96 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 209. 



place rather too warm to produce the finest quahty of fruit." 

 Last year Mr. Eisen writes that "it has only succeeded in 

 Florida, but has there proved of considerable value." * 



The greatest fault of tlie Pepino appears to be its failure to 

 set fruit. Mr. Eisen states that in Guatemala it " yields enor- 

 mously, 100 to 150 fruits to a vine four feet in diameter being 

 nothing uncommon. I have seen it yield similarly in Califor- 

 nia, but whenever exposed to too much heat and dryness it is 

 very slow to set fruit." He recommends that it be shaded if 

 it refuses to set fruit. Martin Benson, Dade County, Florida, 

 writing to the American Garden, says that he has had great 

 success with it. "I counted the fruits on a medium-sized plant 

 and found it bore sixty, of all sizes, from those just set to some 

 nearly matured, and weighing upward of a pound. The fruit 

 varies considerably, but averages about the size of a goose- 

 egg. It requires cool weather in order to set fruit, and never 

 does so excepting during a northerorothercoolspell, when the 

 fruit sets in great quantities." In the northern states it has 

 always proved a shy bearer, so far as the records show. 



The Pepino is an unusually interesting plant, and if it could 

 be made to set fruit more freely in the north, it would be an 

 acquisition for the kitchen-garden and for market. It is a 

 good ornamental plant, and, altogether, it is deserving of a 

 wider reputation. 



Notes. 



Messrs. Pitcher & Manda announce an exhibition of Orchids, 

 Palms, Ferns and rare plants, to be held at the United States 

 Nurseries, Short Hills, New Jersey, from February 29th to 

 March 5th, inclusive. 



Professor W. G. Farlow's paper on "Diseases of Trees likely 

 to follow Mechanical Injuries," read a year ago before the 

 Massachusetts Historical Society, has been published in a 

 small pamphlet. It gives an untechnical account of the struc- 

 ture of tree-trunks, with useful directions for protecting trees 

 properly, for pruning them and for preventing the growth of 

 fungi, as well as an earnest plea for the planting and careful 

 tending of trees in city and village streets. 



The directory in charge of the Florida exhibits for the Co- 

 lumbian World's Fair has announced that among these will be 

 a specimen of Torreya taxifolia, the rare tree which has made 

 the region about the head-waters of the Apalachicola famous. 

 The Florida Agriculturist adds that Pseudo-phcenix Sargenti, 

 the rare Palm discovered in 1886 on Elliott's Key, and Ficus 

 ain-ea, the Wild Fig of south Florida, should be included 

 among the exclusive arboreal productions of Florida. Ficus 

 aurea, however, is known to be an inhabitant of the Bahama 

 Islands. 



How subtile are the Japanese rules for arranging flowers 

 and how arbitrary, according to our western ideas, may be 

 shown by the numerical proportions which they usually ob- 

 serve between leaves and flowers in an arrangement of Irises. 

 With three leaves they use one flower, with seven leaves two 

 flowers, with eleven leaves five flowers, with thirteen leaves 

 only three flowers, and with fifteen only two again. But when 

 we examine pictures that show the results of the application 

 of these rules, we are convinced that they have been dictated 

 by a very true feeling for artistic effects of the most delicate 

 sort. 



It was not known until of late years from what plant bay- 

 rum was prepared, but it is now ascertained, says the Bulletin 

 of the Jamaica Botanical Department, that it is manufactured 

 in Dominica from the dried leaves of Pimenta acris. Bay-rum 

 is procured by distillation, and this in a very simple manner. 

 The leaves are picked from the trees and then dried ; in this 

 state they are placed in the retort, which is then filled with 

 water, and the process of distillation is carried on. The vapor 

 is then condensed in the usual way, and forms what is known 

 as " bay oil," a very small quantity of which is required for 

 each puncheon of rum. The manufacture of bay-rum is car- 

 ried on at the northern end of Dominica, and proves a very 

 lucrative business to those engaged in it, as the plants are 

 plentiful in this district. 



Erfurt is one of the great seed-growing centimes of Europe, 

 and one firm there devotes a hundred acres to the raising of 

 the seed of China Asters alone. A late number of the Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle contains a picture of Mr. T. C. Heimemann's 

 Aster-farm, a great level, carpeted with flowers and stretching 

 away almost as far as the eye can reach. Great care is said to 

 be taken to keep the several types of these plants true to char- 

 acter and of uniform quality, and the competition among the 



* Garden and Forest, iii., 471 (i8go). 



growers in Germany operates to maintain these features. The 

 introduction of new types during the past ten or twelve years, 

 among which the Comet Aster may be named as a striking 

 example, has been remarkable. Early blooming is necessary 

 to secure a good harvest of plump well-matured seed, and the 

 finest and the inost productive plants are said to be produced 

 from seed sown about the end of March in frames. The seed- 

 lings, when large enough, are pricked out in prepared beds in 

 the open air, where some protection is given them by night 

 when required. Many growers transplant them again about 

 the first half of June, when the plants are given abundant room 

 to develop. 



