October 31, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



437 



food, to be drawn upon when needed. How large these 

 roots may become when the plant is fifty or a hundred 

 years old I do not pretend to know. In Gray's Manual it 

 is stated that they sometimes weigh a hundred pounds. 

 Those I have raised from seed in New Jersey have weighed 

 about twelve pounds at the age of twelve years. If by 

 accident the crown is broken off or killed, new buds soon 

 form below, and it is quite possible that every part of the 

 surface of the root is capable, under favorable conditions, of 

 producing adventitious buds in any number." As an orna- 

 mental plant Mr. Fuller considers it well worth attention. 



Cuphea Llavje. — A few years ago the late Sereno Watson 

 sent two seeds of this plant to Mr. W. A. Manda, with a 

 statement that it is a native of Central America. From 

 these seeds the stock was secured which was afterward 

 distributed by Messrs. Pitcher & Manda, and which has 

 since been sold by some other nurserymen under the name 

 of Cuphea tricolor. It somewhat resembles the so-called 

 Cigar-plant, having tubular flowers which are nearly two 

 inches long and which show a singular combination of 

 color, being dark purple, bright scarlet and greenish white. 

 It is of low habit, and has proved admirable for edgings 

 where a growth of not more than a foot in height is 

 needed. In Forest Hill Cemetery a line of these plants 

 set around the basin of a fountain, where they are just 

 large enough to droop over the low stone coping, is very 

 effective. The plant is of compact growth ; it blooms 

 incessantly ; the foliage is clean, and, altogether, in color 

 and habit, it is suitable for vases and seems exactly to fit 

 a situation where low herbaceous growth is wanted. 



Scilla lingulata. — This and its white variety, which are 

 now flowering with Mr. Gerard, are Algerian plants, inter- 

 esting as the latest ones of the genus to bloom. The 

 flowers are small, campanulate, blue or white, not showy, 

 and borne to the number of six to twelve on a scape three 

 inches high. They are not valuable garden-plants ; from 

 the lateness of their flowers they will require protection, 

 and will probably often miss flowering, owing to the diffi- 

 culty of ripening their bulbs properly during our winters, 

 when space under glass is valuable, and sunny locations 

 can be put to better use. 



Cultural Department. 



Saving Seed. 



SEED-DEALERS generally take precaution to keep their 

 stock pure by careful selection, and, as a rule, farmers 

 and gardeners will find it better and cheaper in the end to 

 buy seed of a reliable seedsman. When care is taken in 

 selecting, however, and seed is carefully preserved for a 

 series of years, a good strain can be secured, which will 

 probably give increased yields of belter quality. Professor 

 Taft, in writing for the American Agriculturist, gives the 

 following directions for collecting and caring for seeds : 



A series of sieves is useful both for seeds with a dry cover- 

 ing or pod and those formed in a fleshy fruit. Three sizes are 

 used for each size of seed : a coarse one, to remove the larger 

 stems, leaves, etc.; one that is just large enough to allow the 

 seeds to pass through, and a third so fine that the seeds can- 

 not get through, but which will allow of the removal of the 

 dirt and lint. If large amounts are to be grown, a flail and 

 farming-mill will be desirable. When most of the seeds are 

 ripe, the stems are cut off, or in some cases the entire plant is 

 pulled. If the seeds do not ripen evenly, it is sometimes 

 necessary to make several cuttings. In case they shell readily, 

 the stems are placed upon papers or cloth sheets, and left in 

 the sun until dry enough to thresh. This is done with the 

 flail if large quantities are to be threshed, but small amounts 

 can be rubbed out with the hand, using a coarse sieve if it is 

 available. The seed should then be cleaned, using the fanning- 

 mill for large quantities, or by pouring them upon a sheet and 

 allowing the wind to remove the lighter particles. The final 

 cleaning can be given by passing them through the sieves, 

 although, if these are not available, good work can be done by 

 washing them, as the good seeds wili settle to the bottom, while 

 the light ones will float. Whatever method is used, the seeds 

 should be thoroughly dried before they are placed in bags. 



