5o8 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 408. 



Two plants are offered for sale as Ophiopogon spicatus 

 variegatus. One of these is the true species, witti spikes of 

 beautiful purple or violet flowers of long duration, followed 

 by numerous ornamental, bright blue berries ; but what is the 

 other plant which produces white flowers in clusters of two or 

 three along a central spike, the spike and flowers both droop- 

 ing, and white oblong berries? Tulbaghia violacea is a good 

 pot-plant, flowering six or seven times a year. Its flowers are of 

 a tint somewhat redder than its name implies. It gives satis- 

 faction planted out in the summer, but care must be taken in 

 lifting it, or all of the winter bloom will be lost. I grow a few 

 Sauromatum guttatum, not for the large, spotted, carrion- 

 scented flowers which are commonly produced before the 

 tuber is planted, but for the striking foliage with its serpent- 

 spotted stalks. The tubers grow to (he size of a cocoanut. 

 The large ones are somewhat tender, but the offsets, of the 

 size of a walnut, are perfectly hardy, such as are left over in 

 the ground, coming up in the spring. I do not remember to 

 have seen any complaint of the ravages of the black blister- 

 beetles, the kind we see on the Golden-rod, among any gar- 

 den plants, except the Asters. They have been quite trouble- 

 some here for a few years past, devouring Gladioli and Dahlias. 

 These they destroyed to such an extent that, in 1894. at the end 

 of August, I found it almost impossible to find a perfect flower 

 of the latter or spike of the former, except, very curiously, a 

 Lemoinei variety called Centurion, which was untouched, 

 though the insects fairly swarmed on all sides of it. I know 

 no way of fighting this pest except to pick them off. They 

 have a way of dropping to the ground when alarmed, when a 

 prompt foot can easily destroy them, since they generally lie 

 still for a moment. r~ r- j- ^. 



Canton, Mass. IV. E. ElldlCOtt. 



Notes on Begonias. 



BEGONIA IMPERIALIS is a species that is always admired 

 when well grown ; its flowers are not showy, and the plant 

 is valued chiefly for its handsome foliage. It is grown here in 

 shallow pans filled with loose light soil and in a house where 

 the temperature ranges from fifty-five to sixty degrees. A 

 partially shaded position and a rather moist atmosphere suit 

 it. It has short, thick, creeping stems, and its dark olive- 

 green leaves have irregular bands of bright green along the 

 nerves. The leaves are cordate and from four to six inches 

 wide and are completely covered with long hairs. The hairy 

 petioles raise the leaves from four to six inches above the soil 

 in the pots or pans, and when the plants are healthy and happy 

 the foliage completely hides the soil. The small white flowers 

 are produced on erect peduncles. The flowers have two 

 petals and the ovary is three-angled, with one long wing. 

 There is a variety of this species grown here which is known 

 as B. imperialis Smaragdina, which makes an excellent com- 

 panion for the type plant, from which it differs in having 

 leaves which are entirely green. B. imperialis was introduced 

 from Mexico by Verschaffelt. 



Begonia incarnata is one of the very best species for winter 

 flowering. The plants grown here are raised annually from 

 cuttings made from healthy shoots in March. With a slight 

 bottom-heat the cuttings root in a short time, and are then put 

 into four-inch pots. In June they are planted out in the garden 

 in a shady position, where they are well looked after in the 

 way of watering and stirring the soil occasionally between the 

 plants. About the first week in September the plants are 

 lifted, being large enough then for six-inch pots, and when- 

 ever there are signs of cold nights they are put into the green- 

 house. This plant is well known in gardens, and was intro- 

 duced from Mexico in 1822. It has a neat habit, with erect 

 stems from two to three feet high. The stems are well covered 

 with unequally cordate, lanceolate, toothed leaves, which are 

 green above and reddish beneath. The rose-colored flowers 

 are borne on arching peduncles, the larger staminate ones 

 having two ovate and two narrow petals, while the pistillate 

 ones have five equal petals. The ovary is three-angled, and 

 the wings unequal. 



Begonia acuminata makes a compact bushy plant from tvvo 

 to three feet high, and although its flowers are not very large, 

 yet they are very pleasing. It does very well planted out in 

 the garden during the summer months in a sheltered and 

 shady position, and through the winter and spring it produces 

 white flowers an inch across. This species is a native of 

 Jamaica, and the plants that are grown here were collected in 

 ^ the mountains there by me four years ago. 



