156 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 162. 



Some idea of the completeness and value of this book as a 

 work of reference will appear when it is stated that in the 

 case of Lettuce {Lacttica sativa) more than a hundred varie- 

 ties are described, while peas, tomatoes, and some other 

 popular vegetables are treated still more fully. It must be 

 remembered, too, in considering the merits of this work, 

 that it is not a compilation, and that the estimation of the 

 value and the knowledge of the characters of the different 

 plants described is based on information obtained in long 

 series of experiments carried on by the author and his assist- 

 ants for years, and conducted in the spirit, and with the 

 appliances, of strictly scientific investigation. When the 

 amount of work, of which this volume is the record, is con- 

 sidered, it is not hard to understand why the French have 

 made such progress in the improvement of races of vegetable- 

 plants, or why they stand at the head in such matters. The 

 value of the book is increased by tables, in which are 

 given the number of seeds of the different vegetables 

 described, in a given weight, and the average and extreme 

 period during which they retain their germinating power, 

 derived from actual experiments ; and also a very full index 

 in which, besides the French and Latin names, those of the 

 other modern languages appear as well as all synonyms. 



Notes. 



An enterprising dry-goods firm in Philadelphia paid some 

 $500 for decorating their store for the spring opening in the 

 early part of last week. Just before Easter they began to sell 

 the plants to their customers for Easter presents. The result 

 was, that they not only had their decoration for nothing, but 

 realized a handsome profit on it. 



The prices of oranges in southern California have nearly 

 doubled, owing to the report that the crop has failed in Italy. 

 Three-fourths of the California crop has been sold on the 

 trees for prices higher than those which have been realized 

 for many years, and the fruit is so abundant that the railroad 

 companies are pressed for facilities to handle it. 



A recent bulletin, by Professor Beal, of» the Michigan 

 Agricultural College, contains a few of the seeds of six of the 

 worst weeds in that State, so that farmers will be the better 

 able to identify them in examining their clover and grass 

 seeds. The six plants which are credited with this bad 

 eminence in Michigan are Canada Thistle, Red Root, Moth 

 Mullein, Toad Flax, Rib Grass and Narrow Dock. 



The Yosemite National Park now embraces parts of forty- 

 two townships, covering about 1,500 square miles, or 960,000 

 acres, from which is to be deducted the Yosemite grant of 

 36,000 acres. About 700,000 acres of the National Park is 

 mountainous, well watered, and heavily timbered with Pine, 

 Fir, Spruce, Hemlock, Tamarack, Oak, Cedar, Madrofia, 

 Laurel, Sequoia, and Mountain Mahogany. Two hundred 

 and sixty thousand acres are composed of mountain-valleys, 

 meadows, lakes, etc. 



The very first entry in the first book of the Plymouth Colony 

 Records is an incomplete list of the " Meersteads and Garden- 

 Plotes of those which' came first, layed out 1620." The per- 

 sons here referred to are, of course, the famous band who 

 were brought by the Mayflower on her first voyage. They 

 had been grouped in nineteen families, and the houses to 

 which these " Garden-Plotes " were attached were built along 

 both sides of what is now Leyden Street in Plymouth. 

 " Meerstead," usually spelt "Merestead," is an old word for 

 farm. 



We have received, from a correspondent in Santa Barbara, 

 a spray of the Black Wattle (Acacia decurrens), and, in spite of 

 their long journey, the flowers are still bright and beautiful. 

 The trees are very floriferous, and the long racemes of clear, 

 yellow flowers, hanging among the pale green and finely 

 cut foliage, present a very beautiful appearance. The tree is 

 graceful and symmetrical, and it is now attracting great atten- 

 tion in California on account of its economical value. Its bark 

 is so rich in tannin that it is now being planted in Australia 

 and New Zealand by the thousand acres. 



In a recent issue of the Botanischen Centralblatt it is stated 

 that Dr. Dieck, the well-known dendrologist of Zoeschen, 

 Germany, brought home some very interesting plants from 

 those districts of Pontus and-Western Caucasus which he visited 

 last summer. Among them are living specimens of about 

 seventy varieties of Roses, and specimens of Acer Trantvetteri, 

 of Rhododendron Ungeri and R. Smirnovi, of the remarkable 

 Chestnut-oak of Koch (Quercus Pontica), and of the genus 



Orphanidesia, belonging to the Ericacece, which had never 

 been collected since it was first discovered by Balansas. 

