220 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 484. 



Notes. 



The numberof visitors to the Zoological Gardens in Regents 

 Park, London, during the year 1896 was 665,000. The Aqua- 

 rium of this city has been open less than six months and the 

 visitors so far number more than 700,000. 



One of the late farmers' bulletins, issued by the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, is entitled "How to Grow 

 Mushrooms," and has been prepared by William Falconer. It 

 is a miniature treatise comprised within twenty pages, but it 

 gives concise directions for every process, from the prepara- 

 tion of the bed to the transportation of the crop to market in 

 an attractive condition. 



This has been an unusually favorable spring for flowering 

 shrubs, since there has been no hot period to force them into 

 bloom, and the flowers have had opportunity to develop 

 slowly, attain their best form and remain a long time. The 

 Virginia Fringe-tree, Chionanthus Virginica, is particularly 

 beautiful. Its panicles of pure white flowers hang long and 

 full, and in such numbers as to cover the tree completely as 

 with a mist of snow. The Fringe-tree is dilatory about unfold- 

 ing its leaves, but, apart from this fault, it is one of the very 

 best of our small trees. Its habit is good, its leaves clean and 

 healthy, its individual flowers delicately beautiful and the 

 flower-clusters unexcelled in grace. 



In response to invitations issued to various landscape-archi- 

 tects, park commissioners, city engineers and others who take 

 an interest in public pleasure-grounds, a convention was held 

 at Louisville, Kentucky, on the 20th and 21st of May, at which 

 many interesting papers were read, and, after a full discussion, 

 a society was formed, to be known as the Park and Outdoor 

 Art Association. The following officers of the permanent or- 

 ganization were elected : President, J. B. Castleman, of Louis- 

 ville, Kentucky ; Vice-President, L. E. Holden, of Cleveland, 

 Ohio ; Secretary and Treasurer, Warren H. Manning, of Brook- 

 line, Massachusetts. The membership fee was fixed at $2.00 

 a year, and all persons who desire the advancement of art 

 out-of-doors, including land-owners, park officers, village 

 improvement societies and the like, are invited to unite with 

 the association. 



Excepting Lima beans and sugar corn, all the summer vege- 

 tables are now in the New York markets, and sweet and white 

 potatoes are almost the only old-crop vegetables still offered. 

 Beets, asparagus and peas all come from fields as near by as 

 New Jersey and Long Island, besides radishes and rhubarb. 

 String-beans and cucumbers come from Georgia and South 

 Carolina, and eggplants, squashes, tomatoes and celery from 

 Florida. Cabbage is coming from Virginia in large quantities. 

 Other vegetables in season are new kohl rabi, carrots, turnips, 

 cauliflower, celeriac, okra and peppers, and onions from 

 Louisiana, Egypt and Bermuda. Vegetables for "greens" and 

 for soups, salads and sauces are offered in almost endless 

 variety, as beet-tops, spinach, sorrel, young celery, parsley, 

 chives, taragon, mint, tansy, dandelion, cress, lettuce and 

 endive. Mushrooms continue plentiful, and sell for fifty cents 

 a pound. 



The Orchid Review gives an account of some interesting 

 observations which have been recently made at Kew by Mr. 

 Griessen, who has charge of the Orchid-house there. He caught 

 a bumblebee with three different kinds of pollinia attached to 

 it. Between the eyes were two pairs from some Odontoglos- 

 sum, on the middle of the thorax four pollinia of a Cattleya, 

 and on the back of the thorax between the wings, those of 

 some Vanda, which proves that the bee fed among various 

 species. Another interesting example was that of a common 

 bluebottle fly with the pollinia of a Cirrhopetalum affixed to 

 the middle of its thorax. The flower had evidently attracted 

 the insect by its fcetid odor. Professor Rolfe gives other 

 examples which have been witnessed, and he well remarks 

 that here is an interesting field of inquiry for all who have an 

 opportunity of observing the fertilization of Orchids in their 

 native homes. 



Professor Trelease invites the attention of botanists to the 

 facilities afforded for research at the Missouri Botanical Garden. 

 A large number of native and exotic species and horticultural 

 varieties are grown in the garden, the arboretum and the ad- 

 joining park, and the native flora accessible from St. Louis is 

 large and varied. The herbarium includes 250,000 specimens, 

 representing the vegetable life of Europe and America, and it 

 is supplemented by a collection of woods, including veneer 

 transparencies and slides for the microscope. The library 



contains 12,000 volumes, 13,000 pamphlets and a complete 

 authors' catalogue. These facilities are at the disposal of pro- 

 fessors of botany and others competent to carry on research 

 work of value in botany or horticulture, subject only to such 

 restrictions as are necessary to protect the prop "irty of the gar- 

 den from injury and loss. Persons who wish to make use of 

 them are invited to correspond with the Director, outlining, as 

 far as possible, the work they wish to do, and giving notice, 

 so that provision may be made for the study of special 

 subjects. 



