68 



Garden and Forest 



[Number 469. 



seed may be sown now, but the temperature of the water must 

 be eighty-five to ninety degrees, and from twenty to thirty 

 days is required for germination. The young seedlings should 

 be transplanted at an early stage and kept steadily growing. 

 They must be repotted singly before they are weakened by 

 overcrowding and by starving conditions. . 



Riverton, N.J. ''• IriCBer. 



Cypripedium Monisianum.— This is a distinct and pretty 

 hybrid, the result of a cross between Cypripedium Harrisia- 

 num and C. Leeanum giganteum, one of the finest and largest 

 flowered forms of C. Leeanum in cultivation. The bloom is 

 brilliantly colored, of excellent shape and substance, the dor- 

 sal sepal measuring over two and a half inches across, quite 

 flat, with a broad white margin, faintly suffused with rose, the 

 base of which is deep bronzy purple, having numerous lines 

 of a lighter shade emanating from the base, which are pro- 

 fusely marked with minute purple spots. The inferior sepal 

 is a clear pea-green, with several lines of a deeper tone ; the 

 petals are broad, measuring three-quarters of an inch in width, 

 the edges closely set with numerous hairs, becoming very 

 dense at the base, the whole a rich sherry-brown. The pouch 

 closely resembles that of C. Harrisianum, and is of a rich deep 

 purplish brown. The plant partakes of the character of both 

 parents, having charming tessellated foliage. It has been 

 named in honor of Mr. J. Morris, who has charge of the 

 valuable collection of Cypripediums owned by Hicks Arnold, 

 Esq., of this city. It flowered for the first time in F. Sander & 

 Co.'s nursery, St. Albans, England. 



New York. 



A. Dimmock. 



Correspondence. 



Some Rare New Jersey Plants. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Lygodium palmatum, the lovely and somewhat rare 

 climbing Fern, was known to grow in quite a number of 

 localities in this state at one time. Many of these Ferns are now 

 destroyed. In the fall of 1894 I rediscovered the plant near 

 Haddonfield, Camden County. It was growing abundantly 

 among the Alders and Cornels that fringe a small brook, climb- 

 ing to a height of four feet. It is very graceful and delicate in 

 appearance, but the abundant growth indicated that it was per- 

 fectly at home. 



Arenaria lateriflora is found quite abundantly on the sand- 

 hills below Atlantic City. Some of the dunes have a complete 

 carpet of green formed of its trailing stems and foliage. The 

 fact of its being evergreen was unknown to me until this win- 

 ter, when, having occasion to use some of the plants, I visited 

 the locality (about one mile below Chelsea). I was at once 

 struck by its beauty and adaptability for planting under trees 

 in exposed sandy seaside places. It blooms quite freely in 

 spring, the small white flowers resembling some of the Stel- 

 larias. 



A rare and very peculiar plant is Clitoria Mariana. It ap- 

 pears in isolated places many miles apart, sometimes diligent 

 search failing to reveal more than a single plant. I have always 

 found it on quite dry sandy land. 



Desmodium rotundifolium is a very ornamental trailer as it 

 grows here. The habit of the plant is entirely prostrate, 

 the large, perfectly round green leaflets covering the ground 

 completely. It seems to thrive under trees where the shade 

 is very dense, and I have often found it in full exposure. 

 A single plant often covers a space two feet across. 



Hammonton, N. J. F. L Bassett. 



More About Choke Cherries. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I was very much interested in the letter of Professor 

 Card which appeared in your issue of February 3d, on "The 

 Choke Cherry in Cultivation." I send you this note to cor- 

 roborate the statement of Professor Card, and to say that in 

 the clay flats of the Province of Quebec, bordering the Rich- 

 lieu and St. Lawrence rivers, the Choke Cherry is one of the 

 principal fruits cultivated by the French habitant. This is 

 owing largely to the character of the soil, which is of the pro- 

 nounced blue-clay stamp and of the stickiest and most imper- 

 vious type. In this region the Choke Cherry may be found in 

 almost every French garden. It is cultivated mostly in tree form, 

 and multiplied by means of the suckers which spring upabout 

 the roots. A great many variations occur. Fruit large and small, 

 light and dark, astringent and non-astringent, may be found. 

