March 23, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



141 



While the expansion of the houae has doubled its capacity 

 and given the greater range of temperature, the necessary care 

 has increased very httle beyond the oversight of more plants. 

 But as most of these were formerly relegated to a cold 

 frame, the care has been actually less than before. The fire 

 has been no more care, while the cool house during the win- 

 ter requires very infrequent waterings. Of course, no one 

 could devise a greenhouse which would be entirely satisfac- 

 tory to another, and these details of some experiments are of- 

 fered only as suggestions, which may possibly be helpful to 

 persons with requirements somewhat similar to mine — 

 i. e., a small house, with a wide range of temperature, which 

 need not be a great care. <^ ,t ^ j 



Elizabeth, N.J. J.N.Gerard. 



The Flower-garden. 



IN the best gardens it is found that hardy perennials alone are 

 not as satisfactory as when plants of other characters are judi- 

 ciously mingled with the permanent occupants of the border. 

 Many hardy plants flower early and die down at midsummer, and 

 something must be provided to take their place, if for no 

 other purpose than to cover the ground for the remainder of 

 the season. The easiest way to do this is to sow, or plant, an- 

 nuals in the vacant spaces, to fill up the gaps, and perhaps to 

 render other services which we have not taken into account. 

 On this side of the Atlantic we have as yet heard nothing of 

 the dread disease that attacks Narcissus-bulbs, known as basal- 

 rot. No doubt our drier summers, which prevent superfluous 

 moisture around the bulbs during the resting period, enable 

 them to enjoy a marked season of rest after the foliage be- 

 gins to die down. To do this, European growers sometimes 

 have to lift their stock of certain kinds to ensure thorough 

 ripening and complete rest, and American cultivators some- 

 times ask if it is necessary to lift the bulbs annually, the im- 

 pression that it is being probably derived from foreign period- 

 icals and practice. It has never seemed to me essential to lift 

 any bulbs except for purposes of division ; and perhaps on 

 retentive soils, which hold considerable moisture even in dry 

 weather, the planting of annuals over them may have an ex- 

 cellent effect by appropriating this surplus water and such 

 nutriment as the bulbs are unable to assimilate when at rest. 

 Last year China Asters proved a complete success over the 

 Narcissus-bulbs, the latter commencing to make new roots 

 when the heavy fall rains came that put an end to the Asters. 



The basal-rot is, unfortunately, only too common here 

 among certain species of Lilies. When lifting a refractory 

 kind we have too often seen it tumble apart, leaving but a few 

 of the inner scales adhering to the root-stock. Lilium excel- 

 sum, L. Brownii, L. Pyrenaicum and the non-rhizomiferous 

 Californian species are well-known instances, as too many of 

 us can testify. This disintegration must not be confounded 

 with the Lily disease proper, which is quite another thing. If 

 planters would try these delicate Lilies among other plants, 

 even among the dwarfer shrubs, where they would have to 

 fio-ht more or less for an existence, the results would be far 

 OTore satisfactory. I have seen L. Pyrenaicum (a most refrac- 

 tory kind) naturalized among rank grass, holding its own year 

 after year and tilling the air with its fragrance. Lilies are not 

 exacting in their demands, and I think we usually err in kind- 

 ness to them. We give them rich soil when decayed leaf- 

 mold would be better, and we keep the soil about them re- 

 lio-iously free from plants that would shade the surface of the 

 soil, and keep it moist in hot weather, and absorb by root- 

 action any superabundance of moisture when the bulbs are 

 resting. 



Besides strictly bulbous plants there are many herbaceous 

 ones which die down early, such as the beautiful Corydalis no- 

 bihs, so rarely seen in gardens ; Mertensia Virginica, the 

 Oriental Poppies, all Trilliums, some of the Dicentras and Ra- 

 nunculus. With a little forethought and less trouble, at least 

 two distinct effects should be obtained in a border planted with 

 hardy plants. The plants to use will readily occur to those who 

 wish to try the plan ; — Asters, Zinnias, Stocks, Mignonette, 

 Candytuft, annual Poppies and Larkspurs, with such summer- 

 flowering bulbs as Gladiolus, Tigridias, Milla biflora, Tritomas 

 and Montbretias, these latter bemg lifted and stored in the cel- 

 lar in fall. t:- rt n J. f 

 South Lancaster, Mass. -^- '-'■ Urpet. 



