5 10 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 356. 



Notes. 



Mr. Edward L. Greene, assistant professor of botany in the 

 University of California, has been appointed professor of 

 botany in the new "Catholic University of America," in the 

 city of Washington. 



The next meeting' of the Western Horticultural Society, 

 which is to be held in Rochester on the 23d and 24th of 

 January, will commemorate the fortieth anniversary of that 

 enterprising and useful organization. 



A green-flowered sport of the Chrysanthemum Viviand 

 Morel has appeared simultaneously in two different English 

 collections. The variety has been propagated, and makes a 

 healthy plant with heads of light pea-green florets, which are 

 said to be attractive. 



It is a good suggestion in Meehans' Monthly to gather seed 

 from the plants of Cosmos which bloom the earliest. It is 

 probable that by persistent selection a strain of early-flowering 

 plants might be secured, and this would be a great gain in the 

 case of a species which is always full of buds when the frost 

 kills it. 



Last week, after two or three days of warm rain, plants of 

 Daphne Cneorum, in exposed locations, showed many full 

 clusters of their pink flowers, fairly well formed. Of course, 

 they lacked the delightful fragrance which they have in warm 

 weather, but they looked as happy when surrounded by their 

 evergreen foliage as any outdoor flower can look in the mid- 

 dle of December. 



It is announced that the large growers of bulbs of Lilium 

 Harrisii in the island of Bermuda have consolidated under the 

 name of the Bermuda Bulb Company, with Mr. Frank Pierson, 

 of Tarrytown, New York, as general agent for America and 

 Europe. The object of the combination is said to keep prices 

 firm, to supply high-grade bulbs only, and to correct the com- 

 petition in cut flowers. 



Another small consignment of five hundred pounds of the 

 best English filberts, which are imported in the husks, has just 

 been sent to Joseph Hahn & Sons, of this city. They come in 

 small barrel packages, each of which contains a hundred 

 pounds, and sell at retail for fifty cents a pound. These nuts 

 have none of the dryness or toughness of the ordinary filberts, 

 but have a crispness and delicacy of flavor which is altogether 

 distinct. 



In an address before the Boston Florists' Club, Mr. P. 

 O'Mara, of this city, suggested that flower shows might be 

 made more interesting and instructive if some horticultural 

 operations could be seen in progress. For example, a booth 

 where budding and grafting was performed by some expert, 

 who would also be ready to answer the questions of visitors, 

 would prove a certain attraction. Plants illustrating proper 

 and improper pruning, plants showing the work- of various 

 insects and fungi, with their correct names, and object-lessons 

 in other horticultural matters, would be sure to add to the 

 popularity and usefulness of these exhibitions. 



Few plants have occasioned more discussion in this country 

 than the Japanese Wineberry, Rubus Phcenicolasius, and it is 

 now receiving considerable attention in the horticultural 

 journals of Great Britain. The fruit as it appears there is 

 described as bright red, of an agreeable, brisk flavor, with 

 none of the mawkish taste which makes, blackberries un- 

 pleasant to some persons. The fruit begins to ripen early in 

 September, and continues for three weeks. The bright 

 color of the stems of the plant in early spring before the 

 leaves appear is caused by its abundance of slender spines. 

 Its appearance at this season is considered highly ornamental, 

 so that it is recommended for the shrub borderfor this reason 

 alone. 



Large and beautiful Japanese persimmons, from California, 

 are still in the market, and enterprising growers of this fruit 

 are endeavoring to popularize it by every means possible. 

 One method of work in this direction is to wrap every fruit in 

 a square of thin paper on which are printed the following di- 

 rections : " Place this fruit on a shelf or sideboard for orna- 

 ment until it becomes soft. It will shrink somewhat and turn 

 to a darker color ; it must not be eaten until it is soft in every 

 part, which will be the case if it ripens properly. It should 

 then be peeled from the apex. The thin skin will leave the 

 pulp readily." To this we may add that a Japanese persim- 

 mon, when set in a cut-glass or silver cup of proper size is a 

 beautiful object. It is also very nutritious, and when properly 



cooled its delicate flavor is very refreshing. It certainly must 

 prove one of our most popular dessert fruits when better 

 known. 



The disastrous experience with Christmas trees last year, 

 when dealers were not only unable to dispose of their stock 

 profitably, but were compelled to go to the expense of carting 

 it away in addition to the original outlay for cutting and bunch- 

 ing and transportation to the city, has had the natural effect of 

 reducing the supply in the market this year. No more than 

 eighty car-loads are now on sale, as against 140 car-loads last 

 year. Prices, however, rule much higher. Bundles contain- 

 ing four trees, six feet tall, sell this yearfor seventy-five cents to 

 a dollar at wholesale, and tall trees twenty-five feet high biing 

 $5.00 to $8.00 each. This is for the best trees from Maine, 

 which always command the highest prices, because they are 

 shorter-jointed, better furnished and are said to hold their 

 foliage better than those from the Catskills, the Adirondacks 

 and western Massachusetts. Nearly half of the entire supply 

 comes from Maine. As usual, the trees are mostly Balsams, 

 although there area few Black Spruces and Hemlocks. 



A correspondent of the Revue Horticole states that the depth 

 to which the seeds of Half-long varieties of Radish are covered 

 makes a great difference in the roots. Experiments were 

 made during the year at the establishment of Messrs. Vil- 

 morin, where the seeds of three kinds of Radishes were sown 

 in the beginning of July in two beds near each other and pre- 

 pared in the same manner. In one bed the seed was covered 

 to a depth of four-fifths of an inch, and in the other it was 

 planted twice as deep. In the case of all the varieties the seed 

 most deeply covered produced roots which were longer, more 

 regularly cylindrical, cleaner, and in every way better formed 

 than the otiiers. Many of the roots from the shallow- covered 

 bed were short, misshapen, and had fibrous rootlets on the sides. 

 This point is well worth attention ingrowing Radishes for the 

 home-garden, while to market-growers, who wish to have 

 crops of roots which are so regular in size that they can be 

 bunched for sale without any lost time in sorting, the gain 

 from deep planting would be very considerable. 



The planting of Swainsonia for cut flowers in this country 

 began, we believe, in Philadelphia, and it is still more largely 

 grown near that city than elsewhere. In the last number of 

 the Florists' Exchange it is said that David Cliffe, of German- 

 town, has a house ninety feet long by sixteen wide, with centre 

 and side benches, filled with these plants. These benches were 

 filled with soil without any manure, and the plants put in 

 about eighteen inches apart last May. They are now about 

 three feet high, very bushy, and covered with flowers. As 

 Swainsonia has a habit of climbing, some method must be 

 devised for keeping it dwarf. To bring this about, the surface 

 of the soil is not loosened up, but is allowed to become hard 

 under constant watering. The plants thus treated are short 

 jointed, and they flower freely at every joint. The flowers are 

 cut and put in water in a cool place ten or twelve hours before 

 shipping, and they have been shipped one hundred and twenty 

 miles and were in good condition for use four days later. Sin- 

 gle flowers sell at the prices of carnations, and Mr. Cliffe's 

 house will yield five hundred sprays for Christmas week, at 

 from eight to ten cents each. No manure-water or any other 

 feeding has been resorted to, as the plants seem to flower bet- 

 ter in poor soil than otherwise. 



An illustrated bulletin of twenty-odd pages, Farmers' Bulle- 

 tin No. 20, has just been published by "the authority of the 

 Secretary of Agriculture, under the title of "Washed Soils and 

 How to Prevent Them." Along the banks of the Ohio, and in 

 many portions of the south, there are thousands of acres once 

 under cultivation which are now furrowed all over with gul- 

 leys, like the wrinkles of age, and abandoned to brush and 

 briers. All the surface of good agricultural soil which has 

 accumulated by the slow decay of rocks and the accumulation 

 of humus for centuries has been washed away in a few years, 

 owing to the carelessness of man. The purpose of this little 

 treatise is to show how to prevent this excessive erosion and 

 the best means of recovering fields which have already lost 

 the greater part of their tillable soil. The methods of treat- 

 ment by chemical means which change the texture of the soil, 

 by cultivating and underdraining, by reforesting, and by bind- 

 ing the soil with Grass and other vegetation, are explained as 

 clearly as possible in the brief limits of this bulletin, and the 

 illustrations are really helpful additions to the text. This bul- 

 letin ought to be studied by every farmer who has fields that 

 are subject to the denuding action of running water, and every 

 observing reader will find it interesting. 



