500 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 407. 



Notes. 



Several trustworthy newspapers in this country and in England 

 having announced the untimely death of Mr. George M. Daw- 

 son, a brief obituary note, based on this report, appeared in 

 our last issue. We are more than pleased to learn that Mr. 

 Dawson is still living, with the prospect of many useful and 

 happy years before him. 



Pierre Netting, one of the most successful of the French 

 Rose growers and the originator of many of the best modern 

 hybrid Perpetual Roses, died on the 2d of November, in his 

 seventieth year. 



Nature s Fashions in Lady's-slippers is a trim little book in 

 stiff paper covers, published by Bradlee Whidden, of Boston, 

 which contains six reproductions from photographs of our 

 native Cypripediums, with a neatly printed page of text to ac- 

 company each picture. 



Experiments have been made during ten years past with the 

 different varieties of Dwarf Juneberries at the Iowa Experi- 

 ment Station, and four of them which have borne the largest 

 crops of the best fruit are now being sent out for trial. In size 

 and quality these berries are said to compare favorably with 

 large-bush huckleberries. 



Very rarely does the flowering Dogwood develop such an 

 abundance of fruit as it has this year in the neighborhood of this 

 city. In Central Park, and more especially in the wildwoods 

 in the upper end of Manhattan Island, where these trees are 

 abundant, the bright scarlet berries— three or four of them to- 

 gether at the extremity of every branchlet — make them the 

 most conspicuous feature in the foreground of every land- 

 scape. 



We have heretofore spoken of the dwarf Sweet Pea, Cupid, 

 which Mr. Burpee, of Philadelphia, has put on the market. It 

 now appears that a Sweet Pea of similar character has origi- 

 nated in Germany and another in England. None of these 

 plants have any tendency to climb. That similar sports should 

 appear at the same time in different places is not uncommon. 

 Indeed, this coincidence has been noticed so often that one is 

 inclined to believe that it is in obedience to some natural law. 

 It is only a few years ago that at least three non-climbing varie- 

 ties of Lima Beans originated in different parts of this country 

 at about the same time. 



An interesting bulletin on Forestry has just been issued by 

 Professor L. C. Corbett, of the South Dakota Experiment Sta- 

 tion. Among the valuable trees not injured in that region by 

 late spring frosts are noted the Wild Black Cherry, White 

 Birch and White Elm, while the species most injured by frost 

 are the European Larch, Black Walnut and Ash. The Wild 

 Cherry is one of the most promising species on the station 

 grounds, and only two trees are more highly recommended 

 for general planting, namely, the White Elm and the Green 

 Ash. Among conifers, Scotch Pine, Red Cedar and White 

 Spruce are recommended in the order named. 



Bulletin No. 94 from the New York Agricultural Experiment 

 Station is really a little treatise on the feeding of plants, or, in 

 other words, on the elements of agriculture. It contains 130 

 pages, and although it is scientific in the best sense of the 

 word it is simple enough to be comprehended by any intelli- 

 gent farmer. It is not a pamphlet to be hastily glanced over 

 and thrown away, but one to be studied by all who want to 

 know something of the constitution of plants, the chemistry of 

 their foods, the practical way of preparing fertilizers for them, 

 how to make the most of the materials on hand, and how to 

 buy most cheaply the plant-food which cannot be had at home. 

 The book contains many tables of permanent value and a first- 

 rate index, which largely increases its usefulness as a book of 

 reference. 



The proportion of the apple supply exported is large enough 

 to cause a scarcity of highest grades for home use, and choice 

 King, Wine Sap and York Imperial now cost the retail buyer 

 $4.50 a barrel. During last week 22,378 barrels of apples were 

 sent abroad from this port, while the receipts for domestic use 

 comprised 38,596 barrels. Seedlingand Navel oranges are now 

 here from California, and moderate quantities of Florida 

 oranges and grape-fruit from sections of the state which 

 escaped the heavy freezes of last year. As much as $7.00 a 

 box is paid for Florida oranges by wholesale dealers, three 

 times the price of a year ago. Muscat and Emperor grapes 

 still come from California, the latter almost as brightly colored 

 as Flame Tokays, which are now past. Persimmons, straw- 

 berries and tomatoes are also coming from the western coast. 



