276 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 224. 



Although as a flowering tree Maackia Amurensis is very 

 inferior to its relative, the North American Yellow-wood, 

 Cladrastis lutea, it is very beautiful when the young foliage is 

 expanding, and is worth planting for the effect it produces in 

 early spring when the young leaves have a peculiar gray-green 

 or mouse-color, and are very unlike those of any other hardy 

 tree or shrub. Maackia is now well established in many 

 northern gardens, where it flowers profusely late in June, the 

 minute pea-shaped yellow-green flowers being produce<l in 

 slender upright spikes which make a pleasing contrast with 

 the rich dark green foliage. The seed-pods are small and 

 do not compare in beauty with those of the Yellow-wood. 



Judged by the specimen now flowering in the Arnold Arbo- 

 retum there is no shrub more beautiful at this time than Rosa 

 grandilfora, with its great single white flowers as handsome 

 as those of the Cherokee Rose and far more fragrant. This 

 tine plant, in spite of the fact that it is an old inhabitant of 

 gardens, is rarely seen in these days, although the growing- 

 taste for single-llowered Roses must soon bring it into gen- 

 eral cultivation. In 1825 it was ligured in the Botanical Regis- 

 ter (t. SSS) by Lindley, who thought it might have come from 

 Siberia, although he was uncertain of its origin. It is of the 

 same section as the Scotch Rose (Rosa spinosissima), but far 

 e.xcels all the varieties of that handsome plant in the size and 

 beauty of its flowers and in the boldness of its dark green 

 foliage. 



It would be delightful, says "The Listener," in a recent 

 number of the Boston Transcript, " if wc could have an op- 

 portunity to see a garden laid out and kept up e.xactly in the 

 Japanese manner. It would be an attractive idea to have a 

 Japanese garden in one corner of Franklin Park. There is a 

 sufficient number of Japanese trees and flowers which are 

 hardy in this latitude to jnake it possible to furnish a garden 

 entirely with Japanese vegetation ; and the gardeners of Japan 

 are famous for making beautiful gardens in a very little space, 

 so that not much room would be needed. We could not have 

 avenues of Plum or Cherry trees five miles long all at once, 

 but we could unquestionably get some very instructive sug- 

 gestions, and it would be very interesting to everybody." 



Decades of North American Lichens, prepared by Clara E. 

 Cummings, associate professor of botany at Wellesley College, 

 and Mr. A. B. Seymour, of the Cryptogamic Herbarium of 

 Harvard University, can be obtained by addressing Miss Cum- 

 mings at Wellesley, Massachusetts. The first thirty or forty 

 species of the series will be ready for delivery in June. These 

 early decades will contain many of the commonest species, 

 well suited to beginners in the study of Lichens, teachers and 

 classes in high schools, academies and colleges. The specie 

 mens will be enclosed in envelopes or glued to small sheets 

 ready for mounting in the herbarium, and will be accompanied 

 by printed labels, all critical species being verified by com- 

 parison with the Tuckerman Herbarium. The price, seventy- 

 five cents for each decade, is unusually low. 



A paragraph in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club for 

 May, calling attention to an article l>y Monsieur A. Franchet, 

 recently published in the Journal de Bo taniq tie, sa.y a: "It is 

 interesting to note the discovery in the Chinese province, 

 Yun-nan, at an altitude of 3,200 metres, of a Kelloggia that 

 closely resembles K. galioides, Torrey. The habitat of the 

 latter is in the coniferous forests of the Sierra Nevada and the 

 mountains of Arizona, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, and 

 the finding of a second species demonstrates the extension into 

 Asia of a genus hitherto considered solely American. Kel- 

 loggia Chinensis is another and interesting example of the 

 simultaneous existence in North America and central Asia of 

 certain very characteristic plant types. Remarkable among 

 many such cases is that of Ram's-head Lady Slipper, the pres- 

 ence of which in the mountains of western China was most 

 unexpected." 



In this year's " Grand Corso and Battle of Flowers," at Flor- 

 ence, oneof the carriages which attracted the most attention was 

 covered — body, wheels, steps, driver's box, whip and harness — 

 with Lilies-of-the-valley, while the ladies who sat in it were 

 dressed in white and carried parasols of the same flowers. 

 Another carriage, dressed also with Lilies-of-the-valley, 

 showed on each side the family coat-of-arms wrought with 

 red blossoms. Another was adorned with Forget-me-nots 

 and yellow Roses, another virith white Roses and pink Azaleas, 

 another with Lilacs and white Roses, another with Forget-me- 

 nots and very small pink Rosebuds, another with E)aisies, 

 white Lilies and Maiden Hair ferns, another all with yellow 

 Jonquils, and still another, described as especially graceful in 

 effect, with great masses of Wistaria. Large umbrellas formed 



of flowers covered, like canopies, some of the smaller equi- 

 pages, and in all cases the occupants were costumed in har- 

 mony with the decorations of their carriages. 



