408 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 503. 



by J. Cardot on the Mosses of the Azores, with eleven 

 plates, and to Professor Trelease's botanical observations 

 on the same group of islands, the result of his visits to them 

 in the summers of 1894 and 1896. Fifty-five plates accom- 

 pany this paper, which, in addition to a general discussion 

 of theAzorean flora and the agriculture and horticulture of 

 the islands, contains a catalogue of all the indigenous 

 plants known to inhabit them. 



Notes. 



A branch of the Yokohama firm of Suguki & Iida, dealers 

 in Japanese plants, bulbs and seeds, has been opened in this 

 city at No. 15 Broadway. 



A bronze monument erected in honor of Malpighi, the dis- 

 tinguished Italian botanist of the seventeenth century and the 

 author of the Anatome Planiarum, was unveiled at Crevacore, 

 near Bologna, on the 8th of September last. 



Fringed Gentians, from woodland borders in northern New 

 Jersey, have been favorites for corsage bouquets during the 

 past few weeks, and these flowers have been so plentiful that 

 bunches containing from fifty to one hundred could be bought 

 for $1.00. 



In the Orchid Review for September A. H. Sinee reports the 

 successful results of applying fertilizing salts to Orchids, a 

 number of plants of Cattleya Trianae having been experi- 

 mented on for two years. Equal quantities of nitrate potash 

 and nitrate ammonia were used at the rate of two and a half 

 grains to one gallon of rain-water. Under this treatment the 

 plants made a stronger growth, and produced a greater num- 

 ber of flowers, and these were brighter in color. 



A figure of Lycoris squamigera in a recent number of the 

 Botanical Magazine (t. 7547) reminds us that this noble pink- 

 flowered Chinese Amaryllis, first figured in the third volume 

 of this journal (page 176), grows in California with surprising 

 luxuriance. It is freely used in Golden Gate Park, at San Fran- 

 cisco, where it grows without irrigation, increasing rapidly, 

 and produces in September abundant flower-stems three or 

 four feet high. It is more vigorous and beautiful, and ap- 

 parently much more at home there than in the eastern states, 

 where, however, it is perfectly hardy. 



A few specimens of the new rose, Dean Hole, have been on 

 exhibition in the show-window of W. H. Brower & Sons, on 

 Broadway, within the past week. These partly-opened firm 

 buds suggest flowers of large size when fully grown. The 

 Dean Hole rose differs from the cream-tinted President Carnot, 

 which pales under gaslight, in that its rich shell-pink petals are 

 particularly beautiful in artificial light. For this reason it is likely 

 to be in special demand for dinner decorations, and it is ex- 

 pected that the supply will be large enough this winter to 

 provide some of the smaller flowers for this use. The stems 

 are strong and the foliage is luxuriant and pleasing. This rose 

 was first shown two years ago at the dinner given in honor of 

 Dean Hole in this city. 



The Department of Agriculture has recently published an 

 important work on the fibres and fibrous substances of all 

 countries, entitled A Descriptive Catalogue of the Useful Fibre- 

 plants of the World. The author, Mr. Charles Richards Dodge, 

 special agent in charge of fibre investigations in the depart- 

 ment, asks that any information about fibre-plants known to 

 have been employed either commercially or in what may be 

 termed native uses, such as for rough textiles, cordage, fishing 

 nets and lines, basketry, etc., that has been omitted from this 

 work be reported to him. He would also be glad to hear of 

 any native or aboriginal names by which fibre-plants are 

 known in the countries where they grow, which he has not 

 been able to give. He asks, too, for notes on any errors in 

 nomenclature, and for all such information as may enable him 

 to prepare a revised edition of this important work, which is 

 the outcome of a vast amount of patient labor, scientific inves- 

 tigation and technical knowledge. 



The horticultural department of the American Institute 

 Fair in this city included many notable exhibits during 

 last week. Stove and greenhouse plants were among the 

 principal attractions. Messrs. Ellwanger & Barry, Rochester, 

 New York, and C. C. Corby, Montclair, New Jersey, had highly 

 creditable exhibits of grapes in large variety. A new quince 

 of large size and regular form won a special prize for 

 Luther Burbank, Santa Rosa, California. In a large collection 

 of semi-tropical fruits was an immense cluster of dates from 

 Riverside, California. Guavas, from Florida, were shown in 



large numbers, and their peculiarly sweet fragrance proved 

 almost oppressive even in a large hall. This is said to be 

 the first time this delicate fruit has been successfully shipped 

 and exhibited in the northern states. Pomegranates, from 

 California, were also shown, and the fruits of Zizyphus vulgaris, 

 Jujube, from Augusta, Georgia. A collection of 500 species of 

 grasses made by Mr. J. E. Lager in Colombia, South America, 

 was one of the most attractive and interesting features of the 

 exhibition. 



