312 



Garden and Forest. 



[August 22, 1888. 



Rudbcckia laciniata is a grand subject for )nassiiig by the 

 side ot brooks or lakes. It grows to the height of five or six 

 feet. The yellow ray fiorets droop, while the cone-like centre 

 is larger than that of R. hirta — resembling a lady's thimble. 

 It grows wild in limited quantities near Chestnut Hill, Phila- 

 delphia. 



In experimenting witii some insecticides, Professor Forbes 

 found that forCurculio on l^lum. Peach or Cherry, one pound 

 of London Purple to one hundred pounds of water was ef- 

 fective. When used in a ratio of one to fifty the foliage was 

 injured, and when used in a ratio of one to 200 the curculio was 

 not killed. 



South-western Michigan has become one of the great 

 peach-growing regions of the Unitetl States. The strip of 

 land where this fruit finds most favorable conditions is but a 

 few miles in width, but it extends along the shore of the lake 

 for half the length of the State. 



A Palm tree, seventy years old, four feet in diameter and 

 sixty feet high, was lately removed from the grounds of a Mr. 

 Saunders at Los Angeles, California, to the grounds of the 

 Wolfskin Station of the Southern Pacific Railroad. A body of 

 earth ten feet square and six feet thick was taken with the 

 roots. The apparatus used was similar to that used in mov- 

 ing l.iuildings. 



The exhibition at Columbus, Ohio, which will celebrate the 

 centennial of the State this coming autumn will include a col- 

 lection of some 700 species and varieties of trees and shrubs 

 planted by Messrs. Thomas Meehan & Son. None of these 

 plants will compete for any premium, and it is to be hoped 

 that visitors will appreciate the opportunity for instruction 

 thus liberally offered. 



The cut-flower trade lasts for only six weeks at Bar Harbor. 

 Sweet Peas are very popular there this season, especially the 

 light-colored varieties. Many of the stone walls surrounding 

 the cottages are planted along the crest with Nasturtiums and 

 other flowering vines, producing a beautiful effect. The 

 " Pine and Palm " is one of the most artistically furnished 

 flower-stores in the country. The cosy little office in the rear, 

 with its great stone fire-place, is much admired. 



One corner of the famous Luxembourg Garden in Paris is 

 devoted to the cultivation of Apples, and contains an assort- 

 ment of 232 varieties. About the first of November of each 

 year the harvesting of the fruit is completed, and the Apples 

 are divided into three lots. The lot which includes the finest 

 fruit is a perquisite of the Prefect of the Seine ; the second is 

 given to the Val-de-Grace Hospital, and the third is sold to 

 the restaurants of the city. The orchard is also useful as a 

 source for grafts, which are distributed without charge. 



Fine varieties of Salpiglossis sinnata are seen this summer 

 in the windows of some Boston florists. The flowers of this 

 showy Chili annual have been greatly improved of late years, 

 especially by French gardeners. The colors, which range 

 from dark purple and blue to clear yellow, and are variously 

 striped, are now "fixed," and come true from seed. The 

 plants are easily and cheaply raised, and the flowers, which 

 last well when cut, make an attractive and very useful addi- 

 tion to florists' material. 



On Saturday, August nth, the Garden Committee of the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society paid a visit to the beau- 

 tiful estate of R. M. Pratt, Esq., at Watertown, Mass. They 

 were conducted through the green-houses and grounds by 

 Mr. David Allan, the head gardener, and as this is one of the 

 best kept estaolishments aroimd Boston, the visit was one of 

 great pleasure. Among the interesting objects shown by Mr. 

 Allan were several large trees in whose trunks or large limbs 

 decayed cavities had been filled with elastic cement, thus ex- 

 cluding the air, and in every case the bark has begun to close 

 up over the cement, with indications of health and vigor. 



Tlie La France Rose is a greater favorite with flower buyers 

 111 Philadelphia than in any other city. Rose-growers for that 

 market like it, too, and some go so far as to'say that it is the 

 most profitable variety they can grow. There is an increase 

 in the number planted for next winter's blooming over last 

 year, which may have a tendency to make it cheaper. Its one 

 fault with the grower is a liability to " black spot," which it 

 shares with W. F. Bennett, American Beauty and Puritan. 

 The Hybrid Teas are more inclined to black spot than any of 

 the true Teas or Hybrid Remontants. Is this tendency in 

 American Beauty to be taken as evidence that it, too, is a 

 Hybrid Tea? 



Lirlia Eycriiianii is a noteworthy acquisition recently intro- 

 duced liy F. Sander & Co., of St. Albans, England, and named 

 by Prof. Reichenbach, in honor of Mr. J. Eyerman, of Easton, 

 Pa., who is an ardent and a most enthusiastic grower of Orchids. 

