486 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 354. 



air of refinement quite distinct and peculiar. The plant also 

 grows well and blossoms freely out-of-doors. Last spring 

 a sport from this Rose originated with Mr. John H. Taylor, 

 a well-known Rose-grower of Bayside, New York. The 

 habit of the new plant is good, it grows vigorously, has 

 good dark green foliage, blooms continuously and bears 

 its flowers on good stout stems. The color is a novelty in 

 its class, being a creamy white, shading to a delicate pink 

 in the centre of the flower. Indeed, the prevailing color 

 may be said to be a very pale pink, resembling in shade 

 the Daybreak Carnation, with the color deepening a trifle at 

 the centre. If the new Rose resembles its parent in consti- 

 tution it should prove hardy with very slight protection, and 

 it is probably as good for cultivation in the open air as for 

 forcing under glass. As we stated in a recent issue, a flower 

 of this new Rose was exhibited in this city at a banquet in 

 honor of Dean Hole, and it was named after the guest of 

 the evening by Robert Craig, President of the National 

 Rose Society. Perhaps it will lead to no confusion, but 

 the fact ought to be generally known that there is another 

 Rose, a hybrid Perpetual, which was sent out by G. Paul 

 in 1872 under the name of S. Reynolds Hole. This is said 

 to be a Rose of great beauty, maroon flushed with scarlet- 

 crimson, full and well formed, but not adapted to general 

 cultivation. 



Begonia Socotrana. — When better known, and its demands 

 for a long summer rest are understood, this is pretty sure 

 to become a popular winter-blooming greenhouse plant, as 

 it flowers in November and December, when free-bloom- 

 ing plants are most in demand and most difficult to have. 

 No other Begonia remains longer in good condition or 

 excels this species in the beauty of its large bright pink 

 flowers and ample circular cup-like leaves. Begonia Soco- 

 trana is an herb with a thick, succulent, slightly branched 

 stem six to ten inches high, orbicular peltate leaves, seven 

 to ten inches in diameter and much depressed in the mid- 

 dle, and bright rosy pink flowers fully four inches across. 

 It produces tubers freely at the base of the stem, by which 

 the plant can be easily increased. When the leaves begin 

 to wither in January or February the roots should be dried 

 off and the tubers taken from the pots and kept in dry sand 

 in a cool place until they begin to show signs of growing 

 the following summer or autumn, when they should be 

 potted and treated like other tuberous Begonias. A long 

 period of absolute rest is all that is required to secure large 

 foliage and abundant flowers. B. Socotrana was dis- 

 covered by Professor Bailey Balfour on the hot and dry 

 island of Socotra, off the coast of Arabia, in the Indian 

 Ocean, and was introduced by him into European gardens 

 in 1880. It has been freely used by hybridizers, and is an 

 important element in some of the new winter-flowering 

 hybrid Begonias, although none of them that we have 

 seen equal it in habit, purity of color and profusion of 

 flowers. 



Cultural Department. 



A New Method of Irrigation. 



MUCH has been written of late years concerning the 

 necessity of irrigation, and several experiments in 

 what is known as subirrigation have been published. The • 

 laying of tiles sufficiently deep to be out of reach of the 

 plow, and making them serve for drainage purposes in 

 spring, or whenever there is an excess of water in the soil, 

 and using them for purposes of irrigation by stopping the 

 outlet in summer, has been to some extent satisfactorily 

 practiced, but it is not applicable to all soils, and no perfect 

 system has yet been devised. An interesting paper was 

 read before the Association of Colleges and Experiment 

 Stations, at their recent meeting, by Professor F. W. Rane, 

 of the West Virginia University, which presented another 

 method of irrigation which is original, and may prove of 

 practical use in horticulture where the object is to get 

 water to the roots of the plants, and use the water with as 



little waste as possible. Professor Pane's plan, as he 

 described it, was the following : 



Common porous two-and-a-half-inch drain-tiles were laid in 

 a continuous row, end to end, on the surface of the soil, and 

 vegetables were planted on either or both sides of the line. 