 Most of those plants, it is announced, Dr. Dieck will be pre- 

 pared to distribute during the coming spring. 



A Bulletin, recently issued by Professor E. W. Hilgard, 

 contains brief descriptions of the Port and Sherry Grapes 

 which are now known to be growing in California. Of the 

 Port wine varieties six are named, and of the Sherry and 

 Madeira varieties nine are described. An essential advan- 

 tage possessed by these grapes over those of the Claret and 

 Bordeaux types is, that they resist, to an extraordinary degree, 

 the influences under which wines made from grapes of the 

 latter types become vinegar. Instead of this they undergo, 

 under the continued action of warm air, the change to the 

 true Sherry and Port flavors. 



One would hardly expect from Edgar Allan Poe a panegyric 

 on the art of gardening, yet who has written more sympathet- 

 ically of the art than he in this passage from the Domain of 

 Amheim ? " No definition," it runs, " has spoken of the land- 

 scape-gardener as of the poet ; yet it seemed to my friend that 

 the creation of the landscape-garden offered to the proper 

 muse the most magnificent of opportunities. Here, indeed, 

 was the fairest field for the display of imagination in the end- 

 less combining of forms of novel beauty, the elements to enter 

 into combination being, by a vast superiority, the most glo- 

 rious which the earth could afford. In the multiform and 

 multicolor of the flowers and the trees he recognized the 

 most direct and energetic efforts of Nature at physical loveli- 

 ness. And in the direction or concentration of this effort — or, 

 more properly, in its adaptation to the eyes which were to 

 behold it on earth — he perceived that he should be employing 

 the. best means, laboring to the greatest advantage, in the ful- 

 fillment not only of his own destiny as a poet, but of the august 

 purposes for which the Deity had implanted the poetic senti- 

 ment in man." 



The industry known as "truck-farming" has been made, 

 for the first time, the subject of the census investigation, and 

 a preliminary report, prepared by Mr. J. H. Hale, has been 

 received at this office. Truck-farming, as considered in this 

 bulletin, is distinguished from market-gardening by the fact 

 _ that it is carried on, in favored localities, at such a distance 

 from market that transportation by water or by rail is required. 

 Market-gardening proper is confined to local markets, where 

 the grower uses his own team for transporting his products 

 to the retailer or the consumer. Truck-farming, as a business, 

 is largely the creature of the transportation companies, and it 

 has grown up almost entirely since the year i860. During 

 the census year it required the labor of 216,765 men, 9,254 

 women and 14,874 children, aided by 75,866 horses and mules, 

 working $9,000,000 worth of implements upon 534,440 

 acres of land, valued at $70,156,300; and the total production, 

 after paying freight and commission, amounted to $76,517,155. 

 The total acreage of some of the leading vegetables grown on 

 truck-farms is as follows : Asparagus, 37,970 ; Cabbage, 77,000 ; 

 Spinach, 20,000 ; Celery, 15,000; Water Melons, 114,000; Peas, 

 56,000 ; Sweet Potatoes, 28,000 ; Tomatoes, 22,000 ; miscel- 

 laneous vegetables, 82,000. 



From correspondents in several of the principal cities we 

 learn that the volume of the Easter flower trade throughout 

 the country has been larger than usual and that prices have 

 been fair in spite of unfavorable weather in many places. The 

 practice of making presents of growing plants has increased 

 so of late years in many cities, notably in Boston and Philadel- 

 phia, that florists have been compelled to open temporary stores 

 in addition to their regular places of business to accommodate 

 the increased trade. Some of these retail dealers have dis- 

 posed of as many as a thousand pots of Easter Lilies, not to 

 speak of a great variety of other plants in bloom. There are 

 few changes in the list of flowers grown and sold for this fes- 

 tival. The larger and coarser Lilium Harrisii seems to have 

 quite crowded the old Ascension Lily, and it undoubtedly will 

 continue to hold its place as an early-flowering plant, although 

 there is an increased demand reported for Lilium longifiorum 

 in some places. In this city the only thing in the way of nov- 

 elty among Easter plants observed was Garden Anemones. 

 Large pots of these plants in bloom are very beautiful, and 

 they are practically new to the flower-buying public here. In 

 the decorations of churches and other large places it is grati- 

 fying to see Acacia pubescens used more largely, as its delicate 

 inflorescence helps to relieve arrangements which otherwise 

 would appear heavy. Few Palms, beside the ordinary trade 

 varieties, were noticed in Easter decorations, but an increased 

 use of Araucarias was very apparent. 



