288 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 225. 



group unsurpassed in beauty by any similar collection from 

 any part of the world. 



An annual scholarship in botany has just been founded at 

 Barnard College for young women by a benefactor whose 

 name has thus far been withheld. 



Mr. J. W. Menzies has calculated that the price paid to France 

 by the United States in 1803 for the region which now forms 

 the state of Louisiana amounted to one penny and one 

 farthing per acre for land most of which was of high fertility. 



According to a report of the United States Minister at Stock- 

 holm, the greatest source of revenue to the kingdom of Sweden 

 is its forests. That portion of the country which is called the 

 Norland is still, for the most part, covered with extensive for- 

 ests largely composed of Pine and Spruce. 



Miss Clara E. Cummings, of Wellesley College, Wellesley, 

 Massachusetts, requests us to make known that she can sup- 

 ply copies of the catalogue of the Musci and Hepaticae of 

 North America north of Mexico at the greatly reduced price of 

 twenty-five cents each, postpaid. It is based upon the Manual 

 of Mosses of North America, by Lesquereux & James, and the 

 Descriptive Catalogue of the North American Hepaticce, by L. 

 M. Underwood. 



The China Aster, which is the most popular of summer 

 flowers in France, and is there called the Reine Marguerite, 

 was introduced into that country about the year 1730 by the 

 fanious Jesuit, Father d'Incarville. "To-day," says a recent 

 French writer, " tliere are more than twenty distinct strains of 

 China Asters, and as each includes from three to twenty dif- 

 ferent colors, it is no exaggeration to affirm that there are 

 more than two hundred distinct varieties of this beautiful 

 flower." 



Mr. T. D. Hatfield writes to commend a variety of Phlox 

 subulata, which was selected as a seedling from the form 

 known as The Bride, and which has been named Sadie. When 

 all the other Moss Pinks are past this one is still in full bloom. 

 It is a clear blue, and much better than the only other blue 

 dwarf Phlox (P. stellaris). He also states that there are three 

 varieties of the true bedding Violets which come tolerably 

 sure from seed and take care of themselves in the rock-garden, 

 which seems quite as appropriate a place for them as the bor- 

 der. These varieties are known as Snowflake (white). Yellow 

 Gem and Perfection, both of which are purplish. 



Some members of the Agassiz Association, at Forreston, 

 Illinois, having observed that the plow and spade, with the 

 reaper and mower, had been driving many of the wild flowers 

 from their native haunts into byways and fence-corners, 

 where they easily fall a prey to rooting swine or reckless plant- 

 pullers, have established an asylum for these hunted children 

 of the woods, and will attempt to preserve them from extinc- 

 tion. Spring Beauty, Painted-cup, Trillium, Bloodroot, Di- 

 centra, and many other flowers which are threatened with 

 extermination have been gathered into this garden of refuge, 

 which, we have no doubt, will grow in interest and usefulness 

 for many years to come. 



An idea of value now set upon large estates in Great Britain 

 may be gathered from the recent sale of Craig Castle, in Aber- 

 deenshire, Scotland, which is described in Truth, of London, 

 as "a fine sporting and residential estate," extending over 4,640 

 acres, and consisting of "an excellent house with beautiful 

 grounds, which include the picturesque Glen of Cray and the 

 celebrated Buch of Cabrach." The price given for the whole 

 property was only ;{j33,ooo, not more than some Americans 

 have paid in establishing what they call mere " villas " at New- 

 port. The castle had belonged to the family of the Mr. Gordon, 

 who has just disposed of it, since the year 1499, and Mary 

 Queen of Scots signed the warrant which confirmed its pos- 

 session to the son of the original grantee. 



It is good news for the poor of our city that protected areas 

 along the river-fronts are being arranged to afford them fresh 

 air and comparatively quiet places of repose. The pier at the 

 east foot of Jefferson Street is at once to be shedded and the 

 roof railed about for a free promenade ; and the large pier at 

 the foot of West Thirty-fourth Street is to be fitted with an 

 awning and rows of benches, and will be thrown open to the 

 public about the middle of June. Each of these places, of 

 course, commands a wide prospect of blue water, and froni 

 the latter one the splendid panorama of the western banks ot 

 the Hudson is revealed ; and the lack of green and growing 

 things in the foreground will be partly inade good by the free 

 sweep of an air much cooler and fresher than that which circu- 

 lates through parks in the heart of a town. The way in which 



the poorest classes of the city throng the piers in midsummer 

 days and nights, even when no roof protects thenj and no 

 seats welcome them, should inspire our authorities to estab- 

 lish as many as possible of these novel breathing-spaces. 



