144 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 161. 



distinguished in Japanese works of dendrology, the others now 

 being first characterized by Dr. Mayr. 



The views which the author expresses with regard to the 

 specific rank of Japanese conifers may not be all adopted, but 

 his work, based as it is on observations made in the field by a 

 dendrologist of great experience and equipped with trained 

 powers of observation, is a most important and valuable con- 

 tribution to the knowledge of trees. It would, perhaps, have 

 been more generally useful if the characters of the different 

 species and varieties had been written in Latin instead of in 

 German, and the absence of an index, an inexcusable omission 

 in a work of this sort, makes the pursuit through its pages of 

 synonyms a serious and laborious undertaking. 



Notes. 



Mrs. S. T. Rorer, principal of the Philadelphia Cooking 

 School, has prepared a neat volume of nearly 200 pages, enti- 

 tled " How to Cook Vegetables." The book is not for sale, 

 but is very appropriately used as a premium by W. Atlee 

 Burpee & Co., the Philadelphia seedsmen. 



The clear red flowers of Erica carnea, the Mediterranean 

 Heath, are among the first to greet the eye in Central Park. 

 A colony of these plants covering a rod or so along the bridle- 

 path, opposite Eighty-first Street, is now making a cheer- 

 ful show as their bright ' blooms are seen among Trailing 

 Juniper, Enonymus radicans, and Scotch Heather, Calluna 

 vulgaris. 



A plant of Androsace sarmentosa in bloom has been sent to 

 this office by Mr. George C. Woolson, who flowered it in one 

 of his cool houses at Passaic, New Jersey. It is one of the 

 prettiest of the genus, and carries a globular cluster of bright 

 pink flowers on a stem rising two or three inches above a 

 rosette of gray-green, softly pubescent leaves. It will proba- 

 bly prove hardy, and, if so, it will be a welcome "addition to 

 our list of early-flowering plants. 



No. 2 of Volume II. of the Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical 

 Club contains an account of the "Spring Flora of South- 

 western Virginia," written by Miss A. M. Vail, who, some 

 months ago, recorded her observations in Garden and 

 Forest. The paper is annotated by Professor N. L. Britton, 

 who describes as new Clematis Addisonii, Pentstemon lavi- 

 gatus, var. canescens, and Senecio aureus, var. angustifolius. 

 The same number also contains a paper by Mr. Arthur 

 Hollock, on the " Autumn Flora of South-eastern Virginia." 



Bartram's Garden, the first botanical garden established in 

 the New World, and long the most famous spot of its kind 

 in the United States, has, principally through the energy of 

 Mr. Thomas Meehan, been acquired by the city of Phila- 

 delphia as one of its smaller parks, and the city has now taken 

 possession of it and appointed a superintendent to preserve 

 it. An interesting account of the garden, and of its founder, 

 John Bartram, and of his son, William Bartram, appeared in 

 the Public Ledger of Philadelphia on the 16th of the present 

 month. 



Writing to a friend in this country, under date of March 7th, 

 Mr. W. Thompson of Ipswich, England, says : " The worst of 

 our winter is over, I trust, but it is still cold, and plants are 

 backward for us. Pear-trees are making a wonderful show 

 of buds, which looks like the promise of a good fruit-year, 

 although it does not follow that flowers will be perfected in 

 fruit. But we have lost many plants reputed to be hardy, and 

 what have survived may be regarded as hardy beyond all 

 doubt. Polemonium pauciflorum, one of Mr. Pringle's plants, 

 has stood well, to my surprise." 



Mr. W. Junker, writing recently in Petermann's Mittheilunge7i 

 about the journey he made five years ago between the Albert 

 and Victoria Nyanzas lakes, spoke of the vast Papyrus-swamps 

 which line the banks of the streams, and said that the natives 

 use their stems to construct floating bridges or, where the 

 river is too wide to be bridged, rafts, which are propelled 

 across. In another account of the same region, given lately 

 by Mr. Jackson, it was said that the British East Africa Com- 

 pany is trying to develop the large tracts of country it controls, 

 by planting, in favorable localities, valuable timber-trees from 

 India, as well as by importing colonies of Persians and Indians 

 to start useful plantations of other sorts. 



