120 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 317. 



Notes. 



The beautiful Crape Myrtle, Lagerstrcemia Indica, is reported 

 by Mr. J. K. Small as now well established in Georgia, about 

 Stone Mountain, in De Kalb County, where it blooms at an 

 elevation-of 1,000 feet about the second week in July. 



Besides the original importation of the new Cypripedium 

 Charlesworthii, 500 plants were lately offered by Hugh Low & 

 Co., while another lot has already been distributed by the 

 Messrs. Lewis, so that we may expect that the plant will be 

 flowering extensively during next season. Orchid-growers 

 will watch it carefully for distinct varieties. 



We have received a photograph of an exceptionally well- 

 flowered Angrcecum suquipedale, grown at Talbot House, in 

 Edinburgh. It is a single, unbranched plant with ten pairs of 

 leaves and eighteen perfect flowers, all fully open. This grand 

 Madagascar Orchid is said to be badly affected by the winter 

 fogs around London, otherwise it is not a difficult plant to 

 manage. 



Unusually warm and bright weather have made the past 

 week a trying one for florists who were preparing plants to be 

 in their best bloom at Easter. The plants have come on so 

 rapidly that it is difficult to keep them back by any ordinary 

 devices for shading and the admission of cool air. In some 

 cases the plants have had to be hurried into market, and flor- 

 ists' windows of this city are now exceptionally beautiful. 



In some small towns in the south-western states planks 

 from twelve to twenty inches wide are laid flat on the ground, 

 end to end, to serve as sidewalks. Almost any kind of wood 

 lying on the damp earth with its upper face exposed to the 

 hot sun will soon curl up, but the Southern Lumberman as- 

 serts that planks of Bald Cypress which have been treated in 

 this manner show no depression when tested by a straight- 

 edge, except that which is due to the wear from the feet of 

 pedestrians. 



Mr. Albert M. Herr writes to the American Florist the 

 timely advice that with the coming of bright spring days all the 

 ventilation that is possible should be given to Carnations. It 

 will pay in houses that are not arranged for ventilation both at 

 the top and the sides to take out every alternate glass near the 

 bottom and arrange so that it can be quickly put back. A free 

 circulation of good fresh air all around is essential in mild 

 spring-like days if Carnations are to be kept in a vigorous 

 blooming condition. 



In the second paper on the History of Orchid Cultivation, 

 contained in the last number of the Orchid Review, among 

 other interesting facts it is stated that our North American 

 Orchis spectabilis was introduced into England by Francis 

 Masson in 1801. The Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyeara pubes- 

 cens) appeared there a year later and is credited to the Duke 

 of Kent. Calypso borealis and some of the Habenarias were 

 introduced three years later, and the odd little Ram's Head 

 Lady Slipper (Cypripedium arietmum) was introduced in 1808. 



Recent arrivals of California oranges have not been in satis- 

 factory condition, but they now command good prices, since 

 the end of the Florida season is in sight. There are no first- 

 class Navel oranges now to be had here, and the last Tangerines 

 of the season are of inferior quality. A few Mandarins are com- 

 ing from Italy, although the supply of oranges from the Medi- 

 terranean ports is considerably smaller than it was at the cor- 

 responding season last year. Prices generally rule higher 

 than they have done. For the first time this season good 

 Florida oranges have commanded five dollars a box. 



With a view to suggest some practical way of overcoming 

 the difficulties which many growers find in cultivating Phalae- 

 nopsis, Mr. W. T. Lefebre writes from the Java Botanical Gar- 

 dens a letter, which is published in a recent number of the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle. From a large experience in cultivating 

 these Orchids and studying them in their wild state, Mr. Lefebre 

 sends the following hints : In places where Phalasnopsis is 

 abundant the temperature never exceeds seventy-five degrees 

 at night. Most plants bloom from October till May, and some 

 do not stop flowering at all during the dry months. The 

 trunks to which their roots cling are amply mossed and the at- 

 mosphere is moist. A single handful of rotted leaves, bark, 

 etc., is sufficient for a whole group. They are partially shaded 

 for a few hours daily in the morning, and they bear sunshine 

 very well. 



Since the fires which have raged among the Exposition build- 

 ings and the general dismantling of the place, Jackson Park has 



become something like an extensive ruin. We are glad to 

 learn that Messrs. Olmsted, Olmsted & Eliot have been engaged 

 to make a design for restoring the grounds to their original 

 use as a city park. Many years ago, Messrs. Olmsted & Vaux 

 made a design for Jackson Park which was never carried out, 

 and since the Art Building will probably remain as a perma- 

 nent feature, while the excavations for the lagoons and canals 

 for the Exposition were necessary departures from the origi- 

 nal plan, it is probable that the new design for the park will 

 differ very essentially from the one first made. 



