October 31, 1S94.] 



Garden and Forest. 



439 



dry. Care should also be taken at this stage not to wet the 

 plants overhead. When the fruit is well set it should be thinned 

 out to about twelve fruits to a plant, which is a sufficient crop 

 to a six-inch pot, and this is the best size for general use. Occa- 

 sional applications of weak liquid-manure will greatly assist the 

 development of the fruit. 



Tarrytown, N. Y. 



William Scott. 



Correspondence. 



The Persimmon. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I quite agree with E. P. P. (in your issue for October 

 24th) as to* the value of our native Persimmon, whether culti- 

 vated for its fruit or merely for its picturesque and ornamental 

 effect as a tree. I have grown the Persimmon on Long Island 

 for twenty years, and have tried varieties from several western 

 and southern states. The best tree I have is one given me by 

 the late William Cullen Bryant in 1867. Mr. Bryant was an 

 enthusiastic cultivator of Persimmons, and he had great faith 

 in their future development and improvement, and he even 

 believed they would become formidable rivals of the Kaki, or 

 Japanese Persimmon. The particular tree of which I speak 

 was one of many obtained from seed which grew in the 

 southern Ohio valley, and Mr. Bryant considered it superior to 

 any from Missouri or elsewhere. 



My tree has been generously cultivated and root-pruned. It 

 is now fifteen feet in height, and produces fruit measuring 

 five inches in circumference. In proportion as the fruit is 

 improved its astringency diminishes, the pulp increases in 

 volume and sweetness and the seeds diminish in number. 

 This is also true of the Japanese Persimmon, the largest and 

 finest specimens of which often have no seeds at all. 



One male tree is sufficient foralarge Persimmon plantation. 

 The male tree holds its leaves longer than the female, and it 

 is still fresh and green (October 25th), while the female trees 

 are already bare. 



Mr. Samuel Miller, of Bluffton, Missouri, Vice-President of 

 the Missouri State Horticultural Society, and an experienced 

 grower of this fruit, has recently sent me fruit of six varie- 

 ties, all differing in size, shape and flavor, but all of excellent 



Flushing, L. I. /. W.B. 



Birds which Injure Apples. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In the note by Mr. Fred W. Card, on page 414 of your 

 issue for October 17th, on birds injuring apples in Nebraska, 

 the common crow is not mentioned. This bird is often 

 troublesome in eastern orchards. In the autumn, when the 

 crows congregate in considerable numbers, and usually fre- 

 quent open fields and pastures, they destroy large numbers of 

 injurious insects ; but they also sometimes betake themselves 

 to Apple-orchards, and in a short time will destroy the market 

 value of large quantities of the finest fruit in the tops of the 

 trees. Generally a deep hole is pecked in the uppermost, and 

 therefore the brightest-colored side of an apple, and the dam- 

 aged specimen either remains on the tree or is broken off. 

 Sometimes, but not often, the fruit is carried off. The softer 

 and brighter-colored apples, like Fameuse, Astrachan, Duchess, 

 Alexander, St. Lawrence, and the like, usually suffer the most. 

 As a rule, however, the crows may be frightened away by 

 some of the welj-known devices, and they should be regarded 

 as more useful than injurious. Incidentally it may be stated 

 that squirrels often make holes in apples, and more frequently 

 in pears, but this destruction is apparently done for the seeds 

 rather than from any liking for the fleshy part of the fruit. 



Arnold Arboretum. J • Cr. Jack, 



A Double May-weed. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Last summer a friend found some plants of May-weed, 

 Anthemis (Mar; : 'a) Cotula, which had double flowers. The 

 heads were urusually large, and the flowers were ligulate 

 almost to the centre, only a trace of yellow being visible. This 

 doubling up of )wers is not always a beautifying process, but 

 this imported w';fed has never been called a beautiful plant, 

 and the flowers of this new development are really handsome. 

