March 9, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



Ill 



peduncle. While one resembles the Juniper, but with leaves 

 spreading- and incurved, the other has the spray of the Arbor- 

 vitee. 



Another plant of the dry sand-hills will lead one to stop and 

 inspect it when met with in the winter. It is the smallest shrub 

 of the flora of the lake, Hudsonia tomentosa. The stem rises 

 but little above the surface of the ground, the whole plant 

 being scarcely more than six or eight inches high, its stem 

 usually bending to one side. It branches so excessively as to 

 have a tuft-like crown. The bark is very dark, almost black, 

 and the branches near their ends and all the twigs are covered 

 with a gray tomentum. When seen in the winter, the plant 

 seems dead and uninviting, the slender twigs so brash as to 

 break square off as if dry, thus adding to the deception. But 

 under a thiclc covering of hairy scales are the small green 

 buds, and the wood of the fresh fracture shows a green color 

 when closely examined. These tiny shrubs make their home 

 in exposed positions where little else grows, striking their 

 roots firmly in the sand, and the apparently dead tufts, at 

 which tlie wind tugs hard to draw them from the ground, will 

 be lively in the spring, or early summer, with small but nu- 

 merous yellow flowers. 



Englewood, Chicago, 111. E. / . Hill. 



Pinus latifolia. 



DURING last autumn Mr. S. D. Dill, of the Museum of 

 Natural History of New York, has been collecting sec- 

 tions of western trees in order to complete the well-known 

 Jesup collection of woods, which forms so interesting and 

 instructive a part of the exhibit of that institution, and I had 

 the pleasure of accompanying him on one of his last trips, 

 which was to the Santa Rita Mountains of Arizona, for a log of 

 the little-known Pinus latifolia. 



This tree was discovered in the Santa Rita Mountains by 

 Dr. Heinrich Mayr in the year 1887, and was described from his 

 notes in this journal (vol. ii., p. 496). In searching for tlae lo- 

 cality we went first to the town of Crittenden by rail, and tlience 

 twenty-five miles to the end of a wagon-road that follows a 

 caKon well into the Santa Rita Mountains. This road formerly 

 extended a mile or more farther up the canon, but the waters of 

 some rainyseasons have washed out the upper part, rendering it 

 impassable for wagons ; nevertheless, we were able to drive to 

 some of the trees we were looking for. At this elevation they 

 are to be found only in shaded cafions ; higher up the moun- 

 tain they are sparsely scattered over all tlie slopes from near, 

 but not on, their summits, downward a thousand feet or 

 more. 



In general appearance this tree closely resembles P. pon- 

 derosa. It has a similar fissured, reddish bark like that, of 

 variable tone, sometimes lighter, sometimes quite dark ; the 

 branches described as tortuous are as often not so, and the 

 cones vary in size and shape. The leaves, variable in length, 

 are generally in threes, although sheaths containing two or 

 four can be found. When they are two, the faces are flat ; 

 when three or four, they are at first triangular, becoming 

 gradually flattened, with a distinct midrib. The slieaths of the 

 young leaves are more than an inch long, and decrease in 

 length as they increase in age. The trees had borne no cones 

 for two or three years, but under some of them an abundance 

 of old ones were found. They are always more or less oblique 

 at base, and, witli age, seem to fall to pieces from tliat end, 

 showing at first a stipe-like axis. An extreme form of cone, 

 observed only under a single tree, was very different in ap- 

 pearance from the others. They were slightly unsynimetrical, 

 and tlie basal scales being detaclied, the remainder were 

 strongly reflexed, giving to tlie cones a curiously strong resem- 

 blance to the head of an artichoke (Cynara Scolymus). Our 

 visit being late in the year (November), after an extremely 

 dry season, when all the leaves of the deciduous hushes and 

 trees had fallen, a great portion of the accompanying vegeta- 

 tion was not specifically recognizable. 



Some few plants of Tagetes and Zauschneria were yet in 

 bloom, and their presence, where at the same time the year 

 before there had been snow, was due to the unusually warm 

 November, so warm that a rattlesnake and a tarantula were 

 seen out in the sunshine. This part of the Santa Rita range 

 was very dry, and water for drinking was found at only one 

 place, and there in small quantity. The mountain is covered 

 with bushes, and in some places there are many trees, espe- 

 cially near the summits and about the shaded slopes. The 

 Oak, represented by five species, is very common, and scat- 

 tered around are Garrya, Arctostaphylos, Fraxinus and Ceano- 

 thus, growing among Junipers, Madrotias, Douglas Spruces 

 and several species of Pine. 

