December 26, 1804.] 



Garden and Forest. 



519 



™-ateris wasted in soaking it up again, unless it is kept full all 

 the time. This difficulty might be obviated by making a 

 cement reservoir in the ground, however. One of the special 

 advantages noted in favor of the irrigated plots, in the growth 

 of tomatoes, was the decreased amount of dry-rot found on 

 those plots. Why there should be less of this than on unirri- 

 gated land seems hard to say, but such was the fact. The 

 plants were also much more healthy and vigorous and the 

 fruits larger and better. Taken as a whole, however, the re- 

 sults do not seem to be such as to warrant the outlay required, 

 except in very special cases where an abundance of moisture 

 is a prime requisite, and the returns very large in proportion to 

 the amount of land required. 

 Lincoln, Neb. Fred IV. Card. 



Correspondence. 



Chrysanthemums Naturally Grown. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — If any readers of Garden and Forest besides your 

 correspondent R. P., on page 498, have confused notions of 

 what is meant by the phrase " naturally grown Chrysanthe- 

 mums," I may be allowed to say, since my name has been 

 referred to in the matter, that it does not mean plants stopped 

 so that the flowers will all be on a dead level or trained into a 

 perfect globe over which flowers of the same size are dis- 

 tributed at exactly equal distances, nor, on the other hand, does 

 the phrase mean that the plants should be left to grow as they 

 please. All cultivated plants require cultivation. Most varie- 

 ties of Chrysanthemums should be judiciously disbudded, but 

 the plants should be allowed to assume a graceful rather than 

 a geometrical form. The flowers should appear at varying 

 heights, and no effort should be made to have them all of ex- 

 actly the same size. 



Cultural skill is required to raise good Chrysanthemums in 

 this way, as well as it is to grow any other flower, but people 

 go to exhibitions to see flowers, and not to wonder at cultural 

 skill and nothing else. They like beauty of form as well as of 

 color; they like plants of graceful outline better than those 

 constrained into unnatural shapes, even though it takes great 

 cultural skill to constrain them. 



When on the subject of exhibitions I may add that these too 

 often consist of great masses of colors produced by large 

 numbers of enormous flowers. There may be a hundred dif- 

 ferent varieties on exhibition, but the main display usually 

 includes less than half that number, generally of the newer 

 kinds — the same flowers in endless combination and assort- 

 ment. Now, there are thousands of varieties of widely 

 different types, and one who has seen the regulation Chrysan- 

 themum show, with its meagre offering in the way of variety, 

 feels little desire to make a second visit. To make these shows 

 successful they ought to broaden out so that we can see other 

 Chrysanthemums than the few kinds which interest the profes- 

 sional grower in a particular season. 



I am not very familiar with the hyperborean climate of Bos- 

 ton, but R. P. need not feel any commiseration over Chrysan- 

 themums shivering in this latitude on a frosty morning. I 

 have proved, year after year, that great satistaction can be 

 found in outdoor Chrysanthemums. When the right kinds are 

 grown properly they enjoy a little frostas much as a man does, 

 and are by no means inclined to wilt under it. My first note 

 to Garden and Forest, in its first year, was on open-air Chrys- 

 anthemums, and I have no reason to change the views then 

 expressed. It may be difficult to retain the lower foliage of 

 plants in the open, though the stems will be sufficiently clothed, 

 nor will there be any difficulty in securing flowers large enough 

 to be beautiful, although they may lack depth since chilling 

 weather while the flowers are expanding may make it neces- 

 sary to keep them rather dry. This depth of flower is secured 

 readily in plants grown under glass, but it is usually at the 

 expense of other desirable qualities. Skilled growers pro- 

 duce in an incredibly short time flowers which are marvels 

 of size and apparently of fine substance. But the truth 

 is, that many of these flowers are not worth the labor expended 

 on them because they have no lasting quality. Fugacious 

 flowers are often worth much care in cultivation, but Chrys- 

 anthemums ought to be durable. When properly grown and 

 cut, when perfect, they should last in an ordinary living-room 

 for a fortnight or longer. Average greenhouse flowers do not 

 last over two days at a show, and there would be few prizes to 

 distribute if the flowers were judged at the end, instead of the 

 beginning, of the exhibition. Of course, there are good grow- 

 ers who produce firm flowers, but I observed that most 

 of the flowers carried away from an exhibition which I 



recently attended were carefully wrapped in paper to protect 

 them from the wind. The friends who used to carry away my 

 flowers grown out-of-doors never needed to take these pre- 

 cautions, nor did they distribute the petals of the flowers along 

 the wayside. 



