39Q 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 344. 



Notes. 



An English Daffodil grower announces that he has decided 

 to accept twelve guineas, something more than sixty dollars, 

 tor a bulb of one of his new hybrid Narcissi. 



Vinca rosea, the Madagascar Periwinkle, has been again 

 proving this year that it is one of the best of bedding-plants 

 for dry weather. By the middle of July the plants attain such 

 a size as to completely shade the ground if they are set out 

 originally about a foot apart, and the flowers nestling among 

 the glossy leaves make a most attractive appearance. The 

 variety with white flowers and the one with white flowers and 

 a scarlet eye are preferable to the type, which has rather dull 

 rose-colored petals. 



The last number of the London Garth 1 !! which comes to 

 hand contains a colored plate of the double-flowered Datura 

 Cornucopaea, which Messrs. Pitcher & Manda introduced a 

 few years ago. The delicate purple of the large trumpet- 

 shaped flower and its shining dark brown stems are very well 

 reproduced. It is a robust plant, and bears flowers eight or 

 ten inches in length and five or six inches across the limb. 

 These are produced in great abundance, a single plant often 

 yielding two hundred or more during the season. 



Professor B. T. Galloway read a paper before the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, at its late meet- 

 ing in Brooklyn, on the "Growth of Radishes as Affected by 

 the Size and Weight of the Seeds." After a discussion of the 

 physiological questions involved, some experiments were re- 

 ported, the results of which were, in brief, that when large seed 

 was sown ninety percent, of the crop reached marketable size 

 at the same time — that is, the plants matured in from thirty- 

 five to forty days, while from seed as it usually comes from 

 the market — that is, large and small mixed together — about 

 fifty per cent, of the crop matured in the same time. 



Rev. G. H. Englehart, who is well known as an expert in the 

 cultivation of Narcissi, states that the hybrids and cross-bred 

 plants of this genus are rarely sterile. After many years of 

 crossing and the production of a great many new hybrids, he 

 finds that almost every one can be made to yield good seed, al- 

 though it is necessary in some cases to fertilize the flower arti- 

 ficially. The variety Empress, for example, rarely seeds when 

 left to itself, but when fertilized by hand it is fruitful. Nar- 

 cissus poeticus verus, too, which is hardly ever fruitful under 

 natural conditions, will almost invariably bear seed if touched 

 with the pollen of the varieties ornatus or Poetarum. 



Near the markets and stores of the wholesale fruit-dealers 

 in this city a very considerable trade in branches of our com- 

 mon Wild Black Cherry, Prunus serotina, is carried on in the 

 early morning. The new growth from vigorous young trees, 

 well furnished with fresh green and glossy leaves, is cut to a 

 length of about two feet and a half, and the twigs are tied up 

 in bunches of a dozen. Large masses of these bundles are 

 piled up on the sidewalk or are placed upright in tubs, and 

 sold to retail fruit-venders, who use them to decorate their 

 stands and push-carts. The branches usually come from 

 Long Island or New Jersey, and sell for two or three cents a 

 bunch. 



Mr. Carman has received some of our native persimmons 

 from Decatur County, Indiana, which were picked before 

 there was any sign of frost, and yet he pronounces them 

 entirely free from anything like the astringent or puckery 

 quality generally supposed to be characteristic of this fruit 

 until it has been chilled out by a good freezing. These per- 

 simmons were pronounced superior in flavor to any of the 

 Japanese kinds ; they averaged in size about an inch and a 

 quarter in diameter and were almost seedless. They were 

 richer than many of the popular varieties of plums, and if Mr. 

 Carman had any objection to their quality, it was that they 

 were too sweet. There can be no doubt that by selection, 

 and, perhaps, by hybridizing with the foreign varieties, our 

 native persimmon could be developed and improved into 

 one of the most luscious of fruits. 



The last New York Legislature passed a law appropriating 

 .f8,ooo, to be expended at Cornell University for the benefit of 

 the fruit-growers in western New York. The law was enacted 

 such a short time ago that no experiments which required 

 much time or care could be undertaken and conducted the 

 present season. But Professor Bailey has prepared a bulletin, 

 entitled " Hints on the Planting of Orchards," which gives 

 directions about the preparation of the land, the manner in 

 which the trees should be set and trimmed and the best place 

 for purchasing young trees. Of course, no attempt is made to 



introduce new methods into the orchard practice of the state, 

 but this little pamphlet of fourteen pages gives such instruc- 

 tions as a beginner needs. It is altogether a useful little treatise, 

 clearly and concisely setting forth the reasons for the practice 

 recommended, and it is illustrated in such a way so as to help 

 to an understanding of the text. Although it has been pre- 

 pared to furnish elementary instruction, fruit-growers who 

 are no longer novices will find in this bulletin so many helpful 

 reminders and suggestions that they will feel amply repaid 

 for reading it. 



