24 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 151. 



Notes. 



Small trees of Araucaria excelsa are largely used now in 

 table decorations for large dinner parties. 



Foreign journals state that the whole stock of a new Rose, 

 Mamam Cochet, which last autumn was introduced by Charles 

 Verdier, has been sold by him to an American, whose name is 

 given as Mr. Ernest Asm us. 



At Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, free tuition in 

 road-building is now offered to one student from each county 

 of the state. The instruction will be given by professors in 

 the Engineering Department of the College. 



A Stevia possessing an agreeable aromatic odor has been 

 introduced to European horticulturists by Herr Dammann. It 

 is a perennial, which grows only to a height of fifteen inches, 

 is a strong bloomer, and is said to be more beautiful than any 

 in common cultivation. 



The annual report of Dr. J. A. Lintner, State Entomologist 

 of New York, has been published, and as usual it is an import- 

 ant contribution to economic entomology. The illustrations 

 are excellent, the index is complete, and the elaborate bibli- 

 ography adds greatly to its value. 



At the meeting of the Ohio State Horticultural Society a new 

 Grape, raised by Mr. T. V. Munson, and said to be a cross be- 

 tween Lindley and Delaware, was pronounced very promising. 

 The Colerain, a pure native seedling of the Concord type, and 

 Nectar, a seedling, raised by the late Mr. Corywood, were also 

 commended. 



Professor Lazenby bagged some sweet cherries last year 

 just after the fruit had set, and kept them covered until they 

 were ready to pick. The fruit developed in this way was 

 larger and heavier than that which remained uncovered, the 

 skin was more tender, the general appearance particularly 

 fresh, and the color notably brighter. 



The Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club says that at a re- 

 cent meeting of the club Miss Stabler "reported a peculiar 

 growth of aerial roots in Swamp Maple as noticed by her at 

 Great Neck, Long Island. The trees in several instances were 

 decayed ten or fifteen feet above the ground, and roots one 

 and a half inches in diameter had been sent out from above 

 through this decayed growth to the ground, fifteen feet below." 



Monsieur Andre, already distinguished by his explorations 

 of the South American flora, made last year at the time of his 

 visit to Montevideo an extended botanical excursion into 

 northern Uruguay to the borders of Brazil, where virgin for- 

 ests of the greatest interest were traversed, and where many 

 trees were found of first-rate ornamental value for the future 

 plantations of the parks and public gardens to be laid out in 

 Montevideo under his direction. Among these there are 

 many, he writes us, capable of embellishing the gardens of 

 southern Europe. The results of these explorations are soon 

 to be given to the public. 



Professor George Lawson, of Halifax, in a private letter calls 

 attention to the interesting fact that Rhododendron Catawbiense 

 is likely to become naturalized in Nova Scotia. " It is nearly 

 twenty years ago," he writes, " since I imported afew hundred 

 Rhododendrons from Edinburgh. Many died ; but all of the 

 Catawbiense blood survived and have grown enormously. 

 They seed very freely, and spontaneous seedlings are now 

 seen peering out of mossy banks at long distances from my 

 grounds. Quercus sessiflora is also spontaneous here with 

 the Rhododendron from acorns of trees planted about the 

 beginning of the century." 



A " Hay Palace," recently built at Momence, Illinois, is de- 

 scribed as being 206 feet in length and 166 feet wide in the 

 centre. "The main hall is 103 feet in diameter, flanked on 

 the four sides with wings. A circular gallery eighteen feet 

 wide sweeps entirely around the main hall. The walls are 

 built of baled hay, with just enough baled straw to make a 

 pleasing contrast in shading and color. The primary object 

 of the exhibition is to make a display of the varied products of 

 eastern Illinois and western Indiana, which will include pro- 

 ducts of the farms, factories, forests, mines, quarries, and of 

 the arts, domestic skill, and the accomplishments of the people 

 of the district in music, oratory and manual training. A spe- 

 cial feature is the display of the latest tools in haying ma- 

 chinery, and implements for ditching, laying and making tile, 

 and road machinery." 



