yo 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 312. 



noticed that large numbers of these plants growing in 

 woodland pastures have been found intact, while the sur- 

 rounding herbage would be closely cropped." 



Cypripedium pubescens, it appears, has been formally 

 adopted as the state flower of Minnesota. 



Notes. 



The collection of North American woods exhibited at the 

 Columbian Exhibition by Mr. Morris K. Jesup, President of 

 the American Museum o'f Natural History, in this city, which 

 attracted so much attention last summer in the Forestry Build- 

 ing, has been presented by Mr. Jesup to the Arnold Arboretum. 



A new pink Carnation was exhibited at the February meet- 

 ing of the Philadelphia Florists' Club by Mr. A. M. Herr, of 

 Lancaster, and named Annie Pixley. The flowers shown were 

 of good size and borne on stiff stems, the color being some- 

 what like that of Edna Craig, but without the fimbriated petals 

 of that variety. Annie Pixley is said to make strong growth 

 and to flower abundantly, but, like many other varieties, it may 

 prove quite another plant in another locality. 



Mr. John F. Barker, Superintendent of the Forest Hill 

 Cemetery, near Boston, has decided that a complete commer- 

 cial fertilizer — that is, one in which the proper proportions of 

 nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid are all combined — is 

 preferable to stable-manure for flowers. Stable-manure 

 always contains many seeds of weeds and grass, and in this 

 wav necessitates much work to keep the beds clean. Besides 

 this, soluble fertilizers supply the plant with food at once, and 

 thus hasten their growth. The expense of applying the fer- 

 tilizer is much less than it costs to handle manure. When 

 asked if manure was not needed to give a certain amount of 

 humus or vegetable matter to the soil, Mr. Barker gave it as 

 his opinion that where vegetable matter was needed to lighten 

 up the soil, a thorough trenching of the ground, which he in- 

 variably practiced every spring, whatever kind of fertilizer was 

 used, would keep the soil in a sufficiently porous condition. 



The last bulletin from the Cornell Experiment Station, in 

 speaking of the recent varieties of Tomatoes in which the 

 year 1893 was very prolific, pronounces Buckeye State (Living- 

 ston), a very large, round, heavy, purple, smooth Tomato, as 

 the best novelty. Among other good ones were Aristocrat 

 Dwarf (Livingston), with small but very uniform fruit, red, 

 round, solid, and apparently a valuable variety for amateurs. 

 Extra Early Advance (Burpee) was the earliest Tomato of the 

 year. It bore small red fruits o£ uniform size and shape, and 

 not far removed from the Cherry type, and was thought valu- 

 able on account of its earliness. Lemon Blush (Thorburn) has 

 fruit of medium size, bright lemon color, with a faint blush, is 

 early and good. Terra Cotta (Thorburn) bears medium 

 lar<*e, tough, red, regular fruit, and is interesting on account 

 of Us'novel color, and is apparently valuable. May's Favorite 

 (Hawley & Co.) has medium red, uniform, regular fruit, and is 

 promising. Salzer's First Prize (Salzer) is a variety with flatfish, 

 red fruit of medium size. 



Professor Bailey reports some experiments with a new food- 

 plant. The tuber from which the plants have been raised was 

 picked up on the coast in Florida and sent to the station at 

 Ithaca by Dr. Irwin F. Smith. Plants from this tuber have 

 been crown for two years, and they proved to be Stachys Flor- 

 idana, a plant which had probably not before been cultivated. 

 In general appearance this resembles the Chorogi or Stachys 

 ' Sieboldii, which was introduced a few years ago, and is still sold as 

 an esculent. This plant differs from the Chorogi, however, in 

 its more slender habit, its smoothness and its long-stalked cor- 

 date leaves. The tubers are somewhat larger, generally reach- 

 inn- a length of from four to six inches. It is rather more crisp 

 and brittle than the Chorogi, while the flavor is equal and per- 

 haps superior. It has not yet been grown in the open ground, 

 but it will probably endure northern winters with the protec- 

 tion of a mulch, since tubers which have been frozen grow 

 readily, so that there is every reason to believe that this spe- 

 cies will add another attractive vegetable to our kitchen- 

 gardens. 



Mr. A. B. Dennis, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at the late meeting 

 of the Horticultural Society of that state gave an interesting 

 account of his experience with Burbank, Ogon and several 

 other Asiatic Plums which had survived a temperature last 

 winter of twenty-six degrees below zero, and remained healthy 

 to the very tip of their branches, and full of fruit-buds for an- 

 other year, after having borne a heavy crop this year. Mr. 

