428 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 505. 



posed fish is depended on to fertilize the soil. In the intensive 

 system of cultivation practiced a cupful of this ill-smelling 

 fluid is poured at the root of each plant. Only the Chinese 

 trade is supplied, and the chief vegetables grown are Pump- 

 kins, Okra, Yams, Cabbage and several members of the 

 Cucumber tribe. 



It appears from a note printed in the October issue of The 

 Kern Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information that the so-called 

 bandoline wood is derived from Machilus Thunbergii, a rela- 

 tive of our Sassafras-tree. The shavings and chips of the 

 wood when soaked in cold water yield a viscid mucilage-like 

 matter which is used by Chinese ladies in bandolining their 

 hair. This tree is a native of southern Japan, Formosa and 

 south-eastern China, and is an exceedingly handsome ever- 

 green with elongated leathery lustrous leaves. 



The crop of chestnuts is disappointing in quantity this 

 season owing to dry weather in August, when the nuts should 

 fill out rapidly. Sound chestnuts of ordinary size from near- 

 by northern states sell for twenty cents a pound in this city. 

 This shortage is particularly evident in the lack of offerings by 

 Italian vendors on the sidewalks. Hickory-nuts are abundant, 

 and the best shell-barks sell for ten cents a quart. Black 

 walnuts are not yet in market. Butternuts, from Vermont, 

 sell for twenty-five cents a half-peck in their hulls. 



In the first issue of The Plant World, a monthly journal of 

 popular botany, Dr. F. H. Knowlton, the editor, calls attention 

 to the existence in a swamp near Laurel, Prince George's County, 

 Maryland, of a form of Lilium superbum with stems seven or 

 eight feet tall and clear lemon-yellow flowers without spots, 

 but with large bright green triangular markings at the base of 

 the perianth-segments. The leaves are described as similar 

 to those of the common form, although perhaps more scat- 

 tered, and the flowers are similar in size and shape. Although 

 not abundant, it appears that this plant has been known locally for 

 many years and that a few specimens can be found every year. 



A writer in the October issue of Forest Leaves describes two 

 White Pine-trees on the farm of Miss Gallagher, in Allegheny 

 township, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, which are believed 

 to be the two largest trees in the state. The trunk of one of 

 these trees is oval shaped, the longer diameter being over 

 eleven feet and the shorter nearly seven feet. About twenty 

 feet from the ground the trunk divides into a dozen branches, 

 the principal one being about thirty inches in diameter and 

 ninety feet high. The smaller tree is seven feet in diameter. 

 A finger-board which formerly stood on the road from Cres- 

 son to Loretto at a side road two miles from Cresson bore the 

 legend "This way to the Big Trees." 



From a recent number of the Pharmaceutical Journal it 

 appears that in November, 1895, an ordinance was promul- 

 gated in Corea legalizing the export of Ginseng. For centuries 

 red Ginseng has been sent to Pekin by the overland embassy, 

 the trade being a royal monopoly from which the King of Corea 

 derived the principal portion of his revenue, the export by sea 

 being prohibited. The annual crop is limited in quantity to 

 about 15,000 catties, upon which an excise duty of $10 a catty 

 is charged under the new regulations, to which is added an 

 import duty of five per cent ad valorem, levied on its arrival 

 at a treaty port in China. Under the new law the King is com- 

 pensated for his loss of the Ginseng monopbly by an equiva- 

 lent addition to the privy purse. 



In his enthusiasm over the beauty of the form of Apera 

 arundinacea, in last week's issue of Garden and Forest, Mr. 

 Watson did not fully describe the coloring of this hand- 

 some Pheasant Grass. The common name is aptly given for 

 its browns and reddish browns, distinctive of the attractive 

 bird, and perhaps no other Grass is so quaintly and highly 

 colored. T. Smith, of Newry, Ireland, introduced this species 

 some years ago, but it seems to have only lately attracted 

 attention. It is one of the handsomest Grasses. While hardy, 

 it seems to require care in removal or transplanting, and 

 springtime appears to be the proper season for planting out. 

 Like all the noble Grasses, this should be grown as an isolated 

 specimen, or, at least, separate from other Grasses. 



A writer in a recent number of La Semaine Horticole 

 estimates the possible length of life of a number of European 

 trees, basing his calculations on many measurements. Such 

 estimates are, of course, interesting, although the length of 

 life of any tree depends so much on conditions of soil and on 

 immunity from accidents that they must be taken with many 

 allowances. The following are his estimates : Judas-tree 

 (Cercis Siliquastrum), 300 years; Elm (Ulmus campestris), 

 335; Ivy (Hedera helix), 450 ; Field Maple (Acer campestre), 



516 ; Birch (Betula alba), 576 ; Orange (Citrus Aurantium), 630 ; 

 Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens), 800; Walnut (Juglans re- 

 gia), goo; Plane (Platanus orientalis), 1,000; Linden, 1,100; 

 Norway Spruce, 1,200; Oak (Ouercus Robur), 1,500; Cedar of 

 Lebanon (Cedrus Libani), 2,000 ; and Yew (Taxus baccata), 

 3,200 years, while to our Southern or Bald Cypress (Taxodium) 

 a length of life of 3,000 years is ascribed. 



