5 o8 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 513. 



extracts from Dr. Bell's paper, which those interested in the 

 subject will find one of the most important contributions to 

 the knowledge of the distribution of the trees of north- 

 eastern North America which has been made. 



Notes. 



Mr. J. G. Luehman, for twenty-eight years the assistant of 

 the late Baron von Mueller, succeeds him as Government 

 Botanist of Victoria, and has now been placed in charge of the 

 National Herbarium of Melbourne, with the title of Curator. 



A brilliant effect was produced in the table decorations at a 

 private dinner in this city last week by the use of nearly 500 

 bracts of Poinsettia, which, in five baskets, were arranged on 

 a bed of Asparagus. Many of the bracts measured from eigh- 

 teen to twenty inches across. 



With the completion of the third volume, The Forester, an 

 illustrated monthly journal of Forestry, passes from the con- 

 trol of Mr. John Gifford, of Princeton, New Jersey, and in 

 future will be published by the American Forestry Association. 

 The new office of 7 lie Forester will be at No. 73 Cochran 

 Building, Washington, District of Columbia. 



The proposition to perpetuate the memory of William A. 

 Stiles and his labors in behalf of the parks of New York, by 

 naming one of the new small parks for him, has received the 

 endorsement of many of the most prominent professional and 

 business men of this city, whose Memorial has been pre- 

 sented to the Park Commissioners, with whom it rests to pay 

 this fitting tribute to their late associate. 



A Catalogue of Fruits has recently been published by the 

 Division of Pomology of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture. This useful and valuable bulletin is the work 

 of a committee of the American Pomological Society, of 

 which Mr. T. T. Lyon was the chairman. Such species and 

 varieties of fruits and nuts as are recommended for cultiva- 

 tion in the United States and in British America are arranged 

 in three divisions : Fruits mainly adapted to northern locali- 

 ties ; subtropical and tropical fruits ; native and introduced 

 fruits and nuts grown in the open air. The entire region is 

 divided into fifteen pomological districts, with primary refer- 

 ence to the influence of latitude, elevation, prevailing winds 

 and oceanic and lacustrine exposures upon their adaptation to 

 pomological pursuits. Comprehensive and carefully arranged 

 tables show the size, form, color, texture, flavor, quality, sea- 

 son, use and origin, besides the districts in which a particular 

 fruit succeeds. 



Mr. James Bateman, who died at Spring Bank, Worthington, 

 on the 27th of November, in his eighty-seventh year, will 

 be remembered as one of the first and most enthusiastic culti- 

 vators of Orchids and as the author of The Orchidacea of Mexico 

 and Guatemala, perhaps the most sumptuous and splendid 

 volume which has been devoted to plants. This consists of 

 a series of colored illustrations of life size of a large number 

 of species of Orchids, with descriptive titles and cultural hints 

 to which are added notes, literary, scientific, archaeological and 

 ethnological, the whole work being enlivened by humorous 

 sketches and tale pieces from the pencil of George Cruikshank 

 himself. Forty years ago Mr. Bateman's gardens at Biddulph 

 Grange and Knypersley were famous all over Europe, with 

 ttieir Chinese garden, in which the scheme of a Willow-pattern 

 plate was reproduced, their Egyptian court, their avenue of 

 Sequoias, their groves of Sikkim Rhododendrons, their bulb 

 gardens, Rose gardens, Dahlia gardens, their pinetum and 

 their great collection of Orchids. This last, when Mr. Bateman 

 came to reside principally in Kensington, he presented to the 

 Royal Horticultural Society, to which tor more than fifty years 

 he was zealously devoted. His portrait, taken in 187 1 , is pub- 

 lished in The Gardeners' Chronicle of December 4th. 



At a secret session of the Board of Park Commissioners of 

 the city of Buffalo, held on the 7th of December, Mr. William 

 MacMillan, for twenty-six years the superintendent of the Buf- 

 falo parks, was summarily dismissed without even being 

 informed of the nature of his offense. There have been dif- 

 ferences of opinion between individual members of the Buffalo 

 Park Board and its superintendent as to the wisdom of per- 

 mitting the erection in the parks of museums and other build- 

 ings not intended for park purposes, and in some other 

 matters about which we do not know all the details. No ques- 

 tion, however, has ever been raised as to the strict honesty 



and conspicuous ability of Mr. MacMillan's administration. No 

 one has ever doubted his integrity and entire devotion to the 

 best interests of the city ot Buffalo, and if, in opinion, he 

 has differed from his commissioners in matters of park admin- 

 istration, he has, we feel confident, been governed solely by 

 his sense of duty to the public. To those who know the 

 Buffalo parks, that city has always appeared particularly for- 

 tunate in its park superintendent, who has shown himself one 

 of the best park managers we have ever had in the United 

 States, honest, intelligent, faithful and unbending to the im- 

 proper demands of the spoilsmen. That the value of his 

 services was appreciated by the people of Buffalo is shown in 

 the numerous letters deploring the unprecedented action of 

 the Park Commissioners, which have been published during 

 the last two weeks in the journals of that city. 



