May 23, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



203 



Cedar of Lebanon, which looked like a dwarf beside 

 our soaring Conifer, though the trees, he assured me, were 

 set out at the same time and were then of the same size. 

 I wish I could feel a more implicit confidence in that gar- 

 dener ! He was waving in his hand as he talked a huge 

 branch of Wistaria, intended for the decoration of the im- 

 perial apartments, and I asked him what they called it here- 

 about. "Glycine Chinensis," said he. "But I mean its 

 common every-day name," said I. " Signora," he replied, 

 with solemnity, " it has no common name ; it is no com- 

 mon plant. In China, over the sumptuous palace of 

 the Emperor grows the great original vine, and we of 

 Abbazia " — here he clapped his manly breast — "we possess 

 the solitary cutting ever made from that parent stem." Tis 

 a pretty story; and so is the noble progeny a pretty sight, 

 en wreathing, as it does, the gardener's tool-house, and in- 

 tertwined with masses of yellow Banksia Roses. The lux- 

 uriance of the vine I have never seen excelled, not even 

 by the one which drapes the walls and overarches the 

 tables of a beer-garden close to the Cathedral in Florence. 

 But luxuriance is the note of Abbazia's public park, from 

 our first look to our last, which falls on a Deodar Cedar, 

 rising above a mass of Oregon Grape (Berberis Aqui- 

 folium). All is lush and sheltered. One does not wonder, 

 though one may not entirely rejoice, that the Emperor 

 William has announced his intention of returning to Ab- 

 bazia next spring:. _ . _ , 

 Fiume, Austria! Louise Dodge. 



Agricultural Changes in Central New York. 



THE lake country of central New York has been long 

 renowned for its beauty and picturesque interest, and 

 it is no less remarkable for its agriculture. The Wheat- 

 lands of Seneca County, comprising the table-land lying 

 between Cayuga and Seneca lakes, was famous before 

 the Genesee valley became noted for its wonderful fer- 

 tility ; and these same farms are now as capable of pro- 

 ducing wheat as they were a generation and more ago. 

 But the agriculture of the beautiful hill-sides bordering 

 the lakes is undergoing a gradual, but radical, change. 

 The products of these farms cannot compete with western 

 grain and western beef, and pleasure-seekers and nature- 

 lovers are annually seeking the lake region in greater num- 

 bers. All this demands a more specialized agriculture. 

 The first sign of the change is an almost universal desire 

 on the part of farmers on Cayuga Lake to sell their farms. 

 Dissatisfied with present conditions, and aware that they 

 are unable to take up a new and aggressive line of farm- 

 ing, the impulse is to sell the land to those who understand 

 the new demands and who are confident that there is both 

 profit and pleasure for the skilled cultivator in these farms. 

 A widespread desire in any community to sell the land 

 always indicates the downfall of old practices and the on- 

 coming of the new. 



Already the tide of the better agriculture has set in 

 strongly. About Keuka and Seneca lakes, to the west, 

 fruits and special industries have long since given a high 

 and strong incentive to farming. This success is spread- 

 ing eastward, and here and there little fruit-farms are 

 being established along the shores of Lake Cayuga. 



This season has been a memorable one with the nur- 

 serymen of this section. Despite the hard times, nursery- 

 stock at Geneva and Rochester is sold out cleaner, per- 

 haps, than in any spring for a decade or more, and this 

 fact enforces what I have already said concerning the 

 change in habits of farming. Many farmers who, a few 

 years ago, would have scorned fruit-culture, are setting 

 out berries and peaches, and some of them now act as job- 

 bers of nursery-stock and supply the neighborhood. Even 

 Raspberry-plants, which can usually be had in abundance, 

 this year have not been obtained in sufficient quantity to 

 supply the demand in the rural districts. 



Aside from peaches, which were injured by the cold 

 weather, the fruit prospects in central New York are un- 

 usually good. Apples, pears and plums especially have 



given a heavy bloom, and the weather thus far has been 

 propitious. Spraying is now practiced in almost every 

 community. In short, farmers are beginning to look to 

 their fruit-crop as one of the surest means of profit. 

 Ithaca, n. v. L. H. Bailey. 