Speaking of the extensive experiments of the Canadian 

 Government in tree-cultivation, the Popular Science Monthly 

 says : " At the Central Farm, near Ottawa, the seeds of Rocky 

 Mountain and European conifers have been liberally sown ; 

 and in iSgi one hundred and seventy-five thousand seedlings 

 were transplanted from the beds to be distributed later on to 

 branch farms and private experimenters, who are to send in 

 careful reports of progress. The Government also distributed 

 one hundred thousand forest-tree seedlings among one thou- 

 sand applicants in the northwest, with instructions for plant- 

 ing and subsequent treatment. Twenty-five gardens along 

 the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway have been sup- 

 plied from the experimental farms. Speaking' of the need of 

 the application of forestry in the old provinces, Mr. J. C. Chapais 

 mentions whole regions as known to him which were cleared 

 by settlers who had to desert the land soon afterward because 

 it was worth nothing. Such districts, he adds, would have 

 been so many inexhaustible wood-reserves for future genera- 

 tions, but are to-day useless." 



About the middle of May Secretary Lyon, of the Business 

 Men's Moderation Society of this city, began his annual work 

 of distributing flowers to the children of the city poor. He 

 took his station in Paradise Park, that oddly misnamed little 

 pleasure-ground which lies in the vicinity of Mulberry Bend 

 and the Five Points, at three o'clock, just when the schools 

 were dismissing their pupils. The flowers, which had been 

 brought that morning from New Jersey, included Violets, Wis- 

 tarias, Honeysuckles, Lilacs and Dogwood-blossoms, and were 

 tied in bunches of convenient size. As they were given into 

 the eager little hands, the scene was a noisy as well as a smil- 

 ing one, and the windows of adjoining tenements were crowded 

 with grown persons, who shared the children's deUght. This 

 special charity is not fathered by ttie society of which Mr. Lyon 

 is the Secretary, but is personally his own ; and most, if not 

 all, of the flowers which he thus distributes from time to time 

 come from his grounds at Short Hills, and are gathered and 

 arranged by his children. More good is done in ways like this 

 than in many of the ways with which charity has been longer 

 familiar ; and the good is to the donors, of course, as well as 

 to the recipients. Very few New York business men can be 

 expected to take the time and trouble needed for the actual 

 following of Mr. Lyon's example ; but there are many who, 

 with very little trouble indeed, could regularly send quantities 

 of flowers for distribution to him, to some hospital, or to one 

 of the many charitable societies which would be thankful to 

 receive and distribute them. 



A developing fruit appears to be comparable with a chemi- 

 cal laboratory on a small scale. Here we have inorganic matter 

 converted into organic matter, and the latter changed by the 

 life-processes into other varieties of organic matter, in a way 

 which we can only marvel at. Last summer ripening clierries 

 were made the subject of a special study by W. Keim, who 

 has recently published the details of his research in the 

 Zeitschrift filr Analytischcs Cheinie {vide xxx., pp. 401-407). 

 He specially examined the changes which take place in the 

 chemical composition during the growth and maturity of 

 Prunus cerasus. The variety studied was the early Griotte, 

 specimens of which were gathered from a single tree, 

 at intervals of seven to ten days, and analyzed, and the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle gives a summary of the conclu- 

 sions reached. As the fruit ripens the percentage of 

 water decreases, the dry substance increases, so does the 

 acid, and, of course, too, the total amount of sugar. In 

 the earlier stage of maturity, citric acid (the acid of lemons), 

 malic acid (the acid of apples) and succinic acid are present, 

 but nine days before perfect maturity is reached the latter 

 quite disappears. Invert sugar is present from the start, and 

 in the last stage is ten per cent, of the entire weight. Dextrose 

 and levulose (two sugars) are present, with inosite, another 

 sweet substance at first, but toward the end the inosite occurs 

 merely as a trace. The progressive increase in the percentage 

 of acid during the whole period is not in harmony with the old 

 view that the sugar is formed at the expense of the acid. The 

 disappearance of succinic acid as ripening is approached sug- 

 gests the theory that the other acids are formed synthetically. 

 Cane-sugar is present only in the leaves, in proportions which 

 increase as the ripening is approached, but subsequently di- 

 minishes. No starch was detected at any stage in the growth 

 of the fruit, though the parenchyma-cells of the peduncle 

 showed starch-granules, increasing in amount as the fruit 

 ripened. 