In a recently-issued circular, Mr. A. M. Herr, Secretary of 

 the American Carnation Society, names, among the most popu- 

 lar varieties of Carnations now grown, Flora Hill as the 

 best white sort; Harrison's White, Lizzie McGowan, Alaska, 

 Mrs. Fisher and Nivea are other good white varieties which 

 succeed under certain conditions. Mr. Herr considers the 

 pink Triumph superior to William Scott for size of flower, 

 productiveness and keeping qualities. William Scott and Day- 

 break are ranked as standard kinds. New varieties in this 

 color are Emma Wocher and Victor. Abundance is recom- 

 mended as a small flower for summer. Jubilee is considered 

 the most brilliant scarlet, and Portia and Garfield are listed in 

 this color. Buttercup is praised among yellow varieties, 

 though it blooms sparingly. Eldorado is stated to be the only 

 Carnation of this color which flowers freely enough to be a 

 commercial success. The new Yellow Jacket carries abun- 

 dant blooms, but is subject to rust. This disease is not con- 

 sidered a serious matter by Mr. Herr, as, notwithstanding its 

 general prevalence, Carnations are improving. Another new 

 yellow variety, Mayor Pingree, promises to bear freely. lago, 

 Anna Webb, Maceo and Empress are considered the best of 

 the crimson varieties. Helen Keller and Armazindy are 

 praised as the foremost among striped Carnations. The latter 

 is described as bearing flowers of excellent form on stiff 

 stems ; not quite as bright as Helen Keller, and the most 

 Horiterous of all Carnations. Thomas Cartledge is said to be 

 the only cense Carnation which it pays to grow for the trade. 

 Daybreak leads among salmon or light pink varieties, and 

 Mrs. McBurney, one of Mr. Hill's introductions last year, is 

 favorably mentioned. 



The decks and saloons of the steamer " Magenta," from Key- 

 port, New Jersey, have been crowded with tragrant stacks of 

 manufactured Christmas greens during the past fortnight, and 

 the volume of business has increased steadily until to-day, 

 when the height ot the season in the wholesale trade is reached. 

 Nearly all the roping and designs used hereabout come from 

 this portion of New Jersey. Roping has been in special de- 

 mand this season, and that made ot Ground Pine has found 

 ready buyers at from $1.75 to $2.00 a hundred yards for the 

 smallest size. Laurel roping is plentiful and may be bought 

 in wholesale lots at from $1.00 to $2.00. From 10,000 to 15,000 

 yards ot roping are used in the holiday decorations ot each of 

 several large department stores in this city, and churches have 

 been more liberal customers than in recent years. The supply 

 is ample, however ; one manufacturer alone has more than 

 twenty workers busily employed in Keanesburg, and besides 

 hundreds of dozens of set pieces, has made up 100,000 yards 

 of roping. Early snows in New Hampshire and Vermont, the 

 region from which much of the Ground Pine is obtained, are 

 responsible for a scarcity of material, as for its dull color. 

 Stars and wreaths made of this graceful creeper are the most 

 costly. Box, which is becoming scarcer each year, is used 

 effectively in combination with grayish lichens, and sometimes 

 the glossy leaves, with their aromatic suggestion of old gar- 

 dens, are less pleasingly arranged as a foil to bright-colored 

 immortelles. The available supply of Holly is more meagre 

 than last year, but it is profusely berried, and some Holly from 

 the neighborhood of Greenwich, Cumberland County, New 

 Jersey, is unusually handsome, with large brilliant fruits. Loose 

 branches, in cases, are coming from Delaware. Small wreaths 

 made of Holly cost wholesale buyers from forty to eighty cents 

 a dozen on the " Magenta." The supply of these wreaths from 

 Keyport will be smaller than that ot last year by from 2,000 to 

 3,000 dozens. Excepting the increased sale of roping and the 

 manufacture of many large pieces in the design of stars there 

 is no noticeable change in this industry. The season ot the 

 wholesale trade practically ends to-day, and the city dealers 

 will be busy from now until Christmas eve disposing of their 

 stock to housekeepers and other retail buyers. 



