372 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 232. 



of John Bartrain, the Philadelphia botanist, which was a pri- 

 vate and not a public garden. 



The prize ottered by the society for the essay on Canker- 

 worms was awarded to Mr. W. D. Peck, who was the first oc- 

 cupant of the chair of natural history in Harvard College, and 

 it was by him tliat this garden was laid out, which has since ob- 

 tained a world-wide reputation from the fact that for nearly half 

 a century it was the home of Asa Gray. In late years the society 

 has aided, by sums of money, the Botanic Garden, the Arnold Ar- 

 boretum and the Bussey Institution of Harvard College. It has 

 made possible the publication of important scientific papers 

 like Professor Farlow's essay on the Black Knot ; it has pub- 

 lished a translation of Ue Cars's treatise on the pruning of for- 

 est-trees, and has stimulated tree-planting by the offer of large 

 and comprehensive premiums. 



F. A. IVIichaux, the author of the classical work on North 

 American trees, was an honorary member of the society, and 

 at his death showed his appreciation of its worth by bequeath- 

 ing to it a considerable sum of money as a testimonial of 

 gratitude to the hospitalit)' and assistance which he and his 

 father had received in this country during the course of long 

 and toilsome journeys. 



The proceedings of the society which, unfortunately, were 

 discontinued many years ago, contain the best record of the 

 early agricultural and horticultural development of New Eng- 

 land and are a monument to the industr)', zeal and intelligence 

 of the early trustees. In them will be found the record of 

 many interesting investigations and of much good work. 



We have only mentioned briefly the efforts of the officers of 

 the Massachusetts Society to improve those departments of 

 rural economy' in which the readers of this journal are most 

 directly interested, but farmers will find in this record of its 

 work much to interest and stimulate them. Its centennial 

 volume is printed, we understand, for gratuitous distribution, 

 and can doubtless be obtained from the recording secretary, 

 Mr. Francis H. Appleton, of Boston. 



Notes. 



It is stated that the damage from blight, mildew, rot and yel- 

 lows done to the fruit crop of the country amounts to not less 

 than $50,000,000 annually. 



A place of interest to all lovers of the history of the art of 

 gardening, Alexander Pope's villa at Twickenham, on the 

 Thames, is now for sale. For nearly twenty-five years it has 

 been occupied by Mr. Henry Labouchere. 



The August number of ISIeehans' Monthly speaks of the 

 Edmonds Pear, as it has fruited in Germantown, as rather 

 larger than the Duchesse d'AngouIeme, although the quality 

 is not quite as good, or perhaps it should be stated that the 

 flesh is lacking in the juiciness which characterizes the Duchesse. 

 It is one of thosepears which ripen firstfrom the inside while the 

 outer part is still solid, although in good condition to be eaten. 



An attempt has just been made to send fresh fruits direct 

 from California to England, a consignment having recently 

 been shipped from this port by theswift steamer Majestic. A 

 train of five cars left Sacramento at ten o'clock one Monday 

 night, and reached New York on the Tuesday of the following 

 week, and its burden was immediatel)' transferred to the ves- 

 sel, which had been fitted with refrigerators capacious enough 

 to receive the entire quantity. 



Mr. Thomas Griffin, of Westbury, Long Island, brought to 

 this office last week some remarkably good flowers of the 

 Tuberous Begonia, of which he mal<es a specialty. We were 

 particularly interested in the strain which seems to have a dis- 

 tinct Tea Rose fragrance. The specimens we saw were all 

 single-flowered, and in color they were pure white at the base 

 of the petals, shading to a clear pink on the border. Mr. Griffin 

 stated, however, that he had fragrant flowers in all colors, 

 ranging between pure white and a dull red. He also states 

 that he has some semi-double flowers which have a distinct 

 fragrance. 



The Hard Hack (Spirsea tomentosa), which is now blooming 

 by many country road-sides, is a shrub that deserves more 

 attention than it has received. The short racemes of rose- 

 colored flowers are crowded into a dense panicle, and they 

 remain open a long time in the season when few shrubs are 

 in bloom. Among the herljaceous native species the Queen 

 of the Prairies (S. labata) is also worth cultivating, as well as 

 the Goat's-beard (S. Aruncus), although they are now both past 

 their bloom. This last one, often seen in European gardens, 

 is a plant of noble bearing, and its panicles of creamy flowers 



attain magnificent proportions in deep rich soil. There is 

 great difference in the quality of the flowers of S. palmata. In 

 one variety they are of a bright rose-color and have a distinct 

 fragrance. 