One of the most delightful American trees in autumn is 

 certainly the Sassafras when it becomes conspicuous in the 

 landscape by the varied tints of the delicate orange coloring 

 of its leaves, and this year it has been unusually beautiful. 

 But it is not in autumn alone that the Sassafras is attractive 

 and interesting; in winter its bright green, lustrous branches 

 make a cheerful note on the margin of the forest ; in spring it 

 is charming, with its drooping clusters of delicate yellow 

 flowers surrounded by the enlarged and showy scales of the 

 expanding buds ; all summer long its variously shaped fra- 

 grant leaves retain their healthy luxuriance ; and the fruit, 

 which birds rarely allow to remain long on the branches, is 

 showy, with deep blueberries and much thickened and scarlet 

 cups. Few people plant the Sassafras, perhaps because it is a 

 native tree, and nurserymen rarely offer it for sale. Large 

 plants are difficult to transplant, as the thick, fleshy roots are 

 scantily provided with rootlets, but small plants which can 

 often be found in abundance along fence-rows and wood bor- 

 ders, are easily managed and grow rapidly when set in good 

 soil. With many other common American trees the Sassafras 

 ought to be often planted in American parks and along the 

 margins of American highways. 



Of the exotic trees recently introduced into American gar- 

 dens one of the most promising is the Japanese Prunus 

 Pseudo-cerasus, which has for several years proved hardy in 

 the Arnold Arboretum, where it is growing rapidly and has 

 not yet been attacked by insects or fungal diseases. Forms 

 of this tree or of some allied species with double flowers are 

 now rather common garden plants in the United States and 

 Europe, but these are less hardy and of much slower growth 

 than the wild type which appears to be rare in American col- 

 lections. It is the largest tree of the Rose family in Japan and, 

 next to the Apricot, more cultivated for its flowers by the 

 Japanese than any other tree. In the forests of Yezo, where it 

 is very common and sometimes eighty feet high with a trunk 

 three feet in diameter, it resembles in the appearance of the bark 

 and in habit the wild type of Prunus Cerasus, the Cherry-tree 

 of our gardens, and it might be mistaken for that species. In 

 autumn it is particularly beautiful, as the leaves turn deep 

 scarlet and light up the forest before the Maples assume their 

 brightest colors. For centuries this Cherry has been used in 

 Japanese gardens and temple grounds, and near Tokyo there 

 is a Cherry avenue more than a mile in length along the banks 

 of the Sumi-da-gawa, and at Koganei ten thousand of these 

 trees were planted a century and a half ago in an avenue sev- 

 eral miles long. It is a valuable timber-tree in Japan, and, if 

 it proves unattractive to insects in this country, it may prove 

 useful here in forest as well as in ornamental plantations. 



Our London correspondent, Mr. William Watson, publishes 

 in a recent issue of The Gardeners' Chronicle some interesting 

 notes on the creeping species of Ficus now in cultivation. 

 They are F. radicans of gardens, although that name has been 

 given by Roxburgh to another plant ; F. stipulata, popularly 

 known as F. repens, with a smaller-leaved form known as F. 

 minima ; F. falcata and F. barbata. F. radicans is a useful 

 evergreen for covering walls, pillars, etc., in warm houses. 

 There is a variety variegata with leaves marbled and margined 

 with white. F. stipulata, or repens, is the plant commonly 

 found in American hot-houses. It is a native of Japan and 

 China, and has been cultivated in Europe for a hundred and 

 twenty-five years. This climbing Fig is hardy in the southern 

 states and in California, and in countries of such temperate 

 climates is one of the most useful of all evergreens for cover- 

 ing walls or the sides of buildings. F. falcata, which has 

 recently been introduced into English gardens by Low & Com- 

 pany, is a native of the Malayan Peninsula and Archipelago, 

 where it is not uncommon on trees and rocks. By Dr. King, 

 the author of the classical monograph of the Asiatic species of 

 Ficus, it is described as "a very remarkable and beautiful 

 species, varying much in fruit and in the shape of the leaves, 

 even in the same plant, the leaves on its small branchlets 

 from the lower part of the main stem being often much 

 smaller than those from branchlets near the apex, and occa- 

 sionally different in form." F. barbata, which is a native also 

 of Malaya, is a more vigorous plant, with hairy leaves often six 

 inches in length, and is occasionally cultivated in European 

 hot-houses to cover Palm-stems and pillars. 