 The plant is distinct, although resembling L. majalis. Its flower 

 spikes are remarkable, having conspicuous well developed 

 leafy bracts at the base of the flower-stems. Several flowers 

 as large as those of Lcelia Gouldiana are borne on a single 

 spike, with sepals and petals of a rosy purple, and lip of a rich 

 crimson with a fine white throat. Their fragrance is very 

 pleasant, resembling that of Orchis coriophora. 



In these days of "decorative art" it is interesting to learn 

 that exotic plants are said to have been first cultivated in 

 northern Europe at Paris, for the purpose of furnishing the 

 embroiderers of the time with new and effective patterns. 

 Constructions of glass were used for the purpose and as early 

 as the thirteenth century were to be found in several places 

 beyond the Rhine. Albertus Magnus, the famous " school- 

 man," and Bishop of Ratisbon was accused of magic by his 

 contemporaries on more grounds tlian one, but one was his 

 ability to make plants grow and bloom in winter. In' Janu- 

 ary, 1247, he entertained the King of Holland at Cologne, and 

 a feature of the occasion was the exhibition of his forced 

 fruit-trees and blooming plants. 



A minute hemipterous insect, Triplilcps insideosus, closely 

 related to the chinch bug, is doing considerable injury among 

 some of the Chrysanthemum collections near Boston this 

 summer by f)iercing the ends of the shoots, causing them to 

 "go blind " and the leaves to curl up and wither. The insects 

 are so small and move so rapidly that it is almost impossible 

 to see them, much less to catch them, and there seems no 

 way to destroy them without injuring the plants. Pieces of 

 cloth, which are kept saturated with kerosene oil, and bound 

 around the ends of slender stakes, stuck in the ground among 

 the ]ilants so that the saturated cloth is about on a level with 

 the ends of the shoots, seems to have the effect of driving 

 away the insects, or, at least, a part of them, and may be the 

 means of saving many flowers. 



Mr. L. W. Gooifell, of Dwight, Massacliusetts, has flowered, 

 this year, a plant of Eiiryale fero.x, a native of India and 

 China, and, next to its near relative, the Victoria, the largest 

 aquatic plant known. Like Victoria, it is an annual, with 

 spiny, strongly-ribbed, circular leaves, fully two feet across, 

 and armed flower-stalks and calyx, but the flower is violet in 

 color, and not larger than that of the common wild Water 

 Lily. This plant is said to flower freely in the open air in 

 Pekin, where the climate is not unlike that of our Northern 

 States, so that there is a chance, at the South at least, that it 

 may become naturalized. Otherwise it will not be very often 

 seen probably in this country, as the flowers are neither 

 sufficiently interesting nor sufficiently beautiful to justify any 

 great trouble or expense in raising it. They are less beau- 

 tiful than the flowers of the Victoria, which many of the 

 Nymphseas far excel in charm and beauty. Mr. Goodell ex- 

 hibited sections of the leaves of the EuiyaJe before the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society on the nth of August. 



Those horticultural visitors to New York this week who are 

 interested in trees should make a point of seeing the I\Iag?io- 

 lia hypoli'iica (see page 305 of this i.ssue) On Eighty-seventh 

 Street and East River, and the Japanese Elm [U/?iiits parvi- 

 folid) in Central Park near the Seventy-second Street en- 

 trance from Fifth Avenue, which was also brought to this 

 country Iw Mr. Thomas Hogg. These are certainly the two 

 most interesting exotic trees on Manhattan Island, and they 

 have, of their khids, no equals in size in the LInited States, or 

 perhaps in Europe. Prospect Park, too, in Brooklyn, should 

 lie visited. The public have a very inadequate idea of that park 

 which is the most beautiful in the LJnited States, and which is 

 considered by good judges to be the best example of a large 

 city-park now existing. Horticulturalists will find in it many 

 rare and interesfing trees. A specimen of the green-leaved 

 Japanese Maple {Acer polyinorphum), near the restaurant, has 

 no equal, perhaps, in the Lhiited States, in size. On the main 

 drive beyond the lake is certainly the finest specimen of the 

 rare Acer pictutii {A. latum and A. Colchicum rubrwn of 

 some authors) in cultivation. The two Silver Lindens {Tilia 

 argentea and T. pctiolaris) are conspicuous features in Pros- 

 pect Park, and may be seen there in greater profusion and 

 beauty than elsewhere in the United States. The number of 

 good specimens of some of the rarer Conifers in the Park 

 is considerable also. 