 The tiles were one foot long, and by pouring in the water at 

 one end of the line it was distributed at the joints throughout 

 the length desired, when the opposite end was stopped up. 



Take Celery as an example crop for irrigation on uplands. 

 We plant the Celery as above stated, and while it is young we 

 have simple surface irrigation ; but as thecrop grows we bank 

 it up, and finally have the tile covered, and thus have subirri- 

 gation. The tiles are cheap and last indefinitely. When the 

 Celery is harvested the tile is dug out also and piled up or 

 used for subirrigation in the greenhouse-beds. Potatoes and 

 various other crops can be grown in the same way. The 

 Celery watered this year grew well, and did not rust. Besides 

 this, we were able to water twenty times as much space in the 

 same time as in the ordinary way with ditches. Besides saving 

 time, this plan delivers the water where it is most needed, and 

 we have reason to believe is fully as economical with water as 

 with time. 



Rows of Celery watered in this manner were planted in a 

 Potato-field, leaving every other space between the Potato- 

 rows vacant, so that two rows of Potatoes could be dug 

 together when ripe. Besides watering the Celery, the moisture 

 reached the tops of the Potato-hills, as was plainly seen every 

 morning by the dampness of the surface throughout the inter- 

 vening space, thus showing that the watering was sufficient for 

 at least three feet and three inches on each side, or six feet six 

 inches in all, the rows being three feet three inches apart. 

 Where the rows were on a slight incline we slipped a piece of 

 tin between the joints, and held the water where it was 

 needed ; then, by pulling it out and inserting it further down, 

 another section could be treated. The sections can be made 

 longer or shorter, according to the angle at which the ground 

 inclines. 



Indian Azaleas. 



FLORISTS every year import Indian Azaleas by the thou- 

 sand with their buds already set, and bring them into flower 

 principally for the Easter trade. The plants are sold, but what 

 becomes of them it is hard to tell. They rarely find a place 

 among window-plants, unless, as already intimated, they have 

 been bought from the florists evidently by people who do not 

 know how or cannot find time to attend to theirsimple wants. It 

 is a fact, notwithstanding, that few plants are easier to grow 

 and take care of than these, and some acquaintances of mine 

 have plants which continue to improve each year. 



It is evident, from the condition in which imported plants 

 arrive, that they are not grown in pots. They come with nearly 

 square masses of earth, with no indications of being cramped 

 as pot-grown plants are, and they are evidently either grown 

 in the open where they can be protected in winter, or can be 

 moved in for protection. This is an easier and more satisfac- 

 tory plan than growing them continuously in pots, providing 

 the natural soil is suited to them, as is the case in those parts 

 of Europe where they are grown extensively. They like a deep 

 peaty soil in which there is a substratum of sand, but they will 

 thrive well, under artificial conditions, in common garden-soil 

 moderately enriched with decayed leaves. There is to be 

 found in one Massachusetts garden, at least, superbly grown 

 specimens which have not been in the greenhouse for eigh- 

 teen years. Some of these plants are between forty and fifty 

 years old. They flower in June, at a season when they can be 

 arranged in large numbers, in more or less natural fashion, in 

 the open air, with merely a cover of canvas to protect the 

 flowers from sun and rain. Their beauty can be more fully 

 appreciated when seen in this way than in the confines of a 

 greenhouse. They are stored in deep glass-covered pits, with 

 the additional protection of shutters and leaves to keep out the 

 frost. On my suggesting that by this method they were being 

 retarded beyond their natural blooming season, which is to- 

 ward the end of April and May, 'and that there could not be 

 time enough to complete their growth and mature their buds, 

 the gardener said they had never failed, adding " They have 

 got used to it." This he ascribed to the plan of cultivation 

 followed, which, although contrary to the old-time notions, 

 has been very successful. Years ago these plants weregrown 

 in pols ; they had been shifted from time to time until they 

 filled pots of the largest size. It was found that these old solid 

 balls of earth had not a live feeding root in the interior of the 

 ball. Strong roots traversed the ball to the sides of the pots, 

 where alone there was new soil, and there the feeders were. 



