264 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 223. 



The growers of Tuberoses in eastern Nor(h Carolina, who 

 have been for some years supplying the market with these 

 plants, are much discouraged by the decreased demand and low 

 prices for their bulbs. It has'been suggested that then- soil 

 and climate are remarkably adapted to the growth of 

 Roman Hyacinth, Narcissus and Lily bulbs. The whole tribe 

 of Narcissus, now imported in such quantities, can be grown 

 there in great perfection. 



Mr. H. J. Webber, the author of a Catalogue of the Flora of 

 Nebraska, which was published in 1890, has since found cause 

 to make some corrections in his list and to enlarge it consider- 

 ably, and has therefore written an a|)pendi.x, which has just been 

 reprinted from the Transactions of the Academy of Sciences of 

 St. Louis. It mentions 432 species, not hitherto reported, from 

 Nebraska, making the whole flora of the state, as thus far 

 known, to include 2,322 species and varieties. 



Mr. Samuel B. Duryea, of Brooklyn, well known for his in- 

 telligent interest in the park system of that city, has recently 

 presented to it a tract of eight acres, extending for more than 

 five hundred feet along the water-front and adjacent to the pro- 

 posed shore-road to Fort Hamilton, on condition that this 

 driveway, which, when completed, should be one of the finest 

 ocean-drives in the world, is at once laid out and constructed 

 as provided for in a recent act of the Assembly. 



In June, 1890, the alpine experimental garden on the Brocken' 

 in the Hartz Mountains, had been planted with two hundred 

 species of alpine and Arctic plants and Siberian and North 

 American conifers. Late in the autumn of the same year it 

 was found that only six of these species had perished, while a 

 number, in this their first summer, had blossomed and borne 

 fruit. The unusually heavy snow-fall of the winter of 1890-1891 

 did not decrease the list, and since then about two hundred 

 additional species have been planted. 



From experiments made at the agricultural station of the 

 Maine State College it has been found that disturbing the roots 

 of Cabbage in transplanting appears to have no marked effect 

 on the size of the head, and that the best results are ob- 

 tained by frequent transplanting. A good Cabbage has a short 

 stem ; tfie leaves placed close together with short peti- 

 oles, thus leaving little open space about the stem. The blade 

 should be large enough to extend more than half-way around 

 the head, to avoid the soft spot often seen in the centre. Firm, 

 solid heads are less subject to the attacks of the cabbage- 

 worm than loose, open ones. 



Gartenflora recommends the winter-feeding of birds by 

 fruit-cultivators, as a means of decreasing the ravages of in- 

 sects on their trees. In many parts of Austria, it says, at the 

 approach of winter, a circle of evergreen-branches is formed 

 by sticking their butts firmly in the earth. The ground within 

 the circle is covered by boards, and then other branches are 

 laid across, so as to form a light roof for the enclosure. Seeds, 

 bread crumbs, etc., are scattered on the boards, and the birds, 

 quickly finding their way to the food through the interstices 

 of the evergreens, are protected against wind, snow and the 

 attacks of animals, and in the spring are ready to pay their 

 debt by vigorous assaults upon the insects of the orchard. 



It is pleasant to find that in Far and Near, the excellent and 

 interesting monthly journal which is edited in this city by Miss 

 Chapin for the Association of Working Girls' Societies, frequent 

 attention is paid to the way in which plants and flowers can aug- 

 ment the joy of existence, even among the toilers in large towns. 

 A year ago this journal contained a wisely suggestive article on 

 roof gardens — a subject which has since been brought to 

 general attention in our daily papers, and in the current number 

 for May we note a very good paper by Miss Newell, called the 

 " Growth of Spring Flowers," which is a simple account of the 

 manner in which plants awaken to life in the spring, illustrated 

 by an analysis of the Violet, with directions how to examine 

 its internal structure. Such readers as had heretofore admired 

 only the more obvious beauty of flowers, without noticing 

 their hidden charms of structure, or considering their manner 

 of development, ought to be won to a new and deeper interest 

 by this simple lesson, and it is to be hoped that the writer will 

 continue her teaching in Far and Near, taking up other familiar 

 flowers in their successive seasons. 



A few of the gardens in the im mediate neighborhood of Boston 

 have been beautiful from the profuse flowering of the various 

 forms of small Apple-trees which have been introduced into 

 them principally through the agency of the Arnold Arboretum. 

