2IO 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 326. 



daily with regard to the decadence toward a petty, rococo 

 sort of treatment which marked the earlier half of our cen- 

 tury, and from which, since about the year i860, there has 

 been a reaction in favor of broader and more artistic 

 methods of landscape-work. He finds it right that a modi- 

 fied form of true landscape-treatment should be preferred, 

 in a country which has become democratic, to the splendid 

 formalities appropriate in the time of Louis Quatorze. And 

 he notes with pardonable pride that between the years 1853 

 and 1889 the city of Paris expended eight millions of dol- 

 lars in tree-planting, while its example was wisely and gen- 

 erously followed in all the other great towns of France. 



Not the least interesting features of his book are the 

 many portraits of famous horticulturists which it presents. 

 And it is interesting to find how often the horticultural or 

 the botanical passion has descended through several gen- 

 erations of the same family. The instance of the Vilmorin 

 family, the fourth generation of which is now prominently 

 engaged in horticultural pursuits, is already well known ; 

 and so also the family fame as botanists of the Darwins, 

 the Hookers, the De Candolles and the Michaux. A less 

 familiar example is illustrated by the portrait which Mon- 

 sieur Baltet gives of Madame Aglae Adanson, who lived 

 from 1775 to 1852. This lady was the daughter of the bo- 

 tanical explorer who became a member of the Academy of 

 France ; in conjunction with Cels she laid out and planted 

 a fine park and arboretum at Baleine ; and two of her 

 descendants, named Doumet, have been distinguished 

 horticulturists. 



Notes. 



A neat little shrub is Cytisus purpureus, both in habit and in 

 flower. It is prostrate, witli twiggy growths, and is well adapted 

 to a border-rockery. Just now these twigs are covered with 

 large, pea-shaped, pink-purple flowers. 



The rose season in this neighborhood began this week with 

 the flowering of Rosa rugosa. The Moutan Pasonies are in 

 full bloom, the earlier Peeonia tenuifolia having already ma- 

 tured its flowers. Columbines are the most conspicuous 

 herbaceous plants of this time, and a majority of the species 

 and varieties now enliven the gardens here. 



Among half a dozen varieties of the common Lilac, the one 

 that bears the name of the Berlin nurseryman, Ludwig Spath, 

 must find a place. The flowers, which are borne in immense 

 clusters, are nearly as dark as those of Philemon, which is still 

 the darkest-flowered Lilac, but it is distinctly superior to that 

 variety in its larger and broader leaves, those of Philemon 

 being unusually narrow for a plant of the Syringa vulgaris 

 type. 



A pistillate tree of Cercidiphyllum Japonicum has produced 

 flowers this year in Mr. John Robinson's garden, in Salem, 

 Massachusetts. The Cercidiphyllum, which is the largest and 

 most interesting tree of the forests of Japan, is proving itself 

 admirably suited to flourish in the climate of our northern 

 states, where it may be planted with advantage much more 

 frequently than it is at present. Its peculiar habit and the beauty 

 of its curious foliage in early spring, during summer and in 

 autumn, when it turns bright yellow, will add interest and 

 variety to our plantations. 



The California fruit season, which began with small ship- 

 ments of cherries as early as April 21st, is now fairly under 

 way. The first apricots left Vacaville on May 4th, and these 

 sold at wholesale in Chicago at the rate of nearly one dollar a 

 pound. No apricots have yet reached New York, but large 

 quantities of cherries have been received, and among varie- 

 ties noticed are Early Black Guigne, Rockport and Black Tar- 

 tarian. The Florida pineapple season opened here last week, 

 and this fruit brought at the wholesale auctions nearly double 

 the price paid for pineapples from Havana, a few fancy gar- 

 den pineapples bringing as much as 35 cents each at wholesale. 



Seedlings of Magnolia Fraseri auriculata, only six feet high, 

 flowered in Mr. Thomas Median's nurseries, in Germantown, 

 this spring. The flowers are large, greenish yellow in color, 

 and are quite fragrant. On the same grounds Mohrodendron 

 (Halesia) diptera is now in full flower, two weeks later than M. 

 tetroptera. M. diptera, while the least hardy of these two 

 species, does not suffer from the winters of this latitude. 



