332 



Garden and Forest. 



[September 5, 1888. 



half inches. They are remarkably handsome, always sound, 

 smooth and fair ; indeed, a wormy one is hard to find and 

 Ijlemishes of any kind are rare. What peculiar properties 

 the tree possesses, wliy it should escape insect attacks and 

 always present the same smooth and wax-like appearance in 

 the midst of other varieties liadly affected, is another unsolved 

 problem. This fact, together with its other good qualities, 

 increases my appreciation of it every year, so that, all things 

 considered, it commends itself as the best Apple of its season 

 that I have grown. The smallest specimens of an inch in 

 diameter are as perfect as the larger ones, which is not true 

 of any other Apple with which I am acquainted. 



Since writing the above the report of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture has come to hand, in which the 

 chief of the Pomological Division has this to say of the Sum- 

 mer Rose : " In my opinion this little favorite surpasses Caro- 

 lina June, Early Harvest, and all other early Apples. It is as 

 early as any, begins to bear soon after planting, and seldom 

 fails to carry a full crop, even when most varieties fail. The 

 tree has a beautiful, round head, the branches are stout but 

 not heavy, with ver)' distinct gray dots upon the new growth. 

 It is essentially a family Apple, beginning to ripen witli the 

 very earliest, and continuing for about six weeks. It sells well in 

 market, but is more especially a dessert variety. It originated 

 in New Jersey. Size ; small, two to three inches ; shape : flat 

 to round, regular; surface: very smooth; color: white, with 

 stripes and splashes of the most delicate tints of carmine ; 

 dots, very small ; basin, wide, abrupt and rather deep, regu- 

 lar ; eye, small and colored ; cavity, narrow, regular, not rus- 

 seted ; stem, usually quite short ; core, large, closed, regular, 

 meeting the eye ; seeds, numerous, short and plump, light 

 brown ; flesh, white, with rarely a tiat of pink next the skin ; 

 fine-grained, tender, crisp, juicy, except when over ripe ; fla- 

 vor, sub-acid, very pleasant ; quality, as good as the best of 

 the early kinds ; season, June to August, in the Central 

 States." 



In conclusion, let me call attention to the unusual preva- 

 lence this season, among the early apples, of that insidious 

 enemy, the apple maggot. The Jersey Sweet has been unfit 

 for anything but stock food for years past from the presence 

 of these insects, and Golden Sweets have been nearly as bad. 

 This season Primate, Astrachan and Early Harvest have been 

 affected. The increase of this pest gives abundant cause 

 for alarm, and measures must be sought for checking its 

 progress, or our early apples are doomed. 



Montclair, N. J. E. IVilliams. 



H}' 



•acinths for Forcing. 



SELECTIONS should be made and bulbs secured as soon 

 now as possible ; the sooner ordered the better the stock 

 will probably be, and the prices are not likely to be lower. 

 Besides, one of the chief points to observe in forcing Hya- 

 cinths is to have them potted early, so as to give them a long 

 season to fill the pots full of roots before winter sets in. 

 Well-rooted Hyacinths usually throw up perfectly developed, 

 strong flower spikes ; poorly-rooted bulbs produce mal- 

 formed spikes or often fail altogether; indeed, no poorly- 

 rooted Hyacinth is fit for early forcing. Many growers pot 

 Hyacinths for succession, say, a lot about the first of Sep- 

 tember, and others at intervals of three or four weeks till the 

 end of October, but this plan has no advantages. Some varie- 

 ties naturally flower earlier than others, and,\vith a judicious 

 selection of varieties when forcing time comes, and liy in- 

 troducing the earliest kinds first to the forcing-house, a con- 

 tinuous supply can be maintained from the first of February 

 till April. 



The deep Hyacinth pots are the best, but ordinary flower 

 pots are good enough. One bulb in a five-inch pot, or two 

 or three bulbs in a six-inch pot are sufficient. In this way 

 Hyacinths can be used to advantage as pot plants in the 

 window or green-house. But florists who grow Hyacinths 

 for cut flowers only, seldom pot them at all, but grow them 

 in flats, three to four inches deep, and of any convenient size. 

 The bulbs are set one or two inches apart. 



Any fresh, fibrous, loamy soil, such as is used for pot-plants, 

 will answer for Hyacinths, but a little extra sand helps it. 

 Rotted sods, with one-fourth its bulk of well-rotted cow 

 or barn-yard manure or leaf soil and one-fourth of sharp pit 

 or river sand, is a capital compost. Be cautious about using 

 much manure in the soil; rather apply stimulants from the 

 surface after the bulbs are started in the forcing-house. And 

 never use fresh, wet or pasty manure. 



