520 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 357. 



Notes. 



Neat little plants of the Japanese Kumquat are becoming 

 popular for holiday decoration. They are quite as handsome 

 as the Otaheite Orange, but the fruit is so palatable that it is not 

 likely to remain so long on the plant. 



Mr. Robert Douglas writes that Black Walnut-trees, when 

 set thinly in a plantation of Catalpa speciosa, made as rapid 

 upward growth as the Catalpas until they reached a height of 

 thirty feet, while in a small block planted of Black Walnut 

 exclusively the trees at the same age were not twenty feet 

 high. 



The annual meeting of the American Forestry Association 

 will be held at the Department of Agriculture, in the city of 

 Washington, on Friday, the 28th of December. In the even- 

 ing, Professor N. S. Shaler, of Harvard University, will deliver 

 an address on the Economic Aspect of Erosion before a 

 joint meeting of the Forestry Association and the National 

 Geographical Society. 



The Baldwin is the great commercial apple grown in south- 

 ern New England, with the Rhode Island Greening and 

 Northern Spy tollowing at a considerable distance. In some 

 parts of Maine, however, especially near the banks of the 

 rivers, the Yellow Bellflower, according to the Vermont 

 Farmers' Advocate, is a great success. The fruit from a Bell- 

 tiower orchard at South Gardiner, Maine, rarely brings less 

 than five dollars a barrel for the first quality, which is scarcely 

 less than prices for extra Newtown Pippins. Large, highly 

 colored Baldwins from the same region bring much smaller 

 prices. 



The so-called Apple-scab is one of the serious pests of 

 American orchards, not only because it causes misshapen and 

 undeveloped fruit, but because the affected trees suffer from 

 defective foliage. When it is remembered that the fruit-buds 

 of one year are all started the year before, the necessity tor 

 healthy toliage every year is apparent, and it is plain that the 

 fungus should be kept from trees on the off years as well as on 

 the bearing years. We have often given accounts of the 

 effectiveness of the Bordeaux mixture against this disease, but 

 it is a matter which every one ought 10 understand. Some 

 late experiments made at the Agricultural College of Missouri 

 seem to show that the weaker solutions were about as effective 

 as the stronger ones, and that the first spraying should be 

 given very early, and be followed by at least tnree others. 

 The second crop of scab, which appears on late apples, like 

 the Jennetings, seems in this case to have been entirely pre- 

 vented by spraying. 



A late bulletin of the Alabama Experiment Station reports 

 some results obtained by Professor E. H. Mell, in crossing 

 different varieties of Cotton for the purpose of improving the 

 fibre. His investigations have convinced him that the different 

 varieties of cotton now cultivated have been developed by 

 intercrossing some seven species of the genus Gossypium. 

 These species have been blended so that the distinctive char- 

 acters ot each have been so concealed in the different kinds 

 of upland Cotton that it is almost impossible to trace them. 

 The experiments show that crossing varieties in nearly every 

 case improved the condition of the fibre, and in some indi- 

 vidual instances remarkably so. The good properties aimed 

 at are complete maturity throughout the length of the fibre, 

 uniform twist from end to end, uniform width in all its parts, 

 maximum length and purity ot color. A cross between the 

 varieties Barnet and Peerless showed a great increase in the 

 number and weight ot the seeds, aswellas in the weight ot the 

 fibre, and other good qualities. These experiments are interest- 

 ing, not so much for what they have directly accomplished in 

 producing improved strains of cotton, but in pointing out 

 what can be hoped tor by a course of judicious and persever- 

 ing cross-fertilization. 



Mr. R. A. Rolf writes in the last number of the Orchid Re- 

 view that a curious Catasetum has lately appeared in four or 

 five different collections in England, which has the general 

 appearance of a yellow C. macrocarpum, but with a much 

 more expanded lip. In one or two instances the plants had 

 been purchased as C. Bungerothii, but one of these plants 

 which flowered with Messrs. Hugh Low & Co., presented cer- 

 tain features which led to the suspicion that it was a natural 

 hybrid between that species and C. macrocarpum. Soon after 

 a remarkable group was exhibited by Messrs. Linden, ot Brus- 

 sels, including a series of curiously intermediate forms which 

 are evidently natural hybrids between the two species named, 

 which occur in the same district. These plants were exhibited 



under different names, but all of them seem to have originated 

 in the same way, and thus they may be considered as varieties 

 of one hybrid for which the name of C. splendens is retained. 