 Besides these qujte double flowers there were others which 

 had two or three 'or more rows of ligulate florets. The indi- 

 vidual heads of each plant were invariably alike, that is, they 

 were all double,' all single, or all semi-double. I am told that 

 these double flowers have been seen hereabout occasionally 



for several years, but I have not seen the fact recorded. I sowed 

 some of the seeds taken from the double flowers, and while 

 many of the plants reverted to the type, some of the seedlings 

 showed double heads, and it seems plain that by continued 

 selection a stable variety may be secured. 

 Harmonsburg, Pa. Bessie L. Putnam. 



Recent Publications. 



The Tannins, a Monograph on the History, Preparation, 

 Properties, Methods of Estimation and Uses of the Vegetable 

 Astringents. By Henry Trimble, Professor of Analytical 

 Chemistry in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. J. 11. 

 Lippincott Company. Philadelphia. 1892-94. 



This useful book, of which the first volume appeared two 

 years ago, has recently been completed. The first volume, 

 divided into two sections, is devoted to the discovery of 

 the tannins and to an account of gallotannic acid, the 

 second to the results of investigations made by the author 

 on the astringent principles of nine species of Oaks, Qn the 

 Mangrove, Canaigre and the Chestnut. 



It will surprise many of our non-professional readers to 

 learn that it is only within the last hundred years that tan- 

 nin has been recognized as a distinct substance or class of 

 substances, for previously to that time the histories of 

 leather, galls and Oak-barks are the only sources of infor- 

 mation regarding the development which led to its dis- 

 covery. As early as 1763 Dr. William Lewis, in his Philo- 

 sophical Commerce of the Arts, calls attention to the pres- 

 ence m certain vegetable infusions of a substance which, 

 mixed with green vitriol, produced a "a deep black liquor 

 of most extensive use for dyeing and staining black. The 

 power by which they produce this blackness and their 

 astringency, or that by which they contract an animal 

 fibre, seem to depend upon one and the same principle, 

 and to be proportional to one another." 



This apparently is the earliest account of tannin, although 

 the facts he states were well known before his time. But 

 the existence of tannin was really established, and gallic 

 acid became of secondary importance as the constituent 

 of galls and in tanning by the investigations of European 

 chemists in the last years of the last century, the first sep- 

 aration of tannin in a pure condition having been accom- 

 plished by Proust in 1798. 



The most valuable Oak-galls are those produced on a south 

 European and western Asian species of Oak, Quercus Lusi- 

 tanica, by the puncture of small insects (Cynips Gallae tinc- 

 torial) on the young buds of the branchlets. In these punc- 

 tures the eggs of the insect are deposited, and around them a 

 mass is rapidly formed, which, in its mature state, becomes 

 the Oak-gall or nut-gall of commerce. The most valuable 

 galls at the present time are collected in Mesopotamia and 

 shipped from Bombay to London ; they are known in com- 

 merce as Levant galls. The best-known variety in this 

 country comes here under the name of Aleppo or Turk- 

 ish galls, being shipped from Smyrna. The best galls, 

 according to Dr. Trimble, are gathered before the insect 

 has matured. Galls of rather inferior quality are produced 

 in Japan on a species of Rhus, and in Europe from the two 

 varieties of Quercus Robur, and also from Quercus Ilex and 

 Quercus Cerris. The galls which are produced on nearly 

 all our species of Oaks have little commercial value, and 

 American tannin material is practically obtained from the 

 bark of various trees or from the thick tuberous root of the 

 Canaigre, or Rumex hymenosepalus, a species of Dock 

 common in New Mexico and Arizona, where it grows near 

 the beds of streams in exceedingly arid regions, promis- 

 ing to become an important article of commerce. 



In the second volume Dr. Trimble describes the prop- 

 erties of various tan barks, especially the American 

 Oaks, his description being accompanied with carefully 

 prepared drawings of the fruit and leaves. A chapter is 

 devoted to the tannin obtained from the Mangrove, Rhizo- 

 phora, a common inhabitant of the shores and islands of 

 southern Florida and all other tropical maritime coasts. 

 Curiously enough, in this exhaustive work no account is 