Mr. Joseph Meehan writes that on the 10th of May a plant of 

 Viburnum Sieboldii, twelve feet high and ten feet in breadth, 

 was carrying more than one thousand cymes of fully expanded 

 flowers. It is a strong-growing, almost evergreen species, 

 and seems disposed to make a small tree. The variety rotun- 

 difolium of Viburnum plicatum was also in perfection there a 

 week before the type, and is well known as the Japanese Snow- 

 ball. It has roundish and entire leaves, the leaf-stalks and 

 young shoots being tinged with red. 



A late number of the Agricultural Gazette, of New South 

 Wales, in an interesting account of the Murray RedGum, Euca- 

 lyptus rostra ta, states that the timber is of a rich red color, 

 darkening with age, close-grained, durable, almost as hard as 

 iron when thoroughly dry, of interlocked fibre, difficult to split, 

 and when sawn will rend and twist if exposed to summer heat. 

 It is largely used for paving-blocks, street-curbings, piles in 

 damp ground, and in the construction of wharves and bridges, 

 where it resists the attacks of marine borers and white ants. 

 It is also admirable for railway-sleepers, wheelwright-work, 

 engine-buffers and similar purposes. The tree grows to a height 

 of 200 feet, with a diameter ot from four to six feet, and even 

 more. It acquires a girth of from three feet six inches to four 

 feet in thirty years. It is propagated from seed, which is now 

 a regular article of commerce, and promises to be one of the 

 most successful species of Eucalyptus in California. The ex- 

 udation, or kino, of the RedGum is a useful astringent, which 

 has become a regular article of commerce, and is growing in 

 favor with medical men in England, America and Australia. 



Last Monday the New York Flower Mission began work for 

 the season at 104 East Twentieth Street, in this city, and cut 

 flowers were received from villages and towns in New Jersey, 

 Long Island, Connecticut and along the Hudson River. Ferns, 

 violets, Jack-in-the-pulpits, marsh marigolds, wild honeysuckle, 

 asters and field daisies were plentiful among the wild flowers, 

 and pansies, lilacs, sweet-scented shrubs, snowballs, wistaria 

 and branches of fruit-blossoms came from country gardens. A 

 touch of bright color and a fragrant flower or bit of foliage 

 was included in each of the little bouquets, which were quickly 

 made up by members of the Flower Mission and carried to 

 the sick in the free hospitals and in tenement-houses. Cut 

 flowers and fruit will be received on Monday and Thursday of 

 each week during the next five months. In the directions for 

 shipping issued by the society it is requested that only fresh 

 flowers in good condition be sent, and these should have 

 stems not more than eight inches long. Each kind should be 

 tied in bunches and kept separate, and the flowers must 

 be well sprinkled and covered with wet newspaper. Packages 

 addressed to the Flower Mission not exceeding twenty pounds 

 in weight are carried free of charge by the express com- 

 panies. 



The fact that the periodical cicada, or seventeen-year locust, 

 is to appear in two large broods this year is stated in the news- 

 papers to have been announced by the Department of Agri- 

 culture, and the statements have caused some alarm among 

 persons who confound these insects with the true locusts or 

 so-called grasshoppers. The Department has made no such 

 announcement this year, although Professor Riley issued a 

 bulletin in 1886, in which an extended appearance of these in- 

 sects was predicted for this year. The Entomologist of the 

 Department has, therefore, issued a circular to say that the 

 damage done by these insects is generally immaterial and is 

 confined to the slight cutting of terminal twigs of fruit and 

 shade trees by the females in the act of laying their eggs. The 

 injury is only serious when the cicadas are exceptionally abun- 

 dant and deposit their eggs in young nursery stock. The so- 

 called Brood XII. is of the seventeen-year form and appeared 

 in 1877 in the neighborhood of New York, Brooklyn and Jer- 

 sey City, up the Hudson River as far north as Troy, and in 

 parts of Connecticut, New Jersey, Virginia and the District of 

 Columbia. They may be expected in these localities during 

 June this year. Brood XVIII. is of the thirteen-year race, and 

 with other tredecim broods its range is rather in the southern 

 states. Its last appearance was in 1881. The larvae feed under 

 ground to some extent on the roots of plants and gradually 

 rise to the surface as they near their full growth, and from 

 about the 20th of May to the 1st of June they make their ap- 

 pearance in the nymph or pupa state, crawl up the trunks of 

 trees, cast their skin, and the winged insects come forth. The 

 adults live for five or six weeks and do some little damage, as 

 has been stated, to trees and shrubbery by puncturing them 

 for egg-laying. The eggs hatch in about two weeks, and the 

 young larvae drop to the ground and begin their long subter- 

 ranean life. 



