3*8 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 494. 



centre 100 feet, and its height is 66 feet. The oldest Palm 

 in the house is Sabal Blackburniana, from Bermuda. 

 Originally there were two specimens of this tree in the 

 collection, but one was taken down in 1876 for want of 

 room. Smith, in his Keiv Records, gives the following 

 account of them : "On my entering Kew in the spring of 

 1820 the first hot house I came to was the Palm-house ; on 

 looking in I was struck with what I then considered a 

 wonderful plant, a large-leaved Fan Palm ; and I found 

 there was another of the same kind and size at the other 

 end of the house. There is no record of their introduction 

 in the Garden books. Probably they formed a part of the 

 great collection of plants introduced by Admiral Bligh in 

 1793, on his return home after having introduced the Bread 

 Fruit tree into the West Indies." The large plant of 

 Jubcea spectabilis, in the temperate house, is supposed to 

 be one of several plants raised from seeds collected in 

 Chili by Thomas Bridges and purchased from his agent in 



1843. 



Of the Pandanacese, or Screw Pine family, about 115 

 species are known, half of them being cultivated at Kew, 

 mostly in the Palm-house. 



Of the 900 species of Aroids known to science 368 are 

 cultivated at Kew, the number having increased from 

 forty-four in 18 13. 



Among the Grasses two of the largest species of Bam- 

 boos are noteworthy features in the centre of the Palm- 

 house, Bambusa vulgaris and Dendrocalamus giganteus, 

 the former having been in cultivation at Kew since the 

 beginning of the century. 



These Hand-lists are of immense assistance to cultiva- 

 tors. In addition to the present issue, volumes devoted to 

 Hardy Trees and Shrubs and to Conifers have appeared, 

 and it is to be hoped that others, enumerating the other 

 groups of plants cultivated in this, the richest and best- 

 managed of all gardens, will speedily appear. 



Notes. 



During last week 1.800 boxes of Mediterranean oranges and 

 36,500 boxes of lemons reached this port, and 10,700 boxes of 

 oranges and 186.400 boxes of lemons are en route. Cool 

 weather affects the sales of these imports quite as much as 

 some of our domestic fruits, and prices have been unexpect- 

 edly low in the absence of a hot wave. 



A correspondent of The Gardeners' Chronicle, in explaining 

 his method of hybridizing Campanulas, mentions one point of 

 practice that we do not remember to have seen before. In 

 taking up the pollen from a matured anther he uses a bit of 

 black sealing-wax drawn out to a blunt point, and when he 

 wishes to pick up the pollen he rubs the wax on his sleeve 

 until it becomes sufficiently electrified, and then lifts with it 

 the loose pollen and applies it where it is desired almost with- 

 out touching the flower. 



How to propagate the Apple is one of those old questions 

 which pomologists are constantly studying, and in a late illus- 

 trated bulletin of the Kansas Agricultural College, entitled 

 " Grafting the Apple," the conclusions are reached that Apple- 

 trees grafted on whole roots are no better than when grafted 

 on piece roots from three to five inches in length ; that there 

 is no advantage in grafting above the crown, and that the 

 greatest uniformity in growth is secured by using grafts that 

 will quickly root above the union with the stalk. 



Mr. F. C. Stewart, at the branch of the New York Experiment 

 Station in Jamaica, Long Island, is studying a new bacterial 

 disease of Sweet Corn. The plants wilt and dry up, although 

 the leaves do not roll as they do when they die from lack of 

 moisture. In young plants death occurs in a few days, but the 

 disease requires from two to four weeks to run its course in 

 older plants. Externally affected plants appear sound, but 

 when split the fibro- vascular bundles are found gorged with a 

 yellow substance. When a diseased stalk is cut crosswise 

 there exudes from the ends in yellow viscid drops a substance 

 composed of immense numbers of short bacilli. The disease 

 may attack the plants at any stage of growth, but is the most 

 virulent about the time when the ears are forming. It does 

 not spread from an initial centre, but is found scattered 



through the field. Diseased plants frequently occur in the 

 same hill with healthy ones. It is found in all kinds of soil, all 

 kinds of weather, and seems to prefer the early dwarf varieties 

 of Sweet Corn. Mr. Stewart asks that this note be published 

 so that he can get information concerning the geographical 

 distribution of the disease, which seems to be common to all 

 parts of Long Island, where in some cases it is very destruc- 

 tive. It has not been reported from any other section, and any 

 one who has noticed it elsewhere will render a service to 

 science by reporting the fact to Mr. Stewart. 



