SEPTEMTilill 21, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



455 



one who 1ms only known them wild in their native home, and 

 Mr. Dyer, the Director of Kcw Gardens, asserts that even in 

 the collection there the feral types are often vvfanting, and only 

 cultivated forms are represented. 



The list of fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants intro- 

 duced into American trade during- the year 1891 includes 884 

 species and varieties as against 575 for theyear before, and 434 

 for the year 1889. This increase is due partly to the fact that 

 increased experience and facilities enable the authors to make 

 a more complete record. But the introduction of new Roses, 

 Clirysanthemums, Carnations, Cannas and Geraniums, as well 

 as of native plants, was unusually large last year, and shows a 

 broadening and more active trade. Of the 884 introductions 

 6S8 are ornamental plants, 108 are fruit-plants and 108 vegeta- 

 bles. Of 18S native plants introduced twenty-four are fruit- 

 plants, and twelve of the ornamental plants have edible frints. 

 Analyses like these are interesting, as they indicate in a striking 

 way the tendencies, the varying vigor and the shifting fashions 

 of our horticulture. 



Other important titles in the Special Annals are the Plant Por- 

 traits of the Year, A Directory of the important Horticultural 

 Societies in North America, A Directory of the persons in 

 charge of horticultural work in the Experiment Stations, The 

 Botanic Gardens of the World, Title-index to the horticul- 

 tural literature of the Experiment Stations during the year, 

 A Subject-index to the same. Horticultural Books of 1891, 

 Tools and Conveniences of the year. 



The first part of the volume, or the so-called General Annals, 

 is a compendium of information on a great variety of subjects, 

 which have been carefully selected and skillfully arranged. As 

 an example of the quality of this portion of the Annals we 

 quote the following passages on spraying machinery and 

 fungicides : 



"In spraying machinery there has been great activity in the 

 manufacture of various styles of knapsack-punips, and sev- 

 eral horse-machines have been put upon the market or have 

 received marked improvements. The most important de- 

 parture of the year, however, is the labor of the committee 

 appointed by the Association of Agricultural Colleges and Ex- 

 periment Stations, to consider means by which uniform sizes 

 of fittings can be secured for all spraying-machines. This 

 committee, appointed in November, 1890, consist of W. B. 

 Alwood, of Virginia ; D. G. Fairchild, of Washington, D. C, 

 and James Troop, of Indiana. It has secured the agreement 

 of nearly all manufacturers to use standard sizes of threads and 

 other fittings, and the advantages of its labors will be placed 

 before the public for the season of 1892. 



"In the treatment of plant diseases, two copper-sprays continue 

 to gain favor, and their use for control of diseases of the 

 Grape has already come to be an established practice among 

 wrowers. It is a question of but two or three years before the 

 feaf-blight of Quinces and Pears, Apple and Pear scab, and the 

 old Potato-rot~will come under the control of the general 

 grower. There is a distinct movement in favor of the ammo- 

 niacal carbonate of copper as compared with the Bordeaux 

 mixture, as it is cleaner, cheaper and much more easily used. 

 Among new fungicides there are two which demand record 

 here. The more important is that prepared by the Division of 

 Vegetable Pathology of the National Department of Agricul- 

 ture last year as ' Mixture No. 5.' It consists of equal parts 

 of ammoniated sulphate of copper and carbonate of ammonia, 

 thoroughly mixed, and put up in air-tight cans. A pound of 

 this dry mixture is used to thirty to fifty gallons of water. The 

 material is cheap, costing about forty-five cents per pound, is 

 easily prepared, and can be kept in the dry state until desired 

 for use. This material, vvdiich is essentially a dry eau celeste, 

 has been used with good results upon those fungi for which 

 the ammoniacal carbonate of copper and Bordeaux mixture 

 are employed. Lodeman has found that the chloride of cop- 

 per possesses merits which entitle it to trial for the common 

 plant diseases. When used at the rate of three ounces in 

 twenty-two gallons of water it gave better results upon Squash- 

 mildew (Oidium erysiphoides, var. Cucurbitarum) than did the 

 Bordeaux mixture." 



The last serial issue of Economic Fttngi, by A. B. Sey- 

 mour & F. S. Earle, is a double one, including Fasacles iii. and 

 iv., numbers 101-200. In it the authors have confined them- 

 selves to "fungous parasites on forest-trees and other woody 

 plants indigenous or cultivated for ornament." 



