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Garden and Forest. 



[Number 491. 



light green styles being a noticeable feature which is consid- 

 ered to add to the beauty of the plant as well as to its distinct- 

 ness. 



A Wellesley, Massachusetts, correspondent writes with en- 

 thusiasm of a specimen of Brassia verrucosa in the collection 

 of Mrs. Durant. It has twenty well-formed spikes. 



The strawberry crop in Kent, England, this year has been 

 quite phenomenal, according to the Westminster Gazette. In 

 one day thirty tons were sent from Sandwich alone. 



At the late National Rose Show in England the first prize for 

 a dozen trusses of hybrid Tea Roses in not fewer than nine 

 varieties was taken by Messrs. D. Prior & Son, who exhibited 

 Marquise de Litta, Caroline Testout, Kaiserin A. Victoria, La 

 France, Captain Christy, Mrs. W. J. Grant, White Lady, Lady 

 Mary Fitzwilliam, La Fraicheur and Auguste Guinoisseau. 



During the last six years the number of public parks in 

 Glasgow have been more than doubled. And although it has 

 been complained hitherto that the corporation has favored the 

 well-to-do west end and neglected the industrial east end in 

 regard to open spaces, it has now purchased for $150,000 one 

 of the most picturesque spots in the neighborhood of Glasgow, 

 just on the eastern boundary of the city. 



The hybrid between Rosa multirlora and General Jacque- 

 minot, which has been named the Dawson Rose, after its 

 originator, is spoken of very highly by English connoisseurs, 

 and, according to The Garden, it is one of the very earliest 

 Roses to bloom there out-of-doors. This year it was in good 

 flower on the 28th of May. It seems to have retained its free- 

 flowering habit across the sea, where it has proved one of the 

 most noriferous and showy of pillar Roses. 



Among the curious wares for sale on the push-carls of the 

 east side of this city are Cassia-pods, which come from north- 

 ern Africa. These pods are the fruit of Cassia Fistula, the 

 Pudding Pipe tree, a native of India. The pods are from one 

 to two feet long, cylindrical, dark brown, with a woody cover- 

 ing and divided into compartments, each containing a flat 

 seed surrounded by a dark pulp, which is the edible portion. 

 This pulp is sweetish and is said to have laxative qualities. 



The Kcelreuteria-tree has been known in European gardens 

 for more than a century, and it is not rare in the parks and 

 gardens of this country. Like many eastern Asia trees, it is 

 occasionally disfigured by that mysterious "die-back" which 

 shows itself in the death of single branches without any 

 apparent cause. Owing, perhaps, to the abundance of moisture 

 this year, the pinnate toliage has been unusually abundant, 

 appearing in airy and almost Fern-like masses. Just now the 

 trees about here are coming into flower, and the large ter- 

 minal, spreading clusters of clearyellowflowers at this season, 

 when no other trees are in bloom, make the KVelreuteria a 

 conspicuous object. These flowers are succeeded by bladdery 

 fruits, which are also interesting. 



Rosa setigera, the beautiful native climbing Rose, has just 

 passed out of bloom, and although its merits are beginning lo 

 be appreciated, we never feel that we can say too much in its 

 favor. In the very first volume of this journal we spoke of 

 the freshness of its broad, clean, healthy leaves and of the 

 conspicuous beauty of its great corymbs of large, deep rose- 

 colored flowers. But there was little demand for single Roses, 

 especially of the native kinds, and it is only within recent years 

 that nurserymen have kept it for sale. It is perfectly hardy and 

 will make strong shoots fifteen feet long in a year, which may 

 be either trained to some support or left to arch over on the 

 turf or trail down a bank. When a stem is cut the flowers 

 keep opening in succession, so that they last a long time. In 

 the autumn its stems turn to a dark purple and the leaves to 

 a brilliant orange and scarlet. In the Arnold Arboretum and 

 in the Boston parks generally, where the Prairie Rose has been 

 largely planted, it has been better than ever this year, and 

 many good judges are inclined to class it in the very foremost 

 rank among useful shrubs. 



President T. S. Gold, of the Connecticut Board of Agricul- 

 ture, writes to The American Agriculturist that an experience 

 with more than one hundred varieties ot grafted Apple-trees 

 convinces him that the stock has no influence on the taste of 

 the fruit. That is, if a very sweet apple is grafted on an ex- 

 ceedingly sour stock the sweetness ot the resulting fruit is not 

 reduced. The acidity and other qualities of apples are largely 

 affected, however, by the health of the tree and its location, 

 some varieties varying much more than others. For example, 

 the Northern Spy and the Yellow Bellflower vary from the 

 best to the most worthless fruit. On one tree apples may be 

 tender, juicy and of a pleasant acid flavor, on another they are 



tough, corky and acid, without any suggestion of sweetness. 