Begonia Olbia was introduced about twelve years ago from 

 Brazil. Although it is a handsome plant and is easy to grow, 

 yet it is not very common in gardens. It blooms best when 

 about two years old. Young plants raised in spring from cut- 



tings, although they have handsome foliage, bear flowers 

 which lack the size and substance of those produced on older 

 plants. This Begonia has stout, fleshy, erect stems, with 

 leaves which have an oblique outline. Their upper surface is 

 of a very dark bronzy green, dotted over with neat white round 

 spots and covered with small red hairs. The under side of the 

 leaves is deep red. The white flowers are produced in large 

 cymes from the axils of the leaves. 



Begonia Froebeli is a tuberous-rooted species which makes 

 an excellent winter-flowering plant. Young plants raised from 

 seed sown last March have flowered well ; but seedlings do 

 not show their true characters the first year. Some of the 

 oldest tuberous root-stocks that are here have been grown for 

 nine or ten years at least, and I have known them personally 

 for eight years. When the plants have finished flowering and 

 the leaves begin to show signs that their work for the season 

 is over, water should be given more sparingly and finally with- 

 held altogether. When the plants are at rest the pots are put 

 on a shelf in the greenhouse, where they are kept dry until 

 they show signs of growth, which usually begins in September 

 or October. The old soil is shaken from the tubers and the 

 plants are put into four-inch pots, and when these are full of 

 roots a final shift is made into eight-inch pots. The leaves are 

 annual and are obliquely cordate ; some of them now measure 

 fourteen inches long by ten wide. They are gray-green and 

 covered with purplish velvety hairs. The flowers, measuring 

 two inches across and borne on tall drooping cymes, are a 

 brilliant scarlet. [See page 504. — Ed.] 



Botanic Garden, Harvard University. Robert Cameron. 



Correspondence. 



Schools of Horticulture. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Your editorial in a recent issue on the " Schools of 

 Horticulture," which have been conducted at a few points in 

 New York state, has suggested to me that your readers may 

 not be aware of a somewhat similar work carried on in New 

 Jersey. The Extension Department of Rutgers College was 

 organized in 1891. There have been given here in New Bruns- 

 wick two very successful courses in Botany, the audience con- 

 sisting of both men and women, residents of the town, and 

 numbering more than fifty. Of these about twenty-five pur- 

 sued the collateral studies prescribed by the lecturer and 

 passed successfully a fairly difficult examination. The work 

 done has been so creditable that the lecturer, Dr. Halsted, 

 suggests an advanced course to follow, on Vegetable Anatomy, 

 with laboratory practice with the compound microscope. 



But I have more particularly in mind the successful applica- 

 tion of University Extension methods to instruction in prac- 

 tical horticulture and agriculture made by the Extension 

 Department, in affiliation with the State and the College Ex- 

 periment Stations. 



The methods employed are those now familiar to all under 

 the name of University Extension, and need no description 

 beyond noting that the unit course consists of six lecture- 

 studies, each exercise involving a lecture proper and a class- 

 hour for conference and discussion, together with pnnted 

 syllabus, collateral reading, experiments and examination. 

 We have arranged a series of courses on agricultural subjects, 

 such as Agricultural Botany, Economic Entomology, Plant 

 Foods, etc., forming quite an extensive curriculum. At present 

 the series consists of nine courses, which we encourage our 

 centres to take in regular sequence. As soon as the farmers 

 are ready for it it will be easy to extend the same plan so as 

 to cover the ground more thoroughly, and to offer some free- 

 dom of choice in accordance with the particular needs of any 

 community. Thus, while the general courses would remain 

 the same the more specialized courses would be different in a 

 fruit-growing community from those recommended to a com- 

 munity chiefly interested in the dairy business. One of our 

 centres is now taking the regular sequence of courses that 

 we have laid out, and others are planning to do so. If the 

 farmers will, in general, be willing to persevere on so sys- 

 tematic a scale we shall have University Extension at its very 

 best. 



The results thus far attained deserve, I think, to be generally 

 known. The work was begun tentatively in the winter of 1891 

 and 1892, with a course at Freehold. Since then we have 

 given courses in eleven different farming communities, not 

 counting the work of the present season, which is just now 

 beginning with a course in Botany at Moorestown. The sys- 

 tem has received a most cordial endorsement from the State 

 Board of Agriculture (see twenty-first Annual Report, page 106), 