Not less than sixty-eight ligneous plants are enumerated in 

 the list of host plants. Many of these have but a single fun- 

 gous enemy given, while others bear four representatives, as, 

 for example, the Honey Locust. Five species of Maples are 

 represented, and among these the most conspicuous fungus 



is the Rhytisma of the White Maple, which produces large ir- 

 regular shining jet-black patches upon the leaves, familiar to 

 many students of forest-trees. It is found upon the Red 

 Maple also, where it disfigures and damages the foliage. Two 

 anthracnoses are shown, Ghjeosporium decolorans on Red 

 Maple and G. saccharinum upon the Sugar Maple. This latter 

 does great damage to the leaves, causing them to turn brown 

 prematurely in large patches. There is a showy mildew of 

 the Maple which forms a cobwebby covering to the leaves, 

 and sometimes is particularly destructive to seedlings in the 

 early autumn. A similar mildew of the same genus (Uncinula) 

 is shown upon the Horse-chestnut, but the more common and 

 vastly more destructive enemy to this handsome shade-tree is 

 Phyllosticta splueropsoidea, which causes the foliage to turn 

 of a reddish brown color early in the season. In August many 

 trees are sadly blighted by this fungus and almost look as if 

 they had been scorched by a fire. 



Nine fungi are shown upon eight members of the Rose 

 family. There is a conspicuous parasite upon the Shad-bush 

 that covers the leaves with a dark, almost black coating. 

 When a bush is affected in one part it usually is infested else- 

 where, thus giving the plant a peculiar appearance. In 

 Podosphajra Oxyacanthse we have a good illustration of a 

 mildew that infests a large number of hosts in the same 

 family, such as the Hawthorn, Choke-cherry, Meadow-sweet 

 and Hardback. When this appears upon a cultivated plant it 

 may be remembered that it breeds abundantly upon wild 

 plants just outside the garden fence. This is likewise true of 

 the Peach curl (Taphrina deformans), which ;is shown upon 

 leaves of the Chickasaw Plum and the wild Black Cherry. This 

 last also harbors the serious leaf-blight of the cultivated Cherry 

 that has defoliated the orchards in the west of late years. 



Tlie Elm family shows eleven fungi, and the Elms proper 

 five. There is a mildew similar to the one upon the Maple, 

 and identical with the one met with upon the various species 

 of Ash and the Beech. It is interesting to note that forest- 

 trees of widely separated orders become the adopted home of 

 the same parasite. Usually a fungus does not go outside of 

 one family, but in this case we have a striking exception. In 

 the Walnut family there is one fungus that is given upon four 

 hosts. This Microstroma Juglandis is one of the most showy 

 of moulds, coating the affected parts of the foliage with a white 

 layer. It is common to both Hicoria and Juglans, and is one 

 of the many instances where the presence of a fungus indi- 

 cates close relationship. 



The largest number of fungi in the century is in the Oak 

 family, no less than twenty-four being enumerated, and half of 

 these are upon members of genus Ouercus. Mildews are the 

 prevailing form of parasites. There are no rusts represented 

 nor smuts, while there is a goodly number of blights and a few 

 anthracnoses. One of the most showy and injurious species 

 is Marsonia ochroletica upon the Chestnut.- Others are two 

 leaf spots of the Hazel, and the Anthracnose (Glceosporium 

 Canadense) of the White Oak. This latter has been the sub- 

 ject of frequent remark in all parts of the country, as it causes 

 the premature dying of the Oak-leaves to a conspicuous 

 degree. 



Among the Poplars and Willows there are a number of in- 

 jurious pests, one of which is a genuine rust — namely, Me- 

 lampsora populina. The most conspicuous fungus lierc is 

 the black Rhytisma of the various species of Willows. One of 

 the handsomest as well as most common of the mildews is 

 upon the Willows. 



Notes. 



The horticultural and floricultural work in the French sec- 

 tion of the Chicago Exhibition will be placed in charge of 

 Monsieur Le Fevre, head-gardener of the city of Paris, who ar- 

 ranged and superintended the beautiful Trocadero Gardens at 

 the Paris Exposition of 1889. 



Mr. James MacPherson writes to the Country Gcntlcma>t, 

 that in the yard of the New Jersey State Insane Asylum at 

 Trenton there is a specimen of English Yew (Taxus baccata) 

 which originally came from Stoke Pogis church-yard, Eng- 

 land, and it is now eighteen feet high, of a perfect shape, and 

 has a spread of thirty feet. 



Speaking of the timber of the Gum-tree, which in England 

 is absurdly called Satin-wood, a Minneapolis writer says that 

 in price it is about the same as that of Yellow Pine, and as a 

 finishing lumber it has all the good qualities of that, with few 

 of its imperfections. It will not sliver when used as floor- 

 ing and as interior finish is susceptible of high polish. 



