204 



Garden and F'orest. 



[Number 21S. 



which destroy the fruit and render the fohagc unsightly. Can 

 you suggest an efficient remedy ? ~ -, 



BrooUlyn, N. Y. " J . Lr. 



[These insects nre the ordinary and often-destructive 

 Cherry-lice (Myzus Cerasi). They appear early in the sea- 

 son without attracting- much attention, but they multiply 

 very rapidly if the weather is warm and dry. The remedy 

 for them is to spray the tree with the kerosene emulsion 

 diluted fifteen times, or with whale-oil soap-suds, in the 

 proportion of one pound of soap to eight gallons of water. 

 Two ounces of crude carbolic acid added to the mixture 

 will make it more effective. — Ed.] 



Notes. 



From a Carnation-house one hundred and twenty-five feet 

 long and twenty feet wide near Philadelphia, chietly planted 

 with the variety Liz/.ie IVlcGowan, tliere were cut during tlie 

 season up to tlie ist of April more than 70,000 flowers. 



The reports from different cities in the country, which were 

 publislied in the A/iio-ican Florist last week, show that tlie trade 

 in flowers for Easter was larger tiian it has been for years. The 

 stock of Lilies was unusually large, but not a flower seems to 

 have been wasted. 



Among the shrubs of comparatively recent introduction is a 

 Japanese member of the Witch Hazel family called Corylopsis 

 pauciflora. It has short drooping racemes of yellow flowers, 

 which appear before the leaves, and it is really an admiraljle 

 garden-plant, which ought to be better known. 



A peculiarly fine effect in mahogany (says a writer in The 

 Sun) is obtained by sawing crotches. A piece is sawed just 

 above and just below a point where two limbs shoot out on 

 opposite sides. When' such a piece is properly cut up into 

 veneer, the crotches show in beautiful pkmie-like markings 

 through the middle of each sheet. 



A recent writer, describing the winter aspect of the geyser- 

 basins in the Yellowstone Park, says that one of the most 

 interesting features of the hot pools is the continued growth 

 of vegetation throughout the year. In certain spots under- 

 ground heat preserves an even temperature in the earth, no 

 matter how cold the atmosphere may tie ; and, in consequence, 

 rich patches of green may be found entirely surrounded by 

 masses of ice and snow. 



Mr. George Klehm has for some years been growing Tulip- 

 bulbs at his place on the shores of Lake Michigan, near Chicago, 

 and every year he is successfully and profitably enlarging 

 his business. In a paper read before the Florists' Club of that 

 city it was argued that Mr. Klehm's experience had demon- 

 strated that the business of raising Tulips, and perhaps some 

 other kinds of Dutch bulbs, could be made a profitable 

 industry even in the climate of Chicago. 



In reply to several correspondents who wish to write to their 

 representatives in Congress concerning the attack on Yellow- 

 stone Park we would say that the vicious scheme to grant ex- 

 clusive privileges to the Montana Mineral Railway Company is 

 House bill Number 4545. It has already been reported favora- 

 bly in the house. Senator Warren's bill, which reduces by one- 

 half the forest-reservation adjoining the park, has also been 

 reported back from the committee to the Senate. Its number 

 is 2373. 



A correspondent of the Gardeners' Chronicle complains that 

 throughout the Forest of Dean and elsewhere where there 

 are large woods, swarms of men, whom he calls " Fern- 

 tramps,"" are constantly gathering Ferns, which they carry away 

 in large sacks for sale. In many places rare varieties of Ferns 

 are almost exterminated. To this the editor adds that he 

 has seen bushels of Ferns exposed for sale on costermongers' 

 barrows in the streets at eightpence per dozen, at which rate 

 there soon will be very few left in the country. 



Winter Sweet is the appropriate English name given to Toxi- 

 cophtea spectabilis, one of the interesting woody plants which 

 have been more or less crowded aside to make room for 

 the more popular Orchids. A portrait of this plant is given 

 in the last rmmber of the Gardeners' Alaqasine, which has 

 come to hand, and well shows the flowers crowded into axil- 

 lary corymbs and wreathing the long branches v.'\W\ white 

 blossoms. The fragrance of these flowers is very sweet and 

 penetrating, and the plant does not need the stove treatment 



which is usually given to it, for it thrives perfectly in a tem- 

 perate house, although it does not flower so early. Plants of 

 this kind will not suffer neglect, and they too often are little 

 less than eye-sores, but if they are carefully cvdtivated, speci- 

 mens in full health are beautiful objects, and will remain so, 

 from year to year, for a long time. 



