March 17, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



107 



and form a sessile umbel. The general effect of a well-grown 

 plant is of a loose bouquet with the two richly mottled leaves 

 as a holder. The segments recurve to the stalk and are light 

 yellow with an orange centre. Well-grown flowers measure 

 two to two and a half inches across. The bulbs of E. Hart- 

 wegii are short and solid, produce small offsets, and do not 

 dry out as readily as those of other species. Unlike most sorts 

 they retain their vitality until late in the season, and are in 

 good condition in February, when bulbs planted earlier are in 

 flower. More care is required to grow most kinds of Erythro- 

 niums than the ordinary grower will give, but this species is a 

 flower for every one. 

 Ukiah, Calif. Carl Pardy. 



Fertilizers for Forced Roses. 



A T the last meeting of the Dutchess County Horticultural 

 **■ Society letters were read from experts in various branches 

 of horticulture in reply to questions sent out by the Secretary, 

 and what follows is the answer given by Mr. John N. May to 

 the question, "What is the best formula for a fertilizer for 

 Roses under glass ? " 



"1 understand this to apply to Roses forced for winter 

 flowers, and no one answer can be framed so as to be adapted 

 to all conditions of soil. I must presume that the soil used 

 for growing Roses contains naturally those ingredients which 

 are essential to plant-life, such as fairly good loamy sod does, 

 and this can be obtained in almost every section. If it is very 

 heavy, a little sand will make it porous, and if very light, a 

 little clay should be added. For a soil like this the only addi- 

 tion needed is a fair proportion of well-decomposed manure, 

 and, of course, manure from well-fed stock is the best. If one 

 part of such manure, thoroughly rotted, is added to and thor- 

 oughly mixed with five or six parts of decomposed sod, the 

 only fertilizer needed for Roses grown in it is a mulch not 

 more than half an inch thick of well-decomposed manure. 

 This should be put on in the fall, and a similar coat given 

 every eight or nine weeks till the end of the season. When 

 the days begin to lengthen at about the middle of January, and 

 the plants are growing vigorously, they may have a watering 

 of weak liquid-manure made from the droppings of different 

 animals, used alternately, and applied every two weeks, and 

 nothing more in the way of feeding the plants will be needed. 

 Of course, there will be cases where the soil is deficient in 

 some element of plant-food, such as potash or phosphoric 

 acid, and this can only be determined by study and experi- 

 ment by every grower for himself. The first care should be 

 to find out what is lacking, and the next to supply it in proper 

 proportions. This must be left to the judgment of every man, 

 and although such matters may appear of small consequence, 

 it is these small things which insure the highest success, and 

 it is their neglect which makes the business of the florist and 

 gardener an uncertain quantity. In a general way I may add 

 that I believe more Roses and other plants have been killed 

 and crippled for life by the use of stimulants than by any other 

 one thing. The best of all fertilizers will be injurious if it is 

 applied injudiciously, and the formula that will bring the 

 surest success is plenty of fresh air, cleanliness, plain, whole- 

 some food and practical common sense." 



Fishkill-on-Hudson, N. Y. W. G. G. 



Iris Japonica. — This beautiful Iris, which has been in culti- 

 vation for nearly a century, ought to be in every collection of 

 cool-greenhouse plants. It belongs to the rhizomatous sec- 

 lion of the genus, and is perhaps better known as I. fimbriata. 

 The bright green sword-shaped leaves are from one foot to 

 eighteen inches in length, gradually tapering to a point, and 

 are arranged in fan-like tufts, making an elegant plant even 

 when not in bloom. The pale lilac or bluish flowers are three 

 inches in diameter and beautifully fringed. The refiexed 

 falls are a rich orange-yellow at the throat. The individual 

 flowers are fugitive, but they succeed each other until each 

 spathe has produced three or four. The plant blooms better 

 . when allowed to become pot-bound. My experience has been 

 that it is best not to attempt to divide the roots until this is 

 absolutely necessary, as the plant will not blossom till the 

 second season after division. 



Thunbergia laurifolia.--This lovely warm greenhouse climber, 

 perhaps better known as Thunbergia Harrisii, is a most beau- 

 tiful object when in full bloom. The plant is a strong and 

 rapid grower, with opposite simple leaves, ovate-acuminate 

 in outline, seven inches long by three wide, on short petioles. 

