i6o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 321. 



found out about birds, but an account of them by one who 

 has watched them with his own eyes, and who, without 

 any effort to be sentimental, invests the subject with that 

 subtile and poetic charm which appeals to every true lover 

 of nature. The author is evidently inspired by his subject, 

 but he never allows his enthusiasm to carry him into mere 

 rhapsody, and always remains judicious and self-controlled. 

 In other words, the book is genuine, and therefore fresh 

 and fascinating, but never exaggerated or untrustworthy. 



Notes. 



Professor Sturges, mycologist of the Connecticut Experiment 

 Station, has just published a Provisional Bibliography of the 

 more important works published by the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture and the agricultural experiment stations, 

 from the year 1886 to 1893, inclusive, on fungous and bacterial 

 diseases of economic plants. 



Some twelve years ago an English importation of bulbs 

 from Asia Minor included one which, when it flowered, gave 

 every evidence of being a natural hybrid between Scilla bifolia 

 and Chionodoxa Luciliae. It bears deep blue flowers in ra- 

 cemes, on a peduncle about six inches high, and they open a 

 little later than either the Squill or Chionodoxa, which are 

 supposed to be its parents. It has received the name of Chio- 

 nodoxa scilloides. The plant is very interesting, not only 

 from its supposed parentage, but because of its beauty and the 

 desirability of having as many forms of early and hardy bul- 

 bous plants in our gardens as possible. 



The interesting Eulophiella Elizabeth*, which was brought 

 to Europe rather more than a year ago from Madagascar, and 

 received a good deal of advertising on account of the marvel- 

 ous way in which it was mixed up with wild beasts and prin- 

 cesses, in a romantic tale told by its collector, has been bloom- 

 ing in England. According to the Orchid Review, the flowers 

 are over an inch and a half across, waxy white, tinged on the 

 back of the segments with reddish pink. The disk of the lip 

 is deep yellow, while its base and the column are marked with 

 orange. The racemes and the bracts are said to be a deep 

 reddish purple. It grows freely hanging in a warm, moist 

 house, and ought to be a popular favorite. 



A writer in the Gardeners' Chronicle speaks of the beauty of 

 the Dog-tooth Violets which have just been coming; into bloom 

 in the rockery and other parts of the grounds in Kew. They 

 have been planted there very freely during recent years, and 

 have proved excellent plants as a carpet among groups of 

 shrubbery. These plants could be used much more often to 

 advantage in our own gardens, where the common European 

 variety, Erythronium Dens-Canis, seems quite as hardy as our 

 own neat little E. Americanum and the larger-flowered E. 

 grandiflorum of our western states, with its varieties. No 

 doubt, other species of our north-west, like the beautiful E. 

 Hendersoni, of Oregon, might prove hardy here. Many of 

 them could be naturalized among shrubbery and along wood 

 walks with admirable effect. 



Experience has shown that the season is not so short in 

 South Dakota but that Tomatoes can be grown in the open 

 air, although between the frosts of spring and autumn last 

 year but 108 days intervened, while Tomatoes need about 140 

 days to produce a crop from seed. Of course, the plants have to 

 be started indoors, and at the station in Brookings it has been 

 shown that for ordinary purposes nothing is gained by sowing 

 seeds before the 1st of March. A trial with seeds from green 

 fruits gave larger fruits and a greater weight per plant than 

 with seed normally ripened. Plants from cuttings proved de- 

 cidedly earlier and more productive than plants from seed. 

 It was found also that where the plants were cut back to make 

 them shorter-stemmed and more stocky the fruit matured 

 more slowly. 



From a letter received from Mr. Joseph Meehan, of German- 

 town, we find that the Yellow Jasmine, Cornus mas, Magnolia 

 stellata and Daphne Mezereum were about past their flowering 

 more than a week ago. About the same time the flowers of 

 Magnolia conspicua, Andromeda Japonica and Rhus aromatica 

 were in good condition. Since then we have had another 

 snow-storm, but Mr. Meehan writes that Lonicera fragrantis- 

 sima is still covered with its creamy white blossoms, although 

 it has been in flower for a month, while the nativeSpice-buf h, 

 Lindera Benzoin, is also displaying its yellow blossoms. The 

 Almond, Apricot and Nectarine have flowered successively in 

 the order named, while Peaches are just opening their blos- 



soms with those of Spiraea Thunbergii and Corylopsis spicata. 

