460 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 351. 



the Mrs. Frederick Goodridge, which is a seedling of the largest 

 size, well rounded, with narrow, rather twisting petals, and 

 pure white. It is especially valuable for its earliness, the flower 

 having been in good condition to cut on October 2d. All the 

 new varieties of the season were shown here, but it seems 

 unnecessary to repeat names which are noted in detail in re- 

 ports of the larger shows. Why cannot New York support a 

 show of seasonable flowers every month of the year, in such 

 a hall as the one in which this show is given ? 

 Elizabeth, N.J. J.N.Gerard. 



Notes. 



In their advance list of novelties for next year, Thorburn & 

 Co., of this city, announce another Dwarf Lima Bean of the 

 Kumerle strain. It seems probable that we shall soon have 

 as many varieties of bush Limas as of bush Wax Beans, and 

 for practical purposes they may soon supersede altogether the 

 old climbing sorts. 



A correspondent writes that he has a tree, purchased under 

 the nursery name of the Hungarian Silver Linden, the entire 

 under surface of whose leaves literally shines like silver. He 

 wishes to know if seedlings from this tree will show the same 

 whiteness of leaf which appears so striking in this individual 

 tree. To which we reply that trees vary very much as to the 

 glaucous or silvery color of their foliage, as persons well know 

 who grow seedlings of Picea pungens. As to this particular 

 Linden we can only say that seedlings from a magnificent 

 specimen of what is probably the same Linden on the grounds 

 of Mr. Thomas Meehan do not all show this silvery white- 

 ness. In fact, Mr. Meehan thinks that, at least, half of them 

 show very little of it. 



Professor W. F. Massey, of the North Carolina Experiment 

 Station, who has written several times to this journal in regard 

 to the possibilities of the successful production in that state 

 of bulbs in commercial quantities, has just issued an illus- 

 trated bulletin, in which he gives directions for the culti- 

 vation of Amaryllis, Freesias, Galtonia candicans, Roman 

 Hyacinths, Lilies, Narcissus, Tuberoses and Tulips. It is 

 stated that bulbs of a superior quality have been produced 

 at the station farm near Raleigh, and this bulletin is in- 

 tended to encourage the farmers of North Carolina to make 

 a trial of the industry in a small way and familiarize them- 

 selves with the methods of treating and handling the crops. It 

 is hoped that this may prove an industry in which the people 

 of North Carolina can, in time, compete successfully with the 

 growers in Holland, France and the Scilly Islands. 



Judging from the reports in the Minnesota papers, the frauds 

 in the sales of timber from the Pine lands of that state have 

 been most disgraceful, and we may well credit the stories that 

 some of the fires that have devastated the forests there were 

 kindled by men who wished to burn up the proofs of their rob- 

 bery. We read of state officials who have sold stumpage 

 at $2.00 a thousand, when it was worth at least $4.00, and even 

 at that rate more than twice as much timber was often cut as 

 was reported. The people have at last become aroused, and 

 in the proceedings instituted by the state several convictions 

 have been made, and it looks as if further investigation and 

 prosecution might return a large amount of money to the 

 treasury of the state. Our wasteful methods of timber-cutting 

 are bad enough when at their best, but the devastation would 

 naturally be much more sweeping when the trees are cut by 

 thieves who are anxious to obliterate the traces of their crimes. 



In an address delivered by James W. Bentley, the Secretary 

 of the National Tulip Society of England, it is said that before 

 this flower was introduced into western Europe in 1550 the 

 Turks had already many varieties of Tulips, as seems to be 

 proved by an extract from Hackluyt's Voyages. It was first 

 planted in England in 1577, and Parkinson enumerated one 

 hundred and fifty varieties as early as 1629. In 1665 a cata- 

 logue of one hundred and eighty-four varieties appeared in a 

 work published by John Ray, and in a second edition of the 

 work ten years later the list was increased to three hundred 

 varieties. An amusing paper by Sir Richard Steele in the 

 Tatler of 1710 ridicules some of the high-sounding names 

 which florists gave their Tulips in that early day. But the 

 names he laughs at, like Black Prince, Duke of Marlborough 

 and Alexander the Great, are brief and modest compared to 

 many of those with which the garden-flowers at the present 

 time are burdened. 



