346 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 230. 



Dendroctoni. Detecting no other cause for the death of 

 tliese larva"^, and deciding that the Cylindrocalla must be 

 the agent, we liave inaugurated a series of experiments to de- 

 cide the question, and, if possible, to enable us to cultivate and 

 transmit the disease. Trees affected and unaffected by the 

 beetle in question were found to be very prominently the host 

 of Lophiodermium Pinastri, Coleosporium Senecionis, and 

 Hyphoderma Dezmanzieri, but we consider none of these 

 forms to be particularly devitalizing to the affected trees. 



The Laurels are greatly affected this season by the com- 

 mon leaf-spot (Septoria Kalmiaecola) ; and the leaves of 

 Rhododendron maximum in the dense forests of the AUe- 

 ghanies are being badly deformed and the shrubs injured 

 by great quantities of Exobasidium Rhododendri. We be- 

 lieve this to be the first report of the presence of this European 

 species in tlie United States. Our Peach-trees in many local- 

 ities are showing this season disastrous inroads of the Yellows, 

 and in spite of our efforts among the farmers of the state the 

 Black Knot of the Plum and Cherry is advancing. 



Our state began botanically terra incognita, our work is be- 

 coming fruitful of new forms and exceedingly interesting in 

 general. Many of our wild plants, economic and otherwise, 

 are affected this year by different parasitic species of fungi, 

 and our orchards and crops are in nowise exempt from their 

 almost discouraging attacks. 



Agr. E.xp. staKon. Charles Frederick Millspangh. 



How Cold Air Settles in IIoUows. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — An extreme instance of the often-observed fact that 

 cold air settles in hollows, will bear repetition, although it oc- 

 curred as long ago as the winter of 1874-75, and the facts were 

 made public. At the time, in the Traverse Bay region. Michi- 

 gan, there was considerable interest manifested by fruit- 

 growers in the subject of the proper location for orchards, and 

 the highest elevations were considered the safest. 



Mr. Isaac Garthe, living near Northport, Leelenaw County, 

 arising before daylight on the loth of January, 1875, '"'^s sur- 

 prised to find his thermometer indicating thirty-six degrees 

 below zero. He at once started for the house of his next 

 neighbor, Mr. Theodore Parmelee, whose house is 150 or 200 

 feet higher, and on the way noticed the steady rise in tem- 

 perature, which at his destination was up to sixteen degrees. 

 After some minutes of conversation he returned home, and 

 when he got there, still before daylight, the thermometer had 

 fallen back to thirty-six degrees. 



Mr. Garthe's house was in a hollow surrounded by hills, and 

 it is hardly necessary to mention that the air was still. As six- 

 teen degrees is about an extreme temperature for that region, 

 this great difference of twenty degrees is rather noteworthy. 



Milwaukee, Wis. C. L. Ma7in. 



The Rose Hill Nurseries. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — This establishment is located at New Rochelle, New 

 York, and has a wide fame for fine plants which have long been 

 specialties here. Messrs. Siebrecht & Wadley have a reputa- 

 tion in New York City and Newport as leading florists and 

 decorators, and also for their enterprise and activity in giving 

 many flower-shows both in the Eden Mus^e and Madison 

 Square Garden. The nurseries are probablj' the natural result 

 of a long-continued successful city business with its demand 

 for high-class flowers and plants, but there has been a branch- 

 ing out in other lines, so that an extensive list of plants is now 

 grown here. A study of their beautifully printed and com- 

 prehensive catalogue led me the other day to New Rochelle, 

 a section of Westchester County, where all the available lands 

 seem to be undergoing a rapid transformation into syndicated 

 parks. To the Rose Hill Nurseries is a short drive over a 

 pleasant road, along which, on a quiet bit of road-side, I was 

 surprised to find a rather imposing marble monument to 

 Thomas Paine. How many people in this city know that the 

 author of " The Rights of Man " has been honored in this way ? 



The entrance to the nursery is at present an excellent ex- 

 ample of bold and careful planting. A long curving line of 

 shrubs, hardy perennials, Retinosporas and other conifers, 

 and bold grasses, backed by a Privet-hedge, shut out of view 

 the main plantations, while groups and lines of bold plants at 

 the left mask the base of Mr. H. Siebrecht's residence and 

 partly hide the buildings in the rear. A noble group of Rhodo- 

 dendrons, at the extreme left, break the continuity of the 

 screen. A border of this character, not overcrowded, is always 



interesting, and not nearly so expensive to maintain as a border 

 of ordinary bedding plants. Hardy plants are largely grown, 

 several acres being devoted to their cultivation. I noticed not 

 only a large selection of the popular hardy perennial plants, 

 but also many gems in the way of terrestrial Orchids. There 

 were also plantations of young Roses, others of Rhododen- 

 drons, Azaleas, Lilacs for forcing, while, as anti-climaxes, 

 there were tanks of aquatics and borders of Cacti. 