 Two years ago I found a tree bearing large clusters of yellow- 



ish white cherries. I have sown the seed of these and am 

 watching the young seedlings with interest, hoping that im- 

 proved forms may appear. The French use this fruit in many 

 ways, but it is most largely partaken of uncooked, next as 

 preserves, while a smaller proportion is made into jelly. The 

 tree is hardier than the Wild Black Cherry, Primus serotina, 

 and is found all through the north-west territories, even upon 

 elevated portions of the foot-hills of the eastern Rockies. 



Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Can. John Craig. 



Meetings of Societies. 



Western New York Horticultural Society. — II. 



WE conclude our report of this meeting of fruit farm- 

 ers by giving the principal points in two other 

 addresses : 



thinning apples. 



This was the theme of Professor S. A. Beach, and a timely 

 one, since the overwhelming crop of the past year has seemed 

 to some growers as much of a calamity as the attacks of 

 fungous diseases or the ravages of insects. Since prices for 

 the crop did not cover the cost of packages and the labor of 

 picking and handling the fruit, Professor Beach argued that it 

 would have been good economy to have thinned the crop so 

 vigorously as to reduce the total yield and increase the amount 

 of fruit of the first quality. This is not merely a theoretical 

 view, since some tests conducted by the Geneva Experiment 

 Station, in Ontario County, indicate that, besides relieving the 

 market of inferior fruit, thinning has a marked influence on the 

 productiveness of the trees in succeeding years. In these tests 

 trees of the same variety as nearly alike in all respects as pos- 

 sible were paired for comparison, the fruit on one being 

 thinned and the other left untouched. The thinning was tried 

 in three ways : (1) all wormy, knotty and inferior fruit was 

 removed and all clusters reduced to one apple ; (2) in addition 

 to this fruit-culling the remaining fruit was once more picked 

 over, so that the apples left were not less than four inches 

 apart ; (3) same as the first treatment, with the remaining fruit 

 thinned to leave apples not less than six inches apart. Trees 

 of Baldwin Apples treated by the first method gave sixteen 

 per cent, less fruit of all grades, and ten per cent, more fruit of 

 the first grade, than the corresponding trees not thinned. 

 Under the third method Hubbardston trees gave twenty-five 

 per cent, less fruit, but seventeen per cent, more first-grade 

 fruit. Greenings, which were heavily loaded in 1895, bore a 

 good crop in 1896, but were not overburdened, and needed 

 comparatively little thinning. Under the second method they 

 gave six per cent, more fruit and ten percent, more first-class 

 fruit than unthinned trees. In all these tests about one bushel 

 of culls was found on the trees, which were thinned to three 

 bushels where the fruit was not thinned ; while in all grades 

 the thinned fruit was clearly superior in size and color to fruit 

 of the same grade not thinned. The first grade included no 

 apple less than two and a half inches in diameter, and the 

 proportion of the apples which measured above two and a 

 half inches was much larger where the fruit was thinned than 

 where it was not, so that No. 2 apples from trees that were 

 thinned were superior to the same grade from the trees not 

 thinned. It was estimated that the fruit from the trees picked 

 over would bring from ten to fifteen per cent, more in market 

 than the same grade from trees which had not been picked 

 over. Taking these results, the second method of thinning 

 was enough superior to the first to more than pay for the 

 extra work involved. Accurate data for comparing the second 

 and third methods are not at hand. 



It is too early to report precisely the effect of this treatment on 

 next season's crop, but the experiment shows a marked improve- 

 ment in the size and color of the fruit where the overloaded 

 trees were severely thinned. These results are not surprising, 

 and the experiments were hardly necessary to demonstrate 

 them. The questions which remain to be determined are (1) 

 whether it is possible to so control the productive energies of 

 Apple-trees that they will usually bear every year rather than 

 every alternate year, or even less frequently ; and (2) if so, 

 whether the results will warrant the expense of the extra work 

 involved. It is well known that the thinning of peaches and 

 pears makes a marked difference in the size, color and quality 

 of the remaining fruit, and there is no doubt that apples on an 

 overloaded tree cannot mature so great an amount of large, 

 well-colored fruit as one which bears a moderate crop under 

 the same conditions. The production of a great proportion of 

 very large fruit seems to depend on the ability of the tree to 

 furnish nourishment to the individual branches or fruit spurs. 