 Dennis observed that these Plums are much more nearlyallied 



to our hardy native Plums of the Chickasaw, Wild Goose and 

 Miner groups than they are to the European varieties. Like 

 our native species, they shed their leaves and ripen their wood 

 early, while the fibrous quality of the fruit, the color and 

 roughness of the bark, the multiple leaf-buds and other points 

 of similarity are what would naturally be expected from the well- 

 known fact of the close relation of the flora of eastern Asia to 

 that of eastern America. We have only begun to improve our 

 native varieties by selection, and the Chinese have been im- 

 proving these allied species for generations. No doubt, the 

 crossing of these oriental varieties with our native Plums 

 offers a promising field for the hybridizer. 



Patrick Barry, a large yellow russet pear of California origin, 

 with white flesh and rich vinous flavor, is found in considera- 

 ble quantity in market now. In boxes of selected fruit the 

 pears are of immense size, and weigh a pound and a quarter 

 each. Other varieties of pears which can be had now are 

 Winter Nelis, from California, and Buerre Bosc, from Boston. 

 Among apples, Albemarle Pippins are unusually cheap, owing, 

 it is said, to a light demand for them in England. They sell at 

 five dollars a barrel for choice fruit. Grapes are still being 

 shipped from the interior of the state, and are arriving here at 

 the rate of one car-load a week. They are mostly Catawbas, 

 and five-pound baskets retail at twenty and twenty-five cents. 

 Most of the Florida strawberries reaching this city now are 

 green or otherwise inferior in quality, and sell at forty cents or 

 less a quart, but the small supply of first-rate berries commands 

 seventy-five cents. Occasionally there is seen a box of King 

 oranges — or as they are called here, King of Siam — from the 

 Halifax River, Florida, although this is ratherearly intheseason 

 for them. This orange belongs to the Mandarin or Citrus nobilis 

 type, and in size and flavor excels all others of its class. A box 

 containingfrom seventy-two to ninety-two oranges brings eight 

 dollars at wholesale, and this fruit has been sold at retail for 

 as much as $2.50 a dozen. 



In the south-eastern part of France, along the shores of the 

 Mediterranean and the vicinity of Cannes, Antibes, Nice, 

 Grasse and Mentone, about seventeen hundred acres of land 

 are devoted to growing flowers .for commercial purposes. 

 Roses and Carnations are the principal flowers grown, but 

 Violets, Forget-me-nots, Lilacs, Camellias, Narcissus, Anem- 

 ones and many others are raised in immense quantities. 

 The flowers are all sent to the countries of northern Europe. 

 Assuming Sweden, which stands lowest in the amount re- 

 ceived, to be represented by 1, the amounts sent to other 

 countries will be represented in the following proportions : 

 Austria, 4; Switzerland, 16; Belgium, 10; England, 24; Ger- 

 many, 32 ; France, 64. The cultivation of flowers for com- 

 merce began no longer than thirty years ago, and it is only within 

 the last three or four years that it has attained these important 

 dimensions. The trade has ben so prosperous that most of the 

 market-gardens of that region have been replaced by flower- 

 fields, Olive-trees have been uprooted, and there is hardly a 

 peasant who does not watch the fluctuations of the floral mar- 

 ket during the winter season and bring his small daily contri- 

 butions to the dealers, who take them to the large wholesale 

 exporters. 



The Department of Agriculture has just' issued a bulletin 

 which contains abstracts of the most important of the state 

 laws which have been passed within a few years on the sub- 

 ject of roads. The bulletin has been compiled by Mr. Roy 

 Stone, who was appointed last autumn as special agent in 

 charge of the road inquiry. Most of the old laws were so in- 

 effective that the practical work of modern road-improvement 

 has all been done under the new statutes. Fourteen states 

 have passed new road laws which contain radical changes of 

 methods, and there is much agitation for similar reform in 

 many other states. In a letter of instructions which defined 

 the scope of the present investigation, Mr. Stone was directed 

 (1) to make inquiries in regard to systems of road-manage- 

 ment throughout the country; (2) to make investigations in 

 regard to the best methods of road-making ; (3) to prepare 

 didactic publications on the subject suitable for distribution ; 

 (4) to assist the agricultural colleges and experiment stations in 

 disseminating information on the subject. This bulletin is 

 confined to the first subject, and it will be followed by another, 

 or, perhaps, a series, to give the best methods of constructing 

 (1) common highways without gravel or stone ; (2) graveled 

 highways ; (3) macadam and other stone roads. Besides this, 

 data are to be collected relating to the transportation of acces- 

 sible material for the proper surfacing of road-beds. Of course, 

 the function of the Department of Agriculture in this matter is 

 simply to furnish information. 



