320 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 337. 



In this paper the number of species is reduced to twenty- 

 one, divided into two sections, Euceanothus, and Cerastes 

 with the three closely related species which Mrs. Brandegee 

 suggests may, perhaps, best be treated as varieties of one. 

 In addition to species many hybrids are described. Under 

 each species the original description is published verbatim, 

 because "the modification which descriptions undergo by 

 increasing knowledge of their variations is often very great, 

 and it seems to me the duty of monographers to give the 

 original diagnoses in addition to their own, so that readers 

 may be in possession of the data necessary to form some 

 sort of independent opinion without the necessity of acquir- 

 ing a considerable library." 



Although Mrs. Brandegee does not consider her study of 

 Ceanothus final — indeed, it will never be possible to eluci- 

 date for all time the species of a genus in which so many 

 varieties and hybrids are constantly occurring — it is, never- 

 theless, a very substantial and useful contribution to our 

 knowledge of one of the most difficult, as it is one of the 

 most interesting and beautiful, groups of plants in the 

 flora of North America. 



Notes. 



Hibiscus Syriacus, the European Shrubby Althea of gar- 

 deners, is reported as thoroughly established in a wild state 

 about Stone Mountain, in Georgia. 



Mr. J. A. Pettigrew, for many years the efficient Superinten- 

 dent ot Lincoln Park, Chicago, has been appointed Superin- 

 tendent ot the park system of Milwaukee. 



Mr. F. Le Roy Sargent, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, has 

 recently published a little pamphlet called How to Describe a 

 Flowering Plant, which consists of detailed directions for 

 analysis, based upon Gray's Lessons in Bo/any. Such a work 

 ought to prove useful to beginners in botany. 



The report of the first convention of Ontario Good Roads 

 Association has just been published by the Department of 

 Agriculture of that province. The proceedings, together with 

 an instructive appendix on various practical subjects con- 

 nected with road-making, fill a neat pamphlet of sixty-four 

 pages. 



The Pennsylvania Forestry Association has offered a prize 

 of $50 for the best essay and $25 for the second best essay pre- 

 pared by teachers in the public schools in that state, upon the 

 "Practical Value of Forests to the Surface of the Country." 

 The teachers everywhere in the state are invited to enter the 

 contest. 



An application of Bordeaux mixture or some other good 

 fungicide should be given to Gooseberry-bushes after the crop 

 is harvested, as a check to the mildew. This enables the plant 

 to hold its leaves late and to thoroughly ripen the wood for the 

 next year's crop. This late application is quite as necessary as 

 the early ones if good crops are to be had every year. The 

 same treatment should be given to Currants. 



This is the time to prepare window-plants for winter-flower- 

 ing. Cuttings may be taken of soft-wooded plants like Gera- 

 niums, or medium-sized plants in the garden may be taken 

 up, cut hard back, both roots and tops, and placed in pots just 

 large enough to contain them. If they are set in a cellar or in 

 a shady frame where the air is close, or, at least, where the 

 wind does not dry them out, and kept well watered, they will 

 make good roots very soon and they will be well established 

 for the winter. 



In an address before a horticultural society in the state of 

 Washington, Mr. M. C. Latta stated that Currants in that state 

 set three feet apart in rows six feet from each other, would, at 

 a conservative estimate, produce when in lull bearing — that is, 

 the fourth year after planting — an average of seven pounds of 

 fruit to the stool, or about 17,000 pounds to the acre. Such an 

 estimate may be conservative on the Pacific coast, but growers 

 hereabout would not complain if their Currant-fields yielded 

 an average of three or four tons less than this to the acre. 



In some notes on the White Pine in the last number of 

 Forest Leaves, Professor Rothrock notes the behavior of the 

 leaves of this tree under various climatic conditions. Clusters of 

 these leaves start from a single point, and in clear weather they 

 separate and stand away from each other so as to form an open 



whorl. Under these conditions the tree-top is a mass of 

 feathery foliage. When the weather is cold and damp the 

 leaves close in upon each other and droop until the entire 

 expression of the tree is changed and the top becomes open 

 so that one can look through it in almost any direction. 