The forests of eastern Asia are rich in Lindera, the genus to 

 which the Spice-bush of our northern swamps belongs, and 

 one of the species, L. sericea, is used for making toothpicks, 

 which are acceptable on account of the toughness of the wood 

 and their aromatic fragrance. According to the Chemist and 

 Druggist, an English paper, a new perfume, Kuromoji, which 

 is attaming some popularity among manufacturing perfumers, 

 is the essential oil of this plant. It seems that the oil is not 

 produced on a large scale by dealers, but by the small farmers 

 of Japan, each of whom distills the yields of the shrubs grow- 

 ing on his own estate. These stocks are bought by dealers at 

 various centres and mixed together, and therefore there is no 

 uniformity in the aromatic qualities of the product. L. sericea 

 is a small slender shrub, four or five feet high, and the oil is 

 derived from the young shoots and leaves, and its balsamic 

 odor is useful in perfuming soaps and other articles. It was 

 introduced into Europe as long ago as 1889. 



Of dried fruits California apricots alone are in light supply, 

 but, notwithstanding there is almost no foreign competition this 

 year, prices have been unusually low, owing to excessive ship- 

 ments to points throughout this country and for export. 

 Wholesale dealers in this city are now offering evaporated 

 apples of fancy grades at seven and a quarter cents, sun-dried 

 eastern peaches at seven cents, cherries at ten cents, black- 

 berries at four cents, hucklelierries at six and a quarter cents, 

 and raspberries at twenty cents a pound. Prunes sell for four 

 to seven and three-quarter cents a pound, according to size, 

 and apricots command thirteen and a half cents. Unpared 

 California peaches bring eiglit and a half cents, the pared 

 product being worth sixteen cents a pound. Since September 

 1st, 462,724 packages of dried fruits have been shipped to this 

 market, 121,086 more than daring the same period last year, 

 and 168,426 packages have been exported, an increase of 90,391 

 packages over a year ago. 



It is well known tliat the most delicate portion of an arti- 

 choke is what is called the "bottom," or, botanically, the 

 receptacle from which the bracts spring. This receptacle in 

 most artichokes is comparatively small and mixed up with the 

 so-called "choke," by which name the pappus of the inner- 

 most florets is designated. In some varieties this receptacle, 

 the fond d'artichaut, is thicker, more fleshy, and therefore 

 more toothsome than in the ordinary sorts, showing that it has 

 been developed at the expense of the succulent matter in the 

 scales. In The Gardeners' Chronicle for November 30th is a 

 portrait of the Laon Artichoke, which shows a much larger 

 receptacle and thinner scales than those we are accustomed to 

 grow here. The writer of the text which accompanies this 

 illustration speaks of a visit to the trial-grounds of Monsieur de 

 Vilmorin, at Verrit^res, where this variety was growing among 

 many others. The foliage is said to be distinct and hand- 

 some, with the bracts comparatively less succulent than in the 

 ordinary varieties. It is cultivated to some extent in England 

 as the Large Green Paris Artichoke. We have observed much 

 difference in this vegetable as grown in this country, but we 

 have never seen a head in which the receptacle was developed 

 to such an extent as this illustration shows. Monsieur de 

 Vilmorin states that this variety is not as early as others, but is 

 the best for general purposes. It comes true from seed, but is 

 best grown from otfshoots. We should be glad to hear from 

 any one who has grown the true Laon Artichoke in this 

 country. 



Robert Brown, who affixed to his name when writing upon 

 botanical subjects Campsterieiisis, to distinguish him from the 

 other Robert Brown, died in London in October. He was 

 born in Caithness, Scotland, in 1842, and received the degree of 

 Doctor of Science from the University of Rostock, with a the- 

 sis on the North American species ot Thuya and Libocedrus. 

 From 1861 to 1866 Dr. Brown traveled in America from Vene- 

 zuela and the West Indies to Alaska, visiting at this time the 

 then little-known interior regions of Vancouver's Island and 

 southern Oregon. As one of the results of this journey he 

 published in the Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edin- 

 burgh a paper on some new and little-known species of Oaks 

 from north-western America, which he had collected in Ore- 

 gon ; among them was the very distinct Quercus Sadleriana, 

 which he first described in this paper, although it had been 

 discovered by Jeffrey some years earlier. After his return to 

 Europe, Dr. Brown became a lecturer on geology in Scotland, 

 and then moved to London, where he produced a number of 

 popular works of science. He is chiefly interesting to 

 Americans as the author of the two papers we have already 

 referred to, and of an incomplete work on the forests of North 

 America, entitled Horn Sylvance. 