 When a tree has been long in grass, producing sour and worth- 

 less apples, a cartload of strawy manure spread about the 

 trunk opens the turf, starts the growth of the tree and gives to 

 the fruit the richest flavor. Spraying with Bordeaux mixture, 

 which protects the foliage from disease, has the same good 

 effect on the fruit. 



In a long letter to The Rural New-Yorker, a correspond- 

 ent from the Mississippi Valley gives some interesting 

 stories of the manner of life in that region during the time of 

 the great deluge. Some people, who had already made their 

 gardens before the flood came, took the precaution, as the 

 rising water became more threatening, to nail a plank around 

 the sides of the back galleries of their houses and covered the 

 floor with several inches of earth. The vegetables were then 

 lifted from the garden and planted in this soil, and in this way 

 most of the growing plants were saved until the water soaked 

 into the ground and the plants could be set back in their 

 places. These persons were able to show thrifty vegetables a 

 few days after the water had disappeared when their neighbors 

 were getting ready to sow their seed again. It was the 

 orchards, however, which suffered most. Several weeks of 

 standing water will kill most trees, and the Peach-trees were 

 the first to wilt and die. About the only fruit-trees which seem 

 able to endure three or four weeks with their roots in water are 

 the hardy varieties of the Plum, and for this reason it is recom- 

 mended that hereafter Peaches in districts liable to be flooded 

 shall be grafted on Plum stock. 



Although the season for berries is waning, all the kinds are 

 still represented in our markets, as strawberries, red, white 

 and black raspberries, wild blackberries from Delaware and 

 Maryland, and Wilson, Kittatinny and other popular cultivated 

 kinds, huckleberries from the Shawangunkand Pocono moun- 

 tains and other near-by sections, large luscious red currants, 

 immense English gooseberries, ripe, and intended to be eaten 

 out of hand. Besides the supplies from Delaware, Maryland, 

 New Jersey and Pennsylvania, trains of refrigerator cars 

 arrive here daily from the berry-growing section of New York 

 state, about Oswego, Rome, etc. From the Fruit Trade Jour- 

 nal it is learned that these trains consist of sixteen to twenty- 

 two cars, and each contains about two hundred crates. The 

 cars are on the way only from ten to fifteen hours, so that the 

 berries come through in first-class condition. All these state 

 berries are received at the freight depot which stands upon 

 the site of the old St. John's Park, and every morning during 

 the season that locality is crowded with wagons and trucks 

 which convey the consigned fruit to small dealers, commis- 

 sion houses, hotels and steamboat companies. The height of 

 the season for these fruits was reached on June 25th, 26th and 

 27th. For the week ending July 6th ninety-eight carloads of 

 berries, or nearly 20,000 crates, came from the Oswego dis- 

 trict alone. The berry crop in western New York has been 

 unusually good this year, so that with favorable rates fixed by 

 the railroad companies, the season has been a profitable one 

 to the growers. Wild Goose plums and cherries, from near- 

 by states, are fairly abundant, and Moore's Early grapes, from 

 South Carolina, are seen. Le Conte pears come from the 

 south, and besides new apples from Delaware, Maryland and 

 Virginia, there are early varieties from the orchards of this 

 state and New Jersey. Sound hand-picked apples sell for 

 $3.50 a barrel. Altogether, 115 carloads of watermelons were 

 received here last week by rail and steamer, from South Car- 

 olina and southward. The best grades are entrusted to rapid 

 carriage by rail. The spicy Jenny Lind and Gem and the red- 

 fleshed Christina melons come from the Carolinas and Vir- 

 ginia, but many shipments are of inferior quality, and choice 

 muskmelons are scarce. The quality of Georgia peaches con- 

 tinues unsatisfactory, as much of this fruit is stung and has 

 been bruised in falling, and the sound hand-picked fruit has 

 too often been gathered green. Among the best kinds now 

 coming from Georgia are Elbertas ; from South Carolina, 

 Mountain Rose, and from North Carolina, Tillotson. A few 

 early peaches are already received from Maryland and Dela- 

 ware, but these hardly suggest the mature fruit which will be 

 seen a few weeks hence. But a short note cannot include 

 more than mention of some of the fruits bought and sold in 

 any large American city at this time of year, for, besides the 

 near-at-hand products already named as reaching this city last 

 week, there were some 80,000 bunches of bananas, 50,000 

 cocoanuts in one cargo alone, nearly 500 barrels of pineapples 

 from Cuba and several thousand crates of the same fruit from 

 Florida, nearly 75,000 boxes of Mediterranean lemons, besides 

 sixty-three carloads of pears, plums, peaches, apples and 

 apricots from California. 



