io8 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 158. 



a couple of petals to show the quality of a Rose, so we leave 

 i! to such of our readers as may be fortunate enough to chance 

 upon Mr. Svnionds' attractive hook. 



Notes. 



According to the Economiste Frangais about 862,700 tons of 

 coffee are annually produced in different parts of the world, 

 more than half the amount being credited to Brazil. 



Pomona is pronounced by Dr. Aldrich.of Ohio, a good Rasp- 

 berry for the home garden, although the fruit is not firm 

 enough for shipping. The plant seems hardy, and it is pro- 

 ductive of large and fine-looking berries of excellent quality. 



In an article in the American Garden it is stated that Mr. 

 Thomas R. Ballanline, of Norfolk, Virginia, raises 125 acres of 

 Spinach a year, the sowing of which requires two and a half 

 tons of seed, and from which he harvests some 25,000 barrels. 

 Mr. Ballantinc grows the Savoy Spinach entirely. 



Mr. Edwin Lonsdale, in the American Florist, calls atten- 

 tion to the fact that Carnations have received special attention 

 by the Pennsylvania Plorticultural Society, which offers pre- 

 miums for groups of twenty-five varieties in special colors. 

 These premiums are offered for competition both at the spring 

 show, which opens on March 17th, and at the Chrysanthemum 

 show in November next. Premiums are also offered for the 

 best seedling Carnations. 



Some time ago Mr. W. E. Endicott stated in this journal that 

 lie had hybridized the white form of Frcesia rcfracta with Tri- 

 tonia crocata, and the resulting plants bore (lowers which were 

 Freesias pure and simple, and yet the Tritonia was the seed 

 parent. Very naturally, such a result has excited inquiry, to 

 which Mr. Endicott responds that he took great pains with the 

 experiment, and is perfectly certain of the fact. He adds that 

 in his greenhouse the Freesia has never set seed. 



The League of American Wheelmen has offered $100 in 

 prizes for photographs which can be used to illustrate the 

 unfitness of our present public roads as highways. Some 

 suggestions for subjects are the following: A farmer's team 

 and wagon hub-deep and knee-deep in a muddy road; views 

 of rough and rutty roads ; broken vehicles caused by rough 

 roads or steep grades ; smooth, hard-surfaced roads with 

 teams hauling loads over them. These object-lessons ought 

 to prove effective aids in the campaign against bad roads. 



The rare and showy South African Groundsel, Sejiecio fteta- 

 sites, lately noticed in these columns, has been blooming for 

 some time in the greenhouses of B. P. Cheney, Esq., Dover, 

 Massachusetts. The stems are herbaceous, about three feet 

 high, terminated with a broad umbellate panicle of bright 

 yellow flower-heads. To those who tire of Cinerarias, Cycla- 

 mens, Calceolarias and the generally grown winter decorative 

 plants, this is a welcome introduction. It may be propagated 

 either by seeds or cuttings, which develop at the base of the 

 stems. 



The Committee on Nomenclature of the Society of American 

 Florists has named sub-committees, to each of which is to be 

 referred questions as to the names of a single plant or class of 

 plants. The following are the chairmen of the several sub- 

 committees : John N. May, Roses ; Edwin Lonsdale, Carna- 

 tions ; John Thorpe, Chrysanthemums ; E. G. Hill, Bedding 

 Plants ; Charles D. Ball, Palms and Ferns ; Robert Craig, Mis- 

 cellaneous Greenhouse Plants ; Ernest Asmus, Bulbous Plants ; 

 William R. Smith, Hardy Plants. William Falconer, Glen Cove, 

 New York, is General Chairman. 



A late bulletin from the New Jersey Experiment Station 

 aims to acquaint the people of that state with the true charac- 

 ter of the Black Knot of Plum and Cherry-trees and to stimulate 

 united action for the suppression of the disease, which has prac- 

 tically driven two of our best orchard fruits out of cultivation in 

 many parts of the country. If it is proper to pass laws com- 

 pelling land-owners to prevent noxious weeds from going to 

 seed on their premises, why not compel owners of trees in- 

 fected with this fungus to cut off and destroy the diseased 

 branches ? The spores of this fatal fungus are surely as much 

 to be dreaded as are the seeds of Canada Thistle. 