Rarely do our farms and gardens suffer from a drought so 

 widespread and prolonged as the one which now prevails in the 

 Atlantic states. Almost every year, however, there are locali- 

 ties in which special garden-crops at different seasons entirely 

 fail for lack of rain. The gardens in this region should now 

 be yielding an abundant supply, but a greater portion of them 

 are not producing a single vegetable for home use. This is a 

 hardship which can hardly be appreciated except by those who 

 live at a distance from great markets which lay under contri- 

 bution the products of a continent. In regions of rainless 

 summers where irrigation is a necessary practice such hard- 

 ships never occur, but it would seem wise if provisions for 

 watering the home-garden, at least, should be made in cli- 

 mates where the rainfall is usually sufficient. There are few 

 farms in the middle states where the vegetable-garden could 

 not be so placed that it could be irrigated at small expense. 

 At such a time as this facilities for watering garden-crops 

 would save a good deal of money in many rural households, 

 besides adding materially to their comfort and health. 



The beautiful Honeysuckle, Lonicera flava, Sims, is one of 

 the rarest and most local plants, being known, until recently, 

 in only two localities — on the summit of Paris Mountain, in 

 South Carolina, and in one spot in the upper districts of 

 Georgia. Now Mr. John K. Small reports in the Bulletin of the 

 Torrey Botanical Club that he found it last spring "in full 

 bloom on the summit of Little Stone Mountain, Georgia." 

 This mountain, he tells us, is a flat granite dome about nine 

 miles distant from Stone Mountain itself, rising about one hun- 

 dred and fifty feet above the surrounding plain ; the slopes are 

 nearly bare, consisting of flat granite pavements, but a small 

 area of the top is capped by a layer of sandy soil several feet 

 thick. This is covered by a rather dense growth of shrubs and 

 trees, except the highest point, which is several square yards 

 in extent. Here three plants ot L. flava grow, spreading over 

 the undershrubs and the ground. It is a most handsome plant 

 when in flower, and on a second visit in July the abundant 

 fruit was just about maturing. During a month's exploration 

 of the vicinity no other station was observed, but at a later trip 

 Mr. Small found several plants growing in the woods on 

 northern cliffs of the mountain. 



The first Flame Tokay grapes of this season from California 

 were sold here last Monday, together with a variety known as 

 St. Jacob. Some Fontainebleaus, small white grapes, arrived 

 last week, and these were the first grapes received from Cali- 

 fornia. Tuscan, Bernard and Amelia peaches are among the 

 latest receipts, the latter being' a large white-fleshed variety, 

 valued for drying. Large yellow peaches, like Early Crawford 

 and St. John, from Maryland and Delaware, have sold as high 

 as $2.50, wholesale, while the best baskets of Troth and Mt. 

 Rose have only brought $1.50. Among plums not noticed be- 

 fore are the Hungarian prune, the true name of which is 

 English Pond's Seedling, a very showy fruit of a reddish violet 

 color, with a handsome bloom ; Glaister, not unlike the Yellow 

 Egg plum ; Burbank's Satsuma, a round deep red fruit, and 

 the Diamond, Walling, Bulgarian, Gross and Magnum Bonum 

 plums. Royal Anne and Black Republican cherries con- 

 tinue to arrive, and in the seventy car-loads of California 

 fruit sold here last week were large Howell pears, and 

 the Souvenir du Congres, a bright yellow pear with bril- 

 liant red coloring, suggesting the Bartlett in this re- 

 spect, though it lacks the high flavor of this favorite. 

 Alexander apples, from California, a very large greenish yel- 

 low fruit, sell for $1.75, retail, for a box containing five dozen 

 apples. The best apples from New Jersey and the Hudson 

 River district are the Orange Pippin, Nyack Pippin and choice 

 Astrachan, which are worth $2.50 a barrel at retail. The Cuban 

 pineapple season is ended and the Florida season for this fruit 

 is drawing to a close. Some large garden-grown pineapples 

 from Florida, known as the Cayenne variety, with showy lux- 

 uriant tops, sell as high as six dollars a dozen at wholesale. 

 North Carolina is sending Ives, Concord and Moore's Early 

 grapes, and large quantities of the red-fleshed Christina musk- 

 melon come from Norfolk and from New Jersey. Notwith- 

 standing the smaller supply of vegetables, on account of the 

 drought, prices are about one-fifth lower than they were a 

 year ago. Sweet-potatoes, for example, sold then for $3 

 to $4 a barrel, while $2.50 is the highest price paid at this 

 time. 