A late number of the Pacific Rural Press gives pictures of 

 the flowers of two hybrid Clematises which Mr. Luther Bur- 

 bank has produced. The first was originated by crossing the 



pollen of the coral-colored flowers of Clematis coccinea upon 

 the purple bell-shaped flowers of C. crispa. The result is a 

 vigorous plant, which produces flowers continuously from 

 June until autumn. Most of these are broadly bell-shaped, 

 and from the picture they seem to be larger than those of C. 

 crispa and have a beautiful frosted appearance. The color of 

 the flower is not stated, but it is said to be a mingling of that 

 of the two parents, but one can hardly conceive what color 

 blue and scarlet would produce. The other one is the picture 

 of a large double white flower, which is said to be a product 

 of plants of the Jackmanni and Lanuginosa type. The flowers 

 are of the largest size, very double, white, variegated with 

 light blue, and their soft, feathery look, added to a rare sym- 

 metry of form, seems to make this a plant of great promise. 



The new crop of many foreign and domestic nuts has been 

 coming in during the last fortnight, and English walnuts, 

 from Chili, are now succeeded by the Naples and California 

 product, the first car-load of these California nuts having ar- 

 rived last Friday, two weeks after the first arrival from Italy. 

 The market season for Chili nuts begins here in early sum- 

 mer. The poor quality of these nuts last year forced down 

 prices at the beginning of this season, when they brought 

 only five and a half cents a pound. This year's crop'has proved 

 to be of really good quality, and those yet in stock now com- 

 mand seven cents. California walnuts are of good size and 

 quality, but are bleached by a sulphur process which whitens 

 the shell and makes them much more showy than the im- 

 ported nuts. This bleaching is not encouraged by the best 

 eastern dealers,, who claim that it injures the meat of the nut, 

 while it also increases expense. The cost of transportation 

 and loss by shrinkage on nuts broughtfrom California amounts 

 to two cents a pound, and even nine cents is not a paying 

 price to the eastern wholesale dealer. At this figure sales 

 here are slow and preference is given to the Naples walnuts, 

 which now sell for ten cents a pound. All European crops of 

 these nuts are short this year. Grenoble walnuts, the highest 

 grade of all, are due here within a week, and eleven and a half 

 cents is being asked by local dealers for advance orders. The 

 crop of the so-called French walnuts, a lower grade, also from 

 France, is almost a failure. Much of the home crop of Eng- 

 land is used there for pickling, and many more are imported 

 to meet the demand for table use. A few English filberts are 

 seen here every fall in the highest-class fruit-stores; two lots, 

 amounting to nearly five hundred pounds, have been sold this 

 month at the high price of thirty cents a pound by the import- 

 ers, and as many more will probably constitute the entire re- 

 ceipts. These nuts are not kiln-dried, but come green in the 

 husk. A small filbert from Barcelona formerly came to America 

 in considerable quantities, but these now go to the English 

 markets. The Sicily nut is the standard filbert here, and the 

 sort known in the trade as the Long Naples is also a favorite ; 

 the latter now sell for nine and a half cents in their original 

 packages, while those from Sicily are but six cents a pound. 

 For twenty years the show,y Spanish Taragonas have been the 

 most popular almonds, but the Princess Paper-shell, from 

 France, is rapidly regaining the place in popular favor which 

 it held a quarter of a century ago. Of the French almonds 

 the Languedoc is the best. California Paper-shell almonds are 

 now bringing the highest wholesale prices of twelve cents a 

 pound. The choicest of all shelled almonds, for confectioners' 

 use, as for the table, are the Jordan almonds, from Spain. 

 Their shell is smooth and very hard, but the meats are long 

 and slender and altogether desirable. These now sell at 

 retail for forty-five cents a pound, in pasteboard packages. 

 Brazil nuts, or Cream nuts, are among the most plentiful this 

 year, and the shipments which began in March are still con- 

 tinuing. These can now be bought in large lots as low as 

 three and three-quarter cents a pound, but the holiday trade is 

 likely to make better prices, as in other years, when a rise 

 from five and a half to fifteen cents has taken place in a few 

 weeks before Christmas. The so-called Paradise nut, or 

 Sapucaia nut, also from South America, is more rare, and the 

 first lot seen in many years was sent to this city last fall. They 

 are more delicate than the Brazil nut, which they resemble 

 somewhat in appearance. They are said to keep well for 

 years. They command thirty cents a pound at wholesale. 

 Among the rarer foreign nuts are Pistachios, which are 

 imported directly by dealers in confectioners' supplies, and 

 are used for coloring confectionery and ices, and the so-called 

 Litchi or Lyche nut, which is really not a nut, but the fruit of 

 a tree native in southern China — Nephelium Litchi. When 

 dry it becomes nut-like, with a rough, but fragile, shell, and 

 contains an aromatic pulp. This fruit is exclusively imported 

 by Chinese merchants. 



