444 



Garden and Forest. 



[November 7, 1S88. 



In the ricli prairie soil of the Kansas Agricuhural Experi- 

 ment Station, where fertilizers and yard manure proved of 

 little value, an application of salt at the rate of 300 pounds to 

 the acre, increased the yield of wheat perceptibly. 



Mr. T. S. Brandegee has discovered this summer Piniis Tor- 

 reyana growing upon Santa Rosa, one of the small group of 

 islands which lie oft' the Californian Coast in the latitude nearly 

 of Santa Cruz. The discovery is an interesting one, as Pinus 

 Torreyana lias been considered one of the rarest and most 

 local of American trees, being known formerly only in one 

 very restricted locality in the neighborhood of San Diego, 

 California. 



Great baskets of the Fringed Gentian, the loveliest of all our 

 late autumn wild flowers, appear this year in Boston in the 

 hands of street flower-sellers. It would be difficult to con- 

 ceive anything more beautiful than the dark blue of this deli- 

 cate flower when thus seen in great masses. Very attractive, 

 too, are bunches of the bright-colored fruit of the Roxbury 

 Waxwork ( Celasfrus scandens), surrounded with Kalmia leaves, 

 which appear just now very popular with people who pur- 

 chase flowers in the streets of Boston. Every few minutes a 

 woman may be seen with one of these bunches on her dress or 

 in her hand. 



The tropical plants which have filled fhe two large vases in 

 front of the City Hall, in Boston, have been replaced with 

 Chrysanthemums in full bloom. The effect is excellent. The 

 decorative value of the Chrysanthemum is only just beginning 

 to be appreciated in this country, and they will grow in ]3opu- 

 larity as they become better understood. They can certainly 

 be used with great advantage in this way, and if early flower- 

 ing varieties^ to be followed by those which bloom later, are 

 selected for the purpose, there is no reason why vases and 

 many garden beds, especially in cities, cannot be made at- 

 tractive for at least six weeks after the frost has destroyed tlie 

 beauty of more tender planls. 



The gelatine which is contained in the " ediljle f>irds'-nests " 

 of the Orient, and which, of course, is what constitutes tlieir 

 nutritive quality, was once supposed to be a secretion from 

 the salivary glands of the bird itself — a species of svvift. But 

 it has been proved to be a Sea-weed, which the bird often 

 brings from long distances. Mr. J. B. Steere, writing recently 

 in the American Naturalist, tlescrilies a visit which he paid 

 under the guidance of professional nest-hunters to the caves 

 where these birds build in the Philippine Islands. They Ijuild 

 in utter darkness, and it takes about a month to complete a 

 nest. This the hunter must secure before the egg's are laid, 

 otherwise it would naturally be unavailable for culinary 

 purposes. 



A correspondent of the Revue Horticole, writing from Nancv, 

 speaks enthusiastically of the new race of hybrid Gladioli 

 obtained in the famous horticultural establishment of Mon- 

 sieur Lemoine, by crossing G. Saiuidersi with the so-called 

 Lemoine Hybrids, obtained by mingling the blood of G. aureo- 

 purpuratus with some of the varieties of G. Gandavensis. 

 The shape, size and the markings of the flowers of this new 

 race are said to be marvelous and to display a beautv hereto- 

 fore unknown among Gladioli. It is probable that one or 

 two of these varieties will appear in the new edition of the 

 Lemoine catalogue and will be offered for sale. Some of the 

 seedling Montbretias, raised in the same establishment, are 

 said to show great improvement in the form and in the color 

 of the flowers. 



The general introduction into commerce of lumber manu- 

 factured from the Gum-tree or Tupelo {Nyssa sylvatica) is 

 hindered by the practice of some dealers of attaching false 

 names to it, with the idea of disguising its real character. In 

 England it is sometimes called Satin Walnut in the trade ; in 

 this city it can be found under the name of Hazel-wood ; and 

 it has appeared as Arkansas Redwood. Gum is a valuable 

 wood when its peculiarities of excessive shrinking and warp- 

 ing are guarded against by proper methods of manufacturing 

 and seasoning, but it gains nothing by having- false and mis- 

 leading names attached to it. And in the same way Sycamore 

 lumber is just as valuable when it is called Sycamore as when 

 it is called Satin-wood, as is sometimes fhe case in eastern 

 markets. 



