April 6, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



165 



mand by herb-dealers. The name is such a familiar one that 

 the plant is commonly supposed to be plentiful in woods and 

 meadows, but such is not the case in this region. I remem- 

 ber that when a child I used to think the Fringed Gentian only 

 a fabulous flower, and now it is quite a liuil in our woodlands, 

 but it is of such rare beauty, so distinct in the depth of its blue, 

 that it is the object of constant pursuit. 



The closed Gentian — G. Andrewsii — are much more com- 

 mon than G. crinita. The llowers are thickly clustered at the 

 tops of the stems, pink or blue in color, and always closed. 

 Found usually in damp, open woods along streams they are 

 quite pretty. A beautiful second to G. crinita is G. puberula. 

 Its indigo-blue flowers, nearly the shape and size of a Can- 

 terbury-bell, are borne in a cluster at the top of the plant, and 

 last a month or more during September or October. Three 

 members of the Gentian family are catalogued by florists. G. 

 quinqueflora, or the five-flowered Gentian, sometimes called 

 Gall-weed from the exceeding bitterness of its juices, has slen- 

 der, branching stems two or three feet liigh, with rather 

 small, pale blue or light purple flowers. G. cristata is much 

 like G. crinita, with tlie e.vception of being larger. The flow- 

 ers are bright blue in color, and beautifully fringed, nearly two 

 inches long, opening only in sunshine. It is found wild on wet 

 swampy lands, and makes a good edging for artificial lakes and 

 ponds. G. serrata is the Smaller Fringed Gentian, having 

 smaller flowers and narrower leaves than the two already 

 mentioned ; these leaves turn bright crimson with the breath 

 of autumn. 



These species, though safe from extinction, will doubtless 

 be dwarfed and doubled and crossed and recrossed till little 

 of their original beauty remains. Under cultivation. Gentians 

 like a light rich soil, partial shade, and free circulation of 

 air. The biennial varieties are increased by dividing their 

 roots, and the annual ones by seeds, which should be sown as 

 soon as ripe in autumn. Nearly all the Gentians are blue in 

 color, and flower in September or October. 



Even if the wild-flower club should succeed in gathering 

 and cultivating all valuable wild plants, how bare our forests 

 would be without them ! The Gentian and Ginseng families 

 are only two out of many which appeal to us. Every land- 

 owner ought so to regulate his little kingdom that it may 

 yearly increase in beauty and value. We need more laws 

 protecting plants and forests, else the deserted farms of 

 New England will be duplicated in many now fertile regions 

 of the south. • ^ „ , 



Garden City, N. c. L- Greenlee. 



Grafting. — II. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — No doubt, top-grafting devitalizes a tree or ruins the 

 limb operated on when the work is improperly done. Some- 

 times a limb two inches in diameter, or even more, is sawed 

 off; a cleft is made in it; two grafts are inserted opposite to 

 each other, and the wound is carelessly plastered with softened 

 grafting-wax. Such attempts are Hkely to fail for various rea- 

 sons. In tlie stump of a limb of the diameter above named 

 there should be at least four grafts placed, at opposite extremi- 

 ties of two clefts made at riglit angles to each other. The ob- 

 ject in placing so many grafts is to maintain sap circulation on 

 all sides of the amputated limb. Thus, for example, if in a 

 limb two inches in diameter a graft be set in one side only the 

 side opposite the graft will be very certain to die, the wood 

 will then decay, and that piece of grafting (even if the one graft 

 grows) will ultimately prove a failure. Hence, in grafting 

 stumps of such diameter the work after being done should be 

 in a few days inspected, and if any of the grafts show sign of 

 failure others should be at once put in their places. In a year 

 or two the surplus grafts may be cut out, and the wound will 

 gradually and completely heal if life is retained all through the 

 limb wliich was treated. In limbs of larger diameter than two 

 inches it is safest to "crown-graft," which method permits 

 the setting of as many grafts as may be needed to maintain 

 circulation. 



To show some horticultural friends that it could be done 

 successfully, I some years ago sawed off the trunk of a Sheldon 

 Pear-tree below its branches, where its diameter was four and 

 a half inches. Around its circumference I set sixteen crown- 

 grafts. This tree will make a new head, and will bear a good 

 many pears this year. This is an extreme case, and was 

 done more for experiment than with a view to useful results. 

 Another tree in my Pear-orchard, a Lawrence, was attacked 

 years ago by fire-blight. I sawed it off at the ground (the 

 stump there being six inches diameter) and crown-grafted 

 the stump. Two of the grafts I have left growing, and they 



arc now twelve feet in height, and last year bore a full crop of 

 Kieller pears. In a year or two I shall remove one of these 

 grafts, probably regrafting its stump, simply to maintain cir- 

 culation, and ultimately there will be an entire new head on 

 a root twenty years planted. 



