Garden and Forest. 



[Number 314. 



Notes. 



Florida is now sending to this market the best peas, beets 

 and string-beans, and immense heads ot new Savoy cabbage, 

 measuring more than a foot in diameter. Jacksonville straw- 

 berries are on the street-stand = at twenty-five cents a quart, 

 although, of course, choice strawberries command much 

 higher prices. Beautiful and fresh seed-parsley comes from 

 Bermuda, besides the highest-priced potatoes now in market. 

 The showiest-looking celery is now coming from New Orleans, 

 although it hardly equals in flavor the northern-grown, espe- 

 cially that now coming from Rochester. Hot-house tomatoes 

 are in small supply, and they bring fully twice as much as 

 the southern-grown. Charleston is sending the best aspara- 

 gus. Boston and New Orleans cucumbers are quoted together 

 at $2.00 a dozen, while the very best cucumbers come from as 

 far north as Vermont. Choice dandelion and chervil are sent 

 from Long Island. 



At a meeting of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society last 

 week, Mr. Joseph Meehan read an instructive paper on "Street 

 Trees in Cities," in the course of which he explained that no 

 city can expect to have good trees when every property-owner 

 is allowed to plant or not to plant as suits him, or to retain 

 the control of the trees after they are planted, with the privi- 

 lege of pruning or mutilating them as he sees fit. The city 

 should have the control of planting and care of all street-trees, 

 and the entire work should be in the hands of a skilled com- 

 mission. In the discussion that followed it was the general 

 opinion that there was no more reason why property-owners 

 should plant the trees in streets than they should lay their own 

 sewers or pavements. The result of the discussion was that 

 a committee was appointed to bring this matter before the 

 Councils of Philadelphia with a view to secure an ordinance 

 for the appointment of a street-tree commission. Messrs. 

 Robert Craig, Thomas Meehan and Edwin Lonsdale were 

 named as a committee. 



In an interesting paper entitled "Flowers of the French 

 Riviera," by Mr. Henry L. de Vilmorin, which has been re- 

 printed from the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society 

 of England, it is stated that of the Acacias which are used for 

 the production of flowers for commerce, the graceful feather- 

 leaved Acacia dealbata is far the most commonly used. It 

 grows to be a large tree and begins to flower as soon as it is 

 three or four years old, and the blooming season lasts from 

 January to the end of February. These flowers are distrib- 

 uted all over Europe, and they command at shipping-points 

 about $10 a hundredweight. Io order to anticipate the blooming 

 season of this Mimosa, as it is invariably called in the trade, 

 flowering branches are cut sometimes a fortnight before they 

 would bloom in the open air, and then with their butt ends 

 steeped in water they are submitted to the action of moderately 

 heated steam. The flowers will expand in ten or twenty hours, 

 and they are said to last as long afterward as if they were cut 

 directly from the tree. Large tin vats are prepared for this 

 purpose and the process is very profitable, since the first con- 

 signments of the Mimosa fetch a high price at the opening of 

 the season. 



Within the past few years it has come to be a matter of com- 

 mon knowledge that certain bacteria which are called Rhizobia 

 live in tubercles upon the roots of leguminous plants, and that 

 the two forms of life have some mutual beneficial relation. 

 These plants can thrive without the bacteria, but they thrive 

 better with them, and thebacteria have the power of assimilat- 

 ing the free nitrogen of the air for the use of the plant. Some 

 investigations of uncommon interest have recently been un- 

 dertaken in the University of Illinois to ascertain whether these 

 Rhizobia, which help Clover, for instance, could be trans- 

 planted from the roots of that plant to the roots of Indian Corn 

 and there continue their work of assimilating nitrogen for their 

 new host. The results of the experiments are not yet conclu- 

 sive, but it seems probable that the bacteria which live on 

 leguminous plants are capable of being sufficiently modified 

 to develop to a certain extent in the root-cells of Indian Corn, 

 and that when they grow there they do produce increased nutri- 

 tive changes in the Corn. Since nitrogen is the most expensive 

 element of plant-food that needs to be applied to the soil, one 

 hardly dares to predict what might be accomplished if these 

 minute organisms could J)e cultivated and then applied help- 

 fully to the roots of different crops. 



Under the heading of " New Japanese Magnolias," a corre- 

 spondent of tiie London Garden congratulates the horticul- 

 turists of England that two new Magnolias — namely, M. 



hypoleuca and M. Watsoni — have been recently imported 

 from Japan, and that another beautiful Magnolia, M. parvi- 

 flora, is now for the first time offered for sale in that country. 

