44o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 349. 



given of the Hemlock-barks, which are used in immense 

 quantities in the eastern states and in Oregon and Wash- 

 ington in tanning, or of that of the Douglas Fir, botanically 

 related to the Hemlock, and now valued in those parts of the 

 country where this tree abounds for the tannin contained 

 in its thick bark. 



The value of the work is increased by the very full and 

 complete index to the literature of Tannins, beginning with 

 1 79 1, when two papers on the subject were published, down 

 to the year 1893. 



Notes. 



The next meeting of the American Pomological Society will 

 be held in San Francisco on the i6tli, 17th and 18th of January, 

 1895. Members visiting California will be the guests of the 

 State Horticultural Society. 



Few flowers of comparatively recent introduction have so 

 quickly attained popularity as those of Cosmos, which are 

 now to be found on almost every sidewalk flower-stand with 

 Chrysanthemums and Carnations. They have a delicate and 

 fugacious look, but there are few cut flowers which last so 

 long when placed in water. 



The fact that an English nurseryman sends to this country, 

 and pays $500 for a small plant of the yellow-flowered variety 

 of Cypripedium insigne, shows that the" trade still believes that 

 the market for extraordinarily rare and peculiar Orchids is still 

 likely to be maintained, in spite of the generally hard times 

 which are affecting all parts of the world. 



The windows of many of the flower-stores in this city have 

 lately been singularly attractive. Of course, some windows 

 are overloaded and show something like barbaric profusion 

 rather than true refinement, but in one or two of them last Sat- 

 urday afternoon there appeared a blending of colors in soft 

 harmony, an absence of everything incongruous and super- 

 fluous, a delicacy and dainty grace which revealed a taste 

 and skill never displayed here in similar places half a dozen 

 years ago. 



The season for green fruit from California is about over, 

 although forty car-loads, mostly of grapes, were sold here at 

 auction last week. Taking the year through, the shipments 

 from California have exceeded those of last year by one thou- 

 sand car-loads of green fruit, one thousand car-loads of canned 

 fruit and vegetables and 450 car-loads of raisins. Notwithstand- 

 ing this increased product, the depression of trade, the great 

 railroad strike and other influences have kept prices down, so 

 that the actual returns to growers were not as great as they 

 were last year. 



Grapes of the best quality from California are still abundant, 

 but they are bringing somewhat higher prices, partly on 

 account of the scarcity of Almeria grapes, importations of 

 which will hardly amount to half as many barrels as were 

 received last year. Florida oranges are beginning to show 

 good color, although they are not yet as sweet as the Jamaica 

 fruit. The best grades of King apples, Northern Spies and 

 Fall Pippins bring good prices, in spite of the continued large 

 shipments to Europe. One hundred thousand barrels were 

 sent to England last week, and an equal amount will probably 

 be shipped the present week. The fruit has been bringing in 

 the English markets as much as it would sell for here. Good 

 Newtown Pippins netted $4.50 a barrel, and it is interesting to 

 note that some of them came from Oregon. 



In places where the garden has a gravelly or other porous, 

 well-drained subsoil, a simple plan to keep a few vegetables 

 over for family use is to take both heads from a few sugar- 

 barrels and sink them in the ground, leaving their tops about 

 six inches above the surface. The practice of Mr. C. L. Allen, 

 who recommends this method, is to fill the barrels about half- 

 full with vegetables, and then to place over them an ordinary 

 barrel cover. The warmth from below keeps out frost from 

 above unless the temperature falls to zero, when some old 

 matting or other material can be thrown over the tops of the 

 barrels, to be removed as the vegetables are needed. He has 

 kept beets, turnips, carrots and parsnips in this way until the 

 middle of April, and the last that were taken out were as fresh 

 as when they were put away in the fall. Cauliflower and cab- 

 bage can also be kept perfectly in the same manner. 



It has been stated that the admirable Narcissus known as 

 Bicolor Horsfieldii was a chance seedling, but a correspondent 

 of the Gardeners' Chronicle writes that the flower was obtained 



by crossing Narcissus bicolor with pollen from a fine flower 

 of Narcissus Pseudo-narcissus, and that from the same batch 

 of seedlings two or three other good varieties came, which are 

 still in existence. Horsfield himself, although a weaver, was 

 an excellent botanist and a skillful cultivator, and he is known 

 to have obtained other plants by cross-fertilization, so that it is 

 altogether probable that the famous flower which bears his 

 name, and which has been called "King of Daffodils," is a 

 genuine memorial of his skill, and not a lucky accident. When 

 he died in 1854 he had a stock of twenty-eight blooming or 

 full-sized bulbs, and nine smaller ones, which were sold for 

 the benefit of his widow. 