The public reservations of all kinds in the city of Washing- 

 ton, including the parks pi'oper and the small spaces which arc 

 called squares, circles and triangles, but excluding the Botanical 

 Garden and the grounds of the Department of Agriculture and 

 the Soldiers' Home, amount to about 400 acres. Two hun- 

 dred and sixty-eight acres are estimated to be in a condition 

 which needs no further improvement, eighty-three acres to be 

 partly improved, and forty-six as yet wholly neglected. The 

 Botanical Garden covers ten acres and the Agricultural Grounds 

 cover forty acres. 



The Parapee Palm (Guilielma speciosa) is cultivated by the 

 Indian aborigines of the Guianas for its fruit, which they 

 largely use as food. They plant it about their settlements, and 

 where it is found apparently wild in the forest, examinations will 

 show that such situations were formerly occupied by the In- 

 dians. In some seasons the fruit is produced without seed — 

 that is, it consists entirely of pulp, like the plantain and banana, 

 while in other seasons it contains seeds ; this variation oc- 

 curs in the fruit of the same trees from season to season, and 

 plants raised from these seeds show the same characteristics 

 of variation in the fruit. When boiled or roasted the fruit has 

 something of the texture and taste of a very dry mealy potato. 

 It is palatable, very nutritious, and residents in the interior 

 have a particular liking for it. When ripe the exterior covering 

 of the fruit is yellow, thin, and only slightly fibrous, while it is 

 mealy and yellow within. The fruiis, which are individually 

 about the size of a pigeon's-egg, are borne in bunches of from 

 forty to sixty together. There are two or three bearing sea- 

 sons in a year. 



We have spoken on more than one occasion of a disease 

 wdiich attacks the Sugar Beet, and which has been identified 

 with the scab fungus of the Potato discovered by Dr. Thaxter ; 

 and now, according to a bulletin just issued by the Indiana Ex- 

 periment Station, a new disease of this Beet has been discov- 

 ered in the form of a bacterial jjarasite which does not cause 

 the death of the plant nor show any spots on the surface nor 

 any discoloration of the tissues. A puffed condition of the 

 mature leaves, and their smaller and paler development, are 

 its best external signs, and it is shown in the root when cut 

 open by the greater prominence of the fibre, a yellowish tint 

 and a less firm texture. The microscope shows the presence 

 of numljers of bacteria in all the tissues, although the gross 

 characters already given do not enable one always to separate 

 healthy and diseased Beets. It is not known yet how the dis- 

 ease is transmitted from plant to plant, and no method of 

 averting it is suggested. Its insidious character is plain from 

 the fact that it has so far escaped detection or even suspicion, 

 although examination showed that it was common throughout 

 Indiana, at least. The disease is certainly a matter of serious 

 importance to all who cultivate or use the beet crop because 

 it decreases the sugar contents of the beets materially. In 

 some cases studied at the station the loss amounted to as much 

 as fifty per cent. 



The horticulturists and fruit-growers of the United States 

 have demonstrated their alertness to grasp new ideas in the 

 speedy adoption of the practice of spraying to protect their 

 orchards and vineyards against insects and fungi. The prac- 

 tice on the other side of the Atlantic in this direction is much 

 less advanced than it is here. Almost all of our experiment 

 stations have issued instructive little manuals on the subject, 

 which any one can have for the asking, and these manuals 

 answer almost all the questions which any intelligent fruit- 

 grower will ask. Bulletin 86, which has been just issued by 

 the Experiment Station of New Jersey, contains in twenty 

 pages almost all the information needed by those persons who 

 intend to use insecticides and fungicides during the coming 

 season. It does not pretend to give any new information, but 

 in a concise way it gives all the necessary directions as to the 

 selection of machinery, the preparation of insecticides and 

 fungicides, the method and time of application, etc. There is 

 no need of repeating any of this advice here, since it has all 

 been given more than once in these columns, but it is worth 

 while to remember that a spraying-machine of some kind has 

 become a necessary part of the machinery on every farm, and 

 no gardener, fruit-grower or farmer should rest satisfied until 

 he has prepared himself with the proper apparatus and has 

 learned how to use it intelligently. 