The first of this season's Albemarle Pippins, from Virginia, 

 were offered here last week and sold mainly for export at from 

 $5.00 to $8.00 a barrel. Owing to dry weather during the past, 

 month there is more second-grade fruit in this crop than was 

 expected ; this means smaller apples, lower prices, and, accord- 

 ing to experience in other years, good keeping qualities. 

 Selected Yellow Globe peaches and the white Stevens Rare- 

 ripes, of choice quality, from the Hudson River district, sell at 

 $1.50 for a basket holding a peck of the fruit. Large Beurre 

 Bosc pears, from New Jersey, sell for seventy-five cents a 

 dozen. Among other pears of rich quality are Beurre D'Anjou, 

 from California, which lack the rich color sometimes seen in 

 the eastern-grown fruit. The first Easter Beurres, from Cali- 

 fornia, have already arrived ; these firm pears, which are at 

 their best in early spring, are now mainly sold for export to 

 the West Indies and Europe. Small muskmelons, from Colo- 

 rado, the last of this season, cost $2.50 a dozen. Other special- 

 ties in the fancy fruit-stores are handsomely colored mangoes, 

 from Venezuela. These sell at seventy-five cents a dozen, a 

 price warranted by the showy and really palatable specimens, 

 which are altogether the best heretofore seen in this city. 

 Cultivated cob-nuts, or English filberts, have been imported 

 within the past week, from Kent, England. These fresh nuts 

 are sold in their husks and fifty cents a pound is willingly paid 

 by those who esteem their delicate meats. Chestnuts, from 

 cultivated trees in New Jersey, sell for forty cents a quart. 

 Eighteen of these immense nuts weigh a pound and two dozen 

 fill a quart measure. Some of the largest weigh two ounces 

 each. 



The Spindle-tree, a familiar shrub in American gardens, 

 was recently described in an interesting article in the Keiu 

 Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, which first appeared in 

 St. James Gazette. It was stated that the Spindle-tree, Euony- 

 mus Europffius, is a native European shrub or small tree 

 possessing great ornamental merit, and is too often over- 

 looked by landscape-gardeners. It is deciduous, but its 

 broadly lanceolate leaves of a wavy irregular outline, with 

 minutely serrated edges, turn, before they fall, to a deep rich 

 crimson. The small pale green cross-like blossoms, which 

 open in May, are inconspicuous, but the fruit, when ripe in 

 October, has all the appearance of a flower of brilliant hues. 

 The fruit, indeed, from its color and shape, is the most dis- 

 tinctive as well as most beautiful feature of the tree. Each 

 berry is four-lobed and of a lively rose-pink. When quite ripe 

 the lobes open, disclosing four large seeds covered with a 

 deep orange-colored membrane, the seeds and the husk then 

 presenting a curious but attractive contrast. The wood of the 

 Spindle-tree is exceedingly tough, and the husks and stems 

 of the berries partake of the same character, so that long after 

 the leaves have fallen these remain to enliven the wintry 

 landscape. Birds will not touch them, and with human beings 

 they act as a strong emetic and purgative. The wood is so 

 compact and tough that it is hard to break and almost impos- 

 sible to splinter. In the days of domestic industries, when 

 every notable maid minded her wheel, it was in request for 

 the making of spindles ; hence its common name, by which it 

 is known in Germany and Italy. The wood is also used for 

 making the pointed ends of ox-goads, whence is derived 

 another name of Gatter-tree, or Prick-wood. Chaucer calls 

 the berries gaitre-berries, and in the Nennes Preestes Tale 

 recommends them against ague and the humors. In Ireland 

 it is called Peg-wood, because shoemakers use it for pegs for 

 shoes. In France it is also known by the name of Priest's-cap, 

 from the resemblance of the berry in shape to a biretta. 

 Though goads and spindles are gone out of fashion, the wood 

 is still employed in the making of a variety of small wares, 

 such as skewers, toothpicks and fine pins for cleaning watches, 

 and artists are said to prefer the charcoal prepared from the 

 branches to any other, partly from its excellent quality and 

 partly because it is easily effaced. A variety of the common 

 Spindle-tree, bearing berries with white instead of pink husks, 

 is occasionally found ; but, although the contrast between the 

 white husks and the orange seeds is curious, the effect is less 

 pleasing than that presented by the berries of the commoner 

 sort. 