A correspondent of the American Architect and Building 

 News says: "Baton Rouge received its name from an enor- 

 mous Cypress-tree which stood upon its site early in the 

 eighteenth century, and out of which a certain carpenter once 

 offered to build two boats of sixteen and fourteen tons 

 respectively. The Cypress of Louisiana has bark of a reddish 

 hue, grows to a great height, and is bare of branches excepting 

 at the top. Naturally this particular Cypress was recognized 

 among the pioneers and settlers as a landmark, and 'one of 

 the first travelers who arrived at this locality,' says Le Page du 

 Pratz, an old chronicler, ' exclaimed that this tree would make 

 a fine stick' (a walking-stick for the Titans, presumably), 

 ' hence the name of Baton Rouge (Red Stick), given to this 

 place.'" The reference in this account is, of course, to the 

 Bald Cypress {Taxodium distichuni). 



A writer in the Illustrirte Gartenzeitung, of Vienna, while 

 disputing the excessive claims recently made for certain so- 

 called "weather plants," points out the fact that a modest 

 degree of power in forecasting atmospheric changes is pos- 

 sessed by a multitude of common plants. Among these he 

 cites Gallium vertium, whose pleasant fair-weather odor be- 

 comes strong and pungent at the approach of rain ; Carlina 

 vulgaris, whose leaves close before rain ; Calendula pluvialis, 

 which predicts rain when its flowers remain closed after 

 seven in the morning ; Oxalis acetosella, which closes its 

 leaves at the approach of rain or cold ; Lapsana communis, 

 which keeps its flowers open in the evening if it is to rain the 

 following day, but closes them if fair weather is coming ; 

 Draba verna, which droops its leaves toward the ground be- 

 fore rain ; and Alsine media, which predicts a clear day if its 

 flowers open about nine o'clock, and a second one to follow if 

 they remain open as late as four in the afternoon. 



In his " Three Years in Western China " Mr. Alexander 

 Hosie says : " Between Ch'ung-k'ing and Ch'i-chiang Hsien, 

 the first city of any importance on the southern road to Kuei- 

 chow, there are a number of factories for the manufacture of 

 the ordinary coarse Chinese paper. . . . There is an entire ab- 

 sence of machinery for washing and shredding rags; there are 

 no troughs of pulp, chemicals for bleaching, resin for watering, 

 wire moulds for receiving and drums for firming the paper as 

 it comes from the .pulp-troughs. Bamboo-stems and paddy 

 straw are steeped with lime in deep concrete pits in the open 

 air and allowed to soak for months. When nothing but the 

 fibre remains, it is taken out and rolled with a heavy stone 

 roller in a stone well until all the lime has been removed. A 

 small quantity of the fibre is placed in a stone trough full of 

 water and the whole stirred up. A close Bamboo mould is 

 then passed through the mixed fibre and water, and the film 

 which adheres to it emerges as a sheet of paper, which is 

 stuck up to dry on the walls of a room kept at a high tempera- 

 ture. The sheets are afterward collected and made up into 

 bundles for market." 



Mr. T. S. Brandegee distinguishes, in the November issue of 

 Zoe, a new Poplar of Lower California under the name of 

 Populus Monticola. It inhabits the high mountains of the 

 Cape region in the extreme southern part of the peninsula, 

 growing along streams and following down the canons toward 

 the warm lowlands. Young trees haVe a smooth, light colored 

 bark similar to that of the Aspen, but it becomes very rough 

 on old specimens. At elevations of five thousand feet it is 

 rarely more than twenty feet high, but at lower altitudes 

 it becomes a large tree nearly a hundred feet high,, and is a 

 favorite support for the wild Grape-vine. The wood is de- 

 scribed as light red in color, and is said to be used in making 

 furniture. Thenewgrowthisdensely tomentose. Theleavesare 

 round-ovate, with a short point, variably sinuate-crenate or den- 

 tate, silky-pubescent upon both sides, especially upon the veins, 

 with terete, white-tomentose petioles ; the stipules are linear 

 and the bud-scales white-silky ; the capsules are ovate, densely 

 white-silky tomentose, two to three-valved ; styles usually 

 two, united at the base, each with two narrow divisions. The 

 disk is small and nearly flat ; scales minutely sinuate-dentate, 

 nearly glabrous. " This tree is known by the name of ' guerigo' 

 to the inhabitants, who distinguish it from the common one of 

 the fields and gardens called by them ' alamo.' The leaves 

 and flowers appear in February, and in October all have fallen, 

 a season of growth usual in Alta California, but very different 

 from the ordinary habit of the plants of the Cape region of 

 Baja California, where most of the vegetation comes forward 

 with the summer and fall rains at the time when the cotton- 

 woods are losing their leaves and appear to be preparing for 

 a winter, which, however, never comes." 



