224 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 220. 



been in the open garden. Small roots may be set three 

 inches each way, and seed may be started much closer and 

 transplanted in two or three years. Experience will show the 

 best method of shading. I have found that shade of some 

 kind is essential. All that is needed, then, is weeding and 

 careful cultivation. From an area measuring forty-feet in 

 length by three feet in width I lately took 570 roots, weighing 

 18 lbs. 14 oz.; 343 of these were small, and weighed together 

 5 lbs. 7 oz., which I reset. The remainder weighed, when 

 dried for market, 4 lbs. 12 oz., for which I received $16.83, 

 besides iifteen ounces of seed, for which I have a ready sale 

 at $1.00 an ounce. Of course there is much to be learned as 

 to the best methods of planting and cultivation, but the culti- 

 vated root is firmer and shrinks less in drying than the wild 

 article. In my opinion the growing of the plant can be made 

 profitable, even if the root does not bring more than $2.00 

 a pound. „ ^, , 



Summit Station. N. Y. <-^- ^tailton. 



Leaf attacked bv Nematodes. 



Foliar Nematodes. 



THE most striking instance of eel-worms destroying the 

 leaves of plants which has come to my notice was seen on 

 specimens of Ficus comosa. When first observed nearly all 

 the leaves were badly blotched, and several of the lower ones 

 had fallen away. Upon the upper side the leaves have a 

 bronzed appearance, while the lower side is brown and some- 

 what rusty in color. As has been heretofore observed in Co- 

 leus and Salvia, the nematodes do not destroy the life of the 

 leaf-pulp uniformly, but, instead, ruin it in spots that are de- 

 cidedly angular in outline, the boundaries corresponding to 

 the veins of the leaf. In the worst cases the whole leaf may 

 become brown and dead. The engraving illustrates the ap- 

 pearance of a leaf that is attacked to only a moderate degree, 

 and was selected for the photographs on this account. It will 

 be noticed that the diseased area is the central pordon of the 

 leaf, and its position leads one to wonder if the worms may 

 not have come up from the soil or roots through the stem and 

 leaf-stalk. This seems to be the case with young Ferns af- 



flicted in a similar manner and recently studied. To cure such 

 leaves seems out of the question, and what to do as a preven- 

 tive is not easy to suggest. Some one with a fondness for 

 life-histories of nematodes might well devote much time to 

 the answering of many practical questions concerning these 

 foliar eel-worms. 

 Rutgers College. Byron D. Halsted. 



Euphorbia Jacquiniaeflora. 



'X'HIS plant, a very old inhabitant of our greenhouses, 

 A is more correctly known as E. fulgens, but to the 

 present generation of gardeners it will be the more familiar 

 by the old name. Like E. pulcherrima, which is also better 

 known as Poinsettia, it is a native of Mexico, and both are 

 naturalized in Florida in the Orange belt, and make a gorgeous 

 display at Christmas-time out-of-doors. It is well known that 

 it is the colored bracts of the Poinsettia which make it so con- 

 spicuous, but in its near relative it is the flowers 

 , -.. themselves that are ornamental. These are pro- 



duced in short axillary racemes at the extremities 

 of the shoots, and the quantity of flowers depends 

 entirely on the strength of the shoots. For this 

 reason we prefer to grow the plants on quickly 

 to a single stem, not pinching the tops out at all, 

 as one good stout spray twelve to eighteen 

 inches in length studded with bright orange-scar- 

 let flowers is much preferable for cutting pur- 

 poses to smaller sprays, even if more numerous. 

 Under pot-culture, E. Jacquiniseflorahas a rather 

 bad reputation, it being somewhat liable to die 

 off just above the soil. Too much or too little 

 water will produce this result, but we find that 

 when planted out in benches in an ordinary 

 Rose-house temperature a vigorous healthy 

 growth can be obtained, with very little danger 

 from the trouble referred to, with an abundance 

 of bloom at a season when cut flowers are in 

 great demand. Another feature of this plant is, 

 that the flowers will be produced on the plants in 

 succession for more than two months, so that 

 there is no trouble in saving them for anv spe- 

 cial purpose or occasion. It is well known that 

 Poinsettias wilt badly when cut and put in 

 water, but if cut and the whole stems sub- 

 merged in water, and the bracts allowed to float 

 for about twenty-four hours, this difficulty may 

 be entirely overcome, and the same treatment 

 can be given to the Euphorbia. This was dis- 

 covered quite by accident, when a lot of wilted 

 branches of Poinsettias were placed in a bath-tub 

 to preserve the bracts ; the stems are capable of 

 absorbing a quantity of water and storing it for 

 use. We find Euphorbias root easily when the 

 young shoots are taken off close to the old stems, 

 or "with a heel," as it is lermed by propagators. 

 These are potted up when rooted, and grown on 

 into four-inch pots, and from tliese transferred 

 to their permanent places in benches wherever 

 there is root-room. The growth made is some- 

 what slender, and does not shade or otherwise 

 interfere with other occupants of the house or 

 benches, and the temperature and soil of a Rose- 

 house suit them admirably. 



South Lancaster, Mass. Q^ Q^ 



Notes on Species of Tulips. 



DURING the last twenty years many species of Tulips have 

 been re-introduced into cultivation, principally through the 

 exertions of Dr. Regel, of St. Petersburg ; they are interesting, 

 and vary in the form and color of the flowers, and some are 

 quite new in gardens. Tulipa Batalini produces exquisitely 

 shaped flowers, straw-colored in one form and deep scarlet in 

 another ; the flowers are of medium size, but beautifully pro- 

 portioned. T. Korolkowi marginata is an early-flowering 

 species, with small but well-shaped, brilliantly colored flowers, 

 the segments deep scarlet and margined by a broad band 

 of brilliant yellow. T. Kaufmani is one of the earliest- 

 blooming species, or perhaps the earliest. There are two 

 forms : one with flowers straw-colored inside and rose or 

 purple outside, and the other with flowers golden yellow, 

 blotched with bright scarlet. Bright red outside and straw- 

 colored within are the flovv^ers of T. Leichtlini, introduced 

 by myself from Cashmere. This is a rather dwarf, small- 