An English correspondent writes to complain that Caladi- 

 ums. Gloxinias and Crotons are spoken of as " greenhouse 

 plants " in American horticultural journals. It is true that we 

 use the term greenhouse in a more general sense than it is 

 used in England, where it is only applied to the cool house, or, 

 as it is sometimes called, the temperate house. The term 

 warm greenhouse is used in England as the equivalent of inter- 

 mediate house, that is, a house whose temperature is between 

 that of the tropical and temperate houses, but it is never 

 applied to the tropical house or stove. In this country the 

 term greenhouse often includes all glass houses in general, 

 and when this fact is understood no confusion need follow, 

 for whenever it is necessary to make the distinction the spe- 

 cial names of tropical house and intermediate house, etc., 

 are used. 



At the meeting of the New Jersey State Horticultural Society 

 last winter, Mr. Charles L. Jones, the Treasurer, in speaking of 

 the profit of quince-growing, said that in a small way he had 

 grown this fruit for twenty years with excellent success, and 

 had experienced no trouble with borers or with fungus dis- 

 eases. Until three years ago he gathered from six to eight 

 baskets from each tree, and then the curculio attacked them, 

 and he has not been able to overcome this enemy. Every 

 quince has been taken. This year he did not get a dozen good 

 ones. The market is very limited, and although they have 

 been sold at times for from $4.00 to $6.00 a hundred, this win- 

 ter they could have been purchased for any price that was 

 offered. There is very little demand for quinces except for pre- 

 serving and making jelly, and it does not seem advisable for 

 any one to plant them in large quantities. 



At the beginning of the fifteenth century the Rose ap- 

 pears to have been in extensive cultivation. Sir William 

 Clopton granted to Thomas Smyth a piece of ground 

 called Dokmedowe, in Haustede, for the annual payment of a 

 Rose to Sir William and his heirs, at the nativity of St. John 

 the Baptist, in lieu of all services, dated at Haustede on Sun- 

 day next before the Feast of All Saints, 1402. In explanation 

 of this deed it may first be observed that ancient deeds are 

 often dated on a Sunday, being executed in churches and 

 churchyards for the greater notoriety ; in the second place, the 

 Rose was then in much more extensive use in cultivated 

 society than it is now, when its place is partly occupied by the 

 great variety of other flowers now in cultivation. The demand 

 for Roses was formerly so great that bushels of them were 

 frequently paid by vassals to their lords, both in France and 

 England. The single Rose, paid as an acknowledgment, was 

 the diminutive representation of a bushel of Roses ; as a sin- 

 gle Pepper-corn, which is still a reserved rent, is of a pound 

 of Pepper-corns, a payment originally of some worth, de- 

 scending by degrees to a mere formality. 



Last year the National Rose Society of Great Britain, in re- 

 vising their catalogue, formed a new class of Roses under the 

 title of Hybrid Teas. Among the principal varieties which 

 have been removed from among the Hybrid Perpetuals and 

 are now classed as Hybrid Teas are Augustine Guinoisseau, 

 Captain Christy, Caroline Testout, Cheshunt Hybrid, Danmark, 

 Duchess of Albany, Grace Darling, Gloire Lyonnaise, Gustave 

 Regis, Kaiserin Augusta Victoria, Lady Henry Grosvenor, 

 Lady Mary Fitzwilliam, La France, Reine Marie Henriette and 

 Viscountess Folkestone. There seems to be much diversity 

 of opinion among rosarians as to this new classification. 

 Some of them insist that a strict definition of a Hybrid Tea 

 should be given. They ask whether it makes any difference, 

 when there is a cross between a Tea Rose and a Hybrid Per- 

 petual, which one is the seed parent and which the pollen 

 parent. They ask how large a proportion of Tea blood is ne- 

 cessary to make a Hybrid Tea. As to La France, for example, 

 they ask for some definite knowledge as to its parentage, since 

 it does not resemble a Tea Rose in wood or foliage. Certainly, 

 there are difficulties to be met in this classification, and yet the 

 class of Roses which have been produced by directly crossing 

 Hybrid Perpetuals with Teas, no matter which one may be the 

 seed parent, seems to deserve some distinct name. 



