i8o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 164. 



promises to be to the United States what Spain is to Europe in 

 the production of wines of this quality. 



In a bulletin from the Iowa Experiment Station it is stated 

 that since there is a concentration of albuminoids near the 

 eyes of ripe potatoes, and since albuminoids are much more 

 nutritious than starch, therefore potatoes should always be 

 cooked with their skins on. 



Spircea confusa is a pretty pot-shrub which should prove of 

 qood service as a source of flowers for Easter. Messrs. 

 Veitch exhibited a group of it in flower at a late exhibition of 

 the Royal Horticultural Society ; the plants were about two 

 feet high, compact, yet elegant, and thickly clothed with haw- 

 thorn-like bunches of white flowers. 



California truck-farmers and grape-growers are complaining 

 about the census bulletins. They declare that a single county 

 alone has more acres in Asparagus than is credited to the 

 whole state, while Egg Plant, which goes eastward by the 

 car-load, and other vegetables extensively grown, have no 

 mention whatever. In the viticultural bulletin Californians 

 assert that figures which were used several years ago are re- 

 produced ; that in Fresno County, for example, which is 

 credited with less than 20,000 acres in vines, there are really 

 more than 50,000 acres in wine and raisin grapes. 



Professor Hilgard states in a late bulletin that there is little 

 doubt that, in the valleys of the southern parts of California, 

 Ramie can be grown, with success and with profit, as soon 

 as satisfactory methods of marketing are devised. He 

 reminds planters, however, that a crop that will produce, in 

 one season, ten tons of dry stalks to the acre must be exhaust- 

 ing, and that the fibre sold represents a larger proportion of 

 the plant-food in the soil than does the fibre of the Cotton- 

 plant. This means that proper care must be taken to return 

 the refuse of the plant to the soil, or that fertilizers must be 

 purchased. 



Mr. T. S. Gold, writing in the American Garden, under the 

 heading, " Apple Orchards of My Youth," says that the first 

 commercial orchard he ever saw " was in Dutchess County, 

 New York, planted about 1830 by a Mr. Constock. There were 

 some twenty or thirty acres all of one variety, the English or 

 Poughkeepsie Russet, for the New York market." Before the 

 year 1835, he adds, "I had never heard of an apple failure. 

 Then there came a succession of cold springs, blasting the 

 blossoms, and ice-storms breaking the trees, so that with the 

 incoming of the temperance reformation, doing away with 

 cider, many orchards were cut down and few new ones planted 

 for twenty years." 



Chrysanthemums in April are curiosities, and a few plants in 

 flower, shown by Pitcher & Manda at the exhibition in this 

 city last week, attracted some attention. One of them with 

 flowers in the "shape of a bird's nest, and named Ulysses, was 

 a novelty, Mr. Manda says that these plants have had no 

 different care from the others in their large collection, but 

 they seem to have the peculiarity of coming into bloom soon 

 after they are struck, without regard to the season. Suckers 

 from the plants on exhibition, only four or five inches high, 

 showed flower-buds at their extremities, and perhaps these 

 plants are the forerunners of a class which will give flowers 

 all the year round. 



A very useful little book is "The Reader's Guide in 

 Economic, Social and Political Science," edited by R. R. 

 Bowker and George lies. Mr. lies, however, is credited with 

 the great bulk of the editorial work, and, as might be ex- 

 pected, the work is done exceptionally well. The book is a 

 classified bibliography with descriptive notes, which will 

 enable any one to find out, by the help of its very complete 

 index, where the best reading can be had on any of the sub- 

 jects within its range. Readers of Garden and Forest will 

 be particularly interested in knowing that forestry is taking its 

 place among the subjects of economic interest, and that, in 

 addition to a good list of writings on the subject, which cover 

 two pages, there are allusions to the subject scattered through 

 the " Reader's Guide" in many other places, as, for example, 

 in the brief summary of Mr. H. C. Adams' essay on Public 

 Debts, it is noticed that reasons are there given why state gov- 

 ernments should take in hand the care of their forests. 



We have received the first part of the Flora Franciscana, 

 "an attempt to classify and describe the vascular plants of 

 middle California," from the author, Edward L. Greene, 

 Assistant Professor of Botany in the University of California, 

 who has had unexcelled opportunities for studying the flora of 

 California. The arrangement of the families, the work be- 



ginning with the Leguminosce, differs essentially from that 

 adopted by most botanists, from the majority of whom Pro- 

 fessor Greene differs also in his limitations of some genera, 

 like Prunus and Pyrus, the former being redivided into 

 Amygdalus (of Theophrastus), Prunus and Cerasus, and the 

 latter, so far as California is concerned, into Sorbus (of Theo- 

 phrastus) and Malus. Several new species are proposed. 