Florists who force Bermuda Lilies naturally wish to get the 

 bulbs as early as possible, and to meet this demand the grow- 

 ers have been digging them earlier each season, until the prac- 

 tice of shipping iSefore they have sufficiently matured is not 

 uncommon. Messrs. Peter Henderson & Co. have been writ- 

 ing to some of the florists who force this Lily on a large scale 

 to ascertain their opinion as to the value of these unripe bulbs. 

 Men who have experience in forcing, like Robert Craig, I. Fos- 

 terman and James Dean, give emphatic opinion as to the ne- 

 cessity of leaving bulbs in the ground until they are thoroughly 

 ripened. Mr. Craig states that the early bulbs, which are soft 

 and flabby, do not root well. Mr. Fosterman adds that the 

 flowers from such bulbs do not keep. Mr. Dean says that the 

 earliest bulbs have a flimsy texture, and when used for early 

 forcing will either come blind or have many imperfect flowers. 

 He adds that a bulb fit for forcing should be a bright yellow 

 color, with the scales hard and of good substance. If left in 

 the ground until thoroughly ripe the scales will have covered 

 the old flower-stalk. 



Monsieur Gadeau de Kerville is now publishing a large book 

 on the ancient trees of Normandy, which is described as being 

 very interesting. Among the remarkable specimens which he 

 has thus far noticed are two Yew-trees which stand at La Haye 

 de Routot, in the Department of the Eure, and which he esti- 

 mates to be not less than 1,500 years old. The larger of the 

 pair measures nine and a half metres in circumference at the 

 base of the trunk and seventeen and a half metres in height, 

 while the other girths eight and a quarter metres and is four- 

 teen and a half metres tall. In the hollow trunk of one forty 

 persons have sometimes gathered, and concerts have been 

 given by eight musicians ; but it has no w been transformed into 

 a chapel, which is ten feet high and nearly seven feet in diam- 

 eter. At Montigny, says Monsieur de Kerville, stands a famous 

 Beech-tree which must be between six hundred and nine hun- 

 dred years old, and is eighteen metres in height and eight and 

 a quarter metres in diameter. Some of the Oaks which he 

 describes he believes to be from two hundred to nine hun- 

 dred years old, and one of them is forty metres in height. 



Most persons are familiar with the prettily marked stones 

 which are called " moss agates " and which appear to contain 

 perfecfly preserved bits of a moss-like vegetable growth. It 

 is commonly beheved that such agates and other similarly 

 marked stones, grouped under the name of dendrites, really 

 contain fossilized plants ; indeed, both of these names 

 bear witness to the antiquity and generality of the mistake. 

 As Monsieur Stanislas Meunier recently explained in an article 

 called " Dendrites," published in La Nature, " it is easy to dis- 

 cover that dendrites have none of the characteristics of the 

 vegetable ramifications with which we are inclined to com- 

 pare them ; and when we we study them under a sufficient 

 magnifying power, the crystalline structure of the greater 

 number of them is very distinctly apparent. Particularly is 

 this the case with the black dendrites which are most com- 

 mon and which I have studied with especial care and have 

 succeeded in producing artificially. It is plain that these den- 

 drites, consisting of a hyderated oxide of manganese, result 

 from a precipitating action exercised by calcareous rocks on 

 water containing traces of metallic salts." 



From a recent issue of the Revtie Horticole it appears that 

 Monsieur Maxime Cornu, Professeur de Culture at the Jardin 

 des Plantes, at Paris, exhibited before the National Society of 

 Horticulture of France a flowering specimen of Incarvillea 

 Delavayi, one of the new plants sent by the Abbe Delavay 

 from Yunnan. It is a perennial plant with tuberous roots, dark 

 green denticulate leaves, and handsome rose-colored flowers, 

 which resemble in form those of Tecoma radicans and which 

 last for a week without fading. In the climate of Paris I. 

 Delavayi, like the other plants introduced from Yunnan, re- 

 quires the protection of a cold house or of a frame. Other 

 plants introduced into cultivation from the same country by 

 this intrepid traveler and distributed from the Museum are 

 Thalictum Delavayi, a beautiful species with blue flowers, 

 Primula calliantha, P. Poissoni, Kcelreuteria bipinnata, a real 

 addition to handsome small trees and remarkable for its 

 enormous leaves and long clusters of flowers, although, un- 

 fortunately, not hardy in the northern states. Rhododendron 

 Bureari, R. cillicilyx, R. decorum, R. fastigiatum, R. lacteum, 

 R. racemosum, R.Yunnanense, Berberis pruinosa, Desmodium 

 longipes, Indigofera Delavayi and Desmodium pendulum. 



II 