The season for Bartlett pears from California is drawing to 

 a close, and prices for this favorite fruit, which has been of 

 unusually good quality this year, advanced twenty-five cents a 

 box last Friday. The seventy-six car-loads of California fruits 

 sold here last week included, besides Bartlett pears, grapes, 

 plums and peaches, and, among many varieties, the handsome 

 Japanese plum, Eureka, commanded the remarkably high rate 

 of $5.90 a crate at the wholesale auction sales. Diamond, 

 Abundance, Purple Duane, Yellow Eg:g, Silver, Gros, Tragedy, 

 Columbia, Washington, Bradshaw, Hungarian, Kelsey, Ger- 

 man, Ouackenbos and other well-known kinds ranged from 

 eighty cents to $2.50 a crate. Susquehanna, Late Crawford, 

 Decker and Foster are the favorites among peaches, and 

 Flame Tokay among grapes, with Sweetwater and Sultana as 

 the other principal kinds in season. 



Most of the late summer varieties of apples are now in mar 

 ket, and showy Red Astrachans and others of bright color, 

 when hand-picked selected fruit, find ready sale at good prices. 

 Duchess of Oldenburg is a favorite, with Gravenstein and 

 Nyack Pippins, all of which sell at retail for from $3.00 to$3.35 

 for the best grade, while windfalls can be bought as low as 

 $1.00 a barrel. Peaches are still coming from Georgia and 

 other southern states, and from Maryland, Delaware and New 

 Jersey, and include occasional lots of large and well-colored 

 fruit of the desirable later varieties ; but most of the peaches 

 from the eastern states are unattractive, and some are so infe- 

 rior as to meet almost no demand. Bartlett pears are also 

 comparatively poor in the eastern states, those from New 

 Jersey bringing the highest prices. Grapes from North Caro- 

 lina, while not of choice quality, have been quite plentiful, and 

 five-pound baskets of Delawares and Niagaras sell on the 

 street-stands for twenty cents. Damson, Wild Goose and 

 Botan are among the eastern plums now seen. Currants con- 

 tinue plentiful and cheap, and there are small shipments of 

 red raspberries from the Hudson River district, and of black- 

 berries from that section and from New Jersey, with more 

 abundant supplies of huckleberries from the Shawangunk 

 mountains and from other sections of New Jersey, Maryland 

 and Pennsylvania. Evaporated raspberries, blackberries, 

 huckleberries, cherries, apricots and peaches of this year's 

 crop are offered in the wholesale markets now, while the fresh 

 fruits are yet in season. 



Although it has long been known that the sweet potato con- 

 tains starch in considerable quantities, the question whether it 

 can be made a profitable source for the manufacture of starch 

 on a commercial scale has only recently been raised. Very 

 interesting, therefore, is a bulletin from the South Carolina 

 Agricultural Experiment Station at Clemson College, from 

 which it appears that at least twenty-two percent, of starch can 

 be counted upon in most varieties of the Sweet Potato, while 

 in some kinds the product ranges still higher. Counting the 

 yield of Sweet Potatoes at from 200 to 300 bushels to the acre 

 in South Carolina, which is moderate, since 500 bushels to the 

 acre have occasionally been accomplished, it appears that the 

 amount of starch yielded by an acre of Sweet Potatoes is much 

 greater than the amount yielded by Corn or Wheat, counting 

 Corn at thirty-five bushels to the acre and Wheat at twenty 

 bushels to the acre. That is, an acre of Sweet Potatoes will 

 yield four times as much starch as an acre of Wheat and twice 

 as much as an acre of Corn. The Sweet Potato even has the 

 advantage over the Irish Potato in this regard in the southern 

 states. Of course, this does not establish the fact that the 

 Sweet Potato can be profitably raised as a starch producer. 

 In the first place, a more thorough test of the quality of the 

 starch and its fitness for sizing will have to be determined. 

 Again, the value of the by-products is much smaller than the 

 value of the by-products in the manufacture of starch from 

 corn. Besides this, much must be learned about the cost of 

 producing the sweet potato, the changes which may take place 

 in storing it and the cost of manufacturing the starch. Never- 

 theless, the bulletin is an extremely interesting one, and it is 

 full of suggestion as to the proper soils, fertilizers, etc., which 

 the crop demands for its best development. 