 All of these trees were introduced into American gardens 

 many years ago. M. hypoleuca was figured in Garden and 

 Forest in 1888 from a tree standing in this city, which was 

 then twenty-eight feet high, with a trunk nearly three feet in 

 circumference three feet from the ground. This plant was 

 sent to this country in 1S65 by Thomas Hogg, and has been 

 largely propagated ever since at the Parsons' nurseries in 

 Flushing, Long Island. Another fine specimen of this tree is 

 also to be seen in Dr. Hall's garden at Warren, Rhode Island, 

 which he imported about 1870. This tree was noticed in a de- 

 scription of Mr. Hall's Japanese plants in Garden and Forest, 

 vol. ii., p. 536. M. parviflora was also introduced many years 

 ago by Thomas Hogg through the Parsons' nurseries, and it is 

 probable that M. Watsoni has been distributed from the same 

 place as a variety of M. parviflora. Mr. Hogg found this plant 

 in the mountains, and as it closely resembles M. parviflora in 

 many respects, he considered it a form of that species, although 

 it is probably distinct. It has been flowering for many years 

 at Flushing, and has occasionally produced fruit. 



At the recent meeting of the American Carnation Society, 

 Professor J. C. Arthur, in an interesting paper, showed that 

 there are less than half a dozen well-marked fungous diseases 

 which affect Carnations. He gave a description of these dis- 

 eases, and showed as clearly as it was possible in words how 

 any one with a small magnifying-glass could decide for him- 

 self what special fungus was affecting his plants. The most 

 important suggestion in Professor Arthur's lecture was that 

 when this or any other society brings together a display of 

 flowers for examination and comparison they should always 

 have a collection of diseased plants. Each member could bring 

 such material as was convenient, not only to show to others 

 who did not know the diseases, but also to satisfy himself 

 whether his own diagnosis was correct. As there is usually a 

 botanist at these meetings, he could be invited to bring his 

 microscope, and be in readiness to determine doubtful cases, 

 and he could also explain by living examples how the various 

 fungi and the different diseases could be distinguished. If 

 Carnation-growers could not be relied upon to bring diseased 

 plants, it would be easy for the secretary to secure enough 

 plants affected by the various diseases to make an instructive 

 object-lesson for every visitor. What is needed now is spe- 

 cific knowledge relating to the life-history of all these parasitic 

 plants, so that the proper remedies can be intelligently se- 

 lected and administered. 



Dr. Wheeler, the chemist of the Rhode Island Experiment 

 Station, and Mr. Tower, the assistant agriculturist there, while 

 making some experiments last year for the purpose of devis- 

 ing some practical method of treating seed tubers for the pre- 

 vention of Potato-scab, observed what had been noticed be- 

 fore, that air-slacked lime applied to the soil income instances 

 seemed to promote the development of the scab. Since there 

 can be no longer any doubt that the disease is caused directly 

 by the growth of a fungus on the tuber, a very careful study 

 was made of the subject. It was considered possible that the 

 use of lime or ashes might help to retain the moisture in the 

 soil, and in so far as they do this they might favor the growth 

 of the disease-germs. It is possible also that lime may be a 

 direct source of food for the scab fungus. Investigation 

 seemed to show, however, that it was much more probable that 

 a dressing of slacked lime on a sour soil overcomes its acidity 

 and in this way furnishes more favorable conditions for the 

 growth of the minute plant organism which produces the 

 scab. Of course, since this is a specific disease, if the soil and 

 the manure applied are free from the germs, and if the tubers 

 can first be effectually sterilized, then lime can be applied to 

 the soil without danger, and it may help the growth of the Po- 

 tato, to which an acid condition of the soil is hostile. The best 

 treatment now known for the destruction of the germs of this 

 fungus is to dissolve two and a half ounces of corrosive subli- 

 mate crystals in hot water, and then add cold water enough to 

 make fifteen gallons of the solution. This should be prepared 

 in wooden vessels and well stirred. The whole tubers, after 

 having been washed, may be put into a sack and dipped into 

 the solution and allowed to remain there for an hour and a 

 half, after which they can be spread out to dry, and can be cut 

 and planted as usual. A solution of this strength will do no 

 harm externally, but great care should be used with it, and it 

 should not be poured out near wells, nor where fowls or stock 

 can obtain any of it, for it is a powerful poison when taken 

 internally. 