All bulbs will grow and bloom well if in potting they are 

 l>uried in the soil, as is the practice with Freesias, Alliums 



and Crocuses, and nearly all of them will flourish as well if the 

 liulbs are partly above ground, as Cyclamens and Hyacinths 

 are usually grown. In potting, place the Hyacinth bulbs two- 

 thirds their depth in the soil, and throw a dash of clean sand 

 vHider and about them, to induce ready rooting and lessen any 

 tendency to decay. 



After potting them water from above through a fine rose 

 and place them close together in some cool place (but not 

 under trees) out of doors, bank them over with four or five 

 inches of earth, sand or ashes, and let them stay there till 

 November, when they may be taken indoors to a cool part of 

 the cellar or shed, aud there again covered with earth, cocoa- 

 nut fibre, lialt decayed leaves, or other material, but the 

 covering now need not be so deep as it was out of doors. 

 Never allow frost to reach the bulbs ; at the same time 

 keep the temperature of the place where they are stored be- 

 low 45°. 



By the first of January some of the bull>s will begin to grow a 

 little. A few of the most advanced may then be brought into 

 the green-house, and kept for the first eight or ten days in a 

 shacly place and in a temperature of 45" to 50-. After that time - 

 remove to a warmer temperatine, say 60'^ to 65^. But until 

 growth advances pretty well, do not place them in a light, sunny 

 place ; it is a good plan to invert a flower pot over newly 

 exposed crowns for a week or more, till the foliage and 

 flower spike grow up a little and assume a greener color. 

 High, collar-like bands of stiff paper or tin are used for the 

 same purpose. After the Hyacinths come into bloom it is 

 well to remove them to a moderately cool room or green- 

 house, say 45° to 50", in order to stiflen the stems and prolong 

 the duration of the flowers. 



Catalogues are filled with varieties of Hyacinths, and it often 

 is hard to choose the most serviceable sorts. Those mentioned 

 in the annexed list are all excellent and weU-tried varieties for 

 cultivation in pots. The double varieties are not as desirable as 

 the single ones, and there are not many good yellow varieties. 



Single - Flowered H v.acinths. — White. — Alba maxima, 

 Baron Van Thuyl, La Grandesse. 



White, with rose shade. — Grandeur a Merveille. 



Light red. — Charles Dickens, Fabiola, Lord Macauiay, Mrs. 

 Beecher Stowe. 



Dark red. — Amy, Garibaldi, Pelissier, \'on Schiller. 



Blue. — Charles Dickens, Czar Peter, Leonidas, Lord Derby. 



Dark blue. — General Havelock, King of the Blues, Sir Henry 

 Barkley, William the First. 



Yellow. — Ida, Bird of Paradise, Obelisk. 



Double-Flowered Hyacinths. — White. ^Florence Night- 

 ingale, La Tour d'Auvergne, Prince of Waterloo. 



Rose. — Grootvoorst, Lord Wellington. 



Dark red. — Louis Napoleon, Sans Souci, Waterloo. 



Light blue. — Blocksburg, Remfirandt, Lord Nelson. 



Dark blue. — Garrick, Laurens Koster, Louis Phillippe. 



Yellow. — Goethe, Jaune Supreme. William Falconer. 



Glen Cove, N. Y. 



Notes from the Arnold Arboretum. 



Tilia dasvstyla [T. cuclilora of C. Koch, a name which he 

 thought more appropriate than the much older one of dasys- 

 tyla), is certainly, in foliage at least, the handsomest of all the 

 Lindens. The ample leaves are thick and somewhat leath- 

 ery, dark, deep green and beautifully shining on the upper 

 surface, while the lower surface is paler green, with rattier 

 small tufts of light brown hairs in the axils of the veins. The 

 young branches are conspicuous from the bright green of the 

 bark which covers them. This tree is a native, probably, of 

 the mountains of Asiatic Turkey and of the Caucasus. It is 

 not very often seen in cultivation, although of late years it 

 has been somewhat planted in Berlin and other German cities, 

 and it is occasionally met with in English nurseries. Here 

 the plants, although still young, are perfectly hardy; they have 

 not flowered yet, and, of course, give no idea of the habit this 

 tree will assume here, or of its probable value in American 

 plantations. Has any one else planted this tree in the LInited 

 States ? If so he will confer a favor upon the Editor of this 

 journal by communicating to him the results of his experi- 

 ences with it. 



The Sorrel Tree, or Sour- wood {Oxydt-tuh-uin arboreum), 

 sometimes called also the Lily-of-the-\'alley tree, on account 

 of the shape and color of its flowers, is now blooming. It is 

 \\\& Andromeda arhorea (the first name) of some of the old 

 collections. The .Sour-wood is hardly more than a tall shrub 

 at the north, here rarely attaining a height of more than ten or 

 twelve feet, but in the south, in the mountain forests of Caro- 

 lina and Tennessee, where it grows in its greatest perfection. 



