268 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 489. 



has suited Pansies better than any I can recall. Hollyhocks 

 should have been sown before this time, but it is not too late 

 to do so now. 



Beds of tender-flowering and foliage plants require some 

 attention each week to keep them attractive. Seed-pods and 

 decaying foliage from Cannas, faded flower-trusses from Gera- 

 niums and the tops of many foliage plants should be removed, 

 while the surface soil should be kept stirred and all grass 

 verges trimmed. No flower-bed can look well if the verges 

 are poorly kept, but this neglect is often noticed in private and 

 public grounds. Cannas, to be at their best, should have 

 copious waterings in dry weather, as they are semi-aquatic, 

 and a scattering of fertilizer over the beds occasionally will 

 help in the development of superior flower-spikes. The new 

 Italian varieties, Austria and Italia, are very robust growers 

 and flower freely, but the flowers are rather flimsy. Burbank 

 appears to belong to the same class ; it is, however, a grand 

 yellow flower. 



Hardy Roses of all sorts have produced capital flowers this 

 year, the cool, showery weather bringing them on finely. 

 Many of the old hybrid Perpetuals raised a generation or two 

 ago still lead as the most popular and profitable sorts. Some 

 varieties of more recent introduction are, however, great 

 acquisitions ; specially good are Clio, Marchioness of London- 

 derry, Captain Ilayward, Earl of Dufferin, Margaret Dickson, 

 Mrs. Paul and Helen Keller, all of which are reliably hardy 

 here and possessed of good constitutions. The flowering 

 season is now nearly past, and all faded blooms should be 

 removed ; also any Manetti or Brier shoots, which rob the 

 plants of much vitality if allowed to remain. Crimson Rambler, 

 one of the most charming pillar Roses ever introduced, is now 

 a mass of bloom. If the new French varieties, Thalia, Aglaia 

 and Euphrosyne, which we are trying, prove hardy and equally 

 satisfactory as white, yellow and pink varieties, they are bound 

 to become extremely popular. Mr. \V. A. Manda, who has 

 already sent out some pretty Wichuraiana hybrids, recently 

 exhibited in Boston some crosses between Rosa Wichuraiana 

 and Madame Hoste and Perle des Jardins which were deemed 

 worthy of first-class certificates. Mr. Manda says these crosses 

 are thoroughly hardy, make rampant growth and are very 

 floriferous. 



Carnations grown expressly for summer blooming are now 

 beginning to flower freely and have recently been staked up. 

 The winter-blooming stock must be looked over weekly and 

 necessary topping done, the ground kept well stirred and all 

 weeds growing near the plants carefully pulled up by hand. 

 Violets look remarkably well thus far and are now commen- 

 cing to make runners, which should be removed once in two 

 or three weeks. Our last sowing of Asters and Stocks was 

 made toward the end of June. The plants of the first sowing 

 of Asters, Queen of the Earlies, are now well branched and 

 will soon furnish flowers for cutting. Gladioli we plant in 

 several batches for a succession of cut Mowers. The last lot has 

 just been put out, and these are useful during September and 

 early October. If Sweet Peas have not already been mulched 

 some suitable covering should be given them ; seaweed, grass 

 or short spent manure answer equally well. It should be 

 remembered that they love to be moist at the root, and that 

 to prolong the flowering season none of the flowers should be 

 allowed to go to seed. 



Taunton, Mass. W. N. Craig. 



Correspondence. 



Licorice Root. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Your brief allusion to licorice root on page 253 hardly 

 indicates the magnitude of the trade in this commodity. It 

 really comes to this country in cargo lots, and you may be 

 interested in a few facts well known to the trade and which 

 have been published at different times in various pharmaceu- 

 tical journals. 



Until less than thirty years ago Spain was the main source 

 of supply for this country. Persistent collecting hasalmost ex- 

 terminated it in some sections of that country and much of the 

 limited quantity now exported is of small and fibrous roots 

 skillfully assorted and packed with the few larger ones to make 

 the best effect. The Spanish licorice is sweeter than any 

 other, and is specially valued for use in lozenges and pharma- 

 ceutical preparations. The extract of the root boiled down 

 and evaporated is familiar to us in rolls an inch or more in 

 diameter and about eight inches long. A test of purity in this 

 form is its solubility in water, but adulteration is common. 