Petunia Blight. — In a large commercial propagating-house it 

 was lately observed that many of the Petunias in small pots 

 looked yellow and unhealthy. A microscopic examination of 

 the diseased leaves proved that they were infested with a gen- 

 uine leaf-spot fungus (Ascochyta Petunias). Frequently the 

 leaf is attacked near its centre and the fungus spreads rapidly 



in all directions, often in such a way as to exhibit a number of 

 well-defined rings in the infested area. The spores are pro- 

 duced in vast luimbers in spherical bodies, each with a small 

 opening at the middle of the exposed side, and from which the 

 spores stream in a serpent-like coil when a dry leaf is placed 

 in water. Examination of other dead leaves showed a second 

 fungus, differing in several respects from the Ascochyta, but in 

 nothing more than in the spores. These, instead of being of 

 the shape of a figure 8, are long and slender, often somewhat 

 curved. This offender is a Septoria, which seems to be new, 

 and it is likely to wear the name of S. Petunise. Both of these 

 fungal enemies were doubtless in the stock plants from which 

 the cuttings were taken, and a large part of the difficulty would 

 be obviated by using healthy mother plants. From the nature 

 of the troubles it is evident that the diseases could be held in 

 check by the standard fungicides if taken in time. 

 Rutgers College. Byron D. Halsted. 



Success with Lilies. — The largest and finest bulbs of Lilium 

 superbum I ever found were growing in a reclaimed swamp 

 which had been drained to a moderate depth and planted to 

 Cranberries. The Cranberries failed, and wild grasses and 

 bog-plants were allowed to take their places. The Lilies 

 originally grew in the muck, of which there was a good 

 depth, and this had been covered with about three inches of 

 sand, making in all about six inches of covering, and they were 

 thickly shaded by a rank growth of grass. The largest single bulb 

 of this Lily I ever found was growing by the road-side, where 

 the wash of the road had covered it deeply v/ith coarse sand. 

 This bulb had an immense system of strong roots, and both 

 bulb and roots had that clean white appearance which indicates 

 a rapid and healthy growth. To all appearance this plant had 

 nothing but wet sand to sustain it, but no doubt the washings 

 of the road furnished it with liquid-manure in just that dilute 

 form which best suited it. The best-cultivated Lilies are grown 

 under similar conditions. If a deep furrow is run through 

 well-drained sandy land, and swamp-muck is liberally placed 

 in the bottom, with a light covering of sand, the bulbs can be 

 set on this and the furrow filled in. With a liberal mulch of 

 sphagnum over this the Lilies can hardly fail. 



Hammonlon, N.J. W. F. B. 



Correspondence. 



Spring's Onset. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Those who watch the outdoor world observed a strange 

 event this year in the sudden arrival of spring. Commonly we 

 are used to some faint and broken preludings of the real sea- 

 son — advances, arrests, retreats. This year there were none 

 of these. The winter has been nearly normal, and showed no 

 fantastic outbreaks of vegetation due to unwontedly mild 

 weather. The Japan Quinces, indeed, threw out here and 

 there a blossom in midwinter, but we are used to these sportive 

 reminders — -signs of nothing but a hardy, happy habit. The 

 Willows, before the new year, had wrapped themselves in 

 aureoles of deeper tint than their accustomed winter adorning, 

 but they kept their dull gold unchanged. Such, at least, was 

 our observation on the island of Manhattan, and especially in 

 its noble pleasure-ground, the Central Park, " which," the Lon- 

 don Spectator has jusfsaid, "in another generation will be the 

 most beautiful public resort in the world," the Spectator not 

 knowing nor dreaming of the possibility that anybody should 

 plot to convert it into a trotting-course. 



On one day the park lay in still winter guise, the guise 

 of February certainly, and not-of December — for there is a dif- 

 ference — but distinctly of winter, silent, in a monotony of 

 color. The next morning spring had come, the monotony was 

 broken, the land and all its children stirred and stretched with 

 awakening strengtli. The "furtive look" had come, the mark 

 of "a purple finger on the slope," the feeling of " a flower ex- 

 pected everywhere," to use Emily Dickinson's phrase. Stems 

 of shrubs were dyed suddenly with brilliant carmine or vivid 

 green. Masses that only the day before had been dull brown 

 across their tops were now suffused with pale pure yellow, 

 difficult to fix as the end of a rainbow, vanishing under close 

 inspection, but from a distance positive and distinct. So had 

 a glow come into the gold of Willows, and the massed tree- 

 tops seen across open spaces and against the sky, soft, deep 

 rose-purple in place of sepia. All this, and much more, ac- 

 tually overnight, if close observation day by day may be 

 trusted. And though such changes are subtile they are un- 

 mistakable, and essentially greater than many of larger physi- 

 cal proportions, for they are of character. 