Mr. L. F. Kinney, Horticulturist of the Rhode Island Experi- 

 ment Station, has been observing the Loganberry, which was 

 described with some fullness nearly three years ago (vol. vii., 

 p. 466) in this journal. In an interesting bulletin just issued 

 on the subject, Mr. Kinney publishes a letter from Judge J.H. 

 Logan, of Santa Cruz, California, who planted the seed from 

 which it originated in 1881. The letter gives an interesting 

 account of the plant, which is supposed to be a hybrid between 

 a variety of the European Raspberry and a variety of the wild 

 Blackberry of the Pacific coast. It has been called the Red 

 Blackberry, and the fruit, which is shaped like that of a Black- 

 berry, has a slight but distinct raspberry flavor. The fruit 

 ripens in Rhode Island a trifle later than raspberries and lasts 

 a little longer. It is not highly flavored, but is admirable when 

 cooked, and as a sauce fruit it excels both the blackberry and 

 the raspberry. As the canes trail on the ground naturally some 

 provision must be made for keeping the fruit clean, and it 

 seems to succeed well on a trellis of galvanized iron wire. The 

 trailing and flexible texture of the Loganberry canes makes it 

 easy to cover them, a process which is perhaps advisable in 

 all localities north of this city, for instance, where it might 

 winter-kill. The plant is propagated by stolons, although the 

 seeds germinate readily. Unfortunately, however, the seed- 

 lings are comparatively worthless when grown for fruit. 

 Altogether, the Loganberry is the most promising of the new 

 types of small fruit that have been introduced within recent 

 years. 



Steamer baskets in the fancy-fruit stores, made up for trav- 

 elers, are showy with a wide variety of the smaller fruits. One 

 observed on Saturday contained rough-skinned Siam oranges, 

 peaches, Black Hamburg and Almeria grapes, the latter a 

 special favorite with voyagers, California cherries, pears and 

 bright Northern Spy apples. Even so early in the season many 

 of the summer fruits are represented in the fruit stores and 

 markets, although some are yet far from being at their best. 

 Peento, Honey Sweet and Bidwell peaches are coming from 

 Florida, and the first Hale peaches, from Georgia. Other 

 Florida shipments are muskmelons and watermelons. Wild 

 Goose plums, from Georgia, are offered, and blackberries and 

 huckleberries from North Carolina. Green gooseberries come 

 from Maryland. The first North Carolina cherries were seen 

 here on Saturday, but did not rival the large and firm Califor- 

 nia fruit. The strawberry season is at its height, although 

 there is no ripe fruit from this state. The North Carolina 

 season has passed and the best berries are from Maryland, 

 Delaware and New Jersey. Prices range from ten cents for 

 berries of fair quality to thirty cents for a quart box of large, 

 firm, bright, highly flavored fruit of choice varieties. Some 

 Pringle apricots, from California, were seen here last week, 

 small, and with no value beyond their rarity at this time of 

 year. Valencia seedling oranges, from California, the choicest 

 oranges now in season, cost seventy-five cents a dozen. 

 They are juicy, of excellent flavor and almost seedless. 

 The last Easter Beurre pears cost $1.00 to $1.50 a dozen, and 

 the long-keeping P. Barry bring the same price. Above 

 100,000 bunches of bananas reached this port last week ; this 

 fruit is low-priced and is fully grown and of rich flavor. Pine- 

 apples are also abundant and cheap, and are coming from the 

 Bahamas, Cuba and Florida. The small sort known as Red 

 Spanish, while less handsome, is preferred by some good 

 judges for its superior quality. These cost from fifteen to 

 forty cents each. Abacca pineapples, of larger size, sell for 

 fifty cents each, and Victoria, the extremely large long fruit, 

 often called Porto Rico, bring $1.00 each. Among the most 

 costly offerings are hothouse grapes, which sell for $2. 50 a pound. 

 These are seen in unusual variety, including Black Hamburg, 

 the White Muscat of Alexandria, the amber-colored, musky- 

 flavored Muscat of Hamburg, and Dacon Supert with berries 

 round and of clear pale green, unless fully ripe, when they 

 have a yellowish tint. A novelty for dinners and luncheons, 

 designed by one of the uptown fruiterers, is hothouse peaches, 

 each fruit set in a little nest with a dainty paper lining, and 

 marked with the name of the guest in blue and gold. 



