84 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 208. 



fruit of years of study and careful preparation, much observa- 

 tion and many long- journeys. And, in turning over these 

 handsome pages, it is hard to realize sometimes how much 

 information is contained in a few lines of one of tlie short 

 notes, or in what convenient form it has been conveyed to 

 the reader. 



Notes. 



In an article in the New Yorlt Sun on Photography, by Mr. 

 George lies, it is stated that Mr. Olmsted, the designer of the 

 exhibition-grounds at Chicago, receives photographs of the 

 grounds once a vv^eek, which show how his plans are taking 

 form. In such a report there can be nothing forgotten or 

 glossed over. 



The Worcester County, Massachusetts, Horticultural Society 

 will celebrate on the 3d of March the fiftieth anniversary of its 

 incorporation. An address, historical and narrative, will be 

 delivered in the hall of the society in Worcester in the after- 

 noon by its President, the Hon. Henry L. Parker, and in the 

 evening a banquet will take place. 



The Torrey Botanical Club, of this city, announces that the 

 prize of fifteen dollars offered last spring for the best set of 

 plants collected witliin one hundred miles of New York has 

 been awarded to Miss Anna Murray Vail, whom our readers 

 will remember as the author of several interestingarticles pub- 

 lished during the past year in Garden and Forest. 



The new Rose, Hugh, which originated with Mr. F.S. Moore, 

 of Chatham, New Jersey, is highly spoken of in the American 

 Florist. It is a sport from Catherine Mermet, and the Hower 

 has that peculiarly deep shade of pink which is occasionally 

 found in the very best flowers of that variety. It is large, 

 full, well formed, and is said to be a strong grower. 



The Genesee Valley Forestry Association, of which Mr. A.S. 

 Hamilton, of Rochester, is President, and Wheelock Rider, of 

 the same city, is Secretary, seems to be an alert and vigorous 

 young body. Its Executive Committee has recently issued an 

 address to the people of western New York calling attention to 

 the desirability of the preservation and renewal of forests, and 

 giving reasons why systematic forest-culture should begin at 

 once in that region. 



The Japanese consider it especially difficult to arrange 

 Chrysanthemums, and seven faults are noted which must 

 carefully be guarded against in disposing of large blossoms of 

 this plant. A blossom must not present its back in a compo- 

 sition, nor yet turn its full face to view ; the different flowers 

 must not have stems of the same length ; three must not be 

 arranged in a triangular form, nor may any number be placed 

 in a regular step-like way ; the tlowers should not be hidden 

 by leaves, nor should a large open blossom be put near the 

 base of the composition ; and, finally, the artist must not fall 

 into the sin of color-sandwiching, or placing a blossom of one 

 color between two others of another tint. 



The early commencement of the publication of a Prospectus 

 Florae Africce is announced by Th. Durand, of Brussels, and 

 H. Schinz, of Zurich, in which they propose to bring together 

 and condense the immense mass of information relating to 

 African plants which is now so scattered through different pub- 

 lications as to be unavailable to the ordinary student. The 

 work when completed will embrace some 20,000 species and 

 80,000 synonyms, including the new species collected by dif- 

 ferent travelers in Senegal, Angola, at Zanzibar and on the 

 upper Congo. The price of the work, which will be published 

 in six volumes, is 120 francs (about $20) to subscribers, who 

 can communicate directly with either of the authors. 



In a late bulletin of the Michigan Agricultural College a re- 

 port is made as to the co.mparative value of a hundred and 

 twenty-eight varieties of Strawberries tested there. Each va- 

 riety lias been grown both in matted rows and in hilis, and 

 from the table if is shown that almost uniformlv the yield of 

 fruit under the hill system is much greater th;ai tluit from the 

 matted-row system. Nor is this the only advantage of planting 

 in hills, because the increase does not come so much froni a 

 greater number of fruits as it does from their greater size and 

 beauty. The following varieties are named in the order of 

 their maturing as a select list for home use throughout the 

 season: Alpiia, Haverland, Parker Earle, Belmont, Parry, 

 Mount Vernon and Gandy. This year Parker Earle yielded a 

 greater weight of fruit than any other varietv, and it did the 

 same last year. 



Chief-Justice Hagarty, of the Province of Ontario, adminis- 

 trator for Lieutenant-Governor Campbell, in the speech with 



which he opened the session of the Legislative Assembly, at 

 Toronto, last week, stated that a commission had been ap- 

 pointed to report upon the desirability of establishing a forest- 

 reservation and park in a portion of the Nipissing District 

 south of the River Mattawa. The proposed reservation is 

 situated on the lieight of land in which the rivers Amable du 

 Fond, Pettewawa, Bonnechfire, Madawaskaand Muskaka have 

 their sources. It is to be hoped that the report of this com- 

 mission, which is to includea discussion of the proper methods 

 of maintaining and managing the reservation, will be such as 

 to meet the favor of the Legislative Assembly. In this coun- 

 try we already have some reservations, and are endeavoring 

 to secure more of them, but as yet we have no scheme for 

 maintaining them as a forest should be maintained, if it is to 

 serve its highest purpose. 



