September 15. 1897. 



Garden and Forest. 



359 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SHCOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST-OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. V. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1897. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial Articles: — The Improving of Native Plants Thomas Meekan. 359 



Wild Flowers of Early September Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer, 359 



Some Facts about Frost Prevention M G. Kains. 361 



Foreign Correspondence: — Grammatophyllum speciosum IV. Watson, 362 



New or Litti.e-known Plants: — Hydrangea paniculata. (With figure ) 362 



Cultural Department: — Colchicums J.N. Gerard, 364 



Notes on Gladioli IV. E. Endlcott. 364 



A New Double Hollyhock V. A. Clark. 364 



Notes from Wellesley T. D. Hatfield. 365 



Rudbeckia Golden Glow E. O. Orfet 365 



Lilium Henryi Professor F. A. IVaugh. 365 



Correspondence : — The Botanic Garden of the Michigan Agricultural College, 



Professor IV. J. Beal. 31 3 



Notes from Rochester, New York P.O. Or/yet. 366 



Peaches in the Ozark Mountains . . Fanny Copley Seavey . 366 



The Dikeman Cherry J S. Woodward. 367 



Crested Begonias J. N. Gerard. 367 



The Cheney Plum Professor /•'. A. Wait eh. 367 



Recent Publications 367 



Notes -• 368 



Iliustration :— Hydrangea paniculata, Fig. 47 563 



The Improving of Native Plants. 



HISTORIES are mostly unreliable, and the historic- ol 

 our fruits and vegetables are no exception. Few can 

 see the value of any occurrence at the time when it takes 

 place, and it is only in after years, when the results arc 

 apparent, that we begin to look about for the attending 

 circumstances. This truth is evident when reading the 

 histories of our fruits and garden vegetables. We know 

 that they were derived from wild forms still in existence, 

 and that they reached their present conditions only after 

 long and patient experiment and display of skill. The 

 monks of old especially are credited with the expenditure 

 of much study in bringing our garden vegetables to 

 their present state of comparative perfection, and possibly 

 to them we are indebted for much that is good in them. 

 The fact is that there is no great amount of knowledge or 

 skill required to produce these improvements from the 

 wild stock. Perseverance in selecting individuals which 

 vary somewhat from the usual forms, sowing seeds of 

 these, and choosing plants which are nearest to our ideal, 

 and following up this for a few generations, represent 

 the knowledge and skill necessary. A few years of per- 

 severance are required, and this the monasteries were in 

 excellent condition to give. It is no wonder, however, 

 that the uninitiated look on with awe at the change, and 

 that polite history credits it to the great skill and knowledge 

 of the improver. The Beet-plant may now be drawn 

 from its native soil with its long thready root no thicker 

 than a goose quill, and it seems incredible that this should 

 be the parent of the Sugar Beet. So also the parent of the 

 Cabbage may be gathered with a couple of leaves not as 

 large as one's hand and a six-inch spike of yellow flowers, 

 and yet from this unpromising origin came Cabbage, 

 Kale and Cauliflower. And these improvements have been 

 brought about by simple selection and resowings from 

 some one aberrant plant. 



It is somewhat surprising that no one has taken in hand 

 the improvement of our native vegetables to any great 

 extent. Certainly we have Corn, Beans, Tomatoes and a few 

 other plants that are natives of our continent, but these we 

 received from the natives before us. We, from the old 

 world, have done nothing for the vegetables of the new 

 world. We go to China for Chingi when our own species 

 of Stachys and its near neighbor, Lycopus, have tubers 



nearly as good. Our native Indians could tell of scores of 

 roots that would be as good as many of our popular 

 vegetables if taken in hand and selected for improvement 

 as others have been. 



In 1804-5-6 a wonderful event occurred in the success- 

 ful crossing of this great continent for the first time, and 

 the return to the "village" of St. Louis by Captains Lewis 

 and Clark and forty-three companions. Among the instruc- 

 tions given them by President Jefferson was one to 

 take notes of plants that might be serviceable to man. 

 A collection of plants was made by them which has 

 not been seen since the botanist Pursh's time until 

 this summer, when it became my good fortune to find 

 it in the vault of the American Philosophical Society in 

 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where these specimens, with 

 others, were deposited after Dr. Barton's death. Under 

 the specimens are full notes of their uses by the Indians. 

 These great explorers were not botanists except in the 

 general way that intelligent persons of a few generations 

 back were expected to have an outline knowledge of every 

 school study. They knew, for instance, that certain plants 

 belonged to the umbelliferous family, and others to the 

 Lily family, and they went this far in their written descrip- 

 tions. It is especially surprising to note the number of 

 members of the Umbelliferre in use as food, and we still 

 have in our gardens Celery, Carrot, Parsnip, Parsley and 

 others ; but because there happens to be one fatal Hem- 

 lock among them, the whole family is under suspicion. 

 On one of the labels is written, "This umbelliferous plant 

 is the only one whose root is not eaten by the Indians." 

 Unfortunately, during the three-quarters of a century that 

 the specimens have been bundled up, the museum beetle 

 has done effectual work, and not a scrap of the plant is 

 left to which this label was attached. Another label tells 

 us "The Indians use this root, boiled or raw. It has a 

 fusiform root, not unlike our common carrot, and, indeed, 

 the leaves are somewhat of the same character. They 

 taste like sugar." Surely such good material is worth in- 

 vestigation and study. These labels suggest that there is 

 scarcely a starchy or succulent root but is good for food. 

 Even our common Silver-weed or Goose Grass, Potentilla 

 anserina, has a place in this useful list, and a label tells us 

 that " we found them very pleasant when roasted, resem- 

 bling in flavor somewhat a sweet potato." 



In the busy days of the modern American the few years 

 of trial required to bring up American weeds to the rank of 

 useful vegetables cannot be spared. But our agricultural 

 colleges more than supply the place of ancient cloisters. 

 With a wide knowledge of science, with skill in experi- 

 mentation, the officers of our colleges and stations are 

 much more completely equipped for this work than were 

 the monks or any one else of their generation. At least, 

 here are two fields in which they would have practically 

 no rivals. In the first place there is a mass of biblio- 

 graphical work of the past century which can be arranged 

 for useful reference, so that we can preserve the gains our 

 predecessors have already made. And again there are 

 wild plants everywhere which by careful selection might 

 be transformed into edible foods of the highest value. We 

 do not refer, of course, by this to the nuts and berries ex- 

 clusively, but to salad plants and garden plants for 

 preparation in other ways that will add variety and value 

 to our foods. „,, . , , 



Germantown, Pa. 7 llOVlOS Mee/taH. 



Wild Flowers of Early September. 



WITH September the reign of the Golden-rod and the 

 Aster is established, though it is not at once 

 supreme. Some of the August flowers, and especially the tall 

 late-summer "weeds," are still prolific and lusty; and 

 certain later comers help them to dispute the conquest ol 

 field and roadside with the two great autumnal genera. 



The showiest of the Eupatoriums, the showiest of all 

 August flowers — the Joe-Pye Weed — is past its best. Many 



