360 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 341. 



Notes. 



In a late number of the Revue Horticole, Monsieur Edouard 

 Andre figures and describes a new variety of the common 

 Lilac, which has been named Chamsethyrsus. It is the well- 

 known habit of Syringa vulgaris to send up suckers, but in 

 this variety each of the young shoots bears a truss of flowers 

 at its extremity as it issues from the ground, so that it looks as 

 if a flowering branch of Lilac had been cut off and thrust 

 into the ground. This variety is to be sent out by Messrs. 

 Machet & Josen, Chalons. 



Mr. Henry Clinkaberry, gardener of C. G. Roebling, Esq., of 

 Trenton, has sent to this office a three-flowered raceme of the 

 beautiful natural hybrid, Cattleya Hardyana. The flowers have 

 delicately mottled sepals, and the petals are daintily veined 

 with white. The lip is a bold purplish crimson, the disk being 

 lightly penciled with yellow, and a large blotch of deep yellow, 

 almost orange, on either side. The flowers have a fragrance 

 which, without being powerful, is refined and distinct. The 

 plant came from the celebrated collection of Reginald Young, 

 Sef ton Park, Liverpool, and it is certainly one of the best forms 

 of this rare and interesting hybrid. Mr. Roebling's plant now 

 bears twelve blooms. 



We publish in another column some facts in relation to cold 

 storage, but it may be added that technically this phrase in the 

 trade means the preservation of a temperature ranging from 

 twenty-eight to thirty degrees, Fahrenheit, upward. For freez- 

 ing there are special charges, and this means a temperature 

 maintained from twenty degrees, Fahrenheit, downward. The 

 softer small fruits, peaches, plums, grapes and pears, allow a 

 range of no more than three degrees, that is, from thirty-three 

 to thirty-six degrees, while apples can be kept to advantage at 

 a lower temperature, and lemons arid oranges do well at from 

 thirty-eight to forty. Great care is taken to secure constant 

 and equable temperature by different automatic systems and 

 by regular and registered visits of watchmen. 



As we have already reported, the European apple-crop is 

 almost a failure, and large exportations from this country may 

 therefore be looked for. Two thousand barrels were sent 

 away last week, and more than twice that number will, no 

 doubt, be forwarded during the present week. Inasmuch as 

 there is not a full crop in Canada, and since the product of the 

 United States will not be half that of an average year, it is fair 

 to assume that prices will be high. In fact, the prices in Eng- 

 land are already good. A few careless or unscrupulous 

 shippers have done very much to injure the American export 

 apple trade by sending inferior or badly packed fruit, and this 

 tends to give a bad name to the entire supply from this side of 

 the Atlantic. Newtown Pippins were always favorites in the 

 English markets, but they have lost their position to some 

 extent, owing to the fact that other green apples have been 

 shipped from this country and falsely branded as Newtown or 

 Albemarle Pippins. Red apples, such as Baldwins and Kings, 

 now bring the highest prices. 



Last year we published a complaint that Dahlias in certain 

 sections failed to bloom, the buds seeming to dry off entirely 

 or make imperfect blossoms only. This trouble is prevalent 

 again this season in many places, and Mrs, W. Seliger writes 

 from Hartford that she has discovered the cause to be the work 

 of the common corn-stalk borer, Gartyna nitela. The moth of 

 this insect is dark brown, sprinkled with yellowish dots, with 

 a whitish band across the wing, and the caterpillar is dark 

 brown, with three white lines on the back, the central one be- 

 ing continuous, while those on each side are interrupted. This 

 borer drills into the stalk near the ground and eats out the 

 pith, causing the death of the plant. The method generally 

 suggested for fighting the insect is to pull up the injured corn- 

 stalks as they begin to wilt, and feed them to the pigs, so that 

 the worms will be destroyed. If this is carried on regularly 

 there will be little danger that the moth will become so abun- 

 dant as to be a serious pest. When it occurs on weeds or 

 garden-plants these ought to be collected and fed to hogs or 

 burned. Last year it was suggested by Mr. Slingerland, of the 

 Cornell Experiment Station, that the four-lined leaf-bug, Pceci- 

 locapsus lineatus, was the offender, and the fact that this 

 insect attacked Dahlias had been put on record by Dr. Fitch 

 thirty-six years ago. This leaf-bug punctures the flower-bud 

 until it withers. A bulletin published by the Entomological 

 Division of the Cornell Experiment Station last year gives all 

 the facts known about this pest, and a summary of the 

 methods of guarding against its attacks will be found in this 

 journal (vol. vi., page 500). We should like to know whether 



the corn-stalk borer has been detected preying upon Dahlias 

 in other sections. 