Colonel Pearson states, in the Pliiladelpliia Weekly Press, 

 that the cost of treating an acre of Grape vines with the copper 

 sulphate solution, which has proved efficacious against both 

 the black' rot and the mildew, need not exceed, for laljor and 

 material, ten dollars. The solution which he uses is known 

 as the Bordeaux mixture of copper sulphate and lime, the 



formula for which was given in the issue of Garden and 

 Forest fcir September 19th. This mixture is a whitish liquid 

 resembling somewhat thin milk of lime, and the precipitate 

 should be constantly stirred as the vines are sprayed through 

 a Cyclone nozzle. The first application should be made before 

 the vine-buds open in the spring, and in seasons favorable to 

 the growth of the rot fungus, it should be repeated every 

 three weeks. For a certain protection against the rot, every 

 cluster and every berry must lie reached by the spray, and 

 this can be easily accomplished with the machinery now at 

 command. 



Early grafting of the Cherry in the open air is always recom- 

 mended, and dormant buds are considered necessary in graft- 

 ing under cover. The advice is well founded, but the true 

 reason for it is rarely given. If the stock is as forward in 

 growth as the scion, a union of the two can he made cjuite late 

 in the season. The essential recjuisite is that the wood of 

 both should be in the same condition. In a late bulletin of 

 the Iowa College Experiment Station, Professor Budd cites an 

 instance where it became necessary late in April to take up 

 several valuable Cherry-trees loaded with fruit buds. All the 

 scions were cut off down to the two-year-old wood, and set on 

 Mazzard seedling roots in the graft-room. The grafts were 

 put in the nursery a few days later, and over ninety per cent, 

 of them made strong growth. In this case the buds were 

 started, on one variety, so as to exhibit the points of the em- 

 bryo leaves, yet the roots taken from the cellar had started 

 fully as much. If the seedling had been kept dormant in the 

 ice-house, probably not a single scion would have united with 

 them. This principle applies to all top-working in the open 

 air of Apple, Pear, Cherry, Plum, etc. If the work is deferred 

 until the buds on the stocks are well started, the scions should 

 be about equally advanced. 



In 1883 Professor Budd imported one-year-old Cherry trees 

 of such varieties as he considered promising for the north- 

 west, from the valley of the Moselle, in eastern France, and 

 eastward to the Volga, in Russia. The trees have, so far, 

 proved as hardy as our native Plums, and many of them 

 fruited heavilv this year. The fruit is satisfactory in quality 

 and color, but not in size. The smallness of the fruit may 

 have been due to the strong growth of new wood, induced by 

 severe cutting for scions in autumn. In a late bulletin Profes- 

 sor Budd recommends that these trees be headed low, and 

 adds that, even in western Europe, low cordon and bush training 

 of the Cherry is becoming common. In eastern Europe, in sec- 

 tions remote from large bodies of water, all stone fruit trees 

 are -headed low. In the Volga region the Chgrry is grown in 

 bush form, with several stems like the CtuTant or Gooseberry. 

 Experience has also favored very low stems, or even bush 

 form, in all the prairie states. Often the stems are fatally 

 injured when the twigs show no discoloration. Fortunately, 

 many of the east Europe varieties favor the shading of stems 

 by their pendent habit of growth. But even with these it is 

 best to have low stems, the lower the better. 



A hundred years have passed since the Botanic Garden at 

 Calcutta was established, and Dr. George King, the superin- 

 tendent, joins to his last annual report an interesting historical 

 sketch of this famous institution. It was founded by the East 

 India Company, upon the recommendation of one of its 

 servants. Colonel Robert Kyd, who became the first superin- 

 tendent, holding the position until his death in 1793. Among 

 his successors appear the names of many distinguished bota- 

 nists, of whom the best known are Roxburgh, the author of 

 the earliest Flora of India ; Wallich, whose three volumes 

 upon some rare Indian plants are among the most sumptuous 

 in botanical literature, and Dr. Thomas Thompson, the co- 

 worker with Sir Joseph Hooker in Indian botany. The garden 

 has been of immense service in making known and distrib- 

 uting Indian plants and in the introduction of useful plants, 

 like the Tea and the Cinchona, into Indian cultivation. The 

 garden was deva_stated by a terrible cyclone in 1864, and a 

 second cyclone, a few years later, almost ruined the few plants 

 which had escaped the first. A troublesome weed, Imperata 

 cylindrica, then spread rapidly over the ground of the whole 

 garden, which had become exposed to the sunlight by the 

 clestruction of the trees, and. when Dr. King was appointed 

 superintendent in i87!,itwasin a miseralile condition. Hehas, 

 however, entirely replanted the garden v\-ith reference to 

 landscape effect and erected new^ conservatories and a new 

 building for the immense herbarium, principally of Asiatic 

 plants, which is connected with the garden, and which is con- 

 stantly enriched with new collections. It is said that of the 

 trees which were growing in the garden in 1867, the great 

 Banyan tree is the onlv one now left standing. 