 The beautiful lilac-colored flowers are three inches in diam- 

 eter, and are borne in axillary and terminal clusters in the 

 greatest profusion, but owing to the extreme delicacy of the 

 petals a shaded position should be chosen for the vine if pos- 



sible, as bright sunlight soon causes the flowers to fade. Its 

 season of flowering is from the middle of January to the mid- 

 dle of March. 



Botanic Garden, Northampton, Mass. Edward y. Canning. 



Correspondence. 

 Horticulture in Colleges. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Although not engaged in imparting horticultural in- 

 struction in the class-room, my experience having been 

 rather in the line of receiving such instruction, yet I would 

 like to emphasize some of the points brought out by Profes- 

 sors Munson and Waugh on this subject in your journal. 



I am aware that in many of the land-grant colleges there is 

 an urgent demand on the part of the farmers for the prac- 

 tical in teachings of horticulture. This is also true of experi- 

 ment-station work. The situation is in no wise improved 

 when we admit that this demand is made without compre- 

 hending those principles which underlie true education. We 

 are bound to help those very people from whom the demand 

 has come, so that for the present, at least, we must include in 

 the college curriculum a certain number of the practical 

 courses, but it would, indeed, be a feeble institution where in- 

 struction is given only in that portion of horticulture which 

 could be learned quite as well from any gardener. 



I agree with your correspondents that horticulture, in a cer- 

 tain sense, is an advanced study, and perhaps it should not 

 begin earlier than the junior year, provided that the student 

 has already taken such studies as chemistry, systematic, struc- 

 tural and physiological botany and the physics of soils ; but if 

 these subjects are to be taught wholly or in part as incidental 

 to the courses in horticulture, two years is too short a period. 

 Botany is one of the most important subjects as a foundation 

 for horticultural study. The botany of cultivated plants re- 

 ceives too little attention in most colleges ; it is considered a 

 subject partly or entirely outside the domain of a systematic 

 botanist, so that while the student may acquire a thorough 

 knowledge of the wild plants of his vicinity, he maybe able to tell 

 you very little regarding the botany of the cultivated ones. I well 

 remember when my professor in botany in college told me that 

 I would not be able to determine a rose which I had brought 

 from a neighboring garden, because it was a "cultivated form, 

 and not a natural species." He was silent in regard to the 

 origin or possible derivation of anv of the " cultivated forms," 

 and I was left to grope my way in darkness, or drop the matter 

 as being wholly outside of science. I have since learned that 

 all cultivated plants are to be referred to some natural genus, 

 and that many forms which have been evolved in the garden 

 are just as much distinct species, so far as any botanical char- 

 acteristics are concerned, as those forms that we may gather 

 from the forest or hillside, meadow or plain. 



Plant propagation is a good subject with which to begin 

 instruction in horticulture. A few lectures may be given with 

 suitable illustrations, and the student can get the rest from 

 Bailey's Nursery Book used in connection with laboratory 

 work. I should be inclined to make the compulsory course a 

 short one, however, and put most of the laboratory and 

 manual work on the elective list. The improvement of culti- 

 vated plants is of great importance, and in this course may be 

 taught the philosophy, principles, theories and laws relating to 

 the subject. It seems to me that it is in a course of this kind, 

 given in lectures or with the use of text-books properly 

 elaborated by lectures, that the student receives his greatest 

 inspiration and enthusiasm in the cultivation of plants. 



Why not give short courses of a few lectures each on plant 

 propagation, pomology, vegetable-gardening, floriculture and 

 greenhouse construction and management, in which are 

 taught the more important principles of the art, and leaving 

 those phases of these subjects which are usually placed in the 

 foreground, such as cultural methods and varieties, to be made 

 the subjects of minor elective courses ? Both cultural meth- 

 ods and varieties are constantly changing, and at the same 

 time may be entirely different in different parts of the 

 country. If a student intends to make horticulture his profes- 

 sion he should have instruction in all branches pertaining to 

 it, and all he can get of each, but if horticulture is only added 

 to fill out a more or less general course of training for the 

 purposes of education, it seems far more important to "con- 

 sider the principles on which the art is founded." It is of far 

 greater moment that a man should be educated than that he 

 be made a fruit grower or a florist. 



I wish that landscape-gardening might be placed on the pie- 

 scribed list. When traveling about the state and observing 



