328 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 495. 



has been arranged that an excursion, including' the members 

 and their friends, shall leave Washington on Thursday, Sep- 

 tember 16th, for Asheville, North Carolina, and a visit to the 

 forests of Mr. George W. Vanderbilt, under the direction of 

 Dr. Schenck. The party will reach Lookout Mountain on Sat- 

 urday evening and Nashville on Monday morning, September 

 20th. 



A late number of The Garden contains a beautiful colored 

 illustration of the Bicolor Daffodil, Ellen Willmott. This is 

 one of Mr. Engleheart's creations, and it is a seedling from 

 John Horsfield fertilized with the pollen of a selected form of 

 Narcissus variiformis. The plant is rather dwarf, but it throws 

 up a tall stout stem which carries a flower of remarkable sub- 

 stance, symmetry and color. The white lobes of the perianth 

 slightly overlap each other and they bend forward slightly at 

 the tips. The trumpet is of a clear yellow and of just the 

 proper size to suit the cup. It flowers early, a little in advance 

 of its seed parent, whose robust constitution it seems to have 

 inherited. 



The American Florist last week reproduced the photograph 

 of a hedge of the Crimson Rambler Rose, which shows that 

 the vigor and hardiness of this plant, together with the abun- 

 dant way in which it produces its brilliant flowers, adapt it in 

 a remarkable way to such a use. The hedge pictured is 135 feet 

 in length and it is on the estate of D. Willis James, Esq., Madi- 

 son, New Jersey. Mr. William Duckham, the gardener, set 

 out the plants from pots where they had been grown on their 

 own roots in May, 1896, and in June of this year, when the 

 photograph was taken they were making a magnificent dis- 

 play. Shoots were tied to a wire support stretched between 

 iron posts, and there were some titty clusters of bloom to 

 every linear foot. 



At the annual meeting of the Vermont State Horticultural 

 Society, Professor W. M. Munson called attention to the fact 

 that although individuality is as strongly marked among trees 

 of the same variety as it is among animals of the same breed, 

 yet not one nurseryman in a hundred gives any heed to this 

 fact when he begins to propagate. Scions are taken from the 

 most available source, which may be a nursery row or a con- 

 venient tree of the variety needed, and with no reference to 

 individual characteristics. Professor Munson has no doubt 

 that this neglect in the matter of selection has more to do with 

 the failure of orchards than any other one condition. It is one 

 potent cause of the so-called "running out" of varieties. 

 Breeds of horses, cattle or swine treated in a similar way 

 would also run out very soon. 



At a recent exhibition of the Royal Horticultural Society 

 much interest was excited by a new hybrid Orchid raised by 

 Messrs. Veitch & Sons, and called Epilrelia x Radico-purpurata. 

 As its name indicates, it is the result of crossing Epidendrum 

 radicans upon Lselia purpurata, and although it is not the first 

 time that such dissimilar genera have been united, it shows 

 the striking possibilities in the way of new groups in this re- 

 markable family. The seed of the Laslia fertilized by the 

 Epidendrum was sown in September, 1892, and the seedling 

 flowered in July of the present year, and the flower again, as 

 well as the plant, shows the strong individuality of the pollen 

 parent, as it did in the case of the hybrid between Epidendrum 

 and Cattleya. The plant has a slender reed-like, root-bearing 

 stem, and the flowers are borne on a slender peduncle four- 

 teen inches long. The color is rich orange-scarlet, base and 

 centre of the lip lemon-yellow, margined with light reddish 

 purple. It is two inches across, with lanceolate sepals, ovate 

 petals, broadly ovate lip and a crest with three yellow keels. 



Professor M. V. Slingerland writes to The Rural New-Yorker 

 that the San Josg scale was discovered at Cornell University 

 last April on some of the ornamental trees and shrubs, and in 

 May before the hibernating scales began their spring growth 

 the bark of the trunks and larger branches were thoroughly 

 washed with whale-oil soap, dissolved at the rate of two pounds 

 to a gallon of water. On the 25th of June, when the scales 

 which had wintered over had made considerable growth, 

 every infested plant was thoroughly drenched with spray con- 

 taining one part of kerosene to five parts of water. Very few 

 of the leaves on the Dogwoods or other shrubs were injured, 

 and a second application of the same spray was made on July 

 2d. The result is, the scales have been practically extermi- 

 nated by three applications, but it must be understood that the 

 spraying and washing was not done in a half-hearted way, but 

 by a man who understands the business. This seems to indicate 

 that the pest can be controlled by vigorous and thorough 

 work. 