 San Frandaco, Cal. T. S. Brandegee. 



Seed-raising in Germany. 



MR. GEORGE F. DANIELS, who has spent some 

 years in one of the chief seed-growing centres of 

 Germany, delivered an address last month before the East 

 Anglian Horticultural Club at Norwich. The Journal 0/ 

 Horlicullure contains a full report of the paper, and from it 

 we make the following extracts : 



It is only within the past twenty to thirty years that this 

 trade has assumed its present gigantic proportions. The in- 

 creased demand for flowers in England has given a corre- 

 sponding impetus to seed-growing abroad, where they have 

 the advantage of cheap labor and a climate especially adapted 

 to this work. England, next to America, is the largest im- 

 porter of German-grown flower-seeds. Besides this, large 

 quantities find their way to all parts of the world. The secret 

 of this successful cultivation lies in the bright dry autumn, 

 which enables seeds to stand longer and become thoroughly 

 ripened. Not only is the climate well adapted for the produc- 

 tion and ripening of seeds, but the soil, which in Erfurt is a 

 deep, rich and moderately stiff loam, is all that can be desired 

 for the purpose. 



Stocks form one of the leading features in a seed-growing 

 establishment, and are one of the most expensive crops to 

 grow, so far as labor is concerned. They are nearly all grown 

 in pots, only the inferior sorts being left to take their chance 

 in the open ground. One firm grows 300,000 pots of these 

 annually. The plants are kept on stages, like an ordinary 

 greenhouse-stage, and the houses have a wooden or tiled 

 roof to keep off the heavy rain and the too direct rays of the 

 sun, the sides and back being left open. The soil used must 

 be well decomposed or "matured," and free from any vege- 

 table matter. Therefore, three years' supply is always kept 

 on hand, and turned, from time to time, to make it sweet. 

 The plants, which are raised in pits on a slight hot-bed, are 

 pricked into six-inch pots, when in the fourth leaf, seven to 

 nine in a pot, so as to throw up single stems only. There are 

 two reasons for this crowding. Seed is only obtained from the 

 single flowers. As soon as the double ones make their ap- 

 pearance the plants are cut off, thus giving more room for 

 those remaining. Placing several in each pot tends to starve 

 the plants somewhat ; and when thus treated they produce a 

 larger percentage of double-flowering plants ; this has been 

 proved. Seed saved from plants grown in the open ground 

 does not produce anything like the same percentage of double 

 flowers ; fifty per cent, is considered a good average, although 

 in some places it ranges as high as sixty-five per cent. 



Stocks require a copious supply of water throughout the 

 growing period, which extends from April to October, except 

 for a week or two when they first show their bloom, when it 

 must be sparingly given, as overwatering at this time would 

 cause them to damp off and encourage the attack of insect 

 pests, which are very troublesome at this period. The labor 

 required in constantly watering and tending such an immense 

 number of pots is very great, and keeps up the price of these 

 beautiful annuals. 



Autumn Stocks and Wall-flowers require much the same 

 treatment, but in their case a much longer period is required 

 for growing and ripening the seed. The seed is sown in July, 

 and the plants potted in the same way and kept through the 

 winter, a very difficult thing where proper accommodation 

 does not exist, and the thermometer is often several degrees 

 below zero. The larger growers, who have the room, keep 

 them in cool houses ; but in small establishments where such 

 is not obtainable, they are kept in pits well covered with litter, 

 air being admitted on fine days. If the winter proves severe, 

 the plants suffer accordingly, as the pits become snowed and 

 frozen for weeks together, and want of air causes many to 

 damp off. 



China Asters form another important feature, perhaps even a 

 greater one than Stocks, and are grown by acres, one firm alone 

 devoting over one hundred acres to them. They are raised in 

 pits and afterward planted out on the beds, where it is intended 

 to grow them for seed. The distance they are planted apart 

 varies according to the variety, but is seldom less than a foot 

 each way. The planting is done by gangs of men, much in 

 the same manner as we place our Cabbages, and each plant is 

 carefully watered to settle the soil around it, the water being 

 conveyed to the fields by carts specially constructed for this 

 purpose. When they come into bloom, they must be con- 

 stanfly examined, and all stragglers and " button-eyed " ones 

 removed. The best flowers are selected in March, and the 

 seed of these is kept for stock seed for next year's growing. 



Petunias are raised in pits, then potted and placed on stages 

 in the open after the same manner as Stocks. They require 