To a correspondent who inquires of The Rural New Yorker 

 whether it would be preferable to pick Maiden's Blush and 

 Baldwin apples two weeks earlier than the usual time, so as to 

 save loss by storms, etc., some interesting replies are made 

 by experts. Dr. Hoskins states that apples will not wither if 

 picked at any time after the seeds are colored. Usually the 

 skin colors with the seed, but not always. Secretary Gold says 

 that on the hills of northern Connecticut apples are safe on the 

 trees till the middle of October, and improve in color, quality 

 and size enough to compensate for the few that are blown off 

 by winds in August and September while they are too green 

 to pick. This year the extreme drought will cause apples to 

 loosen earlier, and they should be watched and picked in sea- 

 son. Mr. J. S. Woodward says that apples picked when quite 

 green will keep longer than if left to hang later on the trees, 

 although they will shrivel slightly. The flavor will be injured, 

 however, so that, on the whole, the practice is not a good one. 

 Some persons have an idea that winter apples which hang on 

 the trees after they are ripe will keep longer, but this is not the 

 case, and the sooner they are picked after the seeds are en- 

 tirely black, and put into a cool temperature, the longer they 

 will keep. With early fall apples it will pay to go over the trees 

 more than once, for if the large and mature apples are picked 

 as soon as ripe the less-developed ones which are left hanging 

 will often double in size. This is true of Duchess of Oldenburg, 

 Sweet Bough and Maiden's Blush, and the larger yield will 

 often more than compensate for the extra labor, to say noth- 

 ing of the escape of risk from winds. Another correspondent 

 asserts that when apples are picked as soon as they reach full 

 size their flavor is improved, and they have less tendency to 

 rot, while George T. Powell says that apples should be picked 

 as soon as the stem will loosen from the branch without break- 

 ing. This year apples can be picked two weeks earlier than 

 usual. The best keeping quality is obtained by picking the 

 fruit as early as possible, and the finest flavor is insured by al- 

 lowing them to reach fullest maturity on the tree. If the 

 stems adhere and break the fruit will wilt. 



Among the tropical fruits now exposed in the fancy-fruit 

 shops are mangoes from the West Indies, and, judged by the 

 specimens here, one wonders at the reputation they enjoy at 

 home. The fact is that the varieties of mangoes differ from 

 each other almost as widely as those of apples, and in most 

 tropical countries little care has been taken to select choice 

 kinds, so that it is only by a rare chance that a mango of high 

 quality ever reaches this city. They retail at five cents each, 

 and alligator pears bring $3.50 a dozen. Importations of 

 bananas have slightly increased each succeeding month since 

 early spring, and in August 600,000 bunches came into this 

 city at prices fifteen to twenty percent, lower than those obtained 

 in July. Jamaica orangesare becomingabundant, andthelater 

 shipments are more nearly ripened than the first lots which 

 began to come nearly a month ago. Most of this fruit comes 

 packed in barrels holding as much as two and a half Florida 

 orange boxes, and sells at wholesale at the low price of $2.50 a 

 barrel. The first Florida oranges are looked for here by the 

 end of September. Some Indian River russet oranges, juicy 

 and of good flavor, said to be Hart's Late, are still offered at 

 sixty cents a dozen, fresh Rodi oranges bringing the same 

 price. The plums now coming from California are larger and 

 more showy in color than those seen here a month ago, and 

 Kelseys and Gros prunes are now almost as brilliant as the 

 Hungarian prunes. Choice selected boxes of five dozen sell for 

 a dollar. Seckel pears range from twenty-five to fifty cents a 

 dozen for the best, according to size. Mammoth, Buerre 

 Hardy and Bartlett pears, and nectarines of very large size and 

 high color, bring sixty cents a dozen at retail, smaller fruit of 

 the same sorts costing a third as much. Grapes are now here 

 in greater variety than any other fruit. Besides the kinds of 

 domestic grapes noted last week, California is now sending 

 Rose of Peru, or what is sometimes known as Black Prince, 

 good-sized, firm, round berries, clustered loosely in large 

 bunches, and not considered one of the best grapes for long 

 shipment. The yellow-green Chasselas de Fontainebleau, or 

 Sweetwater, is quite abundant in our markets, which, while 

 juicy and sweet, lacks distinct flavor. Black Sultana and 

 Thompson's Seedless, a local variety of the golden-yellow Sul- 

 tana, are also here, and the later Verdel, having oblong yel- 

 lowish green berries, covered with an attractive bloom. So 

 plentiful and cheap are the California and New York state 

 grapes that Muscat of Alexandria, Chasselas and Black Ham- 

 burg grapes from Long Island hot-houses command but 

 thirty cents a pound for the best. 