 It is surprising that these plants are not better known and more 

 generally planted. When in flower no trees are more beauti- 



ful ; they are perfectly hardy, and flower freely every year ; 

 they improve with age, and are unattacked by disfiguring in- 

 sects with the exception of Tent-caterpillars ; they grow rapidly, 

 and, once established, never fail to flower. Many of them, too, 

 are beautiful in the autumn and winter, owing to the abundant 

 and often showy fruit which covers their branches. The most 

 desirable are forms of the widely distributed and polymorphous 

 Pyrus baccata, a native of eastern and northern Asia, and of 

 these forms the most beautiful, perhaps, is the plant sold in 

 nurseries as P. Malus floribunda, a favorite in Japanese gar- 

 dens, whence, some twenty years ago, it was introduced into 

 Europe by Siebold. This plant is particularly beautiful before 

 the flowers expand, as the flower-buds are bright red ; when 

 these open they disclose the white inner surface of the petals, 

 which make a charming contrast with the red buds nearer the 

 extremity of the branches. Other varieties produce pure white 

 flowers, and the plant known in gardens as P. Parkmanni or 

 P. Halliana, rosy pink semi-double flowers, which hang on 

 long red stalks. Hardly less beautiful is the Chinese P. spec- 

 tabilis with semi-double pink flowers, and the Siberian Crab 

 (P. prunifolia), with white or rose colored flowers. These are 

 followed by our native species, P. coronaria, the latest of all 

 the Apples to bloom, and distinguished by the delicious fra- 

 grance of its large pink flowers. No garden of hardy plants 

 in the northern states is complete without a collection of these 

 little trees, which, to display their full beaut)', require good soil 

 and abundant space for the development of their spreading 

 branches. 



When the opinion was generally held that the Sugar-cane 

 never produced seed, it was believed that the numerous va- 

 rieties which existed in the world had originated by bud varia- 

 tion. Since the discovery, or rediscovei'y, of the seminal fer- 

 tility of the cane it has been found that seedlings of recorded 

 parentage show in most cases some characteristics of rela- 

 tionship to the parent stock ; nevertheless the variation is wide, 

 and there is no doubt, from what has been learned in the 

 past few years, that the different varieties of cultivated cane 

 have come from self-sown seeds which sprang up and pro- 

 duced plants which were unobserved during the first year or 

 two of ttieir growth. Of course, this tendency of seedlings to 

 vary is the essential condition of possible improvement under 

 cultivation, and undoubtedly the cane will now be improved 

 under the hands of careful cultivators and breeders of new 

 types. The process of selection, however, must be slow, be- 

 cause seedling canes take, as a rule, two years to mature. The 

 cane flowers in the autumn, and the majority of the seedlings 

 even of an early variety, will need fully twelve months before 

 they can flower. In the botanical gardens of British Guiana, 

 as we learn from a late report, seedlings have been produced 

 with stalks not larger than a stout lead-pencil and weighing 

 only two or three ounces each. On the other hand, the largest 

 variety has grown to a height of more than twenty feet, with 

 fifteen feet of clear cane to each mature stalk, each one weigh- 

 ing as many pounds — that is to say, each foot-length of cane 

 averages a pound in weight, and the total weight of canes from 

 one stool was at least 650 pounds. Some seeds of the smaller 

 varieties show a remarkable tendency both to reversion and 

 improvement. Seedlings from the same parent cane in the 

 same season have yielded plants ranging from a stalk weigh- 

 ing but six ounces, when topped, to one weighing seventy-six 

 pounds. This means that if these plants were set as usual, 

 at the rate of 2,178 to the acre, the former would produce 817 

 pounds, while the latter would yield seventy-four tons. 



The death of the Abbe L^on Provancher, in his seventy- 

 second year, occurred not long ago. He was born at Becan- 

 cour, in the Province of Quebec, in 1820, and for some years 

 was the cure of Portneuf. Compelled by delicate health to re- 

 tire from the active duties of his ministry, he settled at Cap 

 Rouge, near Quebec, and devoted the remainder of his life to 

 the study of natural science. In 1869 Provancher commenced 

 the publication of the Naturaliste Cajiadien, of which twenty 

 volumes appeared, and was then abandoned owing to the re- 

 fusal of the Government of Quebec to continue the annual 

 grant which had made its existence possible. Provancher, who 

 published much on entomology, is known to botanists by an 

 elementary treatise on that science, published in 1858, and by 

 his Flore Canadienne, a comprehensive work, published in 

 1862. Later he began the publication of \\\'s, Fauna Entoino- 

 logiqtie du Canada, of which three volumes were completed. 

 His writings include also an account of a pilgrimage to Jerusa- 

 lem, a journey in the West Indies, and treatises on agriculture. 

 He was the author of many new species and genera of insects, 

 particularly of Hymenopetra and Hemiptera. 