The "Listener," of the Boston Transcript, recenfly de- 

 scribed a Currant-bush filled with ripe fruit which he had seen 

 growing in the fork made hy the principal branches of the so- 

 called Washington Elm at the village of Wellesley, near New- 

 ton Lower Falls, not far from Boston. The trunk of this tree 

 — under which Washington is said to have halted when on his 

 way to take command of the army at Cambridge — is much 

 larger than that of the Washington Elm in the latter place, be- 

 neath which the ceremony was performed. Life, however, is 

 left in only one of the great branches into which it divides. The 

 Currant-bush, conspicuous at all times, but especially when 

 loaded with scarlet fruit, flourishes about twenty-five feet 

 above the ground. 



"The engaging heroine of a play," says Mr. W. D. Adams, 

 in his "With Poets and Plavers," "is never or rarely without 

 her flower-basket or artlessly arranged bouquet. . . . All eligi- 

 ble young ladies in stageland have a passion for ' the stars 

 that in earth's firmament do shine.' They stick them in their 

 hair or in their waist-bands, but most frequently they carry them 

 prettily in their hands. They usually make their entree in that 

 manner. They convey the impression that floriculture is the 

 badge of all the feminine tribe — or of all, at any rate, that is 

 young, and handsome and ingenious. When they sit down it 

 is to play artlessly with the flowers in their laps. Apparently 

 the stage demoiselle has nothing whatever to do but to sort 

 and arrange these things. The more interesting the conver- 

 sation, the more patiently she goes on sorting and arranging 

 them. When the talk flags, she walks over to a table and dis- 

 tributes them among the vases, taking great pains about their 

 appropriate disposal. On the boards the difficulty is to know 

 what to do with one's hands, and leading ladies solve the 

 problem by coming laden with flowers." 



We cannot too often call our readers' attention to the good 

 work being done by the Flower and Fruit Mission in this city, 

 and to the little trouble it costs persons in the country to con- 

 tribute from their overflowing stores of flowers.. The head- 

 quarters of the mission are at 104 East Twentieth Street. It 

 is open, for the distribution of flowers, fruits, fans and other 

 articles comforting to the poor and sick, on Mondays and 

 Thursdays ; and packages addressed to it are carried free Ijy 

 the e.xpress companies. Although as many as eight thousand 

 little bouquets have sometimes been sent out in a single day, 

 more are needed ; and gifts are especially welcome when donors 

 spare the busy distributers extra work by themselves tying 

 up the flowers in small and tasteful bunches. They go to the 

 prisons, the almshouses, the hospitals and the tenement- 

 houses ; and in all of these places even a single blossom is 

 hailed with delight by persons who seem sunk beneath any 

 good or pleasant influence. The mission tells of one sick old 

 woman who will not part from her withered bouquet until a 

 kind hand brings her a fresh one to replace it ; and if all the 

 pathetic stories which might be told could only be rehearsed 

 in public hearing, the packages received at the mission would 

 surely increase at a rapid rate. 



It takes a big pile of kindling-wood, says the Northwestern 

 Luniberinan, of Chicago, to start the fires in the stoves of a 

 large city every day. Suppose a small armful is used in a 

 stove, and that there are a quarter of a million or more 

 stoves, as there are in this city, and it can be seen that it 

 would keep a good many slabbing saws busy to supply the 

 demand. 'The kindling-wood business of Chicago has passed 

 through one period, and has now reached another. Hereto- 

 fore it has been no trouble to get kindling. Slabs were bought 

 sawed or unsawed, as the case might be, and the servant-girl 

 was at liberty to use all of them she wanted to. But now they 

 are becoming a luxury. Ask any wood-yard man doing a busi- 

 ness of any size, how his stock of dry slabs is, and he would 

 say that he stands ready to buy a hundred car-loads. Old 

 plank sidewalks, which are being replaced with concrete, are 

 cut up into kindling. Such walks are speculated in to about 

 the extent that wheat is over on the Board of Trade. Not long 

 ago a North-sider sold an old walk to a woodman for $6.00, 

 and vi'ithout handling a plank of it the walk was sold for $107. 

 And that price, too, was paid for it for kindling-wood. So you 

 see the wasteful period of the kindling-wood business has 

 been passed through. Not in the far future, we suppose, the 

 Chicagoan, like the New Yorker, when he builds his fire, will 

 toss in the stove a little bundle of slivers all tarred and tied up 

 for the occasion. 