A circular from Mr. Thomas Meehan, which we have just 

 received, states that he is determined to revive the publica- 

 tion of the discontinued " Flowers and Ferns of the United 

 States" in monthly issues. Under the title of " Meehan's 



Monthly" this publication will contain, in addition to the 

 colored plate of some wild flower, notes on various features 

 of general gardening. The whole will he illustrated with 

 wood-cuts. In the conduct of this monthly Mr. Thomas 

 Meehan will be assisted by his sons, Thomas B. Meehan, 

 J. Frank Meehan and S. M. Meehan. The first number of 

 the periodical will commence in June, and its price has been 

 fixed at two dollars a year. Mr. Meehan's return to horti- 

 cultural journalism will be welcomed by many readers of 

 the Gardeners' Monthly who felt something like a per- 

 sonal bereavement at the discontinuance of that excellent 

 magazine. 



The Jackson (California) Ledger notes the fact that the trees 

 which were planted at the Experiment Station, located on the 

 foot-hills, were obtained from nurseries along the coast, in 

 interior valleys and on foot-hills. The stock was, in each case, 

 thrifty and strong, and all seemed to start under the same con- 

 ditions, but there is already a marked difference in favor of 

 the trees from nurseries where the conditions of climate and 

 soil are similar to those of the station. These trees have 

 altogether outgrown those which were involved in a sudden 

 change of conditions, and this seems to indicate that, in select- 

 ing a young orchard, it would be, always advisable to procure 

 trees from a location where the conditions resemble, as nearly 

 as possible, those of the place where the trees are to have 

 their permanent home. 



At the nurseries of H. Meyers, Passaic, New Jersey, we ob- 

 served last week that Meconopsis Nepalense, an Indian Poppy, 

 was coming up strong from plants which had wintered with 

 no other covering than some loose litter. These plants came 

 from seed sown last spring in partial shade. It is something 

 of a surprise to find this Meconopsis so hardy. Another plant 

 of the Poppy family, Eomicon chionantha, which has already 

 been described in these columns, was flowering in the green- 

 house, and it will probably survive our winters out-of-doors. 

 Among other hardy plants flowering in cold frames or in the 

 greenhouse were Alyssum spinosum, a trailing species with 

 glaucous foliage and yellow flowers ; Aster alpinus, and its 

 white variety, with flowers as large as a half-dollar, on stems 

 four inches long ; Geranium tuberosum, with finely cut foliage 

 and flowers after the style of our common native species ; and 

 Erpetion reniforme, the Australian Violet. 



The death of Mr. John B. Russell, which occurred at In- 

 dianapolis on the nth instant, removed one of the pioneers of 

 American horticulture. Mr. Russell was born at Cambridge, 

 Massachusetts, July 23d, 1801. He was a printer by trade, 

 having been instructed in that art at the famous University 

 Press, in his native town. In 1823 he started a printing estab- 

 lishment in Boston, where he printed the Christian Register. 

 In 1824 he purchased the New England Farmer, and conducted 

 it in connection with a seed business at 52 North Market Street. 

 His interests now brought him in contact with agriculturists 

 and horticulturists from all parts of the country, and ulti- 

 mately his offices became an acknowledged rendezvous, where 

 matters of interest to the cultivators of the time were dis- 

 cussed. It was here that the idea of forming a horticultural 

 society, was first mooted, and the first public suggestions on 

 the subject were made in an article which appeared in the 

 New England Farmer of January 9th, 1829. In that month the 

 office of the Fartner was removed from the third to the second 

 story, and the society, when formed, occupied a part of the 

 room vacated by Mr. Russell, and the Farmer became the or- 

 gan of the society, and so remained until its publication ceased 

 in 1846. The society was incorporated in June, 1829, and 

 Mr. Russell at once commenced practical work as general 

 agent of the society, and continued it until 1832, when he sold 

 his interest in the Market Street establishment. After leaving 

 there he engaged in another publishing enterprise until 1839, 

 when he went to Cincinnati, where he became general and 

 commercial reporter for The Gazette, which position he held 

 until 1858. Later he was clerk at Washington to the Commis- 

 sioner of Pensions, and in 1868 he was appointed Librarian of 

 the Department of Agriculture. He retained this position until 

 ill health compelled his retirement. Mr. Russell was the last 

 surviving corporator of the Massachusetts Horticultural So- 

 ciety. Although hardly a surprise, on account of physical 

 infirmity and increasing years, his death is much regretted by 

 those about Boston who know of the good work he accom- 

 plished when laborers in the field of horticulture were few. 

 There is much to interest readers of the present day in Mr. 

 Russell's " Reminiscences of the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society," which appeared in Tilton's Journal of Horticulture. 