 While botanists may disagree with Professor Greene's views 

 upon classification, they will find in this new book of his proof 

 of his great industry, and much valuable information about 

 the plants described of a character which can be acquired only 

 by long familiarity with them in a living state, and therefore of 

 great value and importance. 



The Kew Bulletin for March contains a valuable list of the 

 Orchids which flowered at Kew in 1890. It enumerates 766 

 species and varieties, and is published to afford data as to the 

 time and duration of the flowering period of Orchids cultivated 

 in England. In the Kew collection no attempt is made, by the 

 cultivation of a large number of examples, to give prominence 

 to the most showy-flowered. On the other hand, as the 

 Bulletin explains, every effort is made to obtain and cultivate 

 even small and unattractive kinds of scientific interest, such 

 as the ordinary collector would consider beneath his notice. 

 In the limited space available for Orchids as comprehensive a 

 collection of species as possible is aimed at. Consequently, 

 while there is never a great display of Orchid-flowers at Kew, 

 at no time of the year is the collection wanting in flower 

 interest. Thus, while the highest number of species flowered 

 in any one month was 125 in May, the lowest was eighty-five in 

 January. The average for each month was a fraction over 100. 

 In 181 1 the number of species in cultivation at Kew was only 

 thirty-seven. There are now 1,342 species, comprised in 158 

 genera. These figures do not include 174 varieties, and over 

 100 undetermined plants. The collection is kept up by means 

 of exchange, and a small outlay, about ,£20 annually, for 

 plants which can be obtained only by purchase. 



In his famous "History of Plymouth Plantation" Governor 

 Bradford tells how the Pilgrims first made acquaintance with 

 Indian Corn, and with the beans still so generally associated 

 with it in New England kitchens. The discovery was made 

 while they were searching for " a place of habitation" on Cape 

 Cod, before the final settlement- at Plymouth. On the 15th of 

 November, 1620, an exploring party landed at a spot supposed 

 to have been within a furlong of the end of Long Point, and 

 the following day, after a trying experience amid " schuch 

 thickets as were ready to tear their cloaths & armore in 

 peeces ... at length they found water & refreshed 

 themselves, being ye first New-England water they drunke of, 

 and was now, in thir great thirste, as pleasante unto them 

 as wine or bear had been in for-times." Soon after they came 

 upon a place where the Indians had formerly planted Corn, 

 and upon some of their graves. "And proceeding furder 

 they saw new-stuble wher corne had been set ye same year," 

 ■and in deserted huts, among other things, found "faire Indean 

 baskets filled with corne, and some in eares, faire and good, 

 of diverce colours, which seemed to them a very goodly sight, 

 (haveing never seen any schuch before)." Returning to the 

 ship, they " tooke with them parte of y e corne, and buried up 

 y e rest, and so, like ye men from Escholl, carried with them of 

 y e fruits of y e land & showed their breethren ; of which & 

 their returne, they were marvelusly glad, and their harts in- 

 couraged." Going once more to the same spot they found 

 two deserted Indian houses, and " also ther was found more 

 of their corne, & of their beans of various collours. The corne 

 & beans they brought away," intending to pay the Indians for 

 them when " they should meete with any of them," as hap- 

 pened about six months later " to their good contente. And 

 here is to be noted a spetiall providence of God, & a great 

 mercie to this poore people, that hear they gott seed to plant 

 them corne y e next year, or els they might have starved, for 

 they had none, nor any liklyhood to get any till y e season had 

 beene past (as ye sequell did manyfest)." In the month of 

 April, 1621, a friendly Indian, named Squanto, helped them to 

 plant their corn, " showing them both y e manner how to set 

 it, and after how to dress & tend it. Also he tould them 

 excepte they gott fish and set with it (in these old grounds) 

 it would come to nothing, and he showed them y* in y e middle 

 of Aprill they should have store enough come up y e brooke " ; 

 and all these things they found true " by triall & experience." 

 Then Bradford adds, with the quaintest carefulness not to 

 commit himself upon a doubtful point, "Some English seed 

 they sew, as wheat and pease, but it came not to good, eather 

 by y e badnes of y e seed, or latenes of y e season, or both, or 

 some other defecte." 