Two or three plants of Gordonia Altamaha are now in flower 

 in the Arnold Arboretum. The plants are only about three 

 feet high and are from cuttings taken in July, 1891. They have 

 stood out two winters without protection and nothing but the 

 new growth was killed. Of course, the Franklinia, a native of 

 Georgia, is not hardy as far north as Boston, but plants of con- 

 siderable size have been kept here several years when pegged 

 down in the autumn and covered with sod. In Philadelphia 

 and southward they need no protection after they are once 

 established, and we have often spoken of the singular beauty 

 of their large white incurved petals, which assume something 

 of a cup-shape and enclose clusters of bright yellow stamens 

 with light straw-colored anthers. They are especially attrac- 

 tive at this season, when large flowers are not common in the 

 shrubbery, and their attractiveness is increased by their back- 

 ground of dark green lustrous leaves. 



A correspondent of the Country Gentleman writes that he 

 has found a moderate amount of shade beneficial to Red 

 Raspberries. As a rule, no plants grow strongly or pro- 

 duce abundantly when standing near trees which rob the 

 soil of its nutriment, but, somehow, Raspberries under the 

 shade of trees seem to grow larger canes and yield more and 

 larger berries. To make sure that his observation was cor- 

 rect, the grower who made this report counted the berries on 

 eight hills which grew in the open sunlight and eight others 

 which had grown together in the shade. The result was that 

 the plants in the shade bore about fifty per cent, more berries, 

 while the size of these berries averaged a third larger than 

 that of those in the sun. The eight hills in the shade averaged 

 four hundred berries each for eight pickings, and two hundred 

 of these berries filled a quart measure. Taking the season 

 through, the shaded stools yielded from four to five quarts 

 each, while in the whole field, including both strong and weak 

 plants, the average yield was about three quarts. 



The Agricultural Gazette, of New South Wales, contains an 

 interesting report of some experiments in extracting the per- 

 fume from flowers. It was found that from Bouvardia Hum- 

 boldtii, which had not up to the present been used for manu- 

 facturing purposes, a powerful yet delicate perfume can be 

 extracted, which possesses all the requisite qualities as a body 

 for first-class bouquet. Carnations yield a very powerful and 

 lasting fragrance which proves of great service as an ingre- 

 dient for perfumes of varied quality, while varieties of peren- 

 nial Phlox yielded a very peculiar, distinct and valuable odor 

 hitherto unknown to perfumers. The experiment showed 

 that the ordinary perfume plants can be cultivated in New 

 South Wales with profit, and that many cultivated flowers 

 which are not worked elsewhere for perfumes develop in 

 that region new and unique odors which ought to command 

 a place in the markets of the world, while the abundant native 

 flora offers many species that might be brought into cultiva- 

 tion with profit for perfumery purposes and give odors of 

 special value. 



Amateurs who are now taking up plants and potting them 

 for flowering in the window-garden ought to remember to 

 select small but vigorous specimens and keep them rather 

 backward until strongly established. The better way would, 

 of course, have been to take cuttings earlier in the season ; if 

 started as late as this they will hardly make plants strong 

 enough to bloom well until the latter part of winter. The 

 usual practice of lifting large plants which have been doing 

 duty out-of-doors for several months, with the hope that they 

 will continue the same good work all through the winter, is 

 usually doomed to disappointment. On this point the Rural New 

 Yorker very truly says : " It is certainly unreasonable to expect 

 plants that have grown and bloomed luxuriantly in our stimu- 

 lating and almost tropical summer to adapt themselves at once 

 to the changed condition of sitting-room culture during the 

 short gloomy winter days, especially after the violent shock 

 they receive in transplanting. The tyro in floriculture can 

 still secure a stock of winter bloomers by potting up healthy 

 plants which, for some reason, have been prevented from 

 overblooming, taking care to cut back the growth severely in 

 proportion to the shortened roots." 