The most important point in the surgery of top-grafting is 

 the waxing of the wounds made in stock and graft. Every 

 " solution of continuity," as the surgeons express it, should be 

 sealed tightly. This may be most surely eClected by using 

 liquid wax, made of resin, linseed-oil and beeswax, tempered 

 so as to be when cold solid, but yet elastic, not flinty, and for 

 use warmed until liquid in a portable furnace and applied to 

 all the cut parts of stock and graft with a small paint-brush. 

 Then all the grafting-work sliould be gone over, and, next day, 

 where needed the joints should be rewaxed. I have never yet 

 done my work so thoroughly that I found no faults to remedy 

 afterward. 



Vineland, N.J. A. W. Pearson. 



Ill the Gardens of Brookline, Massachusetts. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The greenhouses in this locality are always interesting, 

 and the noble Palm-house of Mr. Joseph H. White is in itself 

 well worth a visit at any time of the year. There are many 

 Palms and Tree Ferns of magnificent proportions at this place, 

 and the healthy appearance of the plants shows rare skill in 

 their management. Two gigantic specimens of IVIonstera deli- 

 cosa cover a large portion of the walls of this house with their 

 rich green and boldly effective foliage, and it has been neces- 

 sary to " top " and otherwise prune a handsome plant of Arau- 

 caria excelsa, as it had become too large for the lofty edifice. 

 This operation was performed two years ago, and the number 

 and vigor of the lateral shoots prove that the tree has not se- 

 riously suffered from it. A fine display of bloom was found 

 in the Rose-house, and the gardener, Mr. Wheeler, speaks with 

 enthusiasm of the Waban, of which he grows many plants. 

 Worth special mention among the plants in the other houses 

 were Carnations, Easter Lilies, Spirseas and Cytisus, large 

 quantities of which are grown for cut flowers. Several large 

 bushes of the Laurestinus (Viburnum Tinus) are grown for 

 the same purpose, as the flowers are found extremely useful 

 in the spring. The Peach-trees and Grapevines, in the culti- 

 vafion of which under glass Mr. Wheeler is quite a specialist, 

 are now in prime order. 



At Mr. John L. Gardiner's, where Mr. Atkinson presides, 

 there is a rich assortment of useful plants. Bignonia venusta, 

 rambling freely about the roof of a large house, is a brilliant 

 mass of orange-colored flowers. A small plant of Kennedya 

 monophylla, loosely trained to stakes, bore enormous quanti- 

 ties of its pretty little blue blossoms, and a tall specimen of 

 Ardisia crenulata, with its profusion of bright scarlet berries 

 and deep green foliage, showed the remarkable utility of this 

 much-neglected plant. Mr. Atkinson assured me it had been 

 quite as good ever since Christmas, and its beauty shows no 

 sign of waning. Great numbers of spring-flowering bulbous 

 plants are grown here in pots, including, besides ordinary 

 kinds, many odd varieties of Narcissus, and they are excep- 

 tionally well grown. Veltheimia viridifolia, a rather uncom- 

 mon Cape bulbous-rooted plant, with bright green leaves and 

 densely flowered erect scapes, the flowers being tubular and of 

 a pale rose-color, is well represented. Two pans of the double 

 white Primula Sinensis formed charming pictures, the pale 

 green of the leaves contrasting well with the flowers. This is 

 a most useful plant, and it is all too scarce in the gardens of 

 the United States. The market-gardeners of London grow it 

 by the thousand, and it always commands a ready sale. The 

 flowers last much longer than those of the single varieties, and 

 they are most useful for cutting. The exquisite odor of its 

 neat little chocolate-colored flowers betrayed the presence of 

 Boronia megastigma in nearly every house. Mr. Atkinson 

 finds young specimens of this plant from two to three years 

 old the most serviceable. It is propagated from cuttings, and 

 during the summer months, if planted in the open garden, it 

 makes vigorous growth, which insures abundant bloom, be- 

 fore it is taken up for potting early in autumn. The odor from 

 a single healthy flowering specimen in a six-inch pot will scent 

 a large room or greenhouse. Many more old-fashioned gar- 

 den-plants are to be found in the collection here, and they 

 have a great charm as old acquaintances when seen as a gar- 

 dener of long experience knows how to grow them. 



Orchids are an important feature, too, and many exceflent 

 specimens are seen. The Calanthes have passed their flower- 

 ing stage, but the well-developed pseudo-bulbs are sufficient 

 evidence of what the blooms had been a few weeks earlier. 