Last year Professor Roberts, of Cornell University, removed 

 the lasscls from every alternate row in a plot which contained 

 forty-eight rows oi Indian Corn. The tassHs were cut as soon 

 as they could he seen and before they had produced any pol- 

 len. In no single case (lid a row upon which the tassels were 



left produce nearly as much as the rows on either side of it 

 from which the tassels had been removed. In the aggregate, 

 the number of good ears in the rows of emasculated plants 

 was 2,338, as against 1,551 good ears on the rows where the 

 tassels had been left, while in the former case the weight of 

 merchantable corn was 1,078 pounds, and in the latter 7 10 pounds 

 — that is, both in the number of ears and in the weight of the 

 corn, the advantage was nearly fifty per cent, in favor of the 

 rows where the tassels had been removed. 



In the course of a lecture on "The Geographical Distribu- 

 tion of Plants," recently delivered before the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society, Mr. H. F. Ganong, instructor in botany 

 at Harvard University, said : " Man's influence upon the plant 

 kingdom has been farless than it appears at first sight, and it is 

 nearly uniformly unfavorable. The carrying of plants from 

 place to place includes for the most part forms cultivated for 

 food orfor ornament, and the majority of them, if left to them- 

 selves in their new homes, would soon be exterminated, and 

 hence produce no lasting effect upon plant distribution. In 

 fact, the cases in which man has produced any considerable 

 effect upon the vegetation or flora of a region are extremely 

 few, and the effect is nearly always destructive. The stumps 

 where once a forest stood speak most forcibly of man's power 

 to destroy." 



A bill to create the office of Forest Commissioner has been 

 introduced in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. 

 The officer, to be appointed by the Governor, is to have prac- 

 tical knowledge of forestry, and by the aid of wardens em- 

 ployed by him he is to investigate the condition of forest-lands 

 and have charge of those belonging to the state. He is to 

 enforce the laws which provide punishment for the willful 

 firing of forests, and he is to protect forests from cattle and 

 illegal depredations, and to report annually the extent of dam- 

 age by fire, cattle, etc. He is to give free information to those 

 who ask for it as to the care of woodlands and the starting of 

 new ones, to gather statistics of forest-products, and to post 

 throughout the state rules for preventing and suppressing 

 fires. The bill is approved by the Pennsylvania State Forestry 

 Association, which is circulating petitions for its enactment, 

 and sending out with these petitions a leaflet in which the rea- 

 sons for reform in forest-policy are tersely set forth. 



An article on " Dates," recently published in the Illuslrirte 

 Gartenzeitung, of Vienna, says that in north Africa the Date- 

 palm is propagated by offsets, which are separated as they 

 root and afterward planted out on the same spot. The young- 

 tree begins to bear blossoms in its fifth or sixth year, but 

 yields fruit in no considerable quantity until a couple of sea- 

 sons later, and is not in full bearing before the age of ten or 

 twelve years. As the male and female blossoms are borne 

 by different trees, man's help is needed to secure a crop. 

 Hardly any but female trees are cultivated — a single male 

 specimen serving to fructify hundreds of females. When the 

 blooming season arrives — in February or March — and the 

 great broad spathe of the pistillate tree unfolds, the Arab takes 

 a bit of the staminate inflorescence, wraps it in a corner of his 

 burnos, climbs the female tree by the aid of the step-like pro- 

 jections left by the leaves of its earlier years along the trunk, 

 and ties the fragment carefully to the middle of the pistillate 

 spathe. This is done when open flowers are first seen, and 

 then the tree is watched until the blooming season is over, so 

 that, as new blossoms appear, they, too, may be helped to de- 

 velop fruit, the ones already treated being easily distinguished 

 by the cords used in the tying process. Good judgment must, 

 however, be exercised, especially in the most favorable years, 

 for, if too many dower-clusters are encouraged to develop, the 

 quality of the fruit will.be injured. If the owner of a female 

 tree or orchard does not possess a male specimen, he may 

 buy the inflorescence he needs in the market-place, where it 

 sells at a franc or a franc and a half. The harvest begins in 

 October or November, and the fruit is plucked before it is 

 quite mature and allowed to ripen in store-houses, as the noc- 

 turnal cold would injure its flavor, the thermometer often 

 sinking at night to zero Centigrade, while during the day it 

 may rise as high as thirty degrees. "Date-bread" is made 

 from the fresh fruit which, freed of the kernels, is compressed 

 into a block so hard that it may be cut like a ham, other fruits, 

 such as Pistachio-nuts and almonds, being often mixed with 

 the dates. This bread is a very nourishing article of food, and 

 very palatable when eaten with ordinary bread. Syrup called 

 " date-honey " is also made by pressure from the fresh fruit ; 

 from this syrup a sort of brandy is distilled ; and the kernels, 

 when first roasted and then boiled, yield an agreeable drink 

 that is called " Gusmado-coffee." 



