78 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 156. 



tuft of short wiry stems, branching freely at the base ; the 

 leaves are bright green, lanceolate, keeled, and about six 

 inches long, and the flowers, which are borne singly on thin 

 scapes as long as the leaves, are not unlike those" of Milla 

 biflora in form and size ; they are at first lilac-colored, chang- 

 ing to white before finally turning green ; they remain upon 

 the plant several months before withering. This is a pretty 

 little plant for the stove or warm greenhouse. It delights in 

 sandy soil and plenty of sunlight. 



V. Candida flowered at Glasnevin in 1865, seeds of it having 

 been sent to Dr. Moore from Brazil by Gardner. It has nar- 

 row-channeled, semi-erect leaves, with fine marginal teeth, 

 and white star-shaped flowers three inches across, borne on 

 erect scabrous peduncles. 



There are young plants at Kew which may probably turnout 

 to be V. compacta, which is one of the large-stemmed kinds 

 described by Lindley, and which has flowers about six inches 

 across, colored rich purple. There are also young plants of a 

 Cape species, raised from seeds, but they have not yet flow- 

 ered. Evidently these plants grow very slowly, and the tree- 

 like specimens seen in Brazil and Africa are probably of great 

 age. Of these stems might be introduced, but, failing them, 

 seeds ought certainly be obtained for cultivation. 



Kew. W. Watson. 



Cultural Department. 



Planting and Pruning in the Orchard. 



ONE sees a good deal of advice offered in regard to orchard 

 work, which, while it may be good under the conditions 

 given, is only of value under those conditions. When we 

 have to buy our trees from a nursery, often at a considerable 

 distance, we must take the trees as we get them ; and it is not 

 strange, therefore, when we have to use many precautions, not 

 in themselves essential under better circumstances. For ex- 

 ample, take young trees grown in a highly manured soil, dig 

 them carelessly, perhaps with a mechanical digger, leaving 

 the roots short, with their ends so bruised that still more needs 

 to be cut away, and the advice given to shorten in the young 

 wood in a corresponding degree is good. Even then, it is too 

 often the case that no growth can be expected from such trees 

 the first season. On the other hand, if the farmer grows 

 his own trees, or has them from a neighboring nursery, where 

 he can have them taken up under his own inspection, he may 

 get them with their whole root system practically intact, and 

 can set them into the ground again within a short space of 

 time. If this work is properly done, and the ground about the 

 trees liberally mulched, the growth in an ordinary year will be 

 but little checked, and cutting back wholly uncalled for. 



There is a good deal being said just now about the forma- 

 tion of a " Nursery Trust," and perhaps this of itself will cause 

 many who contemplate engaging in orchard work as their 

 main business, to think seriously of growing their own stock. 

 If this should be so, the organization of such a trust would not 

 be without advantage. When one considers how simple a 

 business, comparatively, the propagation of fruit-trees is, it is 

 remarkable to note how few fruit-growers attempt to grow 

 their trees from the start. Possibly the chief objection is 

 found in the time supposed to be lost. This may be a good 

 reason for buying a few trees to start with, in order to get an 

 early supply for family use ; but if home propagation is started 

 at the same time, the orchardist will soon discover that but 

 little time need be lost. If he is in a great hurry, he may get 

 his stocks, or even his root-grafts (or stocks in bud), from a 

 nurseryman ; but if he at the same time begins with the seeds, 

 growing his own stocks and grafting or budding them, expe- 

 rience will demonstrate to him that the loss of time is mainly 

 imaginary. 



From the necessity of the case, being without the means to 

 buy many trees, I began in this way in my fortieth year, and 

 expect next spring to complete the planting of a new orchard 

 of 1,000 Apple-trees, begun two years ago, and I am now in 

 my sixty-fourth year. Although laboring under the disadvan- 

 tage of planting in a part of the country where no really iron-clad 

 varieties were then known, and consequently having to replace 

 nearly all of my earlier plantings during the first ten years, my 

 oldest orchard has long been abundantly productive, even 

 during the past unfavorable year. 



The advantage of a well-managed home nursery is, first, in 

 the knowledge acquired in regard to the character of each 

 variety from its youth up, and second, in acquiring skill in 

 forming the heads of the trees, so that but little subsequent 

 pruning, other than that of a pocket-knife, will be needed. An 

 orchard so grown from the beginning is worth many times 

 more than one which has required and received heavy prun- 



ing in order to form a practicable top to each tree. A third 

 advantage is in the opportunity to select the very best trees 

 for planting. Seedling roots, even the best, differ among 

 themselves. The union formed between stock and cion is not 

 equally good in all cases ; and there are other reasons why 

 there is a great choice between individual trees in the best 

 nursery, and such a choice the grower of his own trees alone 

 has. 