 In Boston, on the contrary, neither Rhus aromatica nor any of 

 the Andromedas or Magnolias or the Corylopsis are yet in 

 flower. Such differences in the seasons between the middle 

 and New England states illustrate the difficulties of making 

 any calendar of garden operations which is adapted to any 

 considerable portion of this big country. 



Tife nearest approach to a novelty in market flowers last 

 week was Moss Roses, offered at seventy-five cents for a 

 spray about six inches long containing- a half-open bud and 

 perhaps two or three smaller buds. They were very pretty, 

 but even at such a retail price as this the grower would not 

 realize very much, and we apprehend that they only com- 

 manded this figure on account of their scarcity. We observe, 

 also, a rather free offer of Anthuriums for use in decorations 

 where a flash of crimson is needed. Apple-blossoms from the 

 vicinity of Washington cost fifteen dollars for a big armful of 

 the branches, and small nosegays of trailing Arbutus are 

 twenty-five cents each. One can hardly suppress a sentiment 

 of pity on seeing the latter flowers for sale on the streets, as 

 every cluster sold here means the loss of so much beauty in the 

 woods, where they properly belong, and from which there 

 seems danger that they will ultimately be exterminated. Ten- 

 weeks stocks bring seventy-five cents for six spikes. Cut- 

 flower dealers, as a rule, represent that their business is 

 extremely dull. 



Professor Goessmann, of Amherst, has been studying special 

 fertilization with reference to garden crops. Of course, such 

 crops need a soil rich in available plant-food because of their 

 short period of growth. An excessive accumulation of half- 

 decayed vegetable matter, such as stable-manure and compost 

 from the refuse material of the garden, is objectionable, from 

 the danger of parasitic growths, and although commercial fer- 

 tilizers enable us to meet more directly the special wants of 

 every soil, it is found that some garden vegetables, like Let- 

 tuce, are very sensitive to an excessive amount of soluble 

 salines, and these, therefore, should be avoided. Of course, 

 rotation of garden crops is to be commended, because they 

 consume plant-food in different proportions, and in this way 

 regulate the accumulation of the various essential constituents 

 of plant-food in the soil. A mixture containing a proportion 

 of twenty-four per cent, of potassium oxide, twelve per cent, 

 of phosphoric acid, and twelve per cent, of nitrogen is recom- 

 mended, while in the case of Cabbages, Turnips, Lettuce, 

 Asparagus and some other plants, small quantities of nitrate 

 of soda should be added at different times. In beginning the 

 cultivation of garden vegetables and orchards on new lands 

 the lower layers of soil should be plowed deeply and enriched 

 with a supply of natural phosphates. Wherever there is a 

 great accumulation of vegetable matter the application of 

 burnt lime will assist in liberating the plant-food and favor 

 beneficial bacterial life in the soil. 



We occasionally see in fruit-shops in this city where West 

 India products are sold a green oblong or pear-shaped fruit 

 four or five inches long, with deep channels and a skin smooth, 

 although it is sometimes covered with small, innocuous 

 prickles, and when the solid flesh is cut through it shows one 

 large seed. This is popularly known as the Chocho, and is the 

 fruit of Sechium edule. Although it has never attained any 

 popularity in this country, it is largely grown in tropical coun- 

 tries, and last autumn specimens were sent here from New 

 Orleans, where its cultivation is said to be extending. The 

 fruit plainly shows that the plant belongs to the Gourd family, 

 and it is really a climbing perennial, with a root which is a 

 large tuber sometimes weighing as much as twenty pounds 

 and resembling a yam, both in appearance and in flavor when 

 it is cooked. The fruit may be peeled, quartered, boiled and 

 served like vegetable marrow, or it can be parboiled and baked 

 under a joint of meat and served like potatoes. When cooked 

 it resembles turnips somewhat in flavor, and it is also 

 eaten raw as a salad. It should not be allowed to ripen before 

 it is gathered, but should be picked green, as cucumbers are. 

 Analysis shows that it contains four times as large a percent- 

 age of albuminoids as potatoes do, and it has about the same 

 nutritive value as cabbage. In the West Indies it is considered 

 very wholesome. The Agricultural Gazette of South Wales 

 considers it among the most valuable of garden esculents and 

 recommends it to every farmer in that climate for cultivation, 

 since the fruit and tuber both make excellent food for animals. 

 It is also a quick-growing climber, admirable for covering 

 fences or training over trellis-work to hide unsightly objects. 

 It is, too, a good honey plant. A single vine will bear thou- 

 sands of fruits. 



