February 24, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



79 



grows. William Scott is the favorite pink variety, and F. 

 Mangold is considered the best crimson. A bed of a promis- 

 ing scarlet seedling, Portia X E. G. Hill, is notable. The flower 

 is a good clear scarlet, larger than either parent, calyx good 

 and stem stiff. There are also some promising crimson seed- 

 lings ; the old Clove was used as one of the parents, and the 

 seedlings have a delightful clove odor. A house of Violets 

 looked clean and healthy, Marie Louise, Lady Hume Campbell 

 and Swanley White being the double kinds grown, and Cali- 

 fornia the leading single variety. A large number of plants of 

 Crimson Rambler Rose in seven and eight inch pots promise 

 to be in flower by Easter, and also of the new forcing Spiraea 

 astilboides floribunda ; the latter is too tall and ungainly to 

 become a popular variety. 



A run on the electric cars from Wellesley brings one close 

 to the estate of Mr. David Nevins, at South Framingham. A 

 fine new greenhouse, 105 by 21 feet, has recently been com- 

 pleted here, and Mr. A. McKay already has it well filled. 

 A bench of Violets in eight and ten inch pots makes a re- 

 markably good showing ; the plants had been brought in 

 from a cold frame two weeks before, and they were a mass of 

 bloom. I counted thirty-five to forty large perfect flowers 

 hanging around the sides of some of the pots, and masses of 

 buds were pushing up. It is not so much the quantity of the 

 flowers as their immense size which excited surprise and 

 admiration. The largest flowers noted were of Farquhar. This 

 variety seems quite distinct from any other I am acquainted 

 with, in flower, foliage and in general habit. Mr. McKay says 

 he can easily pick out any stray plants of Farquhar among 

 those of Marie Louise and Lady H. Campbell at the first 

 glance. Other varieties splendidly grown are Swanley White, 

 Marie Louise, Lady H. Campbell, California and the old 

 Czar. Plants in cold frames were equally as thrifty here as 

 those grown indoors. A frame of Violets here received the 

 first prize by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society last 

 spring in the competition for the best house or frame of 

 Violets. A house of hybrid Perpetual Roses, planted out in 

 solid beds, were pushing stout growths. Flowers from this 

 house have surpassed all others at the Boston Spring Show for 

 two seasons past. Mr. McKay has an interesting collection of 

 Orchids, all of which looked thrifty. Some good plants of 

 Dendrobium nobile (Sander's variety), D. Wardianum and D. 

 formosum giganteum were in flower. A batch of Cauliflower, 

 Early Erfurt, in eight-inch pots, were producing good heads 

 ready for cutting. 



Mr. William Nicholson, of Framingham, is one of the most 

 successful all-round cultivators of Carnations in Massachusetts. 

 Two large structures and two small ones are devoted to these 

 plants. This season they are looking better even than in pre- 

 vious years, and they havealways looked well heretofore. Many 

 varieties are grown, and all were equally vigorous and were 

 flowering freely. Eldorado, William Scott, Daybreak, Minnie 

 Cook, Alaska, F. Mangold, Hector, Thomas Cartledge, Nichol- 

 son, Edith Foster and Delia Fox were notably good ; the last 

 named is not liked as generally as Daybreak. Edith Foster, 

 white, is popular, and Eldorado blooms as freely here as 

 William Scott. A bench of white Antirrhinums suggested the 

 value of this flower for cutting. A fine collection of flowering 

 Begonias was an attraction here. These are specially pleasing 

 at this season. A house, 100 by 15 feet, filled with Tomatoes 

 planted after Chrysanthemums were cut, was setting a heavy 

 crop, Eclipse being the kind most largely grown. 



Taunton, Mass. W- N. Craig. 



Recent Publications. 



The Forcing Book. By L. H. Bailey. Macmillan Co., 

 New York. 