Farmers who hold their crops for higher prices do not 

 always consider the shrinkage which many products undergo, 

 so that the advance in prices, if it comes, is often counterbal- 

 anced by loss in quantity from various causes. A corre- 

 spondent of the American Agriculturist states that a farmer 

 last autumn on Long Island, as an experiment, put in a storage 

 warehouse one hundred bushels of potatoes which weighed 

 sixty pounds to the bushel. In April he weighed the same 

 potatoes before sorting out those which had become unsala- 

 ble, and found that he had eighty-three bushels. Examination 

 showed that many of the tubers which had been large enough 

 to sell in the autumn, were now too small to sell, and, besides 

 this, some were rotting, so that when these were taken out he 

 had seventy-eight bushels to sell instead of one hundred. This 

 was a loss of twenty-two per cent, in quantity, besides the cart- 

 age he could have saved if he had sold the potatoes from the 

 field, not to speak of the interest of his money for six months. 



Last year we spoke of the fact that a Siberian Knotweed, 

 Polygonum Sachalinense, had been recommended by well- 

 known authorities, like Monsieur Charles Baltet, for example, 

 as a forage-plant for dry climates. In speaking of this matter 

 we noted the fact that in Europe some experimenters had also 

 recommended Polygonum cuspidatum as a forage-plant for 

 similar situations ; but inasmuch as this plant is a ram- 

 pant weed in Central Park, which flourishes particularly in 

 moist deep soils, and is altogether too tough for succulent 

 forage, we suggested that while P. Sachalinense might prove 

 valuable for ensilage, it would hardly supersede Indian Corn 

 for green fodder in the Corn belt of this country. Neverthe- 

 less, some nurserymen at once began to propagate and adver- 

 tise the new forage-plant, and have been selling P. cuspidatum 

 for P. Sachalinense. Many buyers oE this stock will be disap- 

 pointed, but we should be glad to publish the experience of 

 some one who has tested the genuine article. We observe that 

 the Bureau of Agriculture of South Australia doubts whether the 

 plant is suitable for any but rich soils and moist localities, and 

 adds that in such places Lucerne, Clover and the usual culti- 

 vated fodder-plants would give better returns. Some of our 

 western correspondents, who had been growing this P. Sachali- 

 nense as an ornamental plant, reported that it seemed to 

 withstand fairly well the droughts of August and September, 

 when pasturage is nearly always short. Do the trials on a 

 larger scale made this year confirm this impression ? 



The distortion of the leaves of Peach-trees, which is known 

 as leaf-curl, and the abnormally inflated fruits, popularly 

 called plum-pockets or plum-bladders, on some other species 

 of Prunus, are both caused by parasitic fungi belonging to the 

 family of Exoascese. Professor Atkinson, of Cornell Univer- 

 sity, has been making a study of these fungi, and he has pub- 

 lished the results of his investigation in a bulletin illustrated 

 with twenty plates containing eighty figures. Fifteen species 

 of Exoascus are described here as growing on various species 

 of Prunus, with illustrations of the method in which they curl 

 the leaves, enlarge the fruits, cause " witch's-broom," and do 

 other damage. Professor Atkinson does not give information 

 which will enable fruit-growers to control these diseases 

 because the experiments yet tried are not so definite and con- 

 clusive that remedies can be given with confidence. He 

 hopes, however, that this contribution to the knowledge of 

 these fungi, with the characteristics of their work, will lead to 

 a more intelligent line of experimentation. It should be borne 

 in mind that these fungi possess a mycelium which lives in 

 buds or branches of the trees during the winter when they 

 have once become affected, so that it is likely to show the 

 disease more or less every year. Of course, since the myce- 

 lium is perennial in the young branches, no buds should be 

 taken from infected trees for budding nursery-stock or 

 orchard-trees. When only a few branches of trees are 

 affected, pruning some distance below the diseased portion 

 might be tried, especially in the case of those trees where the 

 leaf-buds and twigs are deformed. 



