48o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 241. 



" On the whole I am niclined to Siemens' view that there is 

 a future lor electro-horticulture." The final statement in the 

 present bulletin is : " I am convinced that the electric light can 

 be used to advantage in the forcing of some plants." 



Notes. 



Mr. S. C. Moon writes to the Farm Journal that the choicest 

 and best of the early Pears with which he is acquainted is 

 Beurre Giffard. The tree grows feebly while young, and does 

 not bear early, so that the best way to get this fruit is to top- 

 graft cions of it on some old and thrifty tree of an unprofitable 

 kind. They will then grow rapidly and in a few years bear 

 abundantly. 



Mr. James MacPherson writes us that Lilium Wallichium 

 superbum has lived out for two winters with him in Trenton, 

 New Jersey, planted on a steep bank and protected with a 

 little litter. The bulb was set nine inches deep and did not 

 flower the first summer although it formed buds. It com- 

 menced to grow this year early in May and produced two 

 splendid flowers about the first of August. They were much 

 larger than any of the longiflorum type, an old-gold color in- 

 side with dark brown anthers and a texture so durable that the 

 flowers kept perfectly for ten days. 



In a review of the Rose exhibitions of the year in England 

 a correspondent of the London Garden says that the most suc- 

 cessful exhibition Roses were old and well-tried favorites, the 

 best among the hybrid perpetuals being A. K. Williams, 

 Charles Le Febvre, Victor Hugo, Marie Baumann, Mrs. John 

 Laing, Gustav Piganeau, Horace Vernet and Her Majesty. In 

 the Tea class, Edith Gifford, Madame Cuisin, Innocente 

 Pirola, Souvenir d'Elise, Comtesse Madaillac, Francisca 

 Cruger, Mart^chal Niel, Madame Hoste, Climbing Niphetos, 

 Madame De Watteville, Ernest Metz, the Bride, Marie Van 

 Houtte and Cleopatra. 



Many of the Hickories of northern New Jersey are losing 

 their leaves early on account of the attack of a fungus, Phyl- 

 losticta caryigena. In many cases trees were observed whose 

 foliage was quite brown by the middle of September, while 

 neighboring trees looked fresh and green. In one group of 

 three Hickories, on one of which the foliage seemed quite 

 dead, the trees on either side of it, and so close to it that their 

 branches touched, seemed entirely intact. The explanation of 

 this can only be that some individual Hickories are more sus- 

 ceptible to the attack of this fungus than others, and this is 

 true of many other plants and many other fungi. 



The October number of Meehans' Monthly contains a good 

 picture of the Queen of the Prairie, Spirjea lobata, and in his 

 account of the plant the editor calls attention to the fact that 

 this plant affords a good illustration of the remarkable rela- 

 tionship between the Atlantic flora of North America and the 

 flora of eastern Asia, a relationship to which the attention of 

 men of science was specially called by Professor Gray. In 

 many cases precisely the same species are found in both places, 

 while in other cases the species, though differing, are so closely 

 related that tlieir differences are scarcely to be noted. Spirasa 

 palmata, of Japan, so nearly resembles this Queen of the 

 Prairie that a casual observer would pronounce them the same 

 species, although a critical examination shows good botanical 

 distinctions. 



According to the Kew Bulletin, a tea made from a species of 

 Orchid has been drunk for some fifty years in France, and, 

 although it is an expensive luxury, finds an ever-increasing 

 sale. It is prepared from Angrsecum fragrans, a species allied 

 to the Vanilla-plant, which has a strong aromatic odor. The 

 leaves and stalks are simply dried, without any application of 

 heat ; and, to make the tea, a small quantity of them is placed 

 in a closed vessel filled with cold water, and boiled for ten 

 minutes. As witli ordinary tea, milk, sugar or rum may be 

 added to this decoction or not, according to taste, and it is 

 said to be equally agreeable whether drunk cold or hot. Ma- 

 terial sufficient to furnish fifty cups costs about fifty cents, and 

 its name in Paris, as in Mauritius, whence the custom of using 

 it is said to have come, is " Faham." 



We have received from Mr. Curtis A. Perry, of Braintree, 

 Massachusetts, specimens of what seems to be a double-flow- 

 ered Morning Glory (Ipomcea purpurea). The leaves are 

 heart-shaped and almost as large as those of Aristolochia 

 Sipho. The flowers are very much doubled, of a blush while 

 color streaked with a purplish blue. Mr. Perry writes that the 



plant is now profusely covered with these flowers, which stand 

 out well beyond the leaves and make a charming sight. The 

 seeds were brought from Mexico three years ago, and seeds 

 from the plant then grown have produced plants each year 

 since, in which the flowers are true to their double character. 

