October 31, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



421 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



I'UBLISIIED WEEKLY liV 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



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



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1888. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



EuiTOKiAL Ariicles : — Autumn Worlc Among the Trees. — West Indian Fruit 



Growing. — The Lime Tree on tlie Soutli Florida Keys 421 



The Charles River at Wellesley (with illnstralion) 422 



Cahfornia Woods in Autumn Edw. L. Greene. 422 



Tlie Centennial oi: the Fuchsia Ed. Atid?-c. 423 



Foreign Correspondence ; — London Letter //'. Goldring. 424 



New or Little Known Plants : — Hibiscus lasiocarpus {witli illustration). 



Sereno Watson. 425 



Cultural Department : — The Cultivation of Ferns CD. B:ill. 425 



Herbaceous Plants in Frames . . IVillimn EaU-oner. 427 



Orchid Notes E. GoUrmg 428 



Native Asters as Garden Plants Arifiur H. Ec-.ukes. 42S 



Mildew on Roses W. H. Taplin. 



Hardy Perennials — The New Tea Rose, Madame Hoste — Callicarpa pur- 

 purea — The Franklinia — The Loblolly Bay 



The Forest: — The Forest Vegetation of North Mexico. VIII.... C. G. Fringle. 



The Forests of Europe 430 



Correspondence : — The Responsibilities of Florists — The Exhibition of the 



Architectural League — Japanese Iris from Seed 430 



Notes 



Illustrations : — Hibiscus lasiocarpus, Fig. 68 



The Charles River at Wellesley 427 



429 



429 



429 



431 



426 



Autumn Work Among the Trees. 



ALL planting north of the latitude of this city is most 

 safely done in the spring. Further south the long 

 autumn enables trees, planted when the leaves are ripe, to 

 push out new roots and establish themselves before the 

 ground freezes. But where cold weather follows close 

 after the early frosts a tree planted in the autumn has no 

 opportunity to develop new roots, and therefore loses not 

 only the advantage it would have obtained in a more tem- 

 perate climate in an early and vigorous spring growth, but 

 it is forced to endure the severity of the winter without the 

 aid of roots in active working condition. Trees planted in 

 the autumn do not always die in the Northern States ; but 

 they are more apt to suffer than those planted in the spring; 

 they are often blown over unless carefully supported ■ and 

 they are frequently heaved by the frost or thrown out of 

 the ground entirely. But for all the operations connected 

 with the planting and the care of trees, except the mere 

 setting them in the ground, the autumn is the right time. 

 All planting plans should be completed, and all stock 

 selected, at this season, and the ground to be planted should 

 be prepared and ready to receive the trees. Our springs 

 are so short and the rush of spring work is always so 

 pressing that it is impossible to properly prepare the 

 ground for planting unless it is done during the summer 

 and autumn. This is the time, therefore, when northern 

 planters should decide what trees they want to plant next 

 spring, and just where they will plant them. It is the 

 time to select and order nursery stock ; and if the planter 

 has any facilities for protecting plants through the winter 

 in a cold cellar or pit this is the time to obtain them from 

 the nursery, rather than in the spring, when nurserymen 

 are crowded with orders, and too busy to devote proper 

 time and attention to digging and packing their trees. The 

 ground being prepared, the exact position of each plant 

 determined on and the plants on hand, the mere setting 

 them in the ground is the work of a short time. The man, 

 moreover, who is thus prepared beforehand for spring 

 planting can take advantage of the first suitable weather, 

 and get his plants into the ground as soon as the frost is 



out and it is dry enough to work; while if he waits for 

 material ordered in the spring, very often it will not be re- 

 ceived until after the trees have started to grow, and warm, 

 dry weather has set in. In a climate like that of our 

 Northern States, where summer follows hard after winter, 

 and where spring is almost unknown, there is no other opera- 

 tion of the farm or of the garden which demands more 

 carefully planned preparation — more forehandedness — 

 than tree-planting. 



The autumn, too, after the leaves have begun to fall 

 from the trees, is the best time to study plantations with 

 the view of determining which trees should be removed, 

 and which of those which are to remain need pruning. 

 The actual condition of a tree — its health and shape, and 

 its relation to its neighbors — is best determined after the 

 leaves, or many of them, have fallen ; and if trees are to 

 be marked for the axe, it should be done now, and before 

 really cold weather or snow makes the critical examina- 

 tion of each individual practically impossible. The au- 

 tumn, too, as has been explained in a recent issue of this 

 journal, is the best time for all ]3runing operations intended 

 to rejuvenate old trees or to bring unsightly ones into 

 shape. 



The man, therefore, who has trees, should devote some 

 portion of these autumn days to determining how he 

 can improve them by thinning or by pruning, or, if he is a 

 planter, in deciding where his next spring's plantations are 

 to be made, and what they are to be made of. 



West Indian Fruit Growing. 



ALAR jE part of the September issue of the Kew Bnl- 

 le/in of Miscel/aiieoiis Information is devoted to the 

 consideration of the fruit-producing capacity of the Island 

 of Dominica, a subject of very great interest to Americans 

 in view of the immense development, in recent years, of 

 the tropical-fruit business in the LTnited States and of the 

 probability of its much greater development in the future. 

 From its earliest settlement Dominica has been celebrated 

 for its fruit. As long ago as 1791 great quantities of 

 Oranges and Lemons of excellent quality were sent from 

 the island to England and the United .States, and some of 

 the neighboring islands, less fortunate in natural condi- 

 tions, were supplied from the Orange groves of Dominica. 

 Sixty different fruits, indigenous and exotic, are described 

 as reaching perfection on the island, which "of all the 

 British possessions in the Lesser Antilles is now regarded 

 as having the best promise of the development of a large 

 and remunerative fruit trade, not only with the Lhiited 

 States and Canada, but also with Europe. The islands 

 lying between Dominica and the mainland of North 

 America, with the exception, perhaps, of the small colony 

 of Montserrat, are not adapted for the cultivation of most 

 of the tropical and sub-tropical fruits, by reason of the 

 droughts to which they are sometimes subject. Thus it 

 happens that Dominica is the nearest fruit-producing island 

 of the Lesser Antilles to the Lhrited States and Canada, and 

 it is also the nearest of the West Indian fruit islands to 

 Great Britain. This is an important fact in regard to the 

 future of the fruit trade between Great Britain and North 

 America and the Lesser Antilles, for with so perishable an 

 article as fruit even a few hours' curtailment of an ocean 

 voyage means sometimes all the difference between profit 

 and loss. Possessing a fertile soil, unsurpassed in any 

 other part of the world, an abundant rainfall, and a wide 

 diversity of climate, owing to the mountainous nature of 

 the country, the capabilities of Dominica for the culture 

 of tropical and sub-tropical fruits can scarcely be over- 

 estimated." 



In spite of its natural advantages the fruit business of 

 Dominica is still in an unsatisfactory condition, the value 

 of the total fruit exports for the year 1887 having been un- 

 der $50,000, which is about three times, however, the 

 value of the export ten years before. This is due no doubt 

 to the want of energy and enterprise on the part of the 



