450 



Garden and Forest. 



[November 14, 1888. 



fectly glabrous and bright green, or softly pubescent, and 

 very frequently resinous-puberulent, in which case, as in 

 other species, the teeth are usually also glandular-serrulate. 

 The inflorescence is ordinarily wholly smooth, hispidness 

 occurring but rarely on either the pedicels or an)' part of 

 the flower. As in all the other species of that region, in 

 distinction from most of those of the Rocky Mountains and 

 the East, the sepals never have lateral appendages or lobes. 

 The fruit is globose or somewhat depressed, of a bright 

 scarlet, and often over half an inch in diameter. 



Our figure has been drawn by Mr. Faxon from a plant 

 grown at the Arnold Arboretum. .S'. IV. 



Cultural Department. 



Vegetables in Frames. 



A MONG the vegetables now in frames are Lettuces, 

 -^"^ Radishes, Parsley, Endive, Chives, Spinach, Dandelions 

 and Sorrel. All trames containing these should occupy warm, 

 sheltered places, with a full sunny exposure, and be so situated 

 that snow or rain-water will readily run away from, rather than 

 lodge about, them. The more sunny and sheltered the ex- 

 posure, the better will the vegetab'es thrive and the less cover- 

 ing will they need to exclude frost. See that the frames are in 

 good repair; that all parts fit properly and snugly; that no 

 openings are left at the ends of the rafters or elsewhere in the 

 frames for the searching winds of winter to find. And see 

 that the sashes are well glazed. If they are not perfectly water- 

 tight, take a sash-brush and some thick white paint and run 

 along the sash-bars, so as to close up any apertures by the 

 edges of the glass through which water mav drip. Have the 

 frames well banked around with earth or coal-ashes, or if you 

 use manure or leaves, lay a board on top of these to Iceep them 

 dry. 



While it is well to have the ground in which these frame 

 crops are growing moderately moist, it should not be kept 

 soaking wet, as must be the case where frames have been left 

 open to the recent incessant rains. Therefore put on the 

 sashes in the event of wet or snowy weather, keeping' them 

 tilted up to afford abundant ventilation. When frosty weather 

 comes the sashes may be shut down, for, while it is unwise to 

 keep vegetables in frames close and warm, freezing them does 

 them no good, and hard frost hurts them. Store-vegetables — 

 like young Lettuces that are being kept for transplanting later 

 into hot-l>eds — should not be protected from light frosts, for 

 the hardier they are, the better they will keep till required for 

 transplanting. 



The best covering we can have for frames is straw mats and 

 light wooden shutters. These mats are made of long, flail- 

 tlireshed rye-straw and marline, and of a length and breadth 

 to suit. We make ours four feet wide, seven feet long and 

 three-quarters of an inch thick, running five times lengthwise 

 with marline. So long as these mats are kept perfectly dry 

 they are a capital protection against frost, but if wet, frost soon 

 finds its wav through them. LInder light wooden shutters 

 they can he kept quite dry, and two mats thick and a sliutter 

 over tliem is good enough protection in a sunny place against 

 twenty-five degrees of frost. There is a current idea that a 

 heavy shutter is a better protection against frost than a light 

 one, but tliis is contrary to my experience. I like light wooden 

 shutters, of half or five-eighths inch pine stock, tongued 

 and grooved, and put together in white lead; or, if the stock is 

 thoroughly dry and well seasoned when the shutters are being 

 made, and the boards are put together as tight-fitting as possi- 

 ble, they will swell and become perfectly water-tight in damp, 

 wintry weather. Three feet wide and seven feet long is a con- 

 venient size for use and to handle. Besides mats and shutters, 

 we also use a good deal of sea-thatch for covering up our 

 frames in winter. 



