398 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 502. 



Strings of peppers have quite transformed the usually 

 unsightly fire-escapes of tenement-houses in the Italian colo- 

 nies during the past fortnight. The glowing scarlet fruits, in 

 various stages of ripening, are freely festooned, and in the 

 bright autumn sunlight lend a distinctly festive appearance to 

 streets usually given over to dull squalor. 



Referring to Mr. Watson's note on three varieties of Victoria 

 regia, on page 283 of the current volume of Garden and 

 Forest, Mr. E. D. Sturtevant writes us from Los Angeles, 

 California, that the one alluded to as Dixon's variety is known 

 in American gardens as Victoria Randii, and was introduced by 

 Mr. Edward S. Rand, of Para, and named in his honor by 

 Mr. Sturtevant. 



The orange crop of California for the coming season, ac- 

 cording to conservative estimates based on the present condi- 

 tion, will amount to from 7,000 to 8,ooocarloads, as against 5,000 

 carloads last year. As 300 boxes are required to fill a car this 

 means an increase of from 600,000 to 900,000 boxes of this 

 fruit. Other authorities consider 4.500,000 boxes as not too 

 high an estimate for the amount of this season's output. 

 California oranges from last season are still offered in the 

 eastern states in the choicest collections of fruits ; and in 

 rich quality these rival Rodi oranges, the celebrated summer 

 fruit from the Mediterranean. Since the first shipments of 

 new crop oranges from the Pacific coast are expected here 

 during November, the likelihood is strong that California 

 oranges will hereafter be in market throughout the entire 

 year. 



Iris Leichtlini, figured in a colored plate in The Garden of 

 September 18th, is one of the smaller Asiatic Irises of the 

 Regelia? group and was first flowered in Baden-Baden in 1879. 

 This Iris is one of the most quaintly and daintily marked of 

 these interesting plants. It is perfectly hardy in this latitude 

 without protection, and seems to be longer lived than most of 

 those of the allied Oncocyclus group. Their successful culture 

 depends on their having a distinct rest in perfectly dry condi- 

 tions. They are amenable to cultivation in a cool house, and 

 start naturally into growth at this season, coming into flower 

 in March or April. They must have perfect drainage, as they 

 damp off readily. They are also favorites of aphides. If 

 grown out-of-doors they should be planted late, so that their 

 leaves do not appear above ground before hard weather 

 sets in. 



The cooperative enterprise known as the Campbell Fruit- 

 growers' Union, in the Santa Clara Valley, California, was 

 recently described in The Pacific Rural Press with interesting 

 details. The Union has done much to systematize and im- 

 prove methods of handling fruit from the time it leaves the 

 orchard until it reaches the market. The shrinkage of each 

 lot is tested, so that the grower shall receive an exact equiva- 

 lent according to the curing value of his fruit, as well as 

 according to its size and quality. The cost of grading, curing 

 and packing has been greatly reduced, uniformity in the 

 product has been established, and in many ways the growers 

 who have cooperated to furnish a superior grade of dried fruit 

 are securing a fair share of its market value. Twenty-five tons 

 of fruit are bleached here at one time, and seventeen acres are 

 used for drying the fruit in the sun, a double line of steel rail- 

 way extending to the most distant portions of the tract. The 

 plant has a capacity for curing 7,000 tons of fruit in a season. 



Jonathan apples, from Missouri, are now among the choice 

 offerings of this fruit, and other good varieties of apples are 

 Twenty-ounce, Holland, and Fall Pippins, Maiden's Blush, 

 King, Ben Davis, Baldwin and Greening. Selected hand- 

 picked apples of these varieties cost from $3.00 to $5 50 a 

 barrel at retail. The receipts of apples in this city last week 

 amounted to less than 21,000 barrels, and in the corresponding 

 week of 1896 reached nearly 47,000 barrels. Many of the 

 peaches now coming from New Jersey are small and generally 

 undesirable, and these sell for fifty to seventy-five cents for a 

 basket holding five half-pecks, while the highest grades com- 

 mand $1.50. Besides Seckel and Bartlett pears there are now 

 in market Buerre Bosc, Sheldon, Buerre d'Anjou, Buerre 

 Clairgeau, Swan's Orange and other late sorts. Just after the 

 last huckleberries had disappeared from our markets, and 

 when it seemed certain that the season for summer berries 

 was ended, second-crop strawberries were unexpectedly re- 

 ceived by the crate from fields in southern New Jersey. These 

 comparatively limited supplies sold in Washington Market last 

 week at forty-five cents for a quart box. The berries were of 

 medium size, fully ripe and quite showy. Wintergreen ber- 

 ries sell for fifteen cents a quart, and are in considerable favor 

 for eating out of hand. The first Jamaica oranges, well ripened 



for so early in the season, reached this port last week in a lot 

 of sixty-one barrels ; twenty barrels were at once reshipped 

 to England. Florida oranges were another novelty in this 

 city last week, and sold at high prices. This season's orange 

 crop in that state is estimated at 250,000 boxes. Seventy car- 

 loads of California fruits were sold here last week, grapes 

 constituting the bulk of these supplies. 



