May i6, i8S8.] 



Garden and Forest. 



135 



Some of the very men who are active in this project to 

 obhterate City Hall Park, secured liut a year ago the pass- 

 age of an act to authorize the expenditure of a million dollars 

 a year to construct new parks in the thickly peopled wards 

 of the city. But if ever these new parks transform a tene- 

 ment house district into an inviting neighborhood, they, in 

 turn, must liegin the same struggle for life which the older 

 ones haA'e been making for so many years, and with so 

 little hope. No urban park is safe until public sentiment 

 is educated up to a controlling belief that breathing space 

 in a city is quite as essential to the mental, moral and 

 physical health of its people as building space, and that 

 the very best use to which a certain portion of its territory 

 can be put, is to cover it with greensward and keep buildings 

 off of if 



The Revue Hortkole calls attention to the value of the oil 

 yielded by the seed of the " Oil tree " of China and Japan, 

 Aletiriles corda/a, or perhaps more correctly Ekvocca cordata. 

 This tree resembles in habit and in foliage the common 

 Fig tree. The fruit is a capsule the size of an Orange, 

 formed of several cells, each containing a large thick- 

 shelled seed. These seeds contain an active purgative 

 principle, and are not edible. They contain, however, 

 forty per cent, of their weight of a clear, colorless, limpid 

 oil, possessing remarkable siccative properties. This oil 

 is used largely in China and Japan in the manufacture of 

 lacquers, in making water-proof cloths, and in painting 

 buildings and for lights. An Oil tree five or six years old 

 may be expected, it appears, to produce an average 

 annual crop of from 300 to 400 pounds of seed. It thrives 

 on dry, sandy, rocky soil, and has been found to succeed in 

 some parts of southern France, where, and in Algiers, its 

 more general cultivation is now urged. Experiments with 

 this tree should be made in California, and as it is found 

 in the northern Island of Nippon, it may be expected to be 

 hardy in many parts of the United States. 



The principal flowers, especially the different varieties 

 of Roses, in some of the florists' windows in Boston, are 

 now conspicuously labeled. This adds much interest to 

 these displays, and gives them a real educational value. 

 It is a habit which might be adopted with advantage in 

 other' cities. 



Tubercles on Leguminous Roots. 



IT is generally believed that leguminous crops tend to 

 increase the nitrogenous matters in the soil. It is 

 also known that tubercles, often as large as peas and 

 sometimes larger, are frequently formed on the roots of 

 Beans, Peas, Clover and many other Leguminosje, and 

 the question has been asked whether there is any relation 

 between the formation of the tubercles and the increased 

 amount of nitrogen in the soil. Although the tubercles 

 were observed long ago by Malpighi, it was not until the 

 researches of Woronin, published in 1866, that any definite 

 account of their structure was given. Woronin found in 

 the cells of the Lupin-tubercles small bodies which he 

 thought were bacteria, or something like them, and he re- 

 garded the tubercles as diseased structures. The views o.f 

 Woronin were accepted at the time, but recently the sub- 

 ject has been studied by a number of botanists, and the re- 

 sults published have been so at variance with one another, 

 that one is still perplexed to decide whether the tubercles are 

 really the result of disease caused by some parasitic growth 

 or whether they are normal developments of the roots. 



Without speaking in detail of the many articles on the 

 subject which have appeared within the last five years, 

 it may be said that hardly a year ago a well known writer, 

 in reviewing recent observations on the nature of the tuber- 

 cles, stated that we could now consider it proved that the 

 bodies which Woronin supposed to be bacteria are in fact not 

 bacteria, but bacteroids or bodies of a nitrogenous charac- 



ter which serve as reservoirs of the surplus nitrogenous 

 material stored up by the plant. Hence, regarding the 

 tubercles as normally produced organs loaded with albu- 

 minoids, it would be easy to understand how a soil might 

 be enriched, as far as its nitrogenous composition is con- 

 cerned, by the growth of leguminous crops. 



Unfortunately, however, the question, which a year ago 

 was supposed to be so satisfactorily settled, is now once 

 more brought into the list of disputed questions. Prof 

 H. Marshall Ward, in a paper on the tubercular swellings 

 on the roots of Vicia Faba, gives a clear and accurate ac- 

 count of the tubercles which he thinks are morbid growths 

 and not normal reservoirs. Besides the bodies resembling 

 bacteria, there are hyphse or threads of a somewhat pecu- 

 liar structure found passing through the cells in the interior 

 of the tubercles, and it is his opinion that they enter the 

 tubercles through the root-hairs on the surface. Although 

 it is not certain how the bacteria-like bodies are formed. 

 Prof. Ward is inclined to regard them as more like some 

 of the yeast plants than bacteria and it may be that they 

 are produced by budding from the tips of the hyphae. At 

 any rate, several facts indicate that the tubercles are not nor- 

 mal structures, out are produced by contagion due to germs 

 or spores in the soil. Plants grown carefully^ in soils 

 which have been heated so that all germs have been 

 killed do not produce tubercles nor do plants grown in 

 chemically pure fluids. Tubercles may be produced on 

 plants grown in water-cultures by placing pieces of old 

 tubercles on the young roots. The subject is a difficult one 

 to study. Admitting that the origin of the bacteria-like bodies 

 still requires investigation, it can safely be said that the 

 tubercles are not normal structures. The peculiar threads 

 or hyphae can be seen by any observer, and, as they pass 

 through from one cell to another, it is far more likely that 

 they are parasites than that they are the cell contents 

 modified in some way. It may be, as some have sup- 

 posed, that the bacteria-like bodies have no connection 

 with the hyphse. That question seems to us still open, 

 although the parasitic origin of the tubercles seems estab- 

 lished. W. G. Farlow. 



We learn with great regret of the death of the Councillor 

 of State, Dr. Pancic, at Belgrade, in Servia, at over seventy 

 years of age. This distinguished scholar, who was widely 

 esteemed, and was especially beloved for the charm of his 

 personal qualities, devoted his life to botanical and zoologi- 

 cal investigations in his native country, and achieved most 

 noteworthy results in these lines of study. His was the 

 enviable lot of being able to combine patriotism with 

 science and to develop his activity on wholly unexplored 

 ground. His name is connected with the botanical open- 

 ing of Servia, and will always be associated in the most 

 honorable manner with the history of that countr)^ Among 

 the trees which he discovered it suffices to mention Picea 

 Omorikd, a very beautiful and characteristic species of Spruce. 

 To the last years of his life belongs a most interesting dis- 

 covery in dendrology — that of the Cherry-Laurel {Primus 

 Latiro-Cerasus), — for which Pancic first frxed a European 

 habitat in the Servian Balkans, thereby determining for 

 this shrub, which until then had been known only in Asia 

 Minor, a much wider geographical range. 



Botanical literature owes to Dr. Pancic a number of 

 works, the subject of which is mainly the Flora of his na- 

 tive land, but which deal also, in part, with that of Bul- 

 garia and Montenegro. Dr. Pancic lived in the most 

 favorable circumstances. The natural science of a whole 

 country seemed to a great extent to be embodied in him 

 alone. He was King Milan's teacher, and enjoyed to the 

 end of his life the entire confidence of this prince, as well 

 as in equal degree the respect and admiration of his fellow- 

 countrymen. He took a special interest in directing the 

 Botanical Garden at Belgrade, which was founded but a short 

 time ago, and is now under the practical control of a most 

 competent young sp xialist, Garden-Inspector Bornmueller. 



BerUn. C. Bolk. 