Professor Bailey, in a late bulletin from the Cornell Experi- 

 ment Station, gives an account of some trials made there with 

 Stachys Sieboldii, the comparatively new vegetable which has 

 also been introduced under the names of S. affinis, S. tuberi- 

 fera and as Crosnes du Japon. In cultivation here it is a small 

 perennial plant with the aspect of Peppermint, and there is some 

 doubt among botanists as to whether it is really distinct from 

 tlie common wild S. palustris, which grows over a large part 

 of North America. Its value as a food-plant lies in the white 

 tubers, which are thickened underground stems, like potatoes. 

 Although they are small, they are produced in such abundance 

 that the plant yields heavily. After eating the tubers prepared 

 in several ways. Professor Bailey pronounces the plant, in his 

 view, the most important addition to our list of secondary 

 vegetables which has been made in several years. The tubers 

 can be prepared in a great variety of ways — fried, roasted, 

 baked, pickled, preserved, stewed in cream and made into 

 fancy dishes, or they may be eaten raw. They may be dug as 

 wanted during the winter, and, ordinarily, enough of the roots 

 will be left in the ground to ensure a supply in the following 

 year. Much of the value of the tubers depends on their crisp- 

 ness, and they must, therefore, l.)e kept in earth or in moist 

 shavings, for they will shrivel in a few hours if exposed to the 

 air. The plant lacks a good common name, and Professor 

 Bailey suggests Chorogi, by which name it is known in 

 Japan. 



Mr. J. W. Wibbe writes to the Bulletin of the Torrey Botani- 

 cal Club that he had long doubted the assertions of several ac- 

 quaintances who declared that the Musk-plant (Mimulus mos- 

 chatus), which is so old a favorite for indoor cultivation, grew 

 wild in Saratoga County, in this slate, but that last July he saw 

 it himself. Driving along the Kayaderoseras to the mouth of a 

 famous trout-stream called Moorehouse Brook No. i, about a 

 mile north-west of Middle Grove village, he says " The very 

 first things I met here after crossin.g the bridge were whole 

 patches of the Mimulus, hanging over the banks of the brook- 

 let with their frosty foliage perfuming the whole atmosphere. 

 Following the courseof the water the plant wasfound wherever 

 a clear space was left for the sun to shine upon the loamy soil. 

 About one mile up the creek, in full view of the foot-hills of 

 the Adirondacks, the plant has its headquarters in a springy 

 swamp, growing in all directions in the midst of the water, 

 often two feet high. A trapper informed me of having known 

 the plant here always and nowhere else in the neighborhood. 

 How this far-western plant came there I am not able to tell, 

 but it is there and in great abundance." The editor of the 

 Bulletin adds that the Mimulus was also found a few years ago 

 growing in a boggy swamp about two miles east of Locust 

 Valley, in Queens County, on Long Island, " perfectly at home, 

 and scattered over a considerable area," and that a specimen 

 from this locality is preserved in the herbarium of Columbia 

 College. 



Cataloo-ues Received. 



to 



The Daisy iNirLEMENT Co , Pleasant Lake, Ind.; Improved Spray- 

 ing Pumps, Lawn-mowers, Cultivators, etc. — R. &J. F.\rquhar &Co., 

 16 and 19 South Market Street, Boston, Mass.; Tested Seeds, Plants, 

 Bulljs, Fertilizers. — Geo. J. Kellogg & So.ns, Janesville, Wis.; Small 

 Fruits, Fruit and Sliade Trees. — ^J. T. Lovett & Co., Little Silver, 

 N. J.; Guide to Horticulture. — William K. Nelson, Georgia Nursery, 

 Augusta, Ga. ; Price-list of Fruit Trt-es. — Gp;o. I'inney, Evergreen, 

 Door County, Wis.; Wliolesale Price-list of Evergreen and Deciduous 

 Trees, Ornamental Shrubs and Plants, Fruit Trees and Tree Seeds, 

 Price-list of Rare and Choice Evergreens. — St.\rk Bros., Louisiana, 

 Mo.; Price-list of Fruit and Ornamental Trees, Small Fruits. Shrubs, 

 Grape-vines. — Vilmorin, An'dkieox & ClE., 4 Quai de la Mcgisserie, 

 Paris, France ; Vegetable and Flower Seeds and Bulbs. — A. F. Whit- 

 WRIGHT, Nova, Ohio ; Seed Potatoes.— T. D. \Voop& Sons, Richmond, 

 Va.; Seeds for Farm and Garden. 