Ten years ago one could find forced Radishes, Lettuce 

 and occasionally Cauliflower in small quantities in the New 

 York winter markets, but there was nothing like a regular 

 supply of them, and, indeed, there was hardly any demand 

 for them. The business of growing vegetables under glass 

 has since then developed more rapidly than any other 

 branch of horticulture in this country, and this little manual, 

 which belongs to the useful Garden Craft Series, has been 

 prepared to set forth the principles and explain the details 

 of its practice. Since plants in glass houses are entirely 

 under artificial conditions their cultivation demands special 

 skill and the most watchful care. Novices therefore need 

 instruction from the beginning, and Professor Bailey, who 

 has given personal attention to experiments in growing 



vegetables in connection with his horticultural work in the 

 University and in the experiment station, has qualified 

 himself as a teacher by making practical tests of various 

 methods. The work properly begins with a brief treatise 

 on the construction and management of forcing-houses, 

 for, since the grower must make his own climate as well 

 as his soil, it is quite as essential that he should be able at 

 will to create and command these conditions as it is that 

 he should know exactly what the conditions are which 

 each crop needs. The discussion of the various forms of 

 houses, with their structural details, is very complete, 

 although concise, and for the space it takes it gives more 

 valuable information than can be found elsewhere in the 

 same compass. All such practical questions as would be 

 treated under the head of soil, fertilizers, irrigation, 

 shading, pollination, etc., have received careful study, and 

 the beginner can feel safe in following them to the letter. 

 The book is written primarily for those who intend to take 

 up the winter growing of vegetables as a business, but 

 there are few gardeners with a glass house at command 

 who can resist the challenge to try their skill at raising 

 a melon for Christmas dessert, and few persons who do 

 not enjoy the occasional luxury of a dish of fresh aspara- 

 gus or tomatoes out of season. 



The book is thoroughly up to date, and contains not only 

 a selection of the most approved varieties of each crop for 

 forcing in this country, but it presents the results of the 

 most recent studies in cultural practice and summarizes 

 the results of such instructive investigations as those of 

 Professor Galloway in reference to the mechanical proper- 

 ties of soil essential to the production of the best Lettuce; 

 Professor Munson's experiments in pollinating Tomatoes at 

 the Maine Station; the Connecticut experiments with 

 chemical fertilizers in artificial soil ; the tests with electric 

 light in Cornell, West Virginia and elsewhere ; Green's 

 plan of subirrigation, or watering by means of under- 

 ground tiles, and many other practices and processes which 

 have been explained from time to time in this journal. 



The manual makes a handy volume of 260 pages, help- 

 fully illustrated and carefully indexed. 



Notes. 



Lilium auratum isgrown to its highest perfection by Mr. G. F. 

 Wilson at his home near Wey bridge, Surrey, England. A sin- 

 gle stem sometimes carries as many as sixty flowers in a great 

 pyramid whose summit is six and a half feet high. 



Since October 1st 622,324 barrels of domestic potatoes have 

 passed through the New York market, somewhat more than 

 two-thirds the quantity handled in the corresponding period a 

 year ago. The receipts of the home crop during last week 

 amounted to 31,314 barrels, besides i.Soo sacks trom Great 

 Britain, 200 sacks from Germany and 566 barrels from Ber- 

 muda and the West Indies. 



The Board of Trade of California, following the example of 

 the Royal Horticultural Society of England and similar associ- 

 ations in various countries, has appointed a subcommittee to 

 promote the International Horticultural Exhibition in Ham- 

 burg, which is to continue from May until October of the 

 present year with one continuous show, and special exhibi- 

 tions for plants and flowers at the time of their best season. 



The immense quantities of fruits consumed in New York 

 city, and forwarded from this centre to other sections of the 

 country, are suggested in the arrival last week on a brig from 

 Porto Cortez ot 91,000 cocoanuts. Although this fruit, even in 

 its manufactured form, is but occasionally used in families, 

 and then in small quantities, 1,687,500 cocoanuts have arrived 

 at this port since the first of the year. 



The plant, often called the Water Hyacinth, Pontederiacras- 

 sipes, has been naturalized in some ot the rivers of our south 

 Atlantic and Gulf states, and has increased so rapidly that it 

 covers the surface of the water for great distances. In the St. 

 John's River, Florida, and in some of the canals about New 

 Orleans it is difficult for steamers to work their way through 

 this raft of vegetation, and when they do the plants close in 

 behind the boat and occupy the surface completely as before. 

 The obstruction to navigation has become so serious that an 



