March 21, 18S8.] 



Garden and Forest. 



o 



7 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



[ LIMITED.] 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 





Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 





ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 1888. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



EuiToRiAL Articles ; — Needs of American Poinolot^y — The Proposed Speed- 

 road ia Central Park. — Ghent Azaleas 37 



Landscape Gardening;, IV Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer. 38 



Horticniture in Florida A. H. Cnrtiss. 39 



A Disease of Certain Japanese Shrubs Professor Wolcott Gibbs. 40 



Foreign Cokrekpondence : — The Kew Arboretum Geo, Nicholson. 40 



Floral Notes from London Williavi Goldriiig. 41 



Plant Notes : — Hardy Eej2;onias. — Grevillea Thelemanniana. — Allium Nea- 

 politan um. — Ornithogalum Arabicum. — Ahebia quinata. — Strelitzia 



anj^usta 41 



Wayside Beauty (with illustration) 42 



Iris'bracteata {with illustration) Sercno Watson 43 



Sweet Peas A. H. Fcwkes. 43 



Polyanthus Narcissus 44 



Annuals for Cut Flowers Win. Falconer 45 



Hepatica and Blood-root. Professor W. W. Bailey. 45 



The Propagation of I\laa;nolias Jackson Dawson. 45 



Rules for Plantins; Wind-breaks Professor L. H. Bailey. 46 



The Forest : 



The Forests of Vancouver Island Professor John Macoun. 46 



Propagation of Conifers from Seeds in the Open Air Robert Douglas. 47 



Recent Publications; — Review of Forest Administration in British India for 



the year 1S85-6 48 



Recent Plant Portraits 48 



Periodical Literature : — Art Amateur. — Cassell's Family Magazine, — Long- 

 man's Magazine. — McMillan's Magazine 48 



Flower Market 48 



Illustrations :— A Country Road 42 



Iris bracteata 43 



Chinese Narcissus Grown in Water 44 



Needs of American Pomology. 



1. Statistics should be gathered to determine tlie relative 

 profitableness of fruit-growing in different localities. It is 

 now demonstrated that most parts of the country are 

 adapted to fruit-growing of some kind. For home use and 

 local markets, the cultivation of fruits of all kinds should be 

 encouraged over as wide an area as possible. But there 

 are some fruits whose productiveness varies greatly in 

 different sections, and nothing is gained to the country or 

 the individual by encouraging their cultivation on a large 

 scale in vmfavorable situations. 



To obtain more definite information than we now have 

 regarding the best situations for the various fruits, statistics 

 of the yield in different parts of the country for a series of 

 years are needed. These statistics might be thrown in 

 graphic form upon a map, showing at a glance the areas 

 over which a given fruit, say the peach, yields a fair crop 

 every year, other areas in which there has been a good crop 

 on an average once in three or five years, and still others in 

 which the trees rarely reach a bearing age. Something 

 of this kind could be done by horticultural societies. Let 

 statistics be taken at a few typical points, such as at 

 South Haven, in IMichigan, representing the "fruit belt," 

 and Jackson or Ann Arbor, representing the interior of the 

 State. Similar points for comparison might be chosen in 

 Pennsylvania, Delaware and other States. Information so 

 collected would help to show to what extent the fruits are 

 grown in the locations to which they are best adapted. 



2. It is time for an advance in the matter of classifying 

 varieties. The labors of Warder and the Downings need to 

 be enlarged and e-\'tended. A reliable manual for the 

 identification of fruits is greatly needed. Some promising 

 systeinatic work on the cultural varieties of fruits and vege- 

 tables has been done, but before satisfactory progress can 

 be made in this direction there must be good herbarium 

 collections of such plants. Cultural varieties are almost 

 unknovi^n in the herbanums of botanists, but collections of 



such varieties are a necessity for their proper study. The 

 distinctions between cultural varieties are so much less than 

 those between the natural species and varieties, that for their 

 proper study, it will more often be necessary to refer to the 

 living plants ; but the varieties which require to be studied 

 together cannot always be obtained at one time in the 

 living state, nor can they be maintained in the growing 

 condition at the proper stage long enough for that purpose. 



3. The systematic improvement of fruits needs more 

 attention. The more promising methods of obtaining 

 better varieties are : 



(rt. ) Selecting the best from among the varieties acci- 

 dentally produced. In this way nearly all our varieties in 

 cultivation have been obtained. A sharp eye, quick judg- 

 ment and a taste for trying new sorts are what is needed 

 for this purpose. 



(Z). ) Planting seeds of the best known varieties. Most 

 of these are of short standing ; many are of the nature of 

 sports ; but the tendency of like to produce like exists to 

 some degree in all of them and renders it probable that the 

 best varieties of the future will come from the best of those 

 we have. 



(c. ) Better cultivation and changes of soil and climate. 

 Favorable conditions are an important factor in the pro- 

 duction of improved varieties. The finest fruits, as a rule, 

 have arisen in the localities best adapted to their growth. 

 Unfavorable conditions may, however, be useful for testing 

 varieties before they are brought into general cultivation, 

 and a long continued breeding up in a given locality 

 may be necessary in order to produce varieties able to 

 withstand extreme conditions, as of cold or drought. 



(d.') The improvement of our wild fruits. These, by 

 reason of the long period of their development in the 

 country, are likely to be best adapted to its climate. Our 

 cultivated raspberries and blackberries indicate what may 

 be done in a short time with native species. 



(e. ) The importation of promising foreign fruits. Most 

 of our cultivated plants are importations. This is not 

 because our native resources of this kind are meagre, 

 but mainly Iiecause there has been a longer time abroad 

 in which to develop imjiroved varieties. Further importa- 

 tion of foreign fruits is especially needed, of kinds not 

 native to this country, and from regions having similar 

 climatic conditions. 



The Proposed Speed-road in Central Park. 



CP'.RTAIN gentlemen of this city who own fast horses 

 have been aiming for years to get possession of a 

 jiortion of Central Park and convert it into a road, broad, 

 straight and level, whereon their trotters may be speeded, 

 without any annoyance from vulgar animals or their 

 drivers. Some attempts at public meetings have been 

 made in order to invest the project with the dignity of a 

 popular movement ; but these have all proved melancholy 

 failures. Nevertheless a bill has been prepared, and is now 

 before the proper legislative committee in Albany, to au- 

 thorize the construction of such a road, one hundred feet 

 wide, and to compel the people to pay for the work of de- 

 solating their pleasure ground. The gentlemen who have 

 tried to organize these meetings for the spoliation of the 

 Park and who are throwing the weight of their influence in 

 favor of this bill are described as " opulent citizens." It 

 does not follow that a citizen is public-spirited because he 

 is opulent, but, as a matter of fact, some of the abettors of 

 this scheme have a certain civic pride andean generally be 

 counted on for the unselfish support of any measure look- 

 ing towards the city's welfare. It would not be surprising 

 that a man whose loftiest ambition is to be known as the 

 owner and driver of the fleetest trotting horse in the world 

 should be willing to turn the grassy stretches of the Park 

 into a bladeless desert to furiiish a track for the exercise 

 and display of this noble animal. The pity of it is that 

 one intelligent and fair-minded man can be found who 

 does not understand that the condemnation of any portion 