While the exigencies of nurseries require that they shall be 

 located where land is comparatively cheap and the air is pure, 

 it will usually be noticed that the florist generally locates in 

 pleasant quarters where there is a good outlook. The Rose 

 Hill Nurseries make no exception to this rule. The extensive 

 ranges of houses occupy the ridge of a low hill from which 

 there is a pleasant view over the surrounding country. In 

 these ranges, mostly practical working houses, was found an 

 extensive stock of plants. Messrs. Siebrecht & Wadley are 

 large operators in Palms, which in these days are in such rap- 

 idly increasing demand for house decoration. Not only are 

 Palms grown largely on the premises, but a branch nursery is 

 maintained at Dabadie, Trinidad, West Indies, to which young 

 plants are sent to be grown in the open to salable sizes. The 

 traffic back and forth of Palms, Crotons, Marantas and various 

 large-growing tropical plants is sufficiently extensive to enable 

 Messrs. Siebrecht & Wadley to permanenfly engage a special 

 compartment in the regular steamers for this purpose. The 

 demand for Palms is evidently unending, for, not considering 

 the Trinidad stock, here were to be seen Palms not only in 

 special houses, but also in all available spaces, while extensive 

 ranges of high frames were filled with small potted Palms, 

 plunged in spent tan and kept close in the process of forcing. 

 Among the showiest plants in the Palm- houses were some 

 large specimen Crotons from Trinidad, in which climate they 

 form small trees of brilliant foliage. Orchids are also a great 

 specialty, a very extensive variety being grown. While nu- 

 merous rare plants are often in stock, very large numbers of 

 the useful Orchids are grown for cut flowers, it being necessary 

 in the retail business to have always at command a constant 

 supply. The flowers seem to be kept cut rather closely, only 

 a few flowers of Cattleya Gigas being open during my visit. A 

 rather novel sight was one house the entire half of which was 

 occupied by a bed of Odontoglossum crispum planted out. 

 These were on a sloping bed with a slatted bottom. Under 

 this a bench was filled with clinkers to retain moisture. A 

 Rose-house or two, one of Chrysanthemums and several of 

 select Ferns were interesting. 



The demand for Tuberous Begonias has found Messrs. Sie- 

 brecht & Wadley prepared with a strain in which they take 

 great pride. The plants in flower in one of the houses were 

 single and double, and excellent examples of this favorite 

 flower. In the same house were some Gloxinias of an excel- 

 lent upright flowering habit and most glowing colors, evidently 

 a first-rate strain. Aside from these, the most brilliant mass 

 of color in the houses was a collection of fancy Caladiums, 

 which at this season are in their glory. 



Such establishments as the Rose Hill Nurseries prove the 

 existence of more active purchasers of good plants than we are 

 apt to think are among us, but it would seem to require an 

 exhibition building to house some dormant Tree Ferns some 

 fifteen and eighteen feet high, a number of which I noticed as 

 just arriving. 



Mr. Siebrecht is ably seconded in the management by his 

 two sons, and it is a pleasure to note the air of prosperity and 

 organization evidently prevailing at Rose Hill. 



New Yoik. Lr- 



Recent Publications. 



The Silva of North America: A Description of the Trees 

 which grow naturally in North America, exclusive of Mexico. 

 By Charles Sprague Sargent. Illustrated with figures and 

 analyses drawn from nature by Charles Edward Faxon, and 

 engraved by Philibert and Eugene Picart. Vol. IV. Rosaceje- 

 Saxifragaceas. Large quarto ; pages 141 ; plates fifty. Hough- 

 ton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York. 



The fourth volume of this great work upon the trees of 

 North America sustains the noble character of the preceding 

 volumes, and adds another monument to the literature of 

 American descriptive botany. The present volume will un- 

 doubtedly prove to be the most important of the series in a 

 horticultural sense, for it discusses the Rose family, being 

 largely occupied with the native Plums, Cherries, Apples and 

 Hawthorns. The only other volumes which can approach it 

 in horticultural importance are the forthcoming one devoted 

 to the conifers and the one already published which describes 



