August 15, iSSS.] 



Garden and Forest. 



289 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



rllBLlSHED WEEKLY IlV 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office; Tribune Blmlding, New Yokk. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



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



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, li 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



I'AGF. 



EuiToKiAi, Articles: — Work for the Experiment Stations. — Notes from a 



French Garden. — A Protection Against Forest Fires 289 



The Pines in July Jlfrs. Mayy Trent. 290 



Foreign CoKRESl-oNnRNCE ; — London Letter W. GoUirlng, 291 



New or I rni.E Known Plants 1 — Rhododendron brachvcarpum (with illus- 

 tration) C. S. S. 292 



Cultural Department ; — The Fruit Garden E. Williams. 292 



A Few Summer Ro.'^s ]V. 293 



Christmas Roses — Lvchnis — Ripen tlie Wood — Orcliids in Bloom — Sur- 



tate lillage — Celery 293 



Plant NjrES : — A Manchurian Bird Cherry (with iUustrati<:in) C. S. S. 295 



The European Lake-Flower Ckas, C. Abbott. 295 



Malformation of Cabbage Leaf (with illustration) F. H. Knoivlton. 296 



Notes from the Arnold Arboretum J. 296 



The Fokest : — The Forests of the United States H. C. Putnam. 297 



Correspondence 298 



Recent Pu blications 299 



RrCENT Plan r Portraits 299 



Notes 300 



Illustrations : — Rhododendron brachycarpum, Fig. 46 293 



Pi^unus Padus, Fij^. 47 295 



Malformed Cabbage Leaf, Fig. 48 296 



Work for the Experiment Stations. 



I3LANT breeding- bears the same relation to horticulture 

 that stock breeding- does to animal husbandry. The 

 advance of modern horticulture is most marked in the in- 

 creased number and improved quality of varieties, and 

 in this direction lies the brightest hope of future progress. 

 The study of soils is the task of the agricultural chemist 

 The study of plant diseases falls naturally to the botanist, 

 and that of insects to the entomologist. But the study 

 of plant development is the legitimate field of the horti- 

 culturist, and here he may expect his highest achievement. 



And )'et the systematic pursuit of plant breeding is 

 scarcely compatible with practical horticulture. Its results 

 are too slow, too costly and too uncertain to offer 

 pecuniary reward, yet the labor itself requires a high de- 

 gree of scientific knowledge and skill. It is just here that 

 the Experiment Stations should come to our aid. They 

 should develop a new class of specialists, whose entire 

 time should be devoted to the work of plant improvement. 

 This labor can undoubtedly be best advanced by judicious 

 cross-fertilization, and the art of crossing should be re- 

 garded as the first requisite in this new profession. The 

 desultory and unsystematic, and even haphazard, efforts 

 that have been made in this field of experiment in the past, 

 have yielded such truly valuable results that we are 

 abundantly justified in hoping for greater results, from 

 the pursuit of cross-fertilization in a thoroughly scientific 

 manner. 



Many are now looking to our Experiment Stations for 

 achievements in this very field, and indeed some success 

 has already been attained in it. But the vast amount of 

 time required in the work of cross-breeding, when done 

 systematically, makes it impossible for the regular horticul- 

 turist of the station to accomplish much in this direction. 

 Those who have not attempted it have little idea how 

 tedious and trying is the actual work in this direction. A 

 half day's patient labor will often yield but a score or two 

 of poUenized flowers. Many of these may fail. But with 

 those which live the labor has but just begun. The fruits, 

 which contain the coveted seeds, must be carefully 



watched throughout the season in order that they may not 

 be lost. The following year the plants must be grown, 

 their characters noted and selections made. It will often 

 happen that, after a generation or two, the progeny of a 

 single cross -will have become so extensive and will offer 

 so many promising lines for selection, that it will prove no 

 small undertaking to keep informed of its current history, 

 and the horticulturist who has much other experimental 

 work on hand will be tempted to give up in despair. 



A moment's thought will satisfy any one that a specialist 

 at cross-fertilization need never lack for work — at least not 

 after the first season. Different plants are in blossom at 

 various times from early spring until autumn. Then there 

 is the growing of the crossed plants, with the careful study 

 of their characters, that those worthy of further trial may 

 be selected. In order to possess the ability to make such 

 selections wisely, the workman must be thoroughly con- 

 versant with existing varieties. This would require much 

 patient observation and study. The winter season could be 

 profitably spent in writing out the results and studying the 

 records of what others have accomplished in the same 

 field. With a green-house at command, much could be 

 done to supplement the summer's work. 



It is to be hoped that the directors of some of our Ex- 

 periment Stations will appreciate this opportunity that lies 

 open in the department of horticulture, and will make 

 provision for a specialist of the kind here pointed out. But 

 the mistake must not be made of supposing that any man 

 who chooses to apply is competent for the position. On 

 the contrary, it is a labor in which few men can be ex- 

 pected to succeed. It demands a considerable knowledge 

 of botany, a thorough knowledge of horticultural varieties, 

 and the ability to read accurately French and German lit- 

 erature. But most important of all, it requires a man who 

 has a genuine love for the work, without which success in 

 experimentation is quite impossible. 



Notes from a Frencli Garden. 



The following extracts from a personal letter lately 

 received by the editor of this journal from M. Charles 

 Naudin, director of the Gardens of the Villa Thuret in the 

 south of France, are of general interest : 



"We have had a very severe winter in Provence; the cold has 

 lasted much later in the spring than usual, and many plants 

 have suffered in consequence; but with the month of May the 

 heat returned, and many young trees. Eucalypti and others, 

 ■\vhich I feared were entirely dead, now show signs of life 

 again. Such severe tests have their uses, as they establish the 

 hardiness of plants, which otherwise might not have been 

 thought capable of supporting our climate. You will be glad to 

 heari perhaps, that the gigantic Yucca fiUfera* flowered here 

 profusely during the month of May. Its enormous panicle of 

 flowers, more than three feet long, descending in a white 

 cascade from the top of the plant, was the admiration of 

 all who saw it. We have five well-grown specin-iens of this 

 remarl^able Yucca in the garden here, and among them there 

 are one or two which flower every year. Yucca Treculiana 

 and Y. Draconis, which almost rival it in size and beauty, also 

 flower here every year. 



" You sent me a few years ago seeds of Heteroinclcs arbuti- 

 folia.\ They grew well and theyoung trees are now in flower. 

 It is a valuable addition to our southern gardens. The 

 Olncya Tesola, the seed of which was sown a couple of months 

 ago, are doing well, too. I have sent the seeds of this iiuer- 

 esting tree to a large number of gardeners in soutliern France 

 and in Algeria. 



" Nothoscorduiii fragrans, an American plant, is now iiatural- 

 ized in the entire Mediterranean Basin; it abounds in this gar- 

 den, where it propagates itself; and what is still more remark- 

 able, this plant is now completely naturalized in Mauritius 

 aud in the Island of Bourbon, whence bulbs have been 

 sent me under the name of Ulilla Borbonica. It is used there 

 as a vegetable. 



" I have lately received from Bolivia seeds ;ind tubers of a 



'^- See Garden and Forest, pages 78 and 79, Figures 13 and 14. 



t (.A. small evergreen tree of llie Rose Family peculiar to the California eoast, 

 where, in the autumn and winter months, wheii covered with its handsome red 

 fruit, it makes a conspicuous object. — Ed.] 



