3Q 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 308. 



d' Horticulture is one of those invaluable works of reference 

 which should find a place in every botanical and horticultural 

 library. 



Thirty-nine different sorts of Indian woods have been tested 

 at the Forest School in Dehra during the past twelve years, the 

 experiments being- made with perpendicular posts, half under 

 and half above ground. Recently it was found that only three 

 of the posts remained sound — those of Himalayan Cypress- 

 wood, Teak and Anjan-wood. These had been exposed, re- 

 spectively, for ten, nine and seven years, and were in excellent 

 condition, while all the other sorts had fallen a prey to rot and 

 the attacks of white ants. 



Professor Wickson, of Berkeley, California, is sending out 

 plants of what is called the Logan Berry, which appears to be 

 a cross between the cultivated red Raspberry and a variety of 

 the California wild Blackberry. It was raised from seed by 

 Judge J. H. Logan at Santa Cruz in 1884, and bears fruit of 

 striking characteristics. The berry is sometimes an inch and a 

 quarter long, shaped like a blackberry, colored like a dark red 

 raspberry, and combines the flavors of the two fruits. It is 

 hard and ships well, and has been successfully marketed in 

 quantity. On the experiment-grounds of the University Sta- 

 tion it has fruited for three years ; the foliage seems rust- 

 proof, and no other disease has been noticed on the plant. 



No European town has been more conspicuously improved 

 in recent years than Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. A series of 

 splendid boulevards has been cut through the mass of old 

 narrow streets and Turkish houses, one encircling the city, 

 while others run across it in various directions ; and a still 

 more spacious avenue, 197 feet wide, and set with six rows of 

 trees, leads from the centre of the town to the railway-station, 

 while another, called the Boulevard Stambouloff, runs from 

 the same point to the new park. This park is very large, and 

 is said to be well planted. A great public garden has also been 

 formed in the middle of the town, with smaller gardens at 

 various points, and a nursery, covering a hundred acres, has 

 been established in the suburbs, where plants will be grown 

 for the public grounds, and will also be sold to private pur- 

 chasers. 



Last week the temperature was lower in California than it 

 has been in twenty years, the mercury in many parts of the 

 Orange-growing sections indicating from four to six degrees 

 below freezing. As the oranges are just approaching maturity, 

 the result would have been very damaging unless artificial 

 means for counteracting the effect of the frost had been used. 

 As a precaution, gas-pipes had been laid in many groves, and 

 the gas was burned at night to elevate the temperature above 

 the danger-point. In other groves piles of wood, saturated 

 with coal-tar, had been arranged at intervals, and when these 

 were set on fire a dense smoke was created, which covered 

 the orchard like a cloud and protected the fruit. Probably no 

 more than five to ten per cent, of the crop will be lost in Riv- 

 erside, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. As the 

 crop is one-third larger than it was last year and of fine quality, 

 the loss will hardly be felt. 



In the January number of the Botanical Magazine there is 

 a figure of Erythroxylon Coca, of South America, interesting 

 as being one of the plants from which the active alkaloid 

 cocaine is obtained. The leaves of this plant are used in im- 

 mense quantities from one end of South America to the other 

 as a masticatory for maintaining and restoring muscular 

 strength; and "its cultivation covers an enormous area; 

 Bolivia produces 7,500,000 pounds of the dried leaf annually, 

 Peru 15,000,000, and the product of the Argentine Republic, 

 together with that of parts of Brazil, must be enormously 

 greater." In spite of the universal belief in the value of the 

 leaves in South America, Dr. H. H. Rusby, of the New York 

 College of Pharmacy, who has lately made a careful study of 

 the physological action of cocaine and has published the result 

 of his investigations in the Therapeutic Gazette of this city, 

 under the title of " Cocoa at Home and Abroad," demonstrates 

 that " the effects of cocaine as a nervestimulus applied to in- 

 tellectual and emotional activity are ruinous. It takes away 

 appetite, abolishes the sensations of hunger and thirst, lessens 

 waste during exertion, and decreases the exhaustion of ill-fed 

 laborers and travelers. Beyond this, cocaine has no support- 

 ing or nourishing power whatever, and its essential action is 

 enfeebling. Every attempt made to support by it athletic 

 competition has resulted in failure, or even disaster." 