Dr. C. F. Millspaugh, of the West Virginia Experiment Sta- 

 tion, in a late bulletin, gives an analysis of many common 

 weeds to show their comparative manurial value. They vary 

 very largely in the percentages of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and 

 potash which they contain, one of the Evening Primroses, for 

 example, containing only one per cent, of nitrogen, while the 

 Poke Weed contains nearly three and a half per cent. A dry 

 ton of Poke Weed contains these elements to the value of 

 $22.00. It would seem, therefore, well worth while to make 

 a compost heap of weeds and carefully save the Poke Weed, 

 Bitter Dock and Thistle, which are the most valuable. The 

 better method of preparing such a heap in an open field is 

 to lay on the ground a base of fence-rails or poles, which will 

 allow a circulation of air, and upon this to throw a load of 

 weeds, and then scatter over them plaster at the rate of a hun- 

 dred pounds per ton. Then place another layer of weeds and 

 more plaster, and so on until the heap is of suitable size. 

 When completed, the heap should be covered with earth or 

 turf, and at the end of five days, unless it is wet, some water 

 should be thrown on it to assist the process of decomposition. 

 Not enough, however, should be used to leach through. The 

 heap ought to be ripe enough to use after two months' standing. 



Professor Byron D. Halsted's paper on "Eastern and West- 

 ern Weeds," read last summer in Washington, has recently 

 been printed in \h& Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Chib. It 

 was based upon " the reports of a number of botanists and 

 crop-growers throughout the United States, received in re- 

 sponse to letters sent to them or questions asked through the 

 public press," but the basis taken for a detailed comparison 

 of eastern and western weeds was the weeds of New Jersey 

 and lovva, as Professor Halsted had lived in both these states 

 and personally studied his subject there. His classification of 

 weeds as " worst," "bad" and " indifferent," and again as an- 

 nuals, biennials and perennials, shows that, as regards the 

 weeds of Iowa, " in passing from the worst class through the 

 middle class to the indifferent, the percentage of perennials 

 rapidly increases." Nearly half the weeds in New Jersey are 

 foreigners — 130 introduced species having been enumerated 

 there as against 87 in Iowa, and the increase being "mostly 

 among the worst and bad sorts." On the other hand, while 

 New Jersey counts 135 native weeds Iowa counts 210, but the 

 species not common to both states are "mostly of the third- 

 class weeds, native in large part to the prairie," which, as a 

 rule, "quickly disappear when the land is placed under culti- 

 vation," and many of which, in localities where they do not 

 grow so rampantly, would be highly esteemed for their beauty. 

 In general, says Professor Halsted, the whole east, as compared 

 with the west, " is overrun with a larger number of the most 

 aggressive weeds — weeds that assert their ability to resist the 

 forces of the cultivator and plant their banners upon the tilled 

 ground, likewise annual weeds that stock the soil with a multi- 

 tude of seeds ready to spring into life whenever an oppor- 

 tunity offers. 



Catalogues Received. 



J. S.Collins & Son', Moorestown, Burlington County, N. J.; Small 

 Fruits, Fruit and Ornamental Trees. — A. T. Cook, Hyde Park, N. Y.; 

 Flower and Vegetable Seeds. — Henry A. Dreer, 714 Chestnut Street, 

 Philadelphia, Pa. ; Choice Vegetable, Field and Flower Seeds, New, 

 Rare and Beautiful Plants, Garden Implements and Fertilizers. — H. G. 

 Faust & Co., Philadelphia, Pa.; Garden, Field and Flower Seeds. — 

 Edward Gillett, Southwick, Mass.; Wild Flowers and Ferns, Bulbs, 

 Hardy Ornamentals, Native Shrubs, etc. — H. GusMUS, Klagenfurt, 

 Austria ; Export Price-list of Pa=onies, Lilies and other Bulbs and 

 Roots.— G. H. & J. H. Hale, South Glastonbury, Conn.; Choice Small 

 Fruit Plants. — Henry Lutts, Youngstown, Ohio ; Guide to Plum Cul- 

 ture, New and Valuable Fruits. — John R. & A. Murdoch, Pittsburgh, 

 Pa.; Flower and Vegetable Seeds, Bulbs, Plants, Vines, Shrubs, Fruit 

 and Ornamental Trees. — F. G. Pratt, Concord, Mass.; Trees, Shrubs 

 and Native Plants. — ^JoHN Thorpe & Sons, Pearl River, N. Y ; Chrj'- 

 santhemums, Flower and Vegetable Seeds, Bulbs. — T. W. Wood & 

 Sons, Richmond, Va. ; Farm and Garden Seeds. 