The Smithsonian Institution has undertaken to bring to- 

 gether all available information relating to the medical uses of 

 plants in the United States, and arrangements have been 

 made with the body representing the Pan-American Congress 

 to prepare a report on this subject. A sub-commission for 

 the United States consists of Dr. Valery Havard, United States 

 Army, chairman, Dr. Coville, botanist of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, Dr. Millspaugh, curator of the 

 Botanical Department of the Field Columbian Museum of 

 Chicago, Dr. Charles Mohr, of Mobile, Dr. W. P. Wilson, 

 director of the Philadelphia Commercial Museums, and Pro- 

 fessor Rusby, of the New York College of Pharmacy, who is 

 also chairman of general commission. This committee 

 solicits information concerning the medical plants in the 

 United States from every one in a position to accord it. All 

 packages and correspondence should be addressed to the 

 Smithsonian Institution at Washington and marked on the 

 outside " Medicinal Plants for the United States National Mu- 

 seum." Franks which will carry specimens, when of suitable 

 size, together with descriptions and notes, free of postage 

 through the mails, will be forwarded upon application. Some 

 of the principal subjects which will occupy the attention of 

 the committee are the local names and uses, geographical dis- 

 tribution and degree of abundance of medical plants ; whether 

 they are collected for market, whether they are cultivated or have 

 been, with methods of cultivation, and whether the drugs 

 obtained from them are subject to adulteration. In order to 

 assist in the study of the habits, properties and uses of our 

 medical plants the sub-commission undertakes to furnish 

 the names of any plant specimen received, together with all 

 desired information concerning it available. The sub-com- 

 mission requests that all plants sent shall be represented by at 

 least four specimens. 



The exhibition of flowers, plants, fruits, vegetables and 

 cereals in connection with the sixty-sixth fair of the American 

 Institute of the City of New York, began in Madison Square 

 Garden last week. More than 20,000 Dahlia flowers were 

 staged for competition. In the class which required not less 

 than a hundred varieties and six blooms of each kind, above 

 300 varieties were shown by W. P. Peacock, Atco, New Jersey, 

 and as many by H. F. Burt, Taunton, Massachusetts. These 

 growers were awarded first and second prizes in this class, and 

 also shared honors in other important classes in competition 

 wilh other exhibitors. There were exhibits of single, double, 

 pompon and cactus Dahlias by professional and amateur 

 growers. The displays of hardy and half-hardy perennials 

 were especially showy. A. Herrington, gardenerfor H. McK. 

 Twombley, Esq., Madison, New Jersey, showed some new 

 hybrid Tritomas; among these Star of Baden-Baden was 

 specially good, as was Ophir and H. Cannell. One hundred 

 vases of Gladioli, each holding from six to twelve immense 

 spikes, comprised one of the brilliant exhibits in this unusually 

 good show. These came from John Lewis Childs, Floral 

 Park, New York. Other flowers shown by the same grower 

 were Tritomas, Montbretias, Phloxes and Tuberous Begonias. 

 The new, deeply fringed double Hollyhock, Altoona, was award- 

 ed a certificate of merit. Carl Blomberg, gardener for Oakes 

 Ames, Esq., North Easton, Massachusetts, made a large and 

 instructive display of wild flowers and received a first-class 

 certificate for flowers of Nymphsea ccerulea striata, never 

 before exhibited, and N. Eastoniensis. Besides a large collec- 

 tion of decorative plants, the F. R. Pierson Co., Tarrytown, 

 New York, exhibited a new scarlet Canna, Tarrytown, which 

 received a first-class certificate for intense color, free-flower- 

 ing qualities and general usefulness. Vegetables of extra 

 quality were shown in large variety by J. M. Thorborn & Co., 

 and one of the most popular exhibits in this remarkably inter- 

 esting show was a collection of chestnuts, walnuts, hickory- 

 nuts and filberts from the Pomona Nurseries, Parry, New Jer- 

 sey. The exhibition will continue until October 23d, different 

 classes and exhibits being shown each week. 



William A. Stiles, the editor of this journal, died early 

 this morning, after the main portion of this issue had 

 gone to press. 