Excepting Orchids, cut flowers are still lower in price than 

 during the holiday season. Next to cattleyas and cypripe- 

 diums, roses are more generally used than any other flowers 



in expensive arrangements, and although only three or four 

 immense buds of American Beauty are used together in a 

 vase, the supply of these flowers is taken up each day. They 

 cost a dollar to a dollar and a half apiece. It is said that these 

 flowers are more often used to invite attention to the costly 

 vases which contain them than for their own beauty. Tea 

 roses of choice quality cost two dollars and a half and three 

 dollars a dozen, a third less than the price at New Year. A 

 hundred double violets now cost onty a dollar and a half, the 

 less fragrant single violets but fifty cents. The first freesias 

 of the season are fifty cents a dozen, and tulips and narcissus 

 cost two or three times as much. The demand for growing 

 plants for home decoration is steadily increasing, and the sup- 

 ply of some kinds, like the Otaheite orange, for example, has 

 been almost entirely exhausted. Good flowering-plants of 

 Laurestinus, in pots, are occasionally seen, and Camellias are 

 likely to become fashionable once more, as the flowers are 

 even now often called for, to be worn in button-holes. Leaves 

 of Galax aphylla, from North Carolina, are much used in man- 

 tel decorations, and even in combination with Orchids, instead 

 of more delicate foliage. 



Mr. E. G. Hill, in a late number of the Gardeners' Magazine, 

 of London, calls attention to the fact that several of the Chrys- 

 anthemums to be distributed in 1894, and certificated at va- 

 rious exhibitions as the best of a specified color, did not come 

 into competition with each other. It has heretofore seemed 

 impossible to exhibit all the new varieties together in one 

 place. Again, in some shows the right to give a name to a 

 prize-winning seedling has been reserved by the individual 

 offering the premium. As the exhibitions in different parts 

 of the country were held during the same week, and some 

 schedules required seedlings to have a name attached, these 

 conditions prevented the competition of the same varieties in 

 different cities. The need of a central tribunal is suggested, 

 whose decisions will be received as authoritative, where all 

 new Chrysanthemums may be compared and judged. In this 

 same article, Mr. Hill expresses surprise that some of the 

 varieties most highly esteemed in America are never seen on 

 the exhibition lists in Great Britain. Among these are H. E. 

 Widener, Mrs. Jerome Jones, Golden Gate, Edward Hatch, 

 Ivory, Flora Hill, Harry May, Mrs. Maria Simpson, Minnie 

 Wannamaker, Mrs. A. J. Drexel, Frank Thomson and Harry 

 Balsley. The query is all the more pertinent since such vari- 

 ties as C. B. Whitnall, Eda Pi-ass, George W. Childs and Colonel 

 W. B. Smith seem to do well in England, and from the success 

 of these varieties under English methods of culture and in the 

 climate of that country, it is reasonable to suppose that other 

 American varieties would do equally well there. 



Flame Tokay and Emperor grapes, held in cold storage 

 since the last of November, are still offered, but on account of 

 inferior condition they do not command as good a price as 

 they did when they first arrived. Catawba grapes, from west- 

 ern New York, have advanced in price to twenty cents for a 

 five-pound basket. While choice Florida oranges, from the 

 Indian and Halifax River districts, are in demand at $2.25 a box, 

 at wholesale, fairly good fruit can be had for a dollar less, and 

 is retailed on the street-stands as low as fifteen cents a dozen. 

 Fancy grades of Tangerines and grape-fruit have a steady 

 sale at good prices, but lower grades are without buyers, 

 and Mandarins find few purchasers at even very low prices. 

 Several cargoes of Mediterranean fruit will soon be added to 

 the large supply from Florida, 178,000 boxes of lemons and 

 21,000 boxes of oranges being now on the way to New York, 

 Pltiladelphia and Boston. Spitzenberg apples and Newtown 

 Pippins are favorites in the stocks of retail fruiters. These 

 sorts and good Baldwins bring the highest price, six dollars a 

 barrel. Hot-house strawberries, from New Jersey, have fallen 

 fifty percent, that is, to $1.50 for a small cup of large and 

 beautiful berries. Field-grown pineapples, from Florida, cost 

 thirty-five cents, and those grown under glass in the same 

 state sixty to seventy-five cents each, while luscious specimens 

 of this fruit from English hot-houses sell readily at a dollar 

 and twenty-five cents each. Among vegetables now in mar- 

 ket are new carrots from Charleston, and spinach and 

 kale from Norfolk ; tomatoes from Key West and Florida are 

 as low as fifteen cents a quart, while new beets, from Florida 

 and from Bermuda are only five cents a bunch. The best 

 cucumbers come from Boston hot-houses, and these cost 

 twenty cents each. Forced rhubarb from New Jersey costs 

 twenty cents for a few small stalks. Hot-house asparagus is 

 now an expensive luxury, a half-pound of tender stalks costing 

 a dollarand a half. This vegetable does not comefrom Charles- 

 ton until March, although a limited supply from further south 

 reaches here earlier. 