But greater still is his opportunity, not only to plant properly, 

 but to take up the trees with all their roots practically unin- 

 jured and to set them out at once, with his own hands, in holes 

 ready dug for them. Instead of being obliged to cut back all, 

 ornearlyall, of the previous year's growth, it maybe left with the 

 assurance, if the work is all well done, that a good growth will 

 be made the same season. The cutting back at planting, so 

 strongly insisted upon by commercial nurserymen and by 

 most writers on the subject, is substantially a confession of 

 the bad condition, comparatively, in which nursery trees are 

 apt to reach the planter. "No growth the first year" has to 

 be accepted as almost an axiomatic statement ; but it will be 

 found to have no reality when the practice I advise is care- 

 fully followed. 



In the "cold north," except with the most perfectly iron-clad 

 sorts, even the penknife cutting back of last year's growth is 

 followed by serious and permanent injury to the young tree. 

 The cut surface blackens, in part, perhaps, in consequence of 

 the aphids collecting upon it, and, I have sometimes thought, 

 poisoning the wood by thin saccharine excretion, which affords 

 a nidus for Fungi that subsequently attack the wood. Certain 

 it is that on dissection these cut limbs show death, and even 

 decay, the second and third seasons ; and though a thrifty 

 growth may follow, yet, when full-bearing age is reached, an 

 overladen limb, breaking down, will reveal advanced decay. 

 I find this even in such a hardy variety as the Wealthy ; and 

 rigid investigation with saw and knife traces it back directly to 

 the shortening of the young growth at planting, so gen- 

 erally taught by supposed experts in the business. 

 Newport, vt. T. H. Hoskins. 



Aquatics in the Flower Garden. 



TOURING the past few years a great change has been effected 

 *S in our parks and private gardens in the style of "bedding 

 out" toward something more natural than the ribbon border 

 or set patterns and pictures. It has also been found that bold 

 masses of foliage, combined with flowering plants, have a 

 much more pleasing effect than when flowers alone are used. 

 The Public Garden in Boston was much admired last sum- 

 mer, with beds of foliage plants representing the badges of 

 the different army corps that visited that city, but there were 

 no beds so effective or graceful as those by the side of the cen- 

 tre walk over the bridge, which were filled with sub-tropical 

 foliage plants. These beds doubtless cost less labor and 

 required less attention than the smallest of the badge beds. 



Very" effective groups can be made by the liberal use of 

 aquatics, Palms, Cannas and other large-leaved and strong- 

 growing plants. Musas are very effective in sheltered spots, 

 where the leaves are not torn by the winds. Among aquatics 

 the Nelumbium speclosum, or, as it is more generally known, 

 Egyptian Lotus, takes the front rank. This is the largest of 

 Water Lilies, with the exception of Victoria regia, but it has 

 the advantage over the latter in being hardy, and can be grown 

 in almost any garden. It is a strong grower and a rambler, 

 and requires to be kept under control in the flower-garden or 

 in the Lily-pond with other aquatics, as the roots spread so 

 fast that it would soon crowd out all others. Almost any kind 

 of tank will answer to grow it in, provided there is a depth of 

 about three feet of water and brick walls or divisions to keep 

 the plants within limit. About a foot of soil, composed of old 

 sods and rotten cow manure, will be needed, and the planting 

 should be done about the 1st of May or as soon as growth 

 commences. The tank should be filled gradually with water 

 as the plants grow, and on the approach of winter, if the water 

 is deep enough to save the roots from freezing, it may be left 

 in the tank ; if not, the water should be drawn off, and the 

 plants covered with leaves, salt hay, or litter to protect them. 

 This makes a grand background in a tank where hardy and 

 tropical Nymphaeas are grown, or a stately object by itself, or 

 in large tanks and lakes in parks. The native and hardy kinds 

 of Nymphaea are all worthy of a place in the aquatic garden. 

 The pink Cape Cod Lily is especially fine, and the white Euro- 

 pean Water Lily (N. alba candidissima) is the largest hardy 

 white variety, a most profuse bloomer and a chaste and ex- 

 quisite flower. Too much cannot be said for the new yellow 

 variety, N. Marliacea, which is perfectly hardy and of easy 

 culture. The habit of the plant is like N. alba candidissima. 



