Square Garden. 



THE Society of New York Florists omitted this season the 

 usual monster exhibition of Chrysanthemums to which 

 we have been accustomed since this flower became popular. 

 The omission does not indicate so much that the popularity of 

 the flower is on the wane as it does that pulilic curiosity has 

 become sated with a certain inevitable sameness in exhibitions 

 composed mostly of well-grown flowers of limited variety of 

 form. Last week the society held a smaller though more 

 diversified exhibition in the Concert Hall of the Madison 

 Square Garden, it being an auxiliary attraction to the Livestock 

 show which occupied the amphitheatre. This concert hall is 

 a noble apartment with deeply carved ceiling and many side 

 bays richly ornamented with moulded details, but with no 

 touch of color. The pure white backgrounds furnish a pleas- 

 ing foil to the color masses below, and higher up the narrow 

 galleries and points of vantage were deftly screened with 

 southern Smilax, an invaluable vine for bold yet graceful 

 effects. 



Chrysanthemums, of course, were there in abundance, prin- 

 cipally, however, as cut specimens of the best forms and 

 largest size, though fine displays of Pompons were made by 

 Pitcher & Manda and Mr. Leonard Barron, while a few fancy 

 Anemone-flowered kinds were also seen. Dailledouze Broth- 

 ers, J. N. May and Mrs. J. Hood Wright (C. A. Weller, gardener) 

 divided the honors early in the week for fine specimen flow- 

 ers. Mr. JamesComiey, of Lexington, Massachusetts, exhibited 

 anew seedling, Mrs. F. B. Hayes, a well-incurved flower, dark 

 blue-pink in color, which seems promising for a late variety 

 of that shade. Early in the week, also, C. M. Ward, of Queens, 

 gained the silver cup in a strong competition for the best dis- 

 play of Carnations. These popular flowers were shown in 

 great variety and perfect form by all the leading growers, and 



were at all times one of the most attractive features of the 

 show. 



Naturally, Roses were shown in beautiful form, the prizes 

 going for American Beauties to W. H. Young, of Clifton, New 

 Jersey, and L. M. Noe, of Madison, New Jersey, for Bridesmaid 

 to C. H. Hagert, of Summit, New Jersey, tor Augusta Victoria to 

 H. Weber & Son, Oakland, Maryland, and for Catherine Mermet 

 and Mrs. Pierpont Morgan to John N. May, of Summit, New Jer- 

 sey. Mrs. Pierpont Morgan, as grown by Mr. May, is a rose 

 of fine form, brilliant color and most remarkable firmness and 

 stability of petals, in lasting quality quite outclassing all others 

 on exhibition. Whether a cerise Rose will prove a popular 

 flower remains to be seen ; a market which rates the Ameri- 

 can Beauty as the choicest Rose is difficult to forecast. Double 

 Violets were best shown by C. F. Bahut and W. G. Salford, of 

 Poughkeepsie, New York, and single ones by Francois Sapiot, 

 of Philadelphia. The new California Violet did not appear to 

 be a great gain. 



Of other flowers Cyclamens were shown by J. M. Keller, of 

 Bay Ridge, in plants in a perfect state both of leaf and flower. 

 Siebrecht & Wadley furnished a bank of choice Orchid-blooms, 

 dainty and effective, and masses of Palms, Crotons, Dracaenas, 

 Marantas and the fine foliage plants which they grov/ so well, 

 and which are at their worst when crowded in a mass at an 

 exhibition. However, Siebrecht & Wadley exhibited also 

 some handsome specimens where their forms could be en- 

 joyed, noticeably a Pritchardia grandis in perfect condition. 

 But the honors for unique specimens well grown were 

 easily with Mrs. Charles Pratt (William Anderson, gardener). 

 We see so few of these handsome specimens at public exhi- 

 bitions that we are apt to forget that in many private places 

 there are yet grown with loving care many splendid plants 

 such as made the reputation of the old-time gardener, but are 

 too often neglected in new houses since the Orchid fever has 

 prevailed. Mrs. Pratt showed a pair of Maylayan Polypodiums, 

 Goniophlebium subauriculatum, in about thirty-inch pans, the 

 fronds from which made a cataract of foliage on all sides, the 

 fronds being seven to eight feet long. A pair of Adiantum 

 gracillimum,bythesamegrower,ineighteen-inch pans, were fine 

 specimens, but a rarer one was a large plant of Cordyline glo-' 

 riosa (Shepardii), a beautiful form with glossy broad oblong 

 leaves, with markings of a salmon hue on a light green ground. 

 Among other decorative plants a mass of Otaheite oranges on 

 small plants, shown by C. Zellar & Son, of Flatbush, were well 

 grown and effective. 



The exhibitors of cut flowers were at a great disadvantage 

 this season, as the prevailing warm weather of the month has 

 been productive of soft growth and undue forcing of flowers, 

 one of the many contingencies of flower-growing which test 

 the skill of the most experienced, and which are especially 

 trying to growers of high-grade flowers. The Carnations seem 

 to have suffered most severely, and they went to sleep even 

 more rapidly than the fugacious Roses. It was interesting 

 to note that Lizzie McGowan and William Scott were the only 

 varieties which held well their true form in the early days of 

 the exhibition. 



Quite as beautiful and fragrant as the flowers was a collec- 

 tion of pears sent by Messrs. Ellwanger& Barry, of Rochester, 

 New York. There were seventy-six different varieties repre- 

 sented, every one of excellent quality. 



Recent Publications. 



Our Edible Toadstools and Mushrooms and Hoiv lo Distiji- 

 guish Them. By W. Hamilton Gibson. Pp. 337, 8vo, with 

 30 colored plates and 57 other illustrations by the author. 

 Harper & Bros., 1895. 



In this attractively written and well-illustrated volume 

 the author gives an account of "thirty native food varie- 

 ties easily recognizable by their marked individualities." 

 As far as possible devoid of technicalities, well spiced with 

 anecdotes and garnished vi'ith amusing sketches, it is not 

 a handbook to be used by the novice while collecting in the 

 field so much as a treatise for the amateur who desires in 

 a leisurely and artistic way to add to his stock of gastro- 

 nomic information. Gastronomy, rather than mycology, 

 is the end which the author keeps in view, and the reader 

 is assumed to be a person with a cultivated palate and one 

 either having in his employ a good cook or himself an 

 expert with the gridiron and the frying-pan. From the 

 days of that agreeable old gourmand, Rev. C. D. Badham, 

 who was so absorbed m the preparation of fungous dain- 