Last week marked the heaviest shipments of California 

 fruits ever sent to this city, and 105 carloads were sold. The 



plums now seen in great variety are of the richest colors and 

 largest size and maintain fair prices, but California peaches, 

 which come at this time into direct competition with the eastern 

 product, sell at prices so low as to allow small profits, if, 

 indeed, any to the western grower. Choice Barlett pears are 

 still seen, and Flame Tokay and other grapes are improving in 

 color and flavor as the season advances. Several well-known 

 varieties of nectarines are included among these western 

 fruits, but in the partially ripened condition in which they 

 arrive these do not seem to appeal strongly to popular favor 

 among more luscious and juicy fruits. 



Mr. Joseph Meehan writes us that the so-called blue varie- 

 ties of Picea pungens are unusually beautiful this year in 

 Germantown. These trees vary much in color, and in a col- 

 lection of seedlings many individuals will be as green as the 

 Norway Spruce, but the silvery blue of the new growth of 

 other individuals makes them more striking at this season than 

 almost any conifer. Both Cedrus Deodora and C. Atlantica 

 glauca are now covered with the silvery foliage, the Deodora 

 Cedar seeming to make the best display, not because the 

 foliage is of a lighter color, but because it is more abundant. 

 The Atlantic Cedar seems to be the hardier of the two, al- 

 though both succeed perfectly well in Germantown. Cephalo- 

 taxus Fortuni comes through the winter in Philadelphia as 

 well as the Yews do, rarely suffering more than a slight brown- 

 ing of the foliage. C. Fortuni forms a spreading bush with 

 foliage of the very darkest green. 



According to The Gardeners' Chronicle, which has been 

 making a careful summary of the prospects of the fruit crop 

 in the British Islands, there will be a marked deficiency in the 

 apple crop all over the kingdom. Out of 314 reports only ten 

 are marked as over the average, while 230 are recorded as 

 below it. Plums, the next most important crop commercially, 

 show even a greater deficiency, from which it is clear that for 

 both these fruits Great Britain must rely upon foreign sources 

 of supply for the year. In regard to small fruits the case is 

 different, and it is worth noting here that at a recent London 

 exhibition, one firm, Messrs. James Veitch & Sons, sent a col- 

 lection ot one hundred varieties of gooseberries. Of course, 

 we can grow good gooseberries and grow them well in 

 America, but when we read of a dozen first-class varieties of 

 red gooseberries, as many more of green berries, not to 

 speak of yellow berries and white ones, and of a smaller class 

 of highly flavored berries, red, yellow and green, each con- 

 taining half a dozen varieties of the first merit, we understand 

 that in the cultivation of gooseberries thi»country is far behind 

 England. 



The third annual meeting of the National Apple Shippers' 

 Association was held in Buffalo, New York, on the 5th, 6th and 

 7th of this month, the object being to obtain accurate reports 

 of the condition of the apple crop in various sections of the 

 country and to regulate the system of grading and fix standards 

 which can be definitely relied upon by dealers. In his opening 

 address the President, E. P. Loomis, of this city, showed the 

 growth of the apple trade, and stated that whereas in 1889 

 there were produced 57,242,000 barrels of apples in the United 

 States, in 1896 the yield amounted to 75,000,000 barrels. Of 

 2,558,370 barrels ot this fruit exported from the port of New 

 York last year, almost all came from New York, Pennsyl- 

 vania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. The 

 exports from Virginia are usually important, being mainly of 

 choice Albemarle or Newtown Pippins, but last season's crop 

 was a very light one. Mr. Loomis said that the exports of 

 fruit, mainly apples, had grown from $24,974 in 1850 to 

 $542,502 in 1870, and increased rapidly thereafter, until in 1894 

 $2,299,006 represented the value of these shipments from this 

 city alone. The apple crop for 1897, estimated from reports of 

 the statistician and of members ot the association and from 

 other reliable sources, is said to be considerably smaller than 

 the immense crop of last year, but equal to the average, and 

 the largest crops this year, as would be expected, are promised 

 in sections which produced small crops in 1896. Colorado, 

 California and Oregon are rated at 100 per cent, for this year, 

 or as yielding a full crop, and some of the middle western 

 states are rated at seventy to ninety per cent. From New York 

 state but one-quarter of a full crop is expected, and other 

 eastern states promise from half to two-thirds of a full yield, 

 Virginia being counted at seventy per cent. Canada is rated 

 at forty per cent. The grading of apples, transportation and a 

 uniform bulge for the sides of barrels were among the sub- 

 jects discussed, and with the length of staves, number of 

 hoops and size of heads already fixed for the standard barrel, 

 not less than sixty-four and a half inches was decided upon as 

 the bulge. 