It is now generally conceded that for Lettuces, Radishes 

 and other vegetables which we wish to gather every day or 

 two in winter, frames are but a clumsy device, and the alert 

 market gardeners who supply New York City with winter 

 salads are fully awake to this fact. In the neighborhood of 

 Springfield, Jamaica and other parts of Queens County, the 

 truck gardeners have abandoned the use of frames for winter 

 salads and vegetables, and, instead, have erected large ranges 

 of low roofed green-houses, in which they grow their crops 

 with so much certainty and so little trouble, that they are not 

 only able to hold their own against competition with the 

 South, but they regard their green-house winter crops as the 

 most jirofitable part of their g.ardening. Progressive florists, 



too, are using cool green-houses instead of frames, and they 

 would not do this if it did not pay them. One large grower 

 here is most emphatic in his opinion of the advantage and 

 profit of green-houses over frames for winter work, and the 

 multitude of frames he has cleared away recently, and the 

 multitude of green-houses he has built in their places, is 

 pretty clear proof of his confidence in houses. The vast 

 amount of labor expended in covering and uncovering trames 

 almost every day, the expense of the materials used as 

 coverings, the very much greater wear and tear of frames 

 than of green-houses, the inconvenience of cropping and 

 gathering in widwinter, and the risk of losing a crop by close 

 confinement in a long period of severe cold weather, are 

 disad\'antages well understood by practical men. No 

 wonder, then, that the market gardeners and florists, whose 

 bread depends upon their crops, are, on account of keen 

 competition, obliged to give up the laborious, vexatious and 

 imsatisfactory winter-frame for the green-house. 

 Glen Cuve, N. Y. ]Vi/liaiii Falconer. 



Notes from 



Amateur's Garden. 



THE horticultural experiences of amateurs have usually 

 very little interest for professional florists, who work 

 under dift'erent conditions and with difterent objects. To 

 other amateurs they may, however, he acceptable, even if 

 somewhat trivial in character. From this point of view I offer 

 some lirief notices— fruits of my own experience. 



Incarviltea Olga:. — This plant was introduced from Turk- 

 estan by Dr. Regel, and has Ijeen much lauded by dealers. In 

 this climate it is perfectly worthless. The flowers have a rose 

 color and come out in slow succession, one opening after 

 another has fallen. As flowers they do not compare for one 

 moment with good Antirrhinums, far less with even ordinary 

 Pentstemons. The plant is hardy here in Newport ; its leaves 

 are fine both in color and form, but its habit is bad, as it is 

 not distinctly a vine but yet requires support. The sooner 

 it disappears from the catalogues, the better. Possibly it might 

 yield a valuable hybrid wilh Teconia radicans. 



Aloiitbretia crocosmiiTflora. — I find that this fine hybrid bulb 

 is hardy in the light soil of my garden when well protected 

 with leaves or straw. On comparing plants from four bulbs 

 which had been kept all winter in sand in a cold-frame and 

 well covered with leaves, with others which had been left in 

 the open grotmd but protected as above, I could find no 

 appreciable difference. The horticultural world owes Mr. 

 Lemoine a debt of warm gratitude for the. creation of this 

 beautiful plant. Of the seedling varieties which I have seen, 

 Gere d'Or is the finest, a fine, clear yellow replacing the rich 

 vermilion-red of the parent flower. Then the plants yield 

 seeds in the greatest abundance, though they do not always 

 ripen well in our long, cold autimins. 



Trito7iia aiirea. — This beautiful plant has not been rendered 

 superfluous by the introduction of its hybrid progeny. It is 

 not hardy here even with protection, but goes through the 

 winter extremely well when taken up late in October, covered 

 with dry sand, placed in a cold-frame and then covered well with 

 leaves. It may be ti'ansplanted to the open border in May, 

 by which time it will have made long, green shoots in abun- 

 dance. It Howers profusely and for a long time. The other 

 parent of Lemoine's hybrid, Hlonfbrrtia Pottsi, goes through 

 the winter here in ilie open ground when well covered with 

 leaves. It is pretty, fwjt I think not worth cultivation. 



Lemoine s Hybrid Gladioli. — These also are perfectly hardy 

 here when well protected with leaves or straw. My finest 

 plants were grown in a mixture of pure sand and pure leaf 

 mould without manure of any kind. Many stalks were five 

 feet in height. I have begun to hybridize them with G. Sa-iin- 

 dcrsii, and hope in due time to communicate my results. 



Hybrids between G. Saiindersii and various forms of G. 

 Gaiidavcnsis were some years ago produced by Mr. Max 

 Leichtlin, but they liave never, so far as I am aware, been 

 offered for sale. Of quite a number which I received from 

 Mr. Leichtlin, all but one gradually sickened and died. The 

 one which remains, closely resembles tlie parent, G. Saitndersii, 

 but the petals are not reflexed. The flower is very large and 

 fine, nearly or quite four inches from tip to tip of the 

 expanded petals. It has recently been stated in the London 

 Garden that these hybrids have also been taken up by Mr. 

 Lemoine, and Mr. Leichtlin's name is not mentioned in 

 connection with them. 



Zephyrantlies Candida. — This very charming and desirable 

 bulb is well known and reqinres no description in this place. 

 The bulbs do not ripen in our cool autumn, but the plant 

 remains fresh and green till far into November. I find that it 