When the seeds are in fleshy fruits they should be ground or 

 mashed and placed in barrels or other receptacles to sour. In 

 the case of cucumbers, melons, etc., the interiors only are 

 scraped out. In from thirty to one hundred hours fermenta- 

 tion will have advanced sufficiently to admit of the ready sepa- 

 ratiqn of the pulp from the seeds. The mashed fruit is placed 

 in coarse sieves and suspended in tubs of water. The seeds 

 will drop to the bottom, while the light pulp will float and can 

 be thrown out ; they should then be sent through a finersieve, 

 and after three or four washings can be taken out, spread 

 upon cloths and dried. It is well to wring many seeds in cloths 

 and thus remove the surplus water. Many persons do not 

 take the trouble to wash out the seeds, when growing a few 

 for home use, merely scraping them out upon a piece of 

 cloth and drying them in their pulp. Most of our vegetable 

 seeds keep best, after being thoroughly dried, in a moderately 

 warm, dry place. Paper or cloth sacks will answer to hold 

 them if hung up or placed in boxes, where mice cannot get at 

 them. The seeds of our fruits and nuts, however, would give 

 a very low germination if treated in this way, and care must 

 be taken that they are not exposed to drying influences forany 

 length of time. They maybe planted at once after they are 

 gathered, or, after being partially dried, they may be placed in 

 thin layers in a box of sand. This stratification prevents the 

 loss of water, and they will be in good condition for planting 

 in the spring. It will be found desirable — especially with the 

 fruits — to place the boxes out-of-doors during the winter, and 

 thus expose them to the action of frost. In the case of the 

 Peach and other stone fruits, it is often well to crack them 

 with a hammer if the frost has not done its work. 



Indoor Work in Autumn. 



THE work of lifting, potting and storing tender plants that 

 ■*- have been used for outdoor ornamentation during the 

 summer is now finished, and intelligent care given to the 

 indoor garden now will prevent disappointing results later in 

 the season. Caladiums, whose brilliant leaves have con- 

 tributed so much to the adornment of the conservatory during 

 the summer, will now be ripening their growth, and this pro- 

 cess may be hastened by withholding water from them for a 

 time, and turning the pots over on their sides beneath the 

 staging in a warm greenhouse. After the leaves are all gone 

 a neat method is to shake out the tubers from the soil in which 

 they have been growing, and to place them in pans or boxes 

 of dry sand ; these should be kept in a warm and tolerably 

 dry place until the following spring, the object being to keep 

 the tubers plump and sound without making a premature 

 growth during the winter. 



A similar plan can be used for Gloxinias, Tydasas, Gesneras 

 and Achimenes, all of which can be stored in dry sand for the 

 winter, though the delicate rhizomes of the Achimenes must 

 be carefully shaken out, for they are easily broken. 



The beauty of the floral display during the winter and spring 

 is greatly increased by the use of some Pancratiums, Crinums 

 and hybrid Hippeastrums, all of which can be brought into 

 flower at stated periods by using a little judgment in resting 

 the plants. For this purpose the bulbs should not be so dried off 

 that they lose all their leaves, as these plants are not necessarily 

 deciduous ; but a smaller supply of water should be given for 

 a time, while the plants have full light and a lower tempera- 

 ture. Another point to be remembered is that frequent repot- 

 ting is not required for most of them, and after they have 

 grown to flowering size an occasional top-dressing and some 

 liquid manure will carry them through for two or three sea- 

 sons, providing the plants are healthy to begin with. 



Eucharis Amazonica, another evergreen bulbous plant, does 

 well with judicious treatment. With the resting periods prop- 

 erly regulated, two to four crops of flowers may be secured 

 in a year, one of which can be timed for the Christmas season. 



To have flowers of Lilium Harrisii at the holiday season, 

 the plants should be grown so that the buds show at least six 

 weeks before the time when the flowers are desired. 



Tulip bulbs are received at about this time, and they should 

 at once be planted in the pots or boxes in which they are to 

 bloom. Without a good root-growth the flowers will not 

 amount to much, and the same rule applies to most of the 

 spring-flowering bulbs. 



The propagation of various stove plants is now in order, and 

 this is a good time to begin getting up a stock of Crotons for 

 next season's bedding and for other decorative uses to which 

 these beautiful plants are so well suited. The past season has 

 been highly favorable for outdoor Crotons, at least in the 

 eastern states, and the use of these plants out-of-doors will, no 

 doubt, be more general next season. Crotons usually root 