Botanical Notes from Texas. — XVIII. 



T~VSTINCT and peculiarSouth American Nicotianaglauca has 

 ■*--' been introduced into the gardens of south-western Texas. 

 It is a tall, slim, small tree, sometimes twenty teet high. The light 

 sea-green color of its leaves and newer stems will lead to its 

 easy recognition. The species runs wild with great facility. It 

 is becoming common in unoccupied lots, along streets and 

 near streams. Mexicans call it Giganta, and sometimes Tro- 

 nodora. Americans call it Giant, or they will tell you that it is a 

 Eucalyptus. In one town a man told me that a lady resident 

 there had growing in her garden a genuine Palestine Mustard, 

 whose rapid and large growth from a very small seed was 

 used by the Saviour to illustrate the amount of faith that would 

 be requisite to remove a mountain. On asking to see the 

 plant I was shown Giant. 



Extensively planted in gardens in south-western Texas is 

 Antigonon leptopus, a very handsome tall-climbing member 

 of the Buckwheat family. It makes a wonderful display of 

 bright red flowers in the summer, and when at the height of 

 its flowering it has no superior here in elegance and beauty. 

 Its leaves are very like those of its remote relative, our eastern 

 Brunnichia. It bears no other resemblance to Brunnichia ex- 

 cept in being a climber. Mexicans call our plant Coamscatl. 

 I have never met this species in a wild state. It may not be 

 indigenous to Texas, but it seems to be so much at home here, 

 and spreads so rapidly, that it will probably run wild. 



Two rather handsome cousins of the Four o'Clock family, 

 Acleisanthes longirlora and A. Berlandieri, grow abundantly 

 throughout south-western Texas west of the ninety-eighth me- 

 ridian. They are trailing plants, with white, or sometimes 

 purplish, flowers, with very long tubes. The flower-tube of 

 the first-named species is sometimes six inches long. 



Cladathix lanuginera is one of the most conspicuous plants of 

 this region. It sometimes lies prone, and sometimes it forms a 

 mass of vegetation two feet tall and a yard across. Its range is 

 much more extensive than it is usually credited with. I have 

 seen it growing near Otterbourne, in Thomas County, Kansas, 

 which is only a few miles south of the fortieth parallel. 



Common almost everywhere in southern Texas is the semi- 

 tropical Tribulus maximus, a rutaceous plant, prostrate and 

 very hairy, bearing rather handsome flowers, which are suc- 

 ceeded by bur-like fruits, as its generic name signifies. Plants 

 bearing burs being older than the ancient instrument of war, 

 tribulus, used to impede the progress of cavalry, it, too, may 

 be supposed to have derived its name, and perhaps its form, 

 from a bur. Our species extends northward in central Kansas 

 to the Saline River, or to the thirty-ninth parallel. 



Near San Diego I found, also, a handsome little Aristolochia, 

 Nyctaginea capitata, one or two species of climbing Serjania, 

 Guiacum angustifolium, and other old and new plant acquaint- 

 ances, whose presence there made my short visit to the city 

 pleasant to remember. 



Kansas City, Kansas. E. N. Plank. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



Notes on Orchids. 



Veitch's Orchid Manual. — The tenth and last part of 

 this most valuable work has just been issued. It contains 

 a general review of the Orchidea?, including chapters on the 

 Morphology, Fertilization, Hybridization, Geographical 

 Distribution, with maps, Classification, a Retrospect of 

 Orchid Culture, Orchid Amateurs of the Past, and the Lit- 

 erature (bibliography) of Orchidea;. Those who have fol- 

 lowed the growth of this work, who have studied its 

 structure, the accuracy of its information — botanical as 

 well as horticultural — and its general excellence as a whole, 

 will, while admiring the scientific spirit which pervades it, 

 the utter absence of anything like trade-considerations, 

 regret that it has not gone further and exhausted the whole 

 subject of garden Orchids. No doubt, the immense labor 

 attending its preparation has been a severe tax upon the 

 resources, even of the princely house of Messrs. J. Yeitch 

 & Sons. The small genera which have been omitted are 

 not, as a rule, of first-rate importance. What was needed, 