 Each year the plant has begun to bloom out-of-doors in Sep- 

 tember, but it flourished well as a pot-plant last winter in an 

 ordinary furnace-heated house. Altogether it is a most in- 

 teresting plant and promises to be a valuable one. 



We have received the first number of Gardening, a semi- 

 monthly paper published in Chicago, which, according to its 

 announcement, is " gotten up with the view of aiding every 

 one who is interested in a garden." The editor is Mr. William 

 Falconer, who is widely known as a well-equipped writer on 

 horticultural subjects, and who has been for many years head- 

 gardener at Dosoris, Mr. Dana's beautiful country-place on 

 Long Island, which has been more than once described in 

 these columns. Notes from the ornamental and useful plan- 

 tations of Dosoris will be a prominent feature of the new paper. 

 Mrs. Royle, better known by her maiden name of Emily Louise 

 Taplin, who is also an experienced writer, is a member of the 

 editorial staff and will be permanently located at the Chicago 

 office. The paper resembles the A?nerican Florist in size and 

 appearance, and the first number contains eleven pages of 

 well-prepared reading-matter. 



A correspondent inquires whether the bulbs of Hyacinths 

 which have bloomed in the house in winter can be used an- 

 other season. The answer depends on how the flowers are 

 grown. If they have been flowered in water the bulbs will be 

 useless for the future. If, however, a bulb is planted in good 

 potting soil, and the spike is cut off after the flowers have 

 faded, the plant, if kept properly watered, will continue to live, 

 and the roots and leaves will store up enough plant-food in the 

 bulb for use another year. By the way. Hyacinth-bulbs and 

 other Dutch bulbs which are needed for early flowering should 

 be planted at once and put in a dark place, or left out-of-doors 

 and covered up with soil or leaves until the roots have started. 

 They should not be brought to the light for five or six weeks, 

 and it will not hurt them to be frozen a little. In planting 

 leave the neck of the bulb uncovered and have the earth 

 firmly pressed about it. 



The Gardeners' Chronicle for September I7tli quotes at 

 length, and with elaborate comment, Bulletin No. 41 of the 

 Cornell Experiment Station on the "Comparative Merits of 

 Steam and Hot-water Heating for Greenhouses," at the close 

 of which we find the following editorial comment : " Incident- 

 ally, we may note the fact that the report which has formed 

 the subject of our comment is itself founded upon a thesis 

 prepared for a Bachelor's Degree by Mr. F. W. Card, at present 

 a Fellow in Horticulture. Imagine a student of Oxford, Cam- 

 bridge, and even London, writing a thesis on steam boilers for 

 a Degree of Horticulture ! Our American friends are a long 

 way ahead of us in these matters, and while we gardeners are 

 moaning over a low rate of wages, the overabundant supply 

 of gardeners and inadequate social status, the Americans are 

 extending the bounds of horticultural science, supplying a 

 more thorough education, recognizing talent by means of 

 university degrees, and thus, while raising the whole standard 

 of efficiency, they are lifting the gardener to the position he 

 ought to occupy." 



About ten years ago, some three acres of land in this city, 

 along the East River between Eighty-fourth and Eighty-sixth 

 Streets, which had been a sort of beer-garden or picnic- 

 grounds, were taken by the city and called East River Park. 

 Under the Small Parks Act last winter, seven acres were added 

 to this, which extended the water-front of the park to Ninetieth 

 Street. Behind the park is a very dense population, and before 

 it is deep water, which rushes through a narrow channel and 

 always brings with it a cool breeze. The portion just added, 

 and which is connected with the lower part by two bridges 

 which span Eighty-sixth Street, was once an old homestead, 

 and the house, a century old with broad piazzas, is left standing. 

 There are some good trees on the grounds, among them an 

 immense . Button-ball, probably the largest on Manhattan 

 Island. The plans for the improvement of this park have been 

 adopted, and the Department is actively at work in making it 

 ready, and it will be completed probably next year. No car- 

 riage-roads are provided, but there are playgrounds and 

 grass and shade, and from the high bluff above the river the 

 views to the north and east over the water are superb. Alto- 

 gether it is a wonderfully attractive spot, and for its size it will 

 be one of the most useful pleasure-grounds in the city. 



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