Many of us are not able to have all the glass houses we want. 

 When we cannot have greenhouse room for our Chrysanthe- 

 mums we must try to make the culture of them in the open 

 air enjoyable. Certainly it is possible to do this, and I really 

 know no plant which at so little expense will give better results 

 with intelligent cultivation, although to afford the occasional 

 protection needed may tax one's ingenuity and energy to the 

 utmost. Of course, open-air cultivation of Chrysanthemums, 

 where flowers are grown for profit, is wasteful, for there 

 always comes a night in late November when the glory is sure 

 to vanish. By this time, however, the amateur will be sur- 

 feited, and will privately bless the frost. 

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



Planting Trees for Autumn Color. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I wish to say a word of approval for the suggestion in 

 your issue of November 28th, that nurserymen should propa- 

 gate trees which show the brightest colors. This prac- 

 tice, if adopted, would be of great value to those who live in 

 severe climates where the Liquidambar, the Japan Maples and 

 other trees which turn to most attractive colors in the fall, do 

 not thrive. If a person who desired to set out an avenue of 

 Maples, for example, could obtain from a nurseryman trees in 

 which an average of ten per cent, would produce fine autumn 

 coloring, this would be a great advantage. I have in mind an 

 individual Hard Maple-tree that is not only extremely brilliant 

 in its coloring, but it is actually the first tree in its neighbor- 

 hood to turn — that is, one side of it turns brilliantly while the 

 other remains green. Its early color may be accounted for by 

 the fact that it stands on the dry side of a ravine where it may 

 ripeii earlier than its neighbors. But why one side should turn 

 and the other should not seems to prove that the peculiar power 

 to change to brilliant colors is inherent in the leaf-buds and 

 might be perpetuated. I hope to plant some Hard Maples as 

 street-trees next spring, and I would pay a liberal premium on 

 each tree if I were sure that I could obtain specimens which 

 would color well. 



Chicago. W. C. Egan. 



Recent Publications. 



Lehrbuch der Botanik fiir Hochschulen. Von Dr. Ed. 

 Strasburger, Dr. Fritz Noll, Dr. Heinrich Schenck und Dr. A. 

 F. W. Schimper. Jena, Gustav Fischer. Pp. 558, 8vo, fig. 577. 



The names of the authors would lead one to expect a 

 work of unusual importance for teachers and students. The 

 expectation is fully confirmed by an examination of the 

 book, which has just appeared. It is intended for " Hoch- 

 schulen," but that term, it should not be forgotten, is not to 

 be translated literally by our words "High Schools,'' 

 which are something different. The Germans, in speaking 

 of their high schools, refer to the universities, not to the 

 gymnasia, which correspond to a great extent to our high 

 schools. In the present treatise we have a very valuable 

 general presentation of all divisions of botany, which will 

 be of the greatest service to all teachers, and to the students 

 in our universities and technical schools. The chapter on 

 general morphology are by Strasburger ; those on physi- 

 ology by Noll ; those on Cryptogams by Schenck, and those 

 on Phanerogams by Schimper. These are all recognized mas- 

 ters in their respective fields, and it is safe to say that, since 

 the appearance of the different editions of Sachs' Lehrbuch, 

 no general treatise on botany has appeared in which the sub- 

 ject has been so thoroughly and comprehensively treated 

 as in the present work. A comparison with Sachs' Lehr- 

 buch will show how great has been the advance in botany 

 in recent years. The book presents a very attractive ap- 

 pearance ; the text is well printed, there is a full index, and 

 the figures are excellently drawn. In some of the figures 

 of Phanerogams colors have been used with excellent re- 

 sults, and one is surprised that such results can be obtained 

 at a cost which makes it possible to insert them in a text- 

 book which must necessarily be offered for sale at a com- 

 paratively low price. 