 Potato starch and other farinaceous substances are used, with 

 sugar, in licorice confectionery. The root from Sicily ap- 



proaches that from Spain in its mild and sweet qualities, and 

 the Italian roots yield the richest extract. 



Immense tracts in Russia and Asia Minor are covered with 

 the Licorice-plant, which is regarded by farmers as a nuisance 

 to be cleared away before the ground can be used for agricul- 

 ture. The trade in licorice began in Russia about twenty 

 years ago, and the plains of that country offer an almost unlim- 

 ited field for collectors. The Caucasus Mountains are also a 

 favorite collecting ground, and uncultivated districts in Turkey 

 and Greece, for all the licorice of commerce grows wild. 

 Greek root is a name popularly given in the trade to all lico- 

 rice root except the Spanish. The saccharine and starchy 

 properties are affected by the soil, and also the color of the 

 root, which is yellowish, reddish or brown. The tap-roots of 

 one kind of Licorice extend three to six inches downward, and 

 of another sort to but half that depth, the latter being, of 

 course, more easily gathered. The digging begins in autumn 

 after the rains have set in, and the same ground yields a crop 

 once in three years. In Russia, now the principal exporting 

 country, the collecting is done by natives of the peasant class 

 in the section between the Black and the Caspian Seas. The 

 roots are delivered at local stations, cleaned, some of them 

 peeled, dried, packed and carried by rail to the seacoast. 

 Large factories for curing the green roots and for extracting 

 the juice are operated in Transcaucasus by English capitalists, 

 and the largest of these each have a yearly output of 5,000 

 tons, or above 10,000,000 pounds. So heavy is the trade that 

 a fleet of vessels is employed on the Black and Caspian Seas 

 in transporting licorice alone. 



The Russian roots and those from all that part of Europe 

 and from Asia Minor have a slight acridity, and are used 

 mainly for flavoring tobacco and various drinks. The price of 

 these is considerably less than that for Spanish roots, and 

 mature first-grade roots from Spain command twice as much. 

 Like Ginseng, this root is highly esteemed by the Chinese, and 

 is largely used by them as a tonic and tor supposed nutritive 

 qualities. In 1892 the United States alone imported one hun- 

 dred million pounds of licorice, and the quantity is steadily 

 increasing. 



Philadelphia. Pa. B. 



The Bladder Nuts. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I am surprised that the European Staphylea pinnata is 

 not more often found in our shrubberies. It is a good deal 

 better than S. trifolia, the native Bladder Nut of our eastern 

 states with clusters of white bell-shaped flowers. S. pinnata 

 has bolder leaves, larger flowers, which are pure white and 

 fragrant. S. Bumalda, from Japan, is also very interesting, 

 and S. Colchica, whose flowers have the fragrance of Orange 

 blossoms, is the most beautiful of all, a compact little shrub, 

 which is said to be good for forcing. All these plants are 

 interesting, even after the flowers are gone, with their inflated 

 pods which give them the common name. Few shrubs have 

 given me more pleasure than the various species of this 



genus. 

 Shepherdstown, W. Va. 



Danske Dandrid^c. 



Periodical Literature. 



A recent article in the Pall Mall Gazelle gives an interest- 

 ing account of the culture and brief harvest of those strange 

 little "immortal' flowers so closely associated with mor- 

 tality on the Continent and in London also, though the 

 fashion for them in England is of a more recent date. Nat- 

 urally they are a valuable crop, and, strangely enough, a 

 somewhat difficult one to handle, as they will not grow 

 everywhere. The world's supply of them comes from the 

 neighborhood of a little burg, Ollioules, in the Var, near 

 Toulon, half a dozen miles out on the main road to Mar- 

 seilles, in the south of France. There, on the edge of a 

 straight and narrow pass, bordered with piled up, cleft and 

 calcined rocks, on the arid soil that suits it best, grows the 

 "Immortelle," that curious Amaranth, Helichrysum orien- 

 tate. The plants are low, flat and rosette-like, appressed 

 on the ground, each one sending up two or three slen- 

 der stalks, which about the first week in June are cov- 

 ered with small Primrose-buds. Each stalk carries some 

 twenty or thirty buds, and the right moment for their 

 gathering must be carefully watched for by the harvester, 

 as too early is as disastrous as too late, since the flower 

 then perishes in drying. After the drying process, an easy 