 These forms, together, represent almost a complete transition 

 series between two common, but very distinct species, among 

 which they are found growing, and the peculiar way in which the 

 characters are combined, some of the varieties approaching 

 one species and some the other, while -the remainder present 

 combinations of the two, compels the' conclusion that they 

 must have arisen by intercrossing through insect agency. 



During the holiday season one can hardly^find a more beau- 

 tiful or fragrant spot in this city than the "stores where the 

 choicest and rarest fruits are sold. Many of these fruits are 

 not only singularly attractive, but they are most skillfully and 

 ■ tastefully grouped. Among the oddities are Indian figs, which 

 are offered at fifty cents a dozen, and very attractive they are 

 in appearance. They are really prickly pears from the West 

 Indies, and although they may sell more readily under their 

 trade name, they are no more grateful to the palate. Spanish 

 pomegranates are worth fifty cents a dozen, the best Florida 

 grape-fruit a dollar and a half a dozen, and Tangerine oranges, 

 two or three attached to a leafy branch a foot long, look very 

 attractive, and sell for $1.50 a dozen. Imported Gros Colman 

 grapes are worth $2.50 a pound, the same variety from Ameri- 

 can glass houses costing two dollars. A few peaches from 

 California which have lingered along in cold storage are 

 offered for twenty-five cents each, but are worth nothing 

 except to look at. Good Almeria grapes are expensive, but 

 fair Catawbas can be had for twenty-five cents for a five-pound 

 basket. Selected apples and pears command almost any price, 

 according to the perfection ot their form and the texture and 

 complexion of their skin. Some of the Lady-apples and 

 Forelle pears are almost too handsome to eat, and fine Easter 

 Beurre pears bring three dollars a dozen. 



The brisk sales of Christmas greens during the past fort- 

 night were in marked contrast with this trade a year ago, and 

 roping, which then was unsalable at the losing wholesale 

 price of one cent a yard, was this season quickly bought up at 

 five times that price. Standing Pine or Ground Pine was 

 scarce, owing, it is said, to heavy snows in New Hampshire 

 and Maine, and Hemlock, Spruce and Kalmia were largely 

 used to take its place. The steamer Magenta, from Keyport, 

 has daily brought a full cargo of roping and made pieces, 

 such as wreaths, horseshoes, stars and hearts, and in even 

 larger quantity branches and tree-tops of holly, profusely 

 berried. The holly, packed in small bunches, larger bundles 

 and bales and in barrels and boxes, was in greatest demand, 

 and was altogether most showy and beautiful, the berries 

 being unusually large and thickly set, and the foliage particu- 

 larly green and glossy. This rich and brilliant natural coloring 

 made dyeing unnecessary, and the artificial greens and crim- 

 sons ot former years were almost unseen. Pipsissewa, box- 

 wood, lichens, lite-everlasting and bitter-sweet berries entered 

 into the designs, which were in very large supply, and brought, 

 comparatively, the lowest prices, holly wreaths selling from 

 twenty to seventy-five cents a dozen at wholesale. Some 

 mistletoe is brought here trom the southern states, but the 

 greater portion is imported from France. 



The report of the Valley Forge Commission for 1894 con- 

 tains a map on which is indicated certain ground which it is 

 recommended to add to the park, amounting in all to some 

 two hundred and fifty acres, and among other things to provide 

 for a broad avenue along the outer line of the camp, where nine 

 of the fourteen brigades, that wintered in Valley Forge, were 

 stationed. This avenue would not only mark out the line of the 

 camp, but afford an opportunity for the colonial states to mark 

 thecamps of their respective troops. Since the law under which 

 this was made the property of the state requires that the for- 

 tifications and their surroundings should be maintained as 

 nearly as possible in their original condition as a military camp, 

 the report recommends the laying out of paths and roads in 

 such a way as to make the retrenchments and redoubts acces- 

 sible. The commissioners believe that with the boundaries 

 enlarged there will be little difficulty in securing the inter- 

 est and attention of the states through their several con- 

 stituted authorities to this historical spot, and that the na- 

 tion will erect on the summit of Mount Joy, which is within 

 the second line of entrenchments, a high battlemented tower 

 surmounted by a bronze figure of a private soldier of the 

 Revolutionary army. From the summit of such a tower the 

 whole camp-ground and its surroundings could be seen, and 

 it would be a landmark visible from any direction several 

 miles away. 



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