264 



Garden and Forest. 



[July 25, 18 



ErythrONIUM Hendersonii, Gardener's Clirotiicle, May26th. 

 — A very beautiful species recently discovered in Oregon, witli 

 pale purple flowers. 



SeneciO cruent.^, Gardener's Chronicle, May 26th. — An in- 

 teresting figure showing the original Cineraria, with examples 

 of its modern development at the hands of florists. 



Heterosporum ornithogalli, Gardener's Chronicle, May 

 26th. — One of the so-called brown moulds, closely allied to 

 the fungus which causes cracks in Apples and Pears, which 

 lias attacked and destroyed the Ornithogalum in some places 

 in England. 



Notes. 



An international Horticultural Exhibition will be held at 

 Cologne from August 4th to September 19th. 



Professor Count Solms-Laubach, who succeeds Du Bary in 

 the chair of Botany at Strasburg, will in future conduct the 

 BotaniscJie Zeitung. 



It is proposed to hold an International Exhibition of Botani- 

 cal Geography, next year, in the city of Antwerp, similar in 

 general scope to the exhibition of a like nature given several 

 years ago in Copenhagen. 



The Ajnerican Forestry Congress and the Southern For- 

 estry Congress will both meet in the .State Capitol at Atlanta, 

 Georgia, on the 12th of November, the former in the Hall of 

 Representatives and the latter in the Senate Chamber. 



Dr. Maxwell T. Masters, the editor of the Gardeners' Chroni- 

 cle, and Vice-President of the Jury of Awards at the Interna- 

 tional Exhibition of Horticulture, held in Ghent in April last, 

 has been created a Chevalier of the Order of Leopold by the 

 King of the Belgians. 



Mr. W. Y. Klee, State Inspector of Fruit Pests for Califor- 

 nia, has received a consignment of the parasites which destroy 

 the cottony cushion scale in Australia. Experiments are in 

 progress to ascertain whether the parasite will prove equally 

 destructive of the scale \\\ California, and if so, this natural 

 foe of the scale will be cultivated with a view to hold in 

 check the ravages of this pest of Orange groves. 



Saturday, July 14th, was " Iris Day " at Horticultural Hall, 

 Boston. The display of Iris Kcempferi was very fine, those 

 shown by C. M. Atkinson, gardener to J. L. Gardner, Esq., be- 

 ing especially remarkable for size and variety. Edwin Fewkes 

 & Son exhibited four seedlings in this section, which were 

 equal to the finest imported varieties. President Wolcott 

 showed cut blooms of hardy Larkspurs which were simply 

 grand. 



Mr. E. S. Carman has succeeded in producing several hy- 

 brids of Rosa riigosa, fertilized by various Hybrid Remontants 

 and Tea Roses, and one, of which the male parent is Harri- 

 son's Yellow, was the first rose to bloom on his grounds at Rive]' 

 Edge, New Jersey, this year, and has been in flower ever 

 since. The flower has from thirty to thirty-five petals, which 

 resemble in color those of General Jacqueminot. The odor 

 is most delicate. 



In the largest nurseries in France not a harrow, cultivator, 

 plow, tree-digger or horse is to be found. The digging is all 

 done with a spade, and the stock is delivered to the packing- 

 yard in wheelbarrows. The ground is manured heavily, the 

 fertilizers being carried on the backs of women, who are paid 

 40 cents a day of twelve hours. These facts are from an ad- 

 dress by Mr. Irving Rouse, of Rochester, read at the late 

 Nurserymen's Convention. 



The Association of American Cemetery Superintendents 

 will hold its next meeting in Brooklyn, N.' Y., on Sept. 5th. 

 The object of this organization is to exchange ideas on the ini- 

 provement and beautifying of cemetery grounds. The officers 

 are : President, Charles Nichols, " Fairmount," Newark, New 

 Jersey; Vice-President, F. W. Higgins, " Woodmere," Detroit, 

 Mich.; Treasurer; L.J.Wells, " Greenwood," Brooklyn, New 

 York; Secretary, A. H. Sargent, " Glendale," Akron, Ohio. 



One of the most attractive features of the weekly free exhi- 

 bitions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society is the dis- 

 play of wild flowers. Several ladies make a specialty of 

 collecting and exhibiting tliese throughout the season, and as 

 they are correctly named, the botanical name as well as com- 

 mon name being given, the instructive value of the exhibition 

 is considerable. They attract as much attention from visitors 

 as do the more showy garden flowers and exotics. 



The white variety of Platycodon grandijloruin is now in con- 

 siderable demand as a cut flower on account of its adaptability 

 to use in formal designs. Some florists object to it because it 



looks like a paper flower when on a short stem. There is a 

 purple vai'iety, and occasionally the flowers come parti- 

 colored. It is most effective when the spikes of both colors 

 are set in vases, with the white kind predominating, and 

 with a dash of scarlet to give life to the arrangement. 



The Daisy-like flo\\'er of Chrysanthemum segetum is occa- 

 sionally seen in the windows of Philadelphia florists, but not 

 so often as it once was. It is a comnion wild flower in Europe, 

 where it is sometimes railed the Yellow Cornflower, the same 

 name that is applied to Centaurea suaveolens. This Chrysan- 

 themum is cjuite pretty when it first opens, but when left on 

 the plant a few days the centre grows out of proportion to the 

 outer or ray flowers. It is an annual, and when once estab- 

 lished comes up every year, becoming in time a weed, but 

 not a difficult one to exterminate. 



At the late meeting of the California State Board of Horti- 

 culture, Mr. B. M. Lelong, the Secretary, made an interesting 

 report on Olive culture, which lias become one of the regular 

 industries of tliat State, and is destined to grow largely, since 

 the production of Olive oil can hardly be overdone. There is 

 always a demand for pure oil ; but Mr. Lelong procured in San 

 Francisco five brands of oil, labeled Pure California Olive Oil, 

 which were far from being pure. One contained no trace of 

 Olive oil, and consisted of lard and Cotton-seed oil. Two 

 others had but 10 per cent, of Olive oil. Another registered 

 30 per cent. Olive oil, 35 percent, seed oils, and 35 percent, 

 lard, while the best sample contained more than 50 per cent. 

 of adulterants. 



In a private letter, Colonel Pearson, whose experience with 

 the rose bug is given in another column, writes that the Black 

 Rot appeared in Vineland on the 25th of June on varieties of 

 Grape most subject to attack. After considerable damage, the 

 disease seemed to subside, but appeared again July 12th. So 

 far, the Concords have suffered worst, and one-half of them 

 are destroyed. Ives are suffering more than usual, so are Nor- 

 ton's Seedling, while Moore's Early are nearly all destroyed. 

 Of fifty varieties on his grounds, only Noah, Elvira, Conqueror 

 and Iron-clad have entirely escaped. In the "Experiment 

 Vineyard," up to the i6th of July, the copper-sulphate seems 

 to have been an efficient preventive of the Grape Rot as well 

 as the Mildew. 



Whether or not plants have the power of taking nitrogen 

 from the air is not only an interesting question, from a scien- 

 tific point of view, but it is one of immediate practical bearing. 

 If this costliest of the elements of plant food can be obtained 

 from the air it would be of the first importance for farmers and 

 gardeners to know what plants have this- power, and under 

 what circumstances they can exercise it. This is one of the 

 problems to which Professor Atwater will g-ive his attention as 

 Director of the newly established Storrs School Experiment 

 Station, Connecticut, as he explains in a preliminary bulletin. 

 Professor Atwater has already paid much attention to this 

 question, and he is inclined to believe that leguminous plants, 

 at least, have the ability to secure a portion of their nitrogen 

 supply from the air. 



The Oak-pruner (5/'t-;;('C('r«j-/«/i;/'(i;-) is noticed to be un- 

 usually abundant in some parts of the country. The beetle' 

 deposits its a-g^ in the axil of a leaf stalk or small twig near the 

 extremity of a branch of either a White or a Black Oak ; the 

 grub when hatched eats its way through the pith, up the branch 

 for a considerable distance, and then, in order to reach the 

 ground, cuts off the branch, which is sometimes an inch through. 

 In order to destroy the grubs, which are capable of inflicting 

 serious injury, the branchesshould be gathered up and carefully 

 burned, or if they are not very abundant they can be cut out 

 of the branch and killed. It is not an uncommon sight this 

 year to see the ground under large Oak trees covered with the 

 ends of branches six mches to three feet long. They should 

 be gathered up daily and the grubs destroyed. 



The Royal Tuscan Society of Horticulture, established in 

 1854, numbers nearly 700 members. It has had a marked in- 

 fluence in encouraging improved methods of cultivation of 

 fruit, flowers and vegetables through its exhibitions. The 

 Tuscan School of Pomology and Horticulture, established in 

 1882, is under the direction of Professor Valvassori. Its object 

 is to train fruit and vegetable gardeners. The course of study, 

 which is theoretical and practical, extends through three years. 

 Boys between the ages of fourteen and seventeen are admitted, 

 preference being given to the sons of small farmers. There 

 are five professors, with an inspector and two gardeners, and, 

 at the present time, thirty-two pupils. The school possesses, 

 for purposes of practical instruction, an orchard and flower 

 and vegetable gardens. The entrance and tuition fees are e.x- 

 ceedinglv low. 